In Choosing Appropriate Project Managers, the authors set out to challenge two commonly held – and related – views found in the project management community: Project Manager as a tool: The project manager is simply a facilitator for the project management process and that implementing the right systems and procedures are more important than any individual project manager Project management is universal: Once an individual has acquired the skills of project management, that individual can m...

The increasing "projectization" of organizations has led to a greater reliance on program and project portfolio management, and middle managers are playing a central role in the management of multiple simultaneous projects. Experienced project managers understand the value of defining project roles and responsibilities, but what are middle managers' roles and responsibilities in program and project portfolio management? What are the best practices of successful companies today?

While corporate culture plays a significant role in the success of any corporation, governance and "governmentality" not only determine how business should be conducted, but also define the policies and procedures organizations follow to achieve business functions and goals. In their book, Organizational Enablers for Project Governance, Ralf Müller, Jingting Shao, and Sofia Pemsel examine the interaction of governance and governmentality in various types of companies and demonstrate how th...

Project Management Offices (PMOs) are not etched in stone. They are complex entities which go through frequent transformations during their average two-year life span. So, what does that mean to project professionals? Identifying the Forces Driving Frequent Change in PMOs answers this question for both researchers and practitioners based on a three-year research effort focused on the organizational change process surrounding the transformation of a PMO. Seventeen case studies and 184 respo...

Today, large organizations often deploy PMOs as multiple entities with different mandates, functions, and characteristics. Past research efforts have focused almost exclusively on single PMOs. Governance and Communities of PMOs breaks this mold by means of a report of international research with a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates the foundations of project management with social geography and innovation. This report offers a comprehensive survey and discussion of the theory surr...

This research-based book takes an organization-wide perspective to describe the governance and governmentality for projects in organizations. Governance of projects defines and directs the ways managers of projects, programs, and project portfolios carry out their work. Governmentality is the way the managers of these managers present themselves to those they lead.Governance and Governmentality for Projects starts with introducing existing theories, models and paradigms for governa...

In our complex, consumerist societies, the intricacy of personal interactions and the number of goods and products available often prevents us from direct knowledge of what lies ‘behind’ food behaviors, ingredients, and the origins of the modern food and agriculture supply chain. Over the last decade or so, scholars, lawyers and engaged lay vegans have had many discussions about vegan rights and discrimination as issues intrinsic to animal rights, but the final frontier remains intact: the...

A new theory of balanced leadership in projects Leadership is not static. Instead, authority in projects shifts dynamically between project managers, individual team members, and sub-teams, depending on the situation. Leadership may be exercised through a vertical, horizontal, shared, or distributed leadership approach. However, balanced leadership ensures the best suitable approach is used in any given situation. Based on an award-winning global program of research studie...

This concise text introduces an integrated view of all project management-related activities in an organization, called Organizational Project Management (OPM). Practical cases from several organizations, as well as popular theories such as the Resource-Based Theory and Institutional Theory provide for an insightful yet realistic understanding of OPM as an integrative tool for organizations to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.The reader will learn how separate organizatio...

In recent years, organizational project management (OPM) has emerged as a field focused on how project, program and portfolio management practices strategically help firms realize organizational goals. There is a compelling need to address the totality of project-related work at the organizational level, providing a view of organizations as a network of projects to be coordinated among themselves, integrated by the more permanent organization, and to move away from a focus on individual pr...

From the perspective of delivering successful projects, the value of a skilled project sponsor and project manager outweighs many other factors. Projects need leaders who can give them vision, identity, keep the stakeholders and the project team on board and make the difficult decisions that will enable the project to continue (or, if necessary, be terminated). These are human skills that don't necessarily feature large in the project management bodies of knowledge. Ralf Müller and Rodney...

Without a governance structure, an organization runs the risk of conflicts and inconsistencies between the various means of achieving organizational goals, the processes and resources, causing costly inefficiencies that impact negatively on both smooth running and bottom line profitability. However, the frequency of projects failing to meet these corporate objectives has focused attention firmly on the process of project governance. In this book, Ralf Müller provides a well-researched fra...