Projects and Their Management: A Literature Review

Abstract

Over the years and more importantly in the recent past projects have been used as a delivery mechanism to do business and accomplish objectives. No wonder it has become one of the fastest growing professions in the world. Although the understanding of what constitutes a project and what doesn’t continues to be a topic of debate. This paper attempts to provide literature search on what is a project, its classification, characteristics, its life cycle, phases, tools etc.

Full text

Projects and Their Management: A Literature Review
Guru Prakash Prabhakar
Bristol Business School
University of the West of England
Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay Campus
Bristol- BS16 1QY, UK
Tel:+ 44-117-328-3461 E-mail: guru.prabhakar@uwe.ac.uk
Abstract
Over the years and more importantly in the recent past projects have been used as a delivery
mechanism to do business and accomplish objectives. No wonder it has become one of the fastest
growing professions in the world. Although the understanding of what constitutes a project and what
doesn’t continues to be a topic of debate. This paper attempts to provide literature search on what is a
project, its classification, characteristics, its life cycle, phases, tools etc.
Keywords: Projects, Project Management
Every one of us is a manager of projects! From a house wife to a production employee to financial
analyst, from banker to physician, from engineer to administrator, from teacher to student, we all work
on various tasks with deadlines. Regardless of our occupation, discipline, or location in an
organization, we all work on tasks that are unique and involve people who do not usually work
together. The project may have a simple objective that does not require many people or a great deal of
money, or it may be quite complex, calling for diverse skills and many resources. But the bottom line is
that every one of us manages projects!
What is a Project?
While there are several definitions of projects in the literature, one of the best has been offered by
Tuman (1983), who states:
“A project is an organization of people dedicated to a specific purpose or objective. Projects generally
involve large, expensive, unique, or high risk undertakings which have to be completed by a certain
date, for a certain amount of money, with some expected level of performance. At a minimum, all
projects need to have well defined objectives and sufficient resources to carry out all the required
tasks.”
In lines of the definition provided by Pinto & Slevin (1988), and accepted for the purpose of this
research, a project can be defined as possessing the following characteristics:
•A defined beginning and end (specified time to completion)
•A specific, preordained goal or set of goals (performance expectations)
•A series of complex or interrelated activities
•A limited budget
Diallo & Thuillier (2003) reviewed the project management literature outlined a set of evaluation
dimensions which appear regularly although not with the same occurrence:
•Respect to the three traditional constraints
•Satisfaction of the client

•Satisfaction of the objectives as outlined in the logical framework
•Project impacts
•Institutional or organizational capacity built in the organization by the project
•Financial returns (in the case of productive projects) or the economic or social benefits (in the
case of public sector projects), and
•Project innovative features (outputs, management or design)
In the words of Turner (1999), “a project is an endeavour in which human, financial and material
resources are organized in a novel way to undertake a unique scope of work, of given specification,
within constraints of cost and time, so as to achieve beneficial change defined by quantitative and
qualitative objectives.”
As defined in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMI, PMBOK® Guide, 2000),
a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Temporary means
that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. Unique means that the product or service
is different in some distinguishing way from all other projects or services.
Declerck et al., (1983, 1997), illustrate the political perspective of projects in this way: "a project is a
whole of actions limited in time and space, inserted in, and in interaction with a politico-socio-
economic environment, aimed at and tended towards a goal progressively redefined by the dialectic
between the thought (the project plan) and the reality."
Gittinger (1972) defines projects as a whole complex of activities involved in using resources to gain
benefits. Gittinger (1982) explains that generally projects form a clear and distinct portion of a larger,
less precisely identified program. The whole program might possibly be analyzed as a single project,
but by and large it is better to keep projects rather small, close to the minimum size that is
economically, technically, and administratively feasible. If a project approaches program size, there is a
danger that high returns from one part of it will mask low returns from another. Project is an activity
for which money will be spent in expectation of returns and which logically seems to lend itself to
planning, financing, and implementing as a unit. It is a specific activity, with a starting point and a
specific ending point, intended to accomplish specific objectives. Usually it is a unique activity
noticeably different from preceding, similar investments, and it is likely to be different from
succeeding ones, not a routine segment of ongoing operations. It will have a well-defined sequence of
investment and production activities, and a specific group of benefits, that we can identify, quantify,
and usually determine a money value for. Often a project will have a partially or wholly independent
administrative structure and set of accounts and will be funded through a specially defined financial
package.
As maintained by Nilsson & Söderholm (2005), planning and plans are intrinsic features of projects.
Plans are meant to constitute and guide project team members as they work on realizing what ever
project goals that have been set out for them. A plan can, however, only have a certain degree of
sophistication. When project management practices on a day-to-day basis are examined, plans seem to
dissolve and become less prescriptive.
Characteristics of a Project
Typically, most projects share most if not all of the five characteristics listed below.
1. A start and a finish
2. A time frame for completion
3. An involvement of several people on an ad-hoc basis
4. A limited set of resources
5. A sequencing of activities and phases

