Thesis (MPM)--Unitec New Zealand, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-101).

Professional services are one of the fastest growing industries, accounting for over US$330 billion in revenue, globally. The industry is also characterised by stiff competition among professional consulting firms. Thus, in order to survive and grow sustainably, consulting companies need to, not only deliver high quality services which surpass their clients’ expectations but, also nurture strong relationships with them.This study sought to understand the relationship between project delivery success and the strength of client-consultant relationships. It used the engineering consulting industry, focusing on public sector clients and consulting firms in South Africa. The methodology used focused on first establishing as to whether clients and consultants measure project delivery success and relationships using the same factors. It then tested the relationship between project delivery success and client-consultant relationships using the identified set of factors.Through a detailed literature review, project delivery factors were categorised into project success and project management success factors. In order to capture the different dimensions involved in project delivery and client-consultant relationships, frameworks were developed to adequately classify these factors. These frameworks were used in the design of the data collection instrument.The findings from the study indicated that clients and consultants measure project delivery success using fairly similar factors, which they also rated in a fairly similar way. However, the study established that clients and consultants neither evaluate relationships using the same factors, nor rate the factors in a similar way. It was also found that project delivery success does not necessarily result in strong client-consultant relationships.On the basis of these findings, the study established that product delivery success is results from the interaction of many factors within and beyond project boundaries. It also involves a variety of stakeholders with different expectations. Project success is more difficult to measure than project management success. Client-consultant relationships depend on the types of clients and consultants involved as well as the model of engagement used. These factors also influence the choice and priority given to different measurement factors.Thus, the study recommended the importance of active client-consultant engagement for clients and consultants to and understand these complex context-specific environments in structuring and defining problems and design relevant solutions. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2016-04-05T23:05:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Fernando Lima.pdf: 1565550 bytes, checksum: afd816ee724b8131277a17c5ca472ffa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-05T23:05:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luiz Fernando Lima.pdf: 1565550 bytes, checksum: afd816ee724b8131277a17c5ca472ffa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-17 / Emotional intelligence is a relatively recent term, which since its origin is studied in the general workplace. However, in recent years there have been studies focused on emotional intelligence in project environment. In addition, some authors have sought to understand how is the relationship between the interpersonal skills of the project manager, the success of the project management and the level of emotional intelligence of managers. This work aims to identify the relationship between these three themes. For this, we carried out a survey with 119 Brazilian project managers. The data collected were analyzed according to the statistical method of structural equation modeling. The results showed that emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills of the project manager has relevant significance for success in project management. Through the results also can be seen that the influence of emotional intelligence in the success of project management is not direct, but mediated by interpersonal skills of the project manager, when these constructs are analyzed together. These results demonstrate that both, project managers and organizations, should consider these two questions with regard to vocational training for project management activity. Organizations should also take these aspects into account in selecting project managers to its staff as well as the appointment of a manager to a particular project. In theory, also opens up a range for further research with a larger sample, besides incorporating other variables such as type and complexity of the project, operating region, among others. In addition to case studies that provide in-depth analysis of the issue. / A inteligência emocional é um termo relativamente recente, que desde sua origem é estudado no ambiente de trabalho em geral. Contudo, nos últimos anos surgiram estudos focados em inteligência emocional no ambiente de projetos. Além disso, alguns autores têm buscado entender como se dá a relação entre as competências interpessoais do gerente de projetos, o sucesso da gestão de projetos e o nível de inteligência emocional dos gestores. Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar a relação entre esses três temas. Para isso, realizou-se uma pesquisa do tipo survey com 119 gerentes de projetos brasileiros. Os dados apurados foram analisados de acordo com o método estatístico de modelagem de equações estruturais. Os resultados demonstraram que a inteligência emocional e as competências interpessoais do gerente de projetos têm significância relevante para alcançar o sucesso na gestão de projetos. Por meio dos resultados também se pode observar que a influência da inteligência emocional no sucesso da gestão de projetos não é direta, mas sim mediada pelas competências interpessoais do gerente de projetos, quando estes constructos são analisados em conjunto. Estes resultados demonstram que, tanto os gerentes de projetos, como as organizações devem levar em consideração estes dois quesitos no que diz respeito à formação profissional para a atividade de gestão de projetos. As organizações também devem levar estes aspectos em consideração na seleção de gerentes de projetos ao seu quadro de colaboradores, bem como na designação de um gerente a determinado projeto. No campo teórico, também se abre um leque para futuras pesquisas com uma amostragem maior, além da incorporação de outras variáveis, como tipo e complexidade do projeto, região de atuação, entre outros aspectos. Além de estudos de casos que proporcionarão uma análise em profundidade da questão.

