A critical argument in favor of theoretical pluralism: Project failure and the many and varied limitations of project management

A Strategic Approach to Mitigating Operational Failure Across Transitions

It is recognized that projects continue to deliver operational assets that are partially defective. This article proposes this because the causes of operational failures have not been extensively analyzed. This study explores how an infrastructure client made quality a strategic and project delivery necessity by undertaking research to analyze operational failure. A mixed-method approach consisting of three phases was used: (1) to understand the operational failure elements; (2) to explore the causes of operational failure; and (3) to develop a new strategic framework to address failure mitigation. The study showed the need for transferring, applying, and recognizing capabilities across strategic business, project delivery, and operational use transitions.

Success or failure? Making sense of outcomes in a public sector change project

The most common method of assessing outcomes of change projects is to compare the final outcomes with predefined goals and conclude that the project has been a success, or more commonly, a failure. We question whether such simple conclusions pay due respect to complex processes. In this paper, we apply a sensemaking perspective to explore how and when outcomes of change projects are assessed. We report from a longitudinal case study of a project in the Norwegian public sector that was initiated to suggest and implement changes in response to major challenges in the health sector. We found outcome narratives in all project phases, including those not based on change objectives. The study contributes to the literature by suggesting that outcome narratives are continuously constructed throughout change projects and that competing outcome narratives can co-exist, be reinforced or be merged over time.

Project Innovation: Evidence-Informed, Open, Effectual, and Subjective

Entrepreneurship provides promising bases for project innovation in unpredictable settings that require general adaptability rather than responsive variety. However, important theories in this area are based on world views that are antithetical to the causal assumptions that support often-productive theory and practice in project management. This article outlines four entrepreneurial models of innovation, concluding with subjective innovations based on interactively defined lifestyle and ideological values rather than scientific or economic logic. Their adoption requires difficult personal and organizational admissions of failures in current practice as well as recognition that deeply rooted beliefs in causal logic are an impediment in intrinsically unpredictable environments.