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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative importance of project managers' attitudes towards their project and their leadership competences for achieving project success. Leadership competences were assessed as emotional, managerial, and intellectual competences (EQ, MQ, IQ, respectively) using the leadership dimensions questionnaire. Attitudes were assessed through the importance project managers assign to the project success criteria.

Building on the competency school of leadership theories, this study used 400 responses to a global web‐based questionnaire to identify the variances in attitudes and leadership competences of project managers and its relation to project success. ANOVA and regression analyses were used to identify how attitudes and leadership competences related to project results.

The paper identifies two types of results variances, these are, variances in project results and variances in business results. The former is caused by the attitudes of project managers, the latter is caused by a mixture of their attitude and emotional competences.

The results show the relative importance of specific attitudes and leadership competences for different types of project success.

The results indicate key areas for project manager development in order to move from mediocre to superior project results.

The paper builds on prior work in EQ, MQ, and IQ for project management and is the first study to identify a migration theory for the combination of attitudes and leadership competences for project success.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and complete the existing lack of quantitative data at the crossroads between organizational support (OS) practices and project management success in global projects (GPs) and discuss implication of the results in perspective of the theory–practice gap.

Building on classical organizational theory and GP knowledge areas, a survey addressing GP practitioners was designed. This paper focuses on OS practices as success factors and addresses a subset of the survey (1,170 respondents across 74 countries).

OS practices included in the study were found to have high importance for managerial success. OS practices for selection and training of team members show significant correlation with project efficiency but have low adaptation in many organizations. Statistically significant correlations were found to be weaker than expected, indicating that the relation between OS practices (as success factors) and project efficiency (as success criteria) is more complex than expected.

The work constitutes opinion-based research and is vulnerable to variations in OS practices and the definition of success in different organizations and industries. The granularity level of the theoretical framework brought about relative high-level survey questions and may impact the applicability of the results.

To improve the efficiency of GPs, better implementation of OS practices for selection processes and training personnel has been suggested.

The theoretical alignment of classical organizational variables with GP knowledge areas and associated practices provides an original approach to the “theory–practice gap” discourse.

The purpose of this paper is to show that project success is dependent on the project management approach selected, relative to the challenges posed by the project, and to develop an analytical model for analyzing the performance of the project organization.

The research is based on literature review, model development, interviews, and case studies.

The findings define two different approaches in project management: The prescriptive approach focusses on the formal qualities of the project organization, including governing documentation and procedures. The adaptive approach focusses on the process of developing and improving a project organization, project culture and team commitment. The two approaches have been identified through studies of three different case projects. An analytical model, referred to as the Pentagon model, has been applied for analyzing the performance of the project organization and explaining the project management approach. The model focusses on five different organizational aspects: structure, technologies, culture, social relations and networks, and interaction.

The research is limited to megaprojects and to project management success.

It is suggested that project teams consider and select their project management approach at project initiation, and accordingly decide on relevant success factors to focus on. The adapted Pentagon model can be applied to develop the project management organization and assess its performance in the course of project delivery.

The contribution of the research is the application of the analytical model, and the identification as well as illustration of the prescriptive, vs adaptive management approach.

In a construction project, “participants’ satisfaction” is one of the main dimensions used for measuring the successfulness of a project. Designers perform a major role in attaining the project goals and managing project complexity during production. The purpose of this paper is to examine the designers’ performance as evaluated by the main participants: the client, the project consultant/manager and the main contractor, and to identify the main success factors of designer performance using the participants’ evaluation. The study also aims to examine how the economic size of a project affects the project participants’ assessment of the designer’s performance. It is assumed that as the size of a project increases, so does the complexity of the project, which will affect the scope of work and demands on the designers’ operational performance for the specific project level.

The Finnish project evaluation and benchmark database was used in this study as empirical data. The quantitative data consists of surveys on the project level and are based on a multi-dimensional standard evaluation wherein the main participants evaluate each other’s performances. The client, project consultant and main contractor evaluated the designer’s performance. The data of the study consisted of a total of 892 evaluations. ANOVA analysis was used to examine the differences between the project participants’ assessments based upon the different economic sizes of the projects.

