Project failure rate is astonishingly 70%. This cause for the failure can vary from poor project management, to poor engineering, external factors like environment etc. This research particularly aims at identifying the competencies needed by project managers, with a aim that it will eventually reduce the failure rate.
This research was carried out to investigate the relevance of competencies with respect to contract type, specifically cost reimbursable and lump sum contract and its variations with the project phases. Eventually also identifying the effect of competencies on project success. This will cater to the problem definition what kind of competencies can project managers adapt to execute a lump sum contract. In order to understand lump sum, we also need to study cost reimbursable that is the extreme opposite of lump sum contract. Encompassing all the above the following research question was formulated:
“What are the critical competencies of a project manager needed at different phases of a lumpsum project to ensure project success?”
The main research objective is to understand the importance of competent project managers. The research was divided into three phases.
In the first phase a thorough literature review was done to get insights on competencies, yielding a set of fifteen competencies that will be studied against the phases of a project. FLUOR B.V., has five stages of a project, which will be considered for the research purpose. Two sets of project success factors were identified through literature, one being at macro view point and the other being micro view point.
The second phase was all about data collection and analysis. Survey was conducted to identify the variations in competencies through different phases of a project. Interviews were conducted to recognise the relationship between contract type and competencies, and competencies’ impact on project success. Since both the methods addressed different hypotheses. Data collection is followed by the analysis. Frequency charts were made to identify the most preferred competencies.
The final phase was to put the results to use. A competency-based scorecard was designed to suitably hire and appoint project managers. This was based on phases of a project. Only the top eight competencies per phase was chosen for the scorecard. Competencies that are most affected during a lump sum contract are added to an existing leadership model, it’s a matrix of leadership levels and competencies. The competencies affecting the project success can also be useful in allocating project managers to different projects. This could be directly implemented in projects.