Classification of Projects within Categories and Sub-Categories
•Project size
•Project complexity
•External or internal customer
•Degree of customer involvement in the project
•Levels of risk in projects
•Major and minor projects within a category
According to Gareis and Huemann (2000) the Project-oriented Company (POC) is an organisation
which defines “Management by Projects” as an organisational strategy, applies temporary
organisations for the performance of complex processes, manages a project portfolio of different
project types, has specific permanent organisations to provide integrative functions, applies a “New
Management Paradigm”, has an explicit project management culture, and perceives itself as being
project-oriented. Thus POCs do have specific processes, such as assignments of projects and
programmes, project management, programme management, quality management of projects and
programmes, project portfolio co-ordination, networking between projects, personnel management in
the POC and organisational design of the POC.
Quality Manage-
ment of Projects
and Programs
0
20
40
60
80
100
Project Management
Programme
management
Project Portfolio-
Coordination
Networking
between
Projects
Personnel
Management
in the POC
Assignment of
Projects and
Programs
Organisational
Design of
the POC
Exhibit 1: Specific Processes of the Project-oriented Company, Gareis and Huemann (2000).
Project Management as defined by some leading writers
"Project Management as knowledge field is both an art and a science"
(Bredillet, 2004 a&b)"
According to PMI (1994), project management involves applying knowledge, skills, tools, and
techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations. It is the
art of directing and coordinating human and material resources throughout the life of a project to
achieve project objectives within specified constraints.
Lock (2003) explains that a large industrial project involves numerous differentiated activities that
must focus on one final target. From the commencement of the works to the completion and delivery of
the plant, the organizational structure must run smoothly on the basis of cooperation and interaction to
meet the obligations undertaken towards the client. With this aim in view, it is essential for a company
to possess great capability and experience in planning and optimizing the various project activities, as
well as highly advanced management tools and methodologies to control time and cost constraints and
to meet the challenging requirements of growing efficiency.
Project management is a specialized branch of management which has evolved in order to co-ordinate
and control some of the complex activities of modern industry. The changing business environment of

the twenty first century increases the range of activities coming under the periphery of project
management techniques and the way projects are managed. Projects are open systems because they
exist in an open environment and have to respond to the ever changing dynamics of situations requiring
it to become much more adaptive than ever.
According to Seymour et al. (1992) project management is a central strategy in the changes that many
organizations are undergoing as they adapt from a stable, machine like model to a more dynamic one in
face of environmental turbulence and change. Project managers face difficult task of both fostering
flexibility, adaptability and the acceptance of change as a permanent state, and providing support for
team members to enable them to live with a process they may experience as stressful and
disorientating.
Kerzner (2003) defines project management as the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of
company resources for a relatively short term objective that has been established to complete specific
goals and objectives. Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques
to project activities to meet project requirements. Project management is accomplished through the use
of the processes such as: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. The term project
management is sometimes used to describe an organizational approach to the management of ongoing
operations also referred to as management by projects. In the same many aspects of ongoing operations
are treated as projects so as to apply the project management practices easily to them.
Projects vs. operations: the nature of projects
Every organization acts according to two fundamentals modes: 1. an operational mode, aiming at the
exploitation of competitive advantage and current position on the market and providing profits and
renewal or increase of resources and 2. an entrepreneurial mode, or project mode, focusing on the
research of new position and new competitive advantage, consuming money and resources. To ensure
their sustainability and development, all organizations need to combine both modes. (Declerk in
Ansoff, Declerk, & Hayes, 1976).
It is now appropriate to look at the way an organization is linked to its environment. We can define
strategy as a function of linkage between an organization and its environment (Ansoff, 1975). If we
consider the operational mode, the problem is to optimize performance of the function that is the
strategy of penetration of the organization regarding its environment and to optimize the internal
performance. On the other hand, in the entrepreneurial mode, the problem is to look at opportunities of
expansion and/or diversification and/or reconfiguration, choosing, among a set of possible strategies,
the most effective function, and select, among a set of possible organizational structures, the most
efficient.
Plans and Projects
As stated by Gittinger (1982), projects provide an important means by which investment and other
development expenditures foreseen in plans can be clarified and realized. Sound development plans
require good projects, just as good projects require sound planning. The two are interdependent.
Sound planning rests on the availability of a wide range of information about existing and potential
investments and their likely effects on growth and other national objectives. It is project analysis that
provides this information, and those projects selected for implementation then become the vehicle for
using resources to create new income. Realistic planning involves knowing the amount that can be
spent on project activities for a particular kind of investment.
Well-analyzed projects often become the vehicle for obtaining outside assistance when both the
company and the external financing agency agree on a specific project activity and know the amount of
resources involved, the timing of loan disbursements, and the benefits likely to be realized. But project
analysis should not be confined to only those investments for which external financing will be sought.
In the words of Gittinger (1982), if carefully designed and high-yielding projects are offset by
essentially unplanned investments, then he net contribution to the organizational objectives is
substantially undermined.

