A Study of Project Management Practices in the Czech Republic.

• Author: Hodzic, Majra
• Position: Report - Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Project management is undoubtedly one of the main hot topics within most organizations. It has been increasingly used in various business fields as well as by different entities from start-ups and small companies to multinationals. Project management serves as a very valuable application platform for the entrepreneurial innovation process.

While the substantive content of project management has essentially remained unchanged for the last twenty years, the framework and approach have undergone innovative changes. This corresponds with the view of modern approaches in management which basically means that the essence is not in learning and implementing the methods and software, but in embracing the complex, overall approach of project management. This overall approach also includes project sustainability which is defined by the European Commission as the "likelihood of a continuation in the stream of benefits produced by the project after the period of external support has ended" (European Commission, 2004, p. 146). Sustainable development is even considered as a new management paradigm for managing projects in complex and dynamic environments (Gareis, 2013). The popularity and wide usage of project management have been noticeable in the Czech Republic as well. In the last few years, not only multinational companies, but a wide range of organizations including small start-ups, are orientating more towards project management approaches.

This has resulted in raised interest for the status of project management practices in the Czech Republic among researchers. Since 2012, IPMA CZ and EY (former Ernst & Young) conducted surveys attaining to get a closer overview and analyze the situation of project management in the Czech Republic. These studies provide a general overview of the situation in project management since 2012 and give us important insights about project teams coping with many issues and unsuccessful projects. However, there are still gaps in the development and elaboration of the topic in research and practice, which shows that there is a great space in project management for more research, especially in the Czech Republic.

With regards to this, the research problem grew out of our interest in the particular topic supported by the above-mentioned gaps. Observing the current situation, the research question rose - is it time for a boost in project management in the Czech Republic? In order to properly address and answer the research question, the study that was carried out attained to overcome the limitations of the previous studies by conducting a cross-sectional study with carefully chosen respondents, whose professionalism and knowledge in the area of project management is proven, and at the same time focusing on four specific areas. The research concentrates on the following four areas of project management: stakeholders' main demands and requests, the main characteristics of project management in the Czech Republic, the level of use of the project management methods, and the identification of the characteristics of the respondents.

The choice of these four areas was not incidental but has its rational context:

1) The demanding requirements of the stakeholders at the start of any project as well as the extent of their changes during project execution have a significant (and often a dramatic) impact on the success of the project;

2) Although projects show clear specificities compared to other "tasks," they are internally differentiated. They vary in scope, duration, financial claims, industry, culture, risks and other characteristics or features. If we want to make analysis and comparisons, we must perceive and respect them;

3) Quality is a key focus area in project management. Among the ways to increase it is the application of project management methods which innovate and standardize the direction of management so as to avoid unnecessary factual and procedural non-rationalities and errors, and make communication about the project among the stakeholders more understandable.

Therefore, the main purpose of this paper was to conduct a study of the current practices in the field of project management in the Czech Republic from a multi-factor perspective according to the chosen four areas.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The following literature review comprises of subsections that provide sufficient theoretical background of the key areas and terms in the field of project management relevant for this paper. Since the paper studies project management, the first subsection focuses on the definitions and necessary explanation for this term. Subsequently, agile approach and projects are defined too. With regards to the four areas being investigated in this paper, the literature review contains the necessary theoretical framework for key elements of these areas as well. Therefore, the role and importance of the project manager as well as project stakeholders and the project life cycle are defined and discussed.

Project management definition

There are many project management definitions, but the basis is the same for all of them. With regards to the purpose of this paper being to analyze current project management practices in the Czech Republic, the authors chose four relevant definitions. The first three come from professional Project Management associations. The fourth one comes from an academic guru in Project Management.

Thus, first, the Project Management Institute defines Project Management in its oldest official PMBOK[R] Guide (PMI, 1996, p. 6) as "the application of knowledge, skills, methods and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project." The definition is extended in the Guides' third edition (PMI, 2004, p. 8): "Project management is accomplished through the application and integration of the project management processes of initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing."

The second, the International Project Management Association (IPMA) does not - due to the context of its methodology - logically target its publication (or it deliberately avoids) on a PM definition, but defines the role of a professional manager involved: "Project Management is established as the prominent method for implementing change in the world and project, program and portfolio managers are leading the way (IPMA, 2015, Foreword).

The third, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), as the best practice method in project management called PRINCE2[R], defines project management (OGC 2009, p. 4) as: "the planning, delegating, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project, and the motivation of those involved, to achieve the project objectives within the expected performance targets for time, cost, quality, scope, benefits and risks."

The fourth, and last but not least, is an overview definition of project management expressed by Professor Kerzner (2009, p. 4) 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. Furthermore, project management utilizes the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific project (the horizontal hierarchy)." Although this definition differs from the first ones in words, the essence of both remains the same.

Following these definitions, this study and paper perceive the project management definition to be from a modern approach in management and not the traditional one. Modern approach in this sense means that project management implementation and practice is not just about learning methods and techniques and using management support programs (application of project management tools and methods), but is also about the complex understanding and adoption of a modern, agile and innovative project management approach that involves constant change, innovation and flexibility, as well as a great focus on project managers and project teams.

Agile project management

It is very important to incorporate an agile approach when defining and understanding the concept of project management. At first, the term agility can be used to define the dynamic and proactive act to constantly change the environment (Owen et al., 2006), and with regards to it, organizational agility can be defined as an organization's ability to be flexible and easily adaptable to changing conditions without those changes being forced (Ali, Chew & Tang, 2004).

In connection to these general definitions, agile project management can be perceived as practices that are flexible, prone to changes and easily adaptable. These practices, as well as agile project management methods, are derived from, or at least highly influenced by, the agile software -development methods (Hanadi, 2014).

The main basis of the agile project management concept are short delivery iterations supported by inevitable continuous learning (Sauer & Reich, 2009). This approach involves three main steps at the very beginning of the project - streamlined planning, precise requirement definition and solution design (Hanadi, 2014). Once the project has been started, the project team can work in a sequence of iterations that result in a more detailed, precise and realistic planning, design, testing, analysis of requirements as well as execution (Hanadi, 2014).

One of the great advantages of an agile approach is the ability to immediately modify project requirements that are reviewed by short delivery iterations. This allows projects to be more flexible, adaptable and could greatly influence customer satisfaction with a better outcome. An agile approach allows the project team to focus on scope and requirements by prioritizing them according to their importance and value for the customer (Hanadi, 2014).

The involvement of the customer in setting up the scope and requirements...