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The determination of the most appropriate procurement system for a capital works project is a challenging task for public sector clients considering the array of assessment criteria that are considered and the procurement methods that are available. This is particularly pertinent to the Western Australian public sector where there has been a propensity to use traditional lump sum as the default procurement solution despite knowing that the selection of an inappropriate procurement method may lead to cost and time overruns, claims, and disputes on projects. This paper aims to present a six‐step procurement method evaluation approach that requires public sector agencies to consider in detail an array of options so as to obtain value for money.

A procurement evaluation approach is developed and is examined using a focus group of 12 participants comprising a public sector client, project team and key stakeholders. The focus group was used to examine the developed approach in the context of a real‐life capital works project.

The procurement method evaluation approach was deemed to be pragmatic and enabled decision makers to re‐evaluate outcomes from previous steps in the process. All focus group participants stated the six step process enabled a recommendation that was grounded in reflection and detailed evaluation.

The developed procurement approach has enabled the public sector client to evaluate the way in which it views procurement method selection and examines how “value for money” is obtained.

The six‐step procurement approach makes use of quantitative and qualitative techniques and is reliant on discourse and reflection in making a procurement method recommendation. Consequently, the approach enables public sector clients to account for the complexities often associated with procurement selection.

Choosing the appropriate procurement system for construction projects is a complex and challenging task for clients particularly when professional advice has not been sought. To assist with the decision‐making process, a range of procurement selection tools and techniques have been developed by both academic and industry bodies. Public sector clients in Western Australia (WA) remain uncertain about the pairing of procurement method to bespoke construction project and how this decision will ultimately impact upon project success. This paper seeks to examine “how and why” a public sector agency selected particular procurement methods.

An analysis of two focus group workshops (with 18 senior project and policy managers involved with procurement selection) is reported upon.

The traditional lump sum (TLS) method is still the preferred procurement path even though alternative forms such as design and construct, public‐private‐partnerships could optimize the project outcome. Paradoxically, workshop participants agreed that alternative procurement forms should be considered, but an embedded culture of uncertainty avoidance invariably meant that TLS methods were selected. Senior managers felt that only a limited number of contractors have the resources and experience to deliver projects using the non‐traditional methods considered.

The research identifies a need to develop a framework that public sector clients can use to select an appropriate procurement method. Learning from previous experiences with regard to procurement selection will further provide public sector clients with knowledge about how to best deliver their projects.

The paper adds insight as to how public sector agencies select particular procurement methods.

Traditional Lump Sum (TLS) methods have been the primary procurement method within Australia. Yet, their use is beginning to wane in states such as: Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria where Design and Construct, Construction Management and hybrids thereof have become the norm. Considering the demands of clients, the increasing propensity to use non‐traditional methods, the quality of drawings that are being produced, and the role of software applications such as Computer‐Aided Design in directly generating quantities, this paper seeks to examine the role Bills of Quantities (BoQs) serve and how effective they are as a pre‐contract and post‐contract tool.

Only limited empirical research has addressed the role and effectiveness of BoQs, particularly in Australia. With this in mind, the research adopted an exploratory approach to gain insights from industry practitioners about BoQs. A questionnaire survey was developed from the literature and used to solicit the opinions of practitioners about their role and effectiveness as a pre‐contract and post‐contract tool.

The distributed questionnaire survey resulted in 86 responses from industry practitioners – quantity surveyors, building contractors, and project managers. The findings fundamentally reveal that the use of Bill of Quantities prepared in accordance with the standard method of measurement is on the decline and only useful as a tool for post‐contract control.

The research has revealed that there is a need for industry to embrace alternative forms of measuring quantities in building projects. Abridged bills and builders' quantities are being increasingly demanded in Australia. Thus, it is suggested that this demand could drive the need for alternative forms of pricing in building projects and lead to the increasing use of non‐traditional methods of measurement.

Information technology (IT) projects are renowned for their high failure rate. Risk management is an essential process for the successful delivery of IT projects. In‐depth interviews with IT professionals from leading firms in Western Australia were undertaken to determine how IT risks were managed in their projects. The respondents ranked 27 IT risks in terms of likelihood and consequences to identify the most important risks. The top five risks, in order, were: personnel shortfalls; unreasonable project schedule and budget; unrealistic expectations; incomplete requirements; and diminished window of opportunity due to late delivery of software. The respondents overwhelmingly applied the treatment strategy of risk reduction to manage these risks. Furthermore, these strategies were primarily project management processes, rather than technical processes. This demonstrates that project management is a risk management strategy. Scope, quality management, and human resource management were solutions applied to several risks. In particular, managing stakeholders’ expectations is a specific risk treatment that helps to manage several key IT risks.

Scholars are increasingly acknowledging the importance of conversations in the management of complex projects. Defining dialectics as “the art of purposeful conversation”, this paper aims to rationalise the somewhat disorganised field of dialectics by developing a categoreal scheme.

