Strategic Project Management (SPM) : An Empirical Perspective on the Practice in Public Research Organisations

The project management discipline has had its concentration more on engineering, Information Technology (IT) and construction projects, with little or no attention to Research and Development (R&D) projects. Public research organisations are important organisations that need to increase their effort in research and development in projects so as to enhance their competitive advantage in the economy. The purpose of this research was to examine the application of strategic project management (SPM) in the execution of R&D projects in public research organisations. The research employed a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research. A total of 213 questionnaires were retrieved from four public research organisations while 20 project management practitioners were interviewed. These were analysed using SPSS version 21 and NVIvo. The questionnaires sort information on the project management processes employed. The findings revealed that the majority (80%) of public research organisations follow a formal and inflexible traditional project management process in the execution of R&D projects. Also, there seems to be very little space for strategic learning and the evolution of emergent strategies. There is the need therefore for public research organisations to adopt the concept and process of SPM so as to enhance the successful execution of R&D projects and hence impact positively on the economy