Projects as Business Constituents and Guiding Motives


Book Description

The purpose of Projects as Business Constituents and Guiding Motives is to describe and analyse the roles that projects play in business. The editors, authors and researchers are convinced that projects are of significant importance at virtually every level of society, even though companies are the focus of this book. Projects are not merely conspicuous components of businesses, they in fact signal what businesses are all about. As you will see from some of the contributions to this book, these signals come in different forms and have different effects. Thus the various contributions to this book also mirror a kind of uncertainty as to what this phenomenon that is called project is all about. Rather than trying to define what it `really is', the editors have opted for the alternative, namely to let some of the variation be replicated in the different contributions. One important reason for the variations is that each author wants to stress a different aspect of projectisation. The editors illustrate some of the variations as they appear in the minds of researchers and in the minds of those who work with projects every day. They believe that they do greater justice to the field by taking this stance at this stage in the evolution of project management. The book is structured in four sections. The first section includes four chapters elaborating on various aspects of the roles projects play for shareholders, for management, for the global scene, and for the more or less continuous reorganising efforts that characterise most industries at the present time. The second section deals with how projects fit in with traditional business processes and the challenges that face project management as well as the generic business procedures. The third section brings forward some of the most essential matters when it comes to the future of business organisations. Innovation projects have a completely different character compared to traditional projects, and when entire industries go through thorough transformations, attending to project matters will be part of that change. One of the most often-repeated statements in business is that people matter; in the last section that statement is scrutinised in a projectised environment. This volume has a wide international selection of authors. Eight different nationalities are represented. The collection is relevant to academics in business administration, project management and organisation behaviour. It should also appeal to a significant secondary audience: professionals in project management, business strategy and organisation.




Making Projects Critical


Book Description

Making Projects Critical is an edited collection contributed by a range of international scholars linking the area of project management with critical management perspectives. Challenging recent debates on inherent problems in project management, the text considers project management within a wider organizational and societal context.




Cultivating Learning within Projects


Book Description

This book offers a fresh perspective on how to cultivate learning within a project environment. It provides a framework to facilitate project practitioners' systematic reflection on their learning activities and to help them build a project learning practice. Combining theory and data, it will appeal to a wide academic and practitioner audience.




Autopoietic Knowledge Systems in Project-Based Companies


Book Description

This book gives an alternative observational scheme to better understand knowledge creation and learning in project-based companies. It builds upon emergent new ways of looking at projects which is important - as any discipline stays alive by reflection and re-framing ideas as they are challenged, argued and clarified.




Human Resource Management in Project-Based Organizations


Book Description

Presenting findings from research into Sweden's leading multinationals this book focuses on engineering companies operating in global industries such as pharmaceutical, aerospace, packing systems and automotive. It explores research and practice within the area of HRM focusing on project-based organizations.




Contemporary Challenges for Agile Project Management


Book Description

Given the pace at which projects must be completed in an era of global hypercompetition and turbulence, examining the project management profession within the contexts of international trade and globalization is essential to encourage the highest level of efficiency and agility. Agile project management provides a flexible approach to managing projects as it allows a team to break large projects down into more manageable tasks that can be tackled in short iterations or sprints, thus enabling a team to adapt to change quickly and deliver work fast. Contemporary Challenges for Agile Project Management highlights the modern struggles that face businesses and leaders as they work to implement agile project management within their processes and try to gain a competitive edge through cross-functional team collaboration. Covering many underrepresented topics related to areas such as critical success factors, data science, and project leadership, this book is an essential resource for project leaders, managers, supervisors, business leaders, consultants, researchers, academicians, and students and educators of higher education.




Managing Construction Projects


Book Description

Project management is of critical importance in construction, yetits execution poses major challenges. In order to keep a project ontrack, decisions often have to be made before all the necessaryinformation is available. Drawing on a wide range of research, Managing ConstructionProjects proposes new ways of thinking about project managementin construction, exploring the skills required to manageuncertainty and offering techniques for thinking about thechallenges involved. The second edition takes the informationprocessing perspective introduced in the first edition and developsit further. In particular, this approach deepens the reader’sunderstanding of the dynamics in the construction project process– from the value proposition inherent in the project mission,to the functioning asset that generates value for its owners andusers. Managing Construction Projects is a unique andindispensible contribution to the available literature onconstruction project management. It will be of particular benefitto advanced students of construction and construction projectmanagement, as well as contractors and quantity surveyors. Reviews of the First edition: "A massive review of the art and science of the management ofprojects that has the great virtue of being a good read wherever itis touched. It spills the dirt on things that went wrong,elucidates the history so you can understand the industry's currentstance, draws on other countries experience and explains the latestmanagement processes. Throughout it is liberally sprinkled withanecdotes and case histories which amply illustrate the dos anddon't for practitioners wishing to deliver projects on time toexpected quality and price. A valuable book for students andpractitioners alike." —John D Findlay, Director, Stent "This is a valuable source for practitioners and students. Itcovers the A-Z of project management in a confident contemporarymanner, and provides a powerful and much needed conceptualperspective in place of a purely prescriptive approach. Theengaging presentation introduces a range of challenges toestablished thinking about project management, often by makingcomparisons between practices in the UK and those of othercountries." —Peter Lansley, Professor of Construction Management,University of Reading "A refreshing and unique study of information management and itsimpact upon international construction project management.... Thebook is well presented and written, logical and succinct and isflexible enough to allow readers to either read from start tofinish or to dip into selected chapters. This book deserves to bean established text for any construction or civil engineering under- and/or postgraduate course." —CNBR, 25th November 2003 "Generous use is made of anecdotes andc case historiesthroughout to support the theory. the book illustrates the mistakesmade by others, and the means to deliver projects on time and tocost." —Building Services Journal, April 2004




Project Management Circa 2025


Book Description

Project Management Circa 2025 provides the basics about how project management is used in the present, and how organizations will create a new state-of-the-art for project management. As readers learn what the future of project management might be, they will also see the likely impact on their own organizations, now and in the future.




Knowledge Science, Engineering and Management


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Knowledge Science, Engineering and Management, KSEM 2009, held in Vienna, Austria, in November 2009. The 42 revised full papers and 2 discussion panels presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions for inclusion in the book. The papers provide new ideas and report state of the art research results in the broad areas of knowledge science, knowledge engineering, and knowledge management.




Managing Complex Projects


Book Description

Concerned with the management of complex long-term engineering projects, this important volume, of great interest to postgraduate students of business, technology management and engineering, reports on a set of rich, novel and unique findings concerning the conduct and management of three high profile and complex projects. The major investments which constitute complex long-term projects represent an increasingly important source of economic activity, often with particularly significant consequences for economic growth and public policy. This informative volume expertly contributes to broader debates concerning new organizational forms, knowledge management and organizational learning and the management of innovation in project-based settings.