three-phase research program has been undertaken in order to develop a better understand of PMOs. This paper presents the research strategy, the overall program, and the results of the first phase of the research.

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This paper contributes to the ongoing work and debate on the value of project management, accomplishing this through an empirical investigation of practitioner perceptions on the relative value of different project management practices and their potential to contribute to improved project performance. This investigation is based on a large-scale survey of 753 project management practitioners. This paper aims to answer four questions relating to the value of project management. By identifying the most valued practices, practitioners and organizations can identify their priorities when developing their project management competencies. This can also guide the profession in selecting priorities for future development. When choosing priorities to develop and implement, organizations can look to the tools that practitioners identify as most valuable, as having the most potential for increased contribution to project performance, and as presently under-utilized. In order to fully understand the nature of project management practices, and the mechanisms through which these create value, researchers must better clarify the distinction between the project phases and project processes. These findings can help project management professionals in selecting priorities for future development.

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This paper describes a new method of analysis and design for steel frames with concrete or masonry infilling walls subjected to in-plane forces. The method is based on data generated from previous experiments as well as results from a series of nonlinear finite-element (NLFE) analyses. The method accounts for elastic and plastic behavior of infilled frames considering the limited ductility of infill materials. The proposed method predicts the strength and stiffness of infilled frames as well as the infill diagonal cracking load. The method also allows for the major practical imperfections, such as lack of fit and shrinkage ofthe infil!. Variations, such as infill aspect ratio and beams having different strength and stiffness from the columns, are accounted for and it is concluded that the behavior of frames with pin or semirigid joints can also be predicted. The method is further developed to model multistory infilled frames as braced frames, replacing the infills by equivalent diagonal struts.

The purpose of this research is to contribute to a better understanding of project management practice by investigating the use of project management tools and techniques and the levels of support provided by organizations for their use. The study examines both general levels of use and variations among project types and contexts. Many aspects of project management practice are common to most projects in most contexts, while others vary significantly among different types of projects and among projects in different contexts. The purpose of this paper is to present empirical results that show both the common elements and the significant variations. The paper is based on a survey of 750 project management practitioners. The use of tools and techniques is seen here as an indicator of the realities of practice. The study found some aspects of practice to be common across all types of projects and all contexts, but on this background of similar patterns of practice, several statistically significant differences have also been identified. The primary focus of this paper is on these variations in practice.

This paper presents a framework for building governance regimes for large complex projects. The framework is based on three sources: 1) a re-examination of a study of 60 large capital projects (Miller & Lessard, 2000), 2) the institutional, corporate, and project governance literatures and 3) interviews centered on the revision of the British Private Finance Initiative and on the development of the Norwegian project approval process. The literature tends to treat governance issues as being static, but project development processes and environments are dynamic. The governance regimes must adapt to the specific project and context, deal with emergent complexity, and change as the project development process unfolds. Learning to manage project governance regimes is difficult for organizations that are not involved in great numbers of large complex projects. The framework based on the progressive shaping of the project through the project development life cycle is designed to help overcome this dilemma.

The specificity of project management in different contexts and industries is recognized, but little empirical research encompasses a sufficiently broad range of contexts and project types to precisely identify these specificities. This article adopts such a wide perspective based on a large sample of data from an ongoing empirical investigation of project management practice. Contextual archetypes are identified (i.e., clusters of experienced practitioners that share similar organizational and project contexts). Archetypes of contextualized practice are then investigated through the study of the extent of use of empirically identified toolsets in each cluster. The results empirically confirm some well‐known assumptions about practice but also sharpen the knowledge and understanding of practice in real complex multidimensional contexts. A new concept of “performing‐maturity” emerged from the data. This concept sheds light on the entangled imbrications of maturity, competence, and success. Practices are regressed against performing‐maturity to reveal best contextualized practices.