Contractors were satisfied with the designers’ performance in small projects, whereas the client and the project consultant/manager rated the designers’ performance most successful in large projects. This result may be due to small projects are typically simple and less complex, in which case design solutions are generally well-defined. Nonetheless, the participants’ level of satisfaction follows the same factors. The main problems in the designers’ performance were related to the design content: the flawlessness and comprehensiveness, as well as the compatibility and consistency of designs. These factors were emphasized particularly in the client’s low satisfaction of the designer’s performance. However, project participants were satisfied with the collaboration with designers; however, room for improvement could be found in internal communication and collaboration within the design teams. The findings illustrated that the assessment of the success rate of a project was party-specific, which was clearly affected by the size of the project, as large projects appeared to be more complex than smaller ones.

The findings suggested that there is a need to develop project-specific practices in managing multidisciplinary design teams. Additionally, particularly in large projects, designers should focus more on solving problems and design requirements occurring at the construction site. However, this should be implemented in such a way that this does not interfere with the design activities conducted with the client and project management. While client satisfaction is low in the small projects, designers should focus more on customer-oriented methods to serve client needs better.

In construction project management studies, there is a need to measure the importance that various participants assign to different success factors. Since project success factors depend on project type, a more project-specific approach is suggested to identify the main parameters for measuring project success. This study provides a holistic approach of the designers’ performance, which contributes to the theory of project success and designers’ performance improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to rank the importance of the critical success factors (CSFs) for best practices in technology product development in the Thailand electronics industry and to determine the relationships between these factors in terms of their impact on project success.

Interviews with experts and a review of past studies are used to design an instrument for data collection. A case analysis is conducted to classify CSFs. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology is applied to analyze CSFs and investigate their relationships.

The authors identified 14 “driving” and “dependent” factors, which were then classified into four factor categories: linkage, autonomous, dependent, or independent factors. The results show that strategic alignment was the most significant CSF. Three factors which had a high driving power and were less dependent on others were: follow-up work, co-ordination, and relationships with clients.

The results may inform and assist technology project management in the little understood business cultures of the developing world. These finding may allow practitioners to prioritize the factors that drive project success when allocating their limited resources.

This research contributes to the field of project management by identifying the relative importance of the CSFs which enhance the management of technology projects. Despite the abundance of studies on CSFs, their importance has still not been fully explained. The findings provide insights into the degree of importance of the factors and their interdependencies, which can either drive or undermine project success. In addition, the ISM methodology the authors used is a unique approach in the project management field.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between project delivery success factors, project management tools, software, and methods.

A statistical analysis was undertaken using data from a survey from a purposive sample of 150 participants across three countries (Australia, Canada and the UK). The findings were used to consider the relationships between project success factors, project management tools, software, and methods.

The findings reveal certain insights in the use of tools and methodologies. Of all the variables measured, the number of project management tools used and the number of risk tools used showed the highest direct correlation. It was therefore surmised that the use of tools from one of these categories is often coincident with the use of tools from the other category. Also, the use of project management tools exhibited less variability as compared to use of information communication technology support tools and risk management tools. In addition, use of formal project management methods exhibited less variability than use of formal decision‐making methods. Therefore, it is suggested that use of project management tools and methods is more consistent across the organizations studied, as compared to other tools and methods.

This paper extends the survey findings of an international 2011 study and sheds light on the use of project management and related tools and methods.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and identify the nature of evaluation criteria, levels and associations among levels of project success in development projects by NGOs in Sri Lanka.

The setting for this study is Sri Lanka, a country currently recovering from civil war and natural disasters and host to a large number of national and international NGOs involved in development projects. Data collection was conducted using a quantitative survey which obtained 447 responses. Multivariate analysis of data was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

The study confirmed that overall project success in NGOs could be assessed in three levels: project management (PM) success, project success and NGO success. The results conclude that there are strong associations among the three levels of project success; moreover, PM success and project success are indispensable for achieving NGO success.

