The Five Main Research Streams

1. One Size Does Not Fit All – “The Diamond of Innovation”

It is clear that there are differences among projects, and need to be managed in different ways. The traditional project management approaches did not offer formal solutions or models to distinguish between projects and to adapt project management style to the specific project type. Furthermore, projects often fail to deal with innovation, assuming that all projects are certain and fixed. This stream was initiated by expanding classical contingency theory to project management and innovation.

This stream used results from the following dissertations (Dvir, 1992; Peled, 1994; Klein, 1996; Sauser, 2004). It resulted in research articles numbers: 5, 8, 9, 10, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 40, 45, 46, 47, 53, 60, 61, 66, and 68. It was also summarized in a 2007 Harvard Business School Press book for executives: Shenhar and Dvir, Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth and Innovation.

 

2. What is Project Success

Traditional project management assumes that projects are successful when they meet the “Triple Constraint” of time, cost, and scope. It does not formally look at the impact on the customer and the resulting business success. A new multidimensional framework for planning and assessing a project’s success beyond the triple constraint was thus developed.

This stream was based on the following dissertations (Dvir, 1992; Levy, 1993; Maltz; 2000; Phelan, 2004). It resulted in research articles numbers: 2, 10, 15, 22, 25, 29, 31, 43, 44, 50, and 65.

 

3. The Strategic Approach to Project Planning and Execution – Project Strategy

Impacted by the second direction, this stream is aimed at showing how to plan and actually manage a project to succeed beyond the “triple constraint,” that is, to satisfy customers, win in the marketplace, make money, and create near and long-term value.

This steam was the subject of PMI’s monogram, Linking Project Management and Business Strategy, PMI 2007). It used results from the following dissertations (Sauser, 2004; Poli, 2006; Stefanovic, 2008), and it resulted in research articles numbers: 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 25, 31, 37, and 38.

 

4. Leading and Inspiring the Project Strategic Team - Project Spirit

The traditional approach does not specifically focus on leadership. But great project managers are also leaders, who know how to inspire their teams, lead with vision, and create an environment of unity and energy. This stream was taken to develop the principles and guidelines for average managers how they could become effective and inspiring leaders with their teams.

This steam was the subject of PMI’s monogram, The Human Side of Project Leadership, PMI 2007). It resulted in research articles numbers: 1, 5, 6, 7, 14, 21, 22, 37, 38, and 54.

 

5. Integration of Streams – Strategic Project Leadership (SPL)

Several studies were dedicated over the years to the interaction and integrating the various research streams into one, more advanced project management approach that could be applied by companies and project teams.

The SPL Research was dedicated to study the different components of the approach and examine the interaction between them. It tested though action research how different teams implemented the method in their projects and how the approach contributed to their project’s and business success. It was also used with customer companies that implemented the method and tested their business results. As a result of the research SPL was implemented by teams in numerous companies, achieved outstanding business results, and received two awards from the Project Management Institute, PMI.

There were also a few specific integrated research components in this stream.

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