The authors refer to the current state of research into the conversational aspects of complex projects, and examine the historical development of, and philosophical and scholarly commentary on, the dialectical method.

The categories the authors propose are the Socratic, Conversational, Fichtean and Peircean. They differ in relation to the subject matter of the dialectic; their vulnerability to environmental influences; the degree of structure they require for optimal performance; and the situations in which they might most profitably be applied.

A single categoreal scheme is rarely the last word, and the authors invite other scholars to explore the field in a similar way.

The scheme proposed here is intended to enhance the project manager's approach to conversations, by referring to the specific virtues and limitations of each of the categories.

The informed use of dialectics may help to ameliorate the significant damage done to organisations and economies around the world by failed and underperforming projects.

The authors present the first categorisation of the field, with the aim of equipping the practitioner to think about dialectical approaches in a more systematic way.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the antecedents of speed to market (SM). Further, a model was established on SM with the organizational variables of enacting organizational environment (EOE), organizational infrastructure (OI), project complexity (PC) and creation of collective mind (CCM).

This research was based on structured survey questionnaire data of 415 managers from private and public sector firms in India. The data analysis was carried out with SPSS 20 and AMOS 18 for structural equation modeling.

Research results indicated that the exogenous factors were EOE and OI. PC and CCM were the intervening variables and SM was the endogenous variables. The result indicated that there was significant positive relationship between EOE and PC, EOE and CCM. There was also a significant positive relationship between the variables EOE with PC, OI with PC and CCM with PC. Finally there existed a significant positive relationship between PC and SM and CCM and SM.

This research study was one of the first research studies developing a model on SM with the exogenous variables of EOE and OI and the intervening variables of PC and CCM.

The managers in both public and private sector organizations looking to create and sustain competitive advantage by providing a fast and apt response to market demand by product development can use the inputs from the study. Organizations should be developed in such a manner to enrich the EOE and have a agile and flexible OI. This would help organizations in having CCM and undertake PC. A well-coordinated effort encompassing all these would help the organization to have a fast and steady SM.

This research was one of the very first studies relating SM with EOE, OI, PC and CCM in an emerging market context.

This paper seeks to review the current literature in order to explore how performance of leadership in project management determines project outcomes. The specific causes of project success or failure have been an area of much debate in the project management literature. Performance of leadership has been cited as a critical success factor, determining either the success or failure of a project.

An extensive literature review has been undertaken to explore our understanding of how project leadership performance impacts on project outcome.

The mechanisms through which leadership may impact on outcomes are considered. Implications include the need for project managers to prioritize training in leadership skills, and the need for continuous professional improvement to enhance leadership outcomes. No single leadership model is appropriate throughout the duration of the project. Performance, therefore, must be modified to align with the stages of the project duration.

While the literature has given meaningful insights into leadership of projects, there has been little research into performance management of project leadership. The work is the basis of developing a research agenda and establishing a conceptual framework. The opportunity exists, based on this work, for carrying out research on project leadership performance and its effect on project outcomes.

Insightful learning has been achieved into project leadership and the failing of practitioners in appropriate training and development at various stages of the projects life cycle.

Projects and project‐based management, delivered nationally and internationally, are of significant importance to organizations. Increasing understanding of the implications of leadership performance, therefore, is of critical importance.

The literature review has identified significant limitation in project leadership performance management. It is anticipated that this work will trigger further research.

The accuracy and reliability of subjectively assessing a construction project's complexity at the pre-construction stage is questionable and relies upon the project manager's tacit experiences, knowledge and background. The purpose of this paper is to develop a scientifically robust analytical approach by presenting a novel classification mechanism for defining the level of project complexity in terms of work contents (WCs), scope, building structures (BSs) and site conditions.

Empiricism is adopted to deductively analyze variables obtained from secondary data within extant literature and primary project data to develop project type classifications. Specifically, and from an operational perspective, a two-stage “waterfall process” was adopted. In stage one, the research identified 56 variables affecting project complexity from literature and utilized a structured questionnaire survey of 100 project managers to measure the relevance of these. A total of 27 variables were revealed to be significant and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is adopted to cluster these variables into six-factor thematic groups. In stage two, data from 62 real-life projects (including the layout and structural plans) were utilized for computing the factor score using the six-factor groups. Finally, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) is adopted to classify the projects into collected distinctive groups and each of a similar nature and characteristics.

The developed theoretical framework (that includes a novel complex index) provides a robust “blueprint platform” for main contractors to compile their project complexity database. The research outputs enable project managers to generate a more accurate picture of complexity at the pre-construction stage.

While numerous research articles have provided a comprehensive framework to define project complexity, scant empirical works have assessed it at the pre-construction stage or utilized real-life project samples to classify it. This research addresses this knowledge gap within the prevailing body of knowledge.