The value of learning from program management has not received full recognition in the workplace. The purpose of our study was to investigate whole life program management success and its link to leadership competency units to define meaning of true program success and motivation for learning. An inductive interpretive approach using open-dialogue interview technique was applied. Seventeen Defence leaders responsible for the acquisition and support of UK major defence programs in excess £50 Billion published in the UK National Audit Office (NAO) Major Project Report 2015 participated in this study. A case study of the UK Defence programs provides insights into what success is in a Defence context. The study suggests that whole life program management success, measured against capability outcome as against performance, cost and time (PCT), can be achieved through competent leadership. This can be a motivation for learning from the program success. The findings showed that success extended beyond baseline deliveries, and it is insufficient to measure success with PCT parameters. Our study defines what success is and propose its achievement has a direct correlation to program leadership competency and its non-achievement be understood by organisations for survival in a complex highly structured environment.

The project management (PM) has gained relevance in organizations for being considered a tool that increases the efficiency of the projects, allowing a better control of costs, schedule and quality of projects managed under the methodology. The traditional definition of success in PM is based on the triple constraint (cost/timeline/scope), for every type of project executed. In contrast to this approach arises the adaptive approach suggested by authors who advocate that each project must be measured and managed in a different way. Within this approach include the view that the project manager must assume the role of a team leader, and that human and relational issues are relevant to the performance of the project. This work consists of an explanatory and quantitative research that relates critical success of success with leadership skills. To define the capacities to be studied, four leadership theories served as the basis for the study. The results demonstrate that the leadership skills of the project manager impact significantly some critical factors of success, while others were not impacted. The comprehension about how the leadership skills of the project manager impact the critical factors of success of the project, can both bring greater effectiveness in the recruitment process, development and direction of project managers career, as well as assisting organizations and managers who use techniques and tools of project management to better assess and define critical factor of success of the projects. To the project managers, this work can assist in the understanding of how to mobilize their leadership skills in a more results and superior performance in their projects.

Addressing stress at work is a topic that is being added to the agenda of many organisations. There are various sources of stress that could impact an individual. Whether it is personal relationships, physical health concerns, mental health issues or professional relationships at a work, an individual’s productivity will be affected. Employees who work in a project environment are already succumbed to the constraints of time and budget. The topic of employee wellbeing is under research for several years, and there are several solutions available and initiatives implemented within global organisations to enhance their team’s wellbeing. Therefore, there is a need for a project management framework that also take employee wellbeing into consideration. This paper reviews the literature on employee wellbeing and some of the most commonly applied project management frameworks, namely Project Management Institute (PMI), the Association of Project Management (APM) and PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2). As a result, a practical guideline is proposed to embed employee wellbeing into the project management book of knowledge (PMBOK Guide) of PMI, incorporating three key process and supporting tools and techniques.

The culprit for project failure is the complexity that is associated with a project. Unfortunately, project complexity will be part and parcel of a project especially in a VUCA world. This implies then that projects will continuously fail as the culprit is not disappearing. However, the purpose of this paper is to show how complexity at times appears like an opaque conundrum, which allows hiding whatever in it, even stupidity. The analysis of 1064 datasets from a questionnaire-based survey on stakeholder complexity reveals that project stakeholders do not treat project complexity with the necessary respect that sometimes borders stupidity. The article highlights that project stakeholders do not apply common sense when dealing with project complexity. Our journey in understanding project complexity became a learning journey into stupidity and a critical reflection on our frivolous liaison with the VUCA world.

The state-of-the-art in the practice of probabilistic network planning for complex construction projects PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) is evaluated along the lines of thought of the reality test that was introduced in the workshop “Error in the Sciences”, Lorentz Center, Leiden University, 2011. The conclusion is that the application of the PERT-methodology during project execution can be improved by: including in the planning software the actual durations of the activities as soon as these are finished; monitoring progress by keeping the probability of timely completion just over 50%; and adopting risk ranking for prioritising managerial attention.

Construction mega-projects are typically associated with cost overruns and time delays due to conflicts of interest between diverse stakeholders. This research investigates the influence of the partnering approach and the adoption of Design and Build (D&B), also known as Design-Build (DB), contracts on the behavior of stakeholders on mega-projects in Qatar. Through a case study, the significant factors that influence stakeholder management are appraised, such as cooperation, developing trust and lack of communication. The research concluded that mutual trust, transparency, leadership, a well-defined scope of work, clear definition of responsibilities, collaboration, and training are the main success factors of partnering projects. The research also concluded that the State of Qatar is a leader in the implementation of partnering approaches and the adoption of D&B contracts, with a proven record of successful delivery using this procurement method. ‘Trust’ and ‘collaboration’ among stakeholders have been found to be the critical success factors of partnering projects in Qatar.

Concerns about sustainability drive organizations to assume responsibility for societal impacts. Reducing negative impacts requires organizational change, in which projects play an instrumental role. Considering sustainability in project management is an important project management trend today, and requires instruments to assess the sustainability of a project. Several instruments have been published for this, with most of them having limited impact. This study reports the review of three selected sustainability impact assessment instruments. It was found that all three instruments assessed the sustainability impact of a project on multiple levels, and based on a holistic set of criteria. The instruments however differed in the specificity of their assessment and their adaptability to the project’s context. The instruments were found to be light on their description of the assessment process. The contribution the study makes is that it provides insight into practically applicable instruments for the consideration of sustainability in project management.

Project monitoring activities are fundamental to assure a timely identification of unacceptable project's deviations from the baseline, so that corrective actions may be taken to bring the project back in line with its objectives. Regarding this, the most used approach is the Earned Value Management (EVM) technique. However, traditional EVM metrics do not allow the Project Manager (PM) to recognize if project deviations are due to the natural project variability or to systemic and undiscovered causes that are moving the project to unacceptable out-of-controls. With this recognition, a statistical project control system based on the use of dynamic Shewhart's and CUmulative SUM (CUSUM) control charts is proposed in the present paper to deal with the project monitoring problem. The dynamic design is based on the update of charts' parameters as new data become available over time and makes charts able to be used since the initial phase of the project execution when available measurements on observed variables are still only a few. The efficaciousness and robustness of the designed statistical-based approach are demonstrated by its application to a set of real projects.

As companies are globalizing, projects involving people from multiple locations are more common. Personal interaction between team members in such virtual project teams is limited in several ways. One of the functions of personal interaction in projects is the transfer of knowledge. While explicit knowledge can be shared in written form, tacit knowledge is usually shared through personal interaction. The limited personal interaction in virtual teams therefore provides constraints for the exchange of tacit knowledge. The pattern method is a way of capturing and encoding tacit knowledge in a structured written form. This chapter reports a study that tested the applicability of the pattern method for the capturing and transferring of tacit knowledge in virtual project teams. In a quasi-experiment, the study evaluated how this method compares to unstructured email communication for the purpose of tacit knowledge transfer. The participants generally preferred reading patterns over unstructured text and preferred the pattern method in situations that were more formalized and structured.