The public sector project is particularly a demanding undertaking, with the requirement to meet diverse demands. Despite huge investment, public sector projects tend to complete behind schedule, indicating shortfall in various project factors. This research was grounded on an empirical study of the Malaysian School Computer Laboratory Programme (SCLP) to examine the project success factors throughout the project life span. The extensive SCLP was divided into six zones, spanning urban and remote environment throughout Malaysia. Its implementation was staggered into several phases, two of which covered in this study, namely phase-1 and phase-2. This research aimed to fulfil three research objectives: i) to discover the project management’s success factors; ii) to determine the product’s success factors that encompass various stakeholders; and iii) to identify project characteristics that influenced the project success. A comprehensive review of literature suggested 20 relevant project success factors to be investigated. Those factors were examined using a newly constructed framework, whereby the project life span was clustered into two segments – project process and project product. The study adopted a qualitative paradigm; nevertheless it utilised both qualitative and quantitative approaches of data collection, which were triangulated to provide a wider scope of interpretation. The quantitative data for a total sample of 357 projects were sourced from Likert-type questionnaire and secondary resources, while qualitative data were sourced from combination of semi-structured interviews with 38 respondents representing 10 groups of project stakeholders and secondary data from various documents. The results demonstrated that the project management of the SCLP was improperly administered. Out of five success factors investigated to verify the project conceptualization, only two namely project goal and project scope, were reasonably defined. One factor, stakeholder participation, was inadequately defined, while the other two factors, resources assessment and risk management, were not even taken into consideration by the project decision-making committee. There were also some deficiencies in the project planning. From six success factors tested, two were acceptably planned, i.e. project design and project costing. The other four, namely distribution of authority and responsibility, contractor selection, project scheduling, and project documentation, were insufficiently planned. The inadequacies in the project definition and project planning were reflected in the project execution as only two out of six factors, i.e. administrator effectiveness and communication, contributed to the project success. The other four, known as supervising team efficiency, contractor competence, integrity and external influences were negatively affected the project. Despite some deficiencies in the project management, the outcome or product of the project was found to be successful particularly in the judgement of the target group, the users; they were satisfied with the SCLP deliverables. They also appreciated the benefit from the utilisation of the products, which greatly changed the approaches of teaching and learning. However, the SCLP completion time was not as successful as planned, believed to be a result of unrealistic scheduling during the planning stage. Nonetheless, there were cases of genuine delays due to various factors in the earlier stages. The results also suggested that some of the project success factors were particularly influenced by project characteristics explored in this studied. The influences of these two characteristics, geographical zone and the project award method, could be seen in both the project management process and the project’s product. Overall, this thesis contributed to extant body of knowledge in various ways. A newly constructed research framework, with the concept of duality of project process and product, added depth to the longstanding idea of project success and expanded premises of the existing theory. This framework offered a better platform to identify when particular factors take place and affect the project along the project life span. This study also added a new insight to the Malaysian public sector projects management strategies in particular and to the other countries with the similar situations in general. A new paradigm in project decision-making by adopting a bottom-up concept rather than traditionally top-down alone during the project conceptualisation and a more realistic resource-based approach during the project planning, is suggested. In addition, this research proposed an ideal way to deal with various critical success factors in a huge programme.

O objeto de estudo deste trabalho são os critérios de avaliação do desempenho de gerenciamento de projetos, ou em outras palavras, aqueles critérios que podem ser utilizados pelos stakeholders para avaliar se o projeto está sendo, ou foi, bem gerenciado. O objetivo é contribuir para a pesquisa e melhoria do desempenho de gerenciamento de projetos. A primeira fase da pesquisa consistiu de uma revisão na literatura para mapeamento de critérios identificados por outros autores. Uma relação com 20 critérios foi utilizada no questionário aplicado nos estudos de casos para averiguar se tais critérios são utilizados pelas empresas estudadas, e se a seleção e a atribuição de importância dos critérios são influenciadas pelo papel desempenhado pelo entrevistado no gerenciamento dos projetos (gerente, membro de equipe e patrocinador, mais especificamente), pelas características dos projetos ou pela maturidade da empresa em gerenciamento de projetos. Os estudos de caso foram conduzidos em duas grandes empresas multinacionais com alta maturidade e em uma empresa brasileira de médio porte com baixa maturidade. Concluiu-se que, nas empresas estudadas, a seleção dos critérios está altamente associada à natureza e aos objetivos do projeto, não sendo perceptível a influência do papel desempenhado pelo entrevistado. Além disso, nas três empresas a questão da avaliação do desempenho do gerenciamento de projetos foi considerada muito importante tanto para o sucesso dos projetos como para o sucesso da própria organização, fato explicado pela forte contribuição dos projetos para os resultados das empresas e pela interpretação de que projetos bem gerenciados têm maior chance de satisfazer às necessidades e expectativas dos clientes e, desta forma, aumentam a capacidade da empresa de realizar novos negócios com o mesmo cliente e de se