It’s the People who Make or Break Project Success

Dateline: April 24, 2015

Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.

Professors Fabian J. Sting, Christoph H. Loch and Roto Frank Head of Engineering Dirk Stempfhuber recently published an article in Sloan Management Review titled, Accelerating Projects by Encouraging Help, that highlights the importance of managing behavioral issues as much as process planning for projects.  They suggest,

In turbulent business landscapes with rapidly changing technological platforms, many organizations are trying to accelerate product introduction cycles by prioritizing project delivery. However, many projects have two characteristics that make optimal delivery times elusive: First, the projects themselves tend to involve uncertainty (for example, they develop a new product function whose feasibility has not yet been established); and second, the workers have information about the status of their project tasks that is not observable to anyone but themselves, which many don’t share. Therefore, behavioral issues are as important in project timeliness as diligent planning.

How do you insure that the individuals on project teams cooperate and share information freely?  What are the necessary success factors of a collaborative project environment?

That’s a WRAP!  Have a wonderful weekend!

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