This study extends existing research to confirm the presence of the three levels of project success and the interconnections among them. These findings can support subsequent research on development projects and also support the design of holistic evaluation tools to support project practices in NGOs.

This paper aims to discuss the existing literature on critical success factors (CSFs) for maintenance implementation in Nigerian universities and compile them in a single format to determine if gaps may exist.

Many relevant articles were searched using keywords extracted from a preliminary literature review. The second round of articles abstract study resulted in 40 articles been selected for this compilation. Inductive coding technique and content analysis methodology were used to identify the constructs of the CSFs. Subsequently, a critical analysis of the reviewed literature identified some gaps in the literature studied.

This literature review reveals that lack of maintenance policy, maintenance culture, shortage of building facilities and overpopulation in Nigerian universities are the major problems affecting maintenance implementation success. Additionally, most researchers concentrate on the identification of CSFs without providing the strategies for implementing them.

More in-depth research must be carried out on the study of CSFs to implement maintenance policy and culture in Nigerian universities. Duplication in the frequency analysis of the success factors is a significant limitation in this research work and is attributed to the secondary search used as the primary methodology for many articles cited.

This paper provides an in-depth compilation and analysis of all previously identified success factors for maintenance implementation in Nigerian universities using a structured methodological approach.

The construction industry is facing challenges because of performance shortfalls. Construction projects are highly complex, distinctive, fragmented and do not have well-established performance assessment models to evaluate their project success. The purpose of this paper is to assess the direction through determination of performance areas that would affect project performance in Indian construction projects.

A survey instrument was developed to gather data on the perception of industry professionals on these identified areas. Purposive sampling method was used to select respondents for the survey. These performance areas are ranked using relative importance index to ascertain a level of importance among the group. Factor analysis (FA) was conducted to identify the significant performance areas project performance. Further to identify the most influence performance areas on Indian construction projects, multiple regression analysis was carried out.

Findings indicated 28 significant performance areas. This shows the low level of adoption of good construction management practices in Indian construction projects. FA resulted in the areas being grouped to nine broad significant performance areas with 59.49% of the total variance, namely, quality, schedule, environment and stakeholder satisfactions, cost, productivity, safety, communication management, customer relations and finance. Multiple regression analysis revealed two pivotal factors “customer relations” and “schedule” that significantly influence project performance in Indian construction industry.

The outcome of the study will guide project stakeholders, who desire to improve project performance on construction projects, to prioritize their efforts. It also highlights performance areas of project management which required more focussed research in the context of Indian construction projects. The findings can be extended to the developing countries.

Aligning the project management methodology (PMM) to a particular project is considered to be essential for project success. Many outsourced software projects fail to deliver on time, budget or do not give value to the client due to inappropriate choice of a PMM. Despite the increasing range of available choices, project managers frequently fail to seriously consider their alternatives. They tend to narrowly tailor project categorization systems and categorization criterion is often not logically linked with project objectives. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a contingency fit model comparing the differences between critical success factors (CSFs) for outsourced software development projects in the current context of traditional plan-based and agile methodologies.

A theoretical model and 54 hypotheses were developed from a literature review. An online Qualtrics survey was used to collect data to test the proposed model. The survey was administered to a large sample of senior software project managers and practitioners who were involved in international outsourced software development projects across the globe with 984 valid responses.

Results indicate that various CSFs differ significantly across agile and traditional plan-based methodologies, and in different ways for various project success measures.

This study is cross-sectional in nature and data for all variables were obtained from the same sources, meaning that common method bias remains a potential threat. Further refinement of the instrument using different sources of data for variables and future replication using longitudinal approach is highly recommended.

Practical implications of these results suggest project managers should tailor PMMs according to various organizational, team, customer and project factors to reduce project failure rates.

Unlike previous studies this paper develops and empirically validates a contingency fit model comparing the differences between CSFs for outsourced software development projects in the context of PMMs.