Software development projects are notoriously poorly managed. It is not uncommon for projects to be delivered late and over budget by a factor of 50% to 100% ‐‐ in fact, in some software development organisations it is expected or even regarded as normal. The paper aims to fuse traditional...

Benchmarking can be an effective way of helping organizations to deliver better services through continuous improvement. The concept of benchmarking has been extensively applied to the construction industry in recent years to enhance the performance of the project delivery process. Success is...

Purpose – This article's purpose is to show how the institutional library committee can be employed to improve library services through work contributions. Design/methodology/approach – The article presents the problem of limited staff time for new initiatives, explains how the library...

Multiple parties are involved in completing a construction project. Such parties possess different skills and each sets out to be self‐sufficient. However, it is accepted that communication between parties is critical to the success of an alliance. A supporting mechanism is developed, which...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of project communication. What is currently understood by project communication? How and to what degree is it being discussed within the field of corporate communication and project management? And finally, what is the potential of...

Matrix structures are increasingly used in organisations as they become more complex and as the pace of change increases. They are similar to project management arrangements, although matrix structures may be a permanent feature. Matrix structures, like project management, involve the creation...

Purpose – The paper seeks to establish a critical role for leaders in guiding projects to higher levels of effectiveness. This role centers on using the thinking capacities associated with systems thinking, knowledge processing, action learning, and pragmatism. It is also to design systems to...

Purpose – The primary purpose of this paper is to present an alternative approach to educate information systems project practitioners. An alternative to the prescriptive, model based, instrumental approaches is sought. The alternative approach presented in this paper focuses largely on...

Purpose – This paper endeavors to critically examine the trade‐offs among project objectives and their underlying assumptions. Design/methodology/approach – Effect‐cause‐effect (ECE) methodology of theory of constraints (TOC) has been applied to examine the assumptions behind...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify best practices from high‐technology industries that face many of the same challenges around uncertainty, complexity, and risk that are faced by the pharmaceutical industry. Design/methodology/approach – This research has conducted an...