Projects are a part of an overall development strategy and a broader planning process. Within the broad
strategy, analysts must identify potential projects that address the policy and organizational priorities.
Generally there are more than one project alternatives available with a company for investment, of
these; all the projects being prepared and analyzed should use a consistent set of assumptions about
such things as the relative scarcity of investment funds, foreign exchange, and labor. All the project
analyses should use the same assumptions about the company policies and objectives to be reflected.
Project Life Cycle
As maintained by PRINCE2 (2002): “A sequence of phases through which a project must pass. There
are a variety of definitions that generally reflect different industry practices… The generally accepted
sequence is: pre-feasibility validation of concepts); feasibility (detailed investigation of viability)
design; contract (procurement); implementation; commissioning; handover and operation.
Project life cycle generally defines:
•The tasks to be accomplished in each phase or sub- phase
•The team responsible of each of the phases defined
As advocated Archibald & Voropaev (2003), there is a general agreement that the four broad, generic
project phases are (common alternative terms are shown in parentheses):
•Concept (initiation, identification, selection.)
•Definition (feasibility, development, demonstration, design prototype, quantification.)
•Execution (implementation, realization, production and deployment, design/construct/
commission, installation and test.)
•Closeout (termination, including post-completion evaluation.)
The number of phases in a project life cycle depends on a variety of factors like nature of industry, type
of output, size of project etc. Kerzner (2003) has developed a theoretical sequence of phases that may
be identified with most of the projects as is outlined below:
•Conceptual
•Planning
•Testing
•Implementation or Execution
•Closure
It is generally better in planning projects to analyze successive increments or distinct phases of activity;
in this way the return to each relatively small increment can be judged separately. Like products follow
a product life cycle, projects follow a project life cycle that has certain phases of development.
Dividing a big project in manageable chunks makes the complex task of managing projects easier,
these chunks in a sequential form can be termed as project phases which can further be divided into
sub-phases and a collection of these phases makes what is called as a project life cycle. Each project
phase is marked by completion of one or more deliverables. Although many project life cycles have
similar phase names with somewhat similar deliverables required, few are identical. Most have four or
five phases, but some have nine or more. Sub-projects within projects may also have distinct project
life cycles. Importantly, these phases are not always consecutive in nature but are more simultaneous.
Though researchers have suggested certain representative project life cycles, for example, the waterfall
model and Muench et. al’s (1994) spiral model for the software development life-cycle, Morris’s
(1994) construction project life cycle and Murphy’s (1989) representative life cycle for a
pharmaceutical project.

As per Kulkarni et al. (2004), the projects, especially the ones having a longer lifecycle, could be
categorised into many phases depending on the functions. For convenience and simplicity points of
view, the three commonly known phases is utilised, namely:
•Procurement phase: From inception to the financial closure and beginning of works
(tendering; dealing with governments, lenders, insurers, pressure groups, experts)
•Execution phase : Project execution (site installation till routine processes are reached,
significant completion)
•Operation and handover phase: From significant completion till the end of defect liability
period and handover
As said by Flaatten, McCubbrey, O’Riordan and Burgess (1992), ‘project execution’ (also known as
‘project implementation’ phase) is the phase where project manager is responsible for allocating work
to the various team members, making sure that the team resources are used where most needed, and
ensuring that the workload is balanced. As intermediate deliverables are completed, they are reviewed
for verification (that they are correct and abide by project standards) and validation (that they conform
to previous work).
Wideman (1987) describes; each of these phases are unique in terms of:
•People allotted to them
•The budget available for carrying out these phases
•Specific time available to finish each of the phases.
Characteristics of a project life cycle
Risk and uncertainty is highest at the beginning stages of a project and reduces thereafter as the project
continues.
The ability of the stakeholders to influence the final characteristics of the project’s product and the
final cost of the project is highest at the start and gets progressively lower as the project continues. Also
the cost of correcting an error increases as the project goes along.
Project Management Tools
What these tools are used for?
Good project management deals with three factors: time, cost and performance. Projects are successful
if they are completed on time, within budget, and to performance requirements. In order to bring the
many components of a large project into control there is a large toolkit of techniques, methodologies,
and tools. These techniques provide the tools for managing different components involved in a project:
planning and scheduling, developing a product, managing financial and capital resources, and
monitoring progress. However the success of a project will always rest on the abilities of a project
manager and the team members.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
This tool is related to planning and scheduling a project. Basically it is a functional decomposition of
the tasks of the project. The total work of the project is broken down into the major subtasks. It starts
with the end objective required and successively subdividing it into manageable components in terms
of size and complexity: program, project, system, subsystem, components, tasks, subtasks, and work
elements.

Gantt charts
Developed by Harry Gantt in 1916, these charts give a timeline for each activity. They are used for
planning, scheduling and then recording progress against these schedules.
PERT/CPM (Critical Path Method)
Both methods show precedence relationships explicitly. Although the two methods were developed
independently during the fifties, they are surprisingly similar. Both methods, PERT and CPM, use a
graphic representation of a project that it is called "Project Network" or "CPM diagram", and it is used
to portray graphically the interrelationships of the elements of a project and to show the order in which
the activities must be performed.
Conclusion
Therefore we can summarize that projects are unique in nature and much depends on the industry, size,
location, nature, complexity, business environment etc. in which they operate. The truth appears to be
that the concept of ‘one size does not fit all’ is a good point to start with in certain cases.
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