Developing a Multidimensional Conception of Project Evaluation to Improve Projects

Abstract

In the quest to improve projects, project actors rely on sound project evaluation. However, project evaluation can be complex and challenging. This study aims to explore and define project evaluation and reveal how it can promote continuous improvements within and across projects and organizations. A review of extant literature finds four constitutive properties for project evaluation: criteria, times, evaluands, and evaluators. Based on the action design research of 75 projects in 21 organizations, the study finds three evaluation perspectives: process, outcome, and learning. Understanding the multidimensionality of project evaluation through the seven identified dimensions offers a meaningful conception of project evaluation.

Enhancing project success: the impact of sociotechnical integration on project and program management using earned value management systems

“…The key recommendation related to truly integrated project management by allocating effort to the social environment surrounding the EVMS, has led to a positive paradigm shift in project management for one of the nation's largest government organizations today. In fact, effectively implementing EVMS as a sociotechnical system aligns with and reinforces earlier findings discussed by researchers including Rode et al (2022) and Kwak and Anbari (2012) and many others, while also developing a detailed framework to help gauge, assess and score individual attributes and factors, complete with identification of gaps and corrective actions, and linked to project performance. One industry reviewer used the terms "the holy grail of project management" as part of his reaction to this new framework.…”

Evaluating a project management methodology to improve project performance

“…Efficiency refers to project management success in terms of doing things right and is often associated with the triple constraints of time, cost and quality (Atkinson, 1999;Baccarini, 1999;Haass and Guzman, 2019;Ika, 2009;Nelson, 2005;Pinto and Slevin, 1988;Rode et al, 2022;Serrador and Turner, 2015;Shenhar et al, 1997;Zidane et al, 2016). In this study, efficiency focuses on speed and the ability to accelerate time to impact, due to the ambition of the PMM under investigation (Svejvig et al, 2019).…”

Understanding the Phoenix Phenomenon: Can a Project Be Both a Failure and a Success?

“…With the wide deployment of projectification (Midler, 1995) in increasingly diverse application contexts, the criteria and, more generally, the points of view for evaluating the outcomes of projects have diversified beyond the initial vocation of projects as temporary organizations for getting things done. Whereas academic research on project success is old and abundant (Pinto & Slevin, 1988), this very success of project management in contemporary society paves the way to an academic revival of the old notion of project evaluation, as evidenced by recent papers (Aubry et al, 2021;Fregolente et al, 2022;Pinto et al, 2021;Rode et al, 2022;Scheepers et al, 2022).…”