posicionar no mercado para realizar negócios com novos clientes. Concluiu-se, também, que a empresa com baixa maturidade apresenta uma tendência a preferir critérios financeiros para avaliação do gerenciamento de seus projetos, enquanto as empresas com alta maturidade preferem um conjunto de critérios multidimensionais. / The object of study of this research is the criteria for project management performance evaluation, in other words, those criteria used by the key stakeholders to assess whether or not a project is being or has been well managed. The objective is to contribute to the research and improvement of the project management performance. The first phase of the research consisted by the review of the literature for mapping criteria identified by other authors. A list of 20 criteria has been created and utilized for the preparation of the questionnaire applied to the case studies to verify if those criteria are used by the studied companies and if the selection and importance given are influenced by the role played in the project management by the interviewee (manager, team member and sponsor, more specifically), by the projects characteristics or by the maturity in project management of the company. The case studies were conducted in two large multinationals companies with high-maturity in project management and in a medium size Brazilian company with low maturity in project management. It was concluded that in the companies studied the selection of criteria is highly associated with the nature and objectives of the project and not influenced by the role played by the interviewee. Moreover, the three companies considered the issue of project management performance assessment very important for the success of the projects as well as the companys, fact explained by the strong contribution that projects bring to the results of the companies and by the interpretation that well managed projects are more likely to meet the customers needs and expectations, increasing the company\'s ability to conduct new business with existing clients and to position itself in the market to do business with new clients. Another conclusion is that the low maturity company is more likely to prefer financials criteria to the project management performance assess; on other hand the high maturity companies are more likely to adopt a multidimensional set of criteria.

O objeto de estudo deste trabalho são os critérios de avaliação do desempenho de gerenciamento de projetos, ou em outras palavras, aqueles critérios que podem ser utilizados pelos stakeholders para avaliar se o projeto está sendo, ou foi, bem gerenciado. O objetivo é contribuir para a pesquisa e melhoria do desempenho de gerenciamento de projetos. A primeira fase da pesquisa consistiu de uma revisão na literatura para mapeamento de critérios identificados por outros autores. Uma relação com 20 critérios foi utilizada no questionário aplicado nos estudos de casos para averiguar se tais critérios são utilizados pelas empresas estudadas, e se a seleção e a atribuição de importância dos critérios são influenciadas pelo papel desempenhado pelo entrevistado no gerenciamento dos projetos (gerente, membro de equipe e patrocinador, mais especificamente), pelas características dos projetos ou pela maturidade da empresa em gerenciamento de projetos. Os estudos de caso foram conduzidos em duas grandes empresas multinacionais com alta maturidade e em uma empresa brasileira de médio porte com baixa maturidade. Concluiu-se que, nas empresas estudadas, a seleção dos critérios está altamente associada à natureza e aos objetivos do projeto, não sendo perceptível a influência do papel desempenhado pelo entrevistado. Além disso, nas três empresas a questão da avaliação do desempenho do gerenciamento de projetos foi considerada muito importante tanto para o sucesso dos projetos como para o sucesso da própria organização, fato explicado pela forte contribuição dos projetos para os resultados das empresas e pela interpretação de que projetos bem gerenciados têm maior chance de satisfazer às necessidades e expectativas dos clientes e, desta forma, aumentam a capacidade da empresa de realizar novos negócios com o mesmo cliente e de se posicionar no mercado para realizar negócios com novos clientes. Concluiu-se, também, que a empresa com baixa maturidade apresenta uma tendência a preferir critérios financeiros para avaliação do gerenciamento de seus projetos, enquanto as empresas com alta maturidade preferem um conjunto de critérios multidimensionais. / The object of study of this research is the criteria for project management performance evaluation, in other words, those criteria used by the key stakeholders to assess whether or not a project is being or has been well managed. The objective is to contribute to the research and improvement of the project management performance. The first phase of the research consisted by the review of the literature for mapping criteria identified by other authors. A list of 20 criteria has been created and utilized for the preparation of the questionnaire applied to the case studies to verify if those criteria are used by the studied companies and if the selection and importance given are influenced by the role played in the project management by the interviewee (manager, team member and sponsor, more specifically), by the projects characteristics or by the maturity in project management of the company. The case studies were conducted in two large multinationals companies with high-maturity in project management and in a medium size Brazilian company with low maturity in project management. It was concluded that in the companies studied the selection of criteria is highly associated with the nature and objectives of the project and not influenced by the role played by the interviewee. Moreover, the three companies considered the issue of project management performance assessment very important for the success of the projects as well as the companys, fact explained by the strong contribution that projects bring to the results of the companies and by the interpretation that well managed projects are more likely to meet the customers needs and expectations, increasing the company\'s ability to conduct new business with existing clients and to position itself in the market to do business with new clients. Another conclusion is that the low maturity company is more likely to prefer financials criteria to the project management performance assess; on other hand the high maturity companies are more likely to adopt a multidimensional set of criteria.