Editorial

Citation

Drouin, N. (2017), "Editorial", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 242-243. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-02-2017-0012

Volume 10, Issue 2 brings together papers that comprise three groups of subjects to encourage growth in the field of project management. The first group includes papers 1-4 and is concerned by the improvement of governance issues, the management of project complexity and uncertainty to enable sustainability. The second group (papers 5-8) draws on specific themes such as ethical challenges, cognitive psychology, optimism bias and algorithm for project portfolio selection problem to nourish project management reflection. Finally, the two last papers are attentive to acquiring project alliance capabilities and translation skills to be mastered by project managers.

More specifically, the first paper by Markus Hällgren and Marcus Lindahl entitled “Coping with lack of authority: extending research on project governance with a practice approach” explores alternate coping strategies that may compensate for the limitations of weak governance structure in a product development project. This article complements the existing understanding of project governance with a project-as-practice perspective and suggests that project governance needs to be nuanced in its understanding since a too structured approach may increase tensions in an organization.

The second paper on “Project governance in public sector agile software projects” by Teemu Lappi and Kirsi Aaltonen, based on three case projects in the Finnish public sector, aims to analyze the project governance practices of public sector organizations and illustrates what kind of impact these practices have on agile software projects. It also describes the tensions of agile project governance in an interesting manner.

The third paper by Asbjørn Rolstadås and Per Morten Schiefloe on “Modelling project complexity” enhances the understanding of what project complexity is, what drivers and factors influence complexity, and how consequences for organizational performance can be assessed. The research is explanatory and its model is validated through a case study.

The fourth paper by Tove Brink is entitled “Managing uncertainty for sustainability of complex projects.” This research reveals how management of uncertainty can enable sustainability of complex projects. The research uses a qualitative deductive approach among operation and maintenance actors in offshore wind farms. The findings reveal the need for management of uncertainty through two different paths. The author also proposes a tool to manage such uncertainty in complex projects.

The fifth paper on “Ethical behaviour in the design phase of AEC projects” by Jardar Lohne, Frederik Svalestuen, Vegard Knotten, Frode Olav Drevland and Ola Lædre establishes a descriptive picture of ethical challenges practitioners meet in the design phase of Norwegian construction projects. The study notably addresses framework conditions for handling ethically challenging situations and challenges of an ethical nature practitioners, commonly encounter in the design phase. Finally, it discusses the structural (systemic) reasons for such challenges.

The sixth paper by Pooria Niknazar and Mario Bourgault entitled “In the eye of the beholder: opening the black box of the classification process and demystifying classification criteria selection” opens the black box of classification process and explains how it is reflected in picking the classification criteria. Drawing on insights from cognitive psychology’s literature, the authors examine the main views of the classification process to provide insight into the unknown or implicit reasons that one might have to pick particular attributes as project classification criteria.

The seventh paper entitled “Optimism bias within the project management context: a systematic quantitative literature review” was written by James Prater, Konstantinos Kirytopoulos and Tony Ma. Optimism bias is widely accepted as a major cause of unrealistic scheduling for projects. The authors analyze mitigation techniques and their effectiveness to minimize the impact of this bias. They also bring our attention to the fact that the most recommended mitigation method is Flyvbjerg’s reference class that was developed based upon Kahneman’s “outside view.”

The eighth paper by Mahsa Montajabiha, Alireza Arshadi Khamseh and Behrouz Afshar-Nadjafi is entitled “A robust algorithm for project portfolio selection problem using real options valuation.” The authors formulate the problem of project selection using a robust optimization algorithm to deal with the complexities and uncertainty inherent in the construction of the project portfolio. Sensitivity analysis showed that projects in later phases of development, having survived several phases of pre-clinical and clinical tests, are worth more because they are more likely for pertaining to business. However, the investment costs related to each project during development phases limit the number of projects that a company can bring to their final portfolio.

The ninth paper by Anna-Maija Hietajärvi, Kirsi Aaltonen and Harri Haapasalo entitled “What is project alliance capability?” defines the concept of project alliance capability and identifies the elements that constitute an organization’s project alliance capability. This study provides empirical evidence of project alliance capability based on an investigation of participants’ experiences of Finnish construction and infrastructure alliance projects.

Finally, the tenth paper entitled “Ambiguity acceptance and translation skills in the project management literature” by Frank Ulbrich and Karmin Gray reviews the extant project management literature and proposes a framework for categorizing project managers based on the traits that they possess or lack. The results indicate that ambiguity acceptance and translation skills are two important dimensions that project managers need to be successful.

Thank you to all contributors of Volume 10, Issue 2. I hope you will appreciate reading the research results presented in this issue. I invite you to continue to consider the journal to publish your innovative research work.