25 August, 2003 Lynda Bourne - 3024113 1

Research Proposal Presentation

Lynda Bourne
2034113
BUSM 1408
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Supporting Project Managers in
building sustainable
relationships for project success.
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In the current project environment...
Many team members
will only be part of the team as long as their specialist skills are required
come from different organisational backgrounds and cultures
may be geographically dispersed
A small core team will be responsible for project delivery
Organisations change constantly - a projects stakeholder set will change:
Senior Managers change roles or change companies
The ability of stakeholders to influence the project may increase or decrease
The Project Manager is still accountable for successful delivery of the project; there
are good reasons for project responsibilities to be shared:
Sharing workload and coaching of less experienced members
Knowledge Management
This project will investigate the effectiveness of a tool - the Stakeholder Circle -
to provide support for the PM and project team in managing the projects
stakeholders.
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Topic description
Background
Statement of problem
Objectives
Research question
Research Method
approach
sampling strategy
timeframe
Scope and location of research
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Background
Managing relationships for project success is acknowledged as being as
important as the hard skills of managing schedules and budgets
The Project Managers accountabilities include relationship management
(Stakeholder Management)
A projects stakeholder set does not remain static throughout the project and
needs to be identified, tracked and managed appropriately throughout the project
lifecycle
In large organisations today, many projects have team members from many
different organisations. Teams consist of staff, contractors, and staff of other
organisations
As specialists move in and out of projects, there is a small core team that
manages throughout the lifecycle.
This core team should share responsibility for Stakeholder Management:
workload management, coaching, knowledge management, personality matching
To facilitate this sharing it is essential to have a solid process and the support of a
tool.
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The Problem
How can a project manager ensure all
stakeholders are identified and assessed for
importance to the project
How can the PM fulfil responsibilities in:
inspired leadership
relationship (stakeholder) management
knowledge management
HR management
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Objectives
Main objective:
To identify ways to improve the building and
maintaining of sustainable project relationships for
project success.
Sub-objectives:
1. To determine the effectiveness of a visualisation tool
for stakeholder management.
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Research questions
1. How effective is the use of a visualisation
tool for project stakeholder management?
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Research Methods - approach
Deductive Approach
testing theory through observation and data
Exploratory Study
Purposive, self-selection sampling
Longitudinal
projects must be around 6 months in length
In-depth interviews at beginning and end with PM
Group interviews with key team members
Self-completion diaries
to track issues and changes in stakeholder relationships with
project
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Research Methods - sampling strategy
Through Project Management professional bodies,
personal and business I will attempt to identify target
companies and project to participate in the research.These
project must have the following characteristics:
A six-month lifecycle timeframe
Specialisation specialist are only part of the team for the input of their specialist advice
Have a core team of 3 5 members.
Select five (5) projects representing a selection of
industries and project types from the following sectors:
Service Organisations using complex infrastructure including IT solutions as the main
mechanism for delivery of that service (banks, telcos)
Government (bureaucracy)
Large traditional engineering (eg Ships, Bridges)
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Research Methods - Timeframe
Research Project
Develop Research Proposal
and obtain approval
Develop and test questions
Develop and test tool
Obtain participants
Administer instrument(s)
Ongoing data collection and analysis
Final collection of data
Research Report
Day 1 Day 344
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Issues
Ethical issues
Privacy
Intellectual Property
Confidentiality
Other issues
Continuous participation