Understanding project success through analysis of

project management approach

Submitted By

Students Name: Rasika Sonkusale

PRN: 16020841179

SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT,

BENGALURU
95/1 & 95/2, Electronic City Phase-1, Hosur Road, Bengaluru – 560100
1. How, in your opinion, is the “Pentagon model” (Schiefloe, 2011) suitable for analyzing
the performance of a project organization? Explain.
Pentagon model is a great tool to analyze the performance of complex organizations. Few
of the features of Pentagon Model that makes it an effective tool are:
• evaluates the effect of different project management approaches
• developed and applied in connection with the causal analysis
• system-oriented approach- combines a system perspective with a social
constructivist theoretical approach, characterized by keywords such as
interpretations, sense making, and interests
• takes both formal and informal aspects into account
It can be adapted based on different project organization. E.g. adapting the model to comply
with Lean Principles.
It analyses five different aspects:
▪ Structure: covers defined roles, responsibilities, and authority in the formal
organization, but also includes defined procedures, regulations, and working
requirements.
▪ Technologies: Technologies refer to the different tools and infrastructures the
members of the organization are dependent on or use to perform their activities.
▪ Culture: Culture covers elements such as language/concepts, values, attitudes,
norms, knowledge, and established expectations concerning “ways of working.”
▪ Interaction: Interaction covers communication, cooperation, and coordination, and
also points to the fact that individual and collective behavior never occurs in a
vacuum.
 ▪ social relations and networks: Social relations and networks are important
ingredients in all kinds of work situations. It represents the informal structure and
the social capital of the organization.

Structure

Technologies

Culture

Interaction

Social relations and networks

The five aspects of the Pentagon model can be applied to analyze factors which influence the
performance of the project organization as they cover both formal and informal internal
qualities in a systematic way
Also, it analyzes the project organization based on external context and external relations.

Pentagon model has tried to develop a correlation between the success of a project and
influencing factors. It has tried to illustrate different scenarios possible by which a project can
succeed. It has tried substantiating the success by relating the factors with three case studies
taken up in the paper.
• In Pentagon model, formal and informal qualities’ influence has been discussed. It
clearly shows that an organization which has a well-defined set of these qualities can
execute a project meeting all goals as applicable to case ‘A’.
• In projects B & C, the qualities have been mapped to the pentagon model and these
matches well with the framework of model.
Hence Pentagon model gives a framework in which a project organization can work to make the
projects achieve its goals.
2. Which Project Management approach according to you would be better than all others?
Why? Substantiate with examples from the case, and theory.
There are two kinds of approach discussed in this paper:
• Prescriptive Approach
• Adaptive Approach
Prescriptive Approach Adaptive Approach

➢ Focusses on the formal qualities of the
project organization, including governing
documentation and procedures
➢ Traditional project management approach
➢ Framework for how the project organization
can work so that earlier known mistakes can
be avoided
➢ Creates a common knowledge platform for
the project team and its contractors
➢ Entering from the top through the formal
qualities
➢ The focus is on accomplishing the project
task
➢ Focusses on the process of developing and
improving a project organization, project
culture
and team commitment
➢ Entering the project from the bottom part of
the model through the informal qualities
➢ Starts with the organizational aspects, but
also requires that the formal qualities are
developed as soon as the project has been
launched

According to me, adaptive approach is better than prescriptive approach. The conventional project
management is more focus on formal concepts and cannot adapt to a dynamic business
environment. Traditional approach focuses on the plan and adherence to plans whereas adaptive
approach can be customized or tailored by the team to meet their requirements. Advantages of
adaptive approach:
• The model considers the strategic as well as the tactical aspects of project performance in
the short term and the long term
• It introduces novelty, technology, complexity, and pace
• It focuses on customer interaction and customer satisfaction
• Projects work with self-managed teams that are empowered to take decisions
• Agile processes are relatively light-weight
• Megaprojects normally have long duration which sometimes results in significant changes
in the project management team and adaptive approach takes care of it
 • It starts by building trust in the organization and then focus on governance, procedures,
and front-end loading
• The focus is on developing an appropriate project organization and then on the formal
qualities of the Pentagon model
• Creates team culture and fosters cooperation
Case B is a building construction project in California, USA. The facility is considered to be an
extremely complex project, in part due to the governmental regulations to sustain earthquakes.
• In fact, the first team that tackled this project failed in their assignment, unable to design
a project meeting the owner’s requirements within the available budget.
• Recognizing the improbability of being able to meet all demands using familiar project
management practices, the project leaders set those practices aside, and proceeded with “no
business as usual”.
• Their strategy was to apply the principles of lean construction. Project planning started in
2005 and resulted in a project plan (including design), a project organization and a clearly
defined project management approach.
Based on their experience (and cross-checked with the project management), the most important
frame conditions challenging the project organization were:
• An earlier project team had failed. This led to the opinion that traditional project
management approaches in the then-current
market conditions would not be able to meet the
demands of this project.
• Complicated and slow local government
permitting had created a vicious circle where
incomplete drawings submitted early for
approval led to increased review time from the
government.
• A significant gap existed between the estimated costs of the facility required and the
financial resources available for the project.
3. Which factors are critical for project success? How are these different from project
management success? Does Project management success mean project success too? Discuss.
Project success is measured against the overall objectives of the project, i.e. the business
objectives. What the project owner expects to obtain from using the project results after the project
has been handed over to them from the project organization.
Project management success is measured against the project objectives, i.e. widespread and
traditional measures of performance against scope, quality, cost, and time.
Project success factors given are:
• Support from senior management • Effective change management
• Clear realistic objectives • Competent project manager
• Strong/detailed plan kept up to date • Strong business case/sound basis for
• Good communication/feedback project
• User/client involvement • Sufficient/well allocated resources
• Skilled/suitably qualified/sufficient
staff/team
Project Management success factors based on the three cases given in the case studies that led to
the success of Project A, B and C are:
Case A Case B Case C

Aligned Governance No Business As Usual Application of a systems

integration model
Recruitment Strategy Manage by Means Continuous project
process improvement

Established ways of Lean Construction Team working

working Principles environment
Project Tools Five Big Ideas Owner carried all risk

Contract Strategy Integrated form of Project branding

Risk Management
Existing Relations
Information Strategy
Stakeholder Management
agreement
Facilitated team learning
Office Infrastructure
Probability of project success can be increased by consciously choosing right project management
approach.
Project objectives can be achieved through proper project management. But this doesn’t mean that
project management success will result in project success. If project management approach is
incorrect and flawed then it may not lead to achieve actual project objectives though as planned,
project management performance was as per expectation.
Even if a project is well and properly managed, it can still be a business disaster because of
changing business conditions. But the probability of the project success can be increased by
adopting a project management approach.
The project management approach for a particular project must be decided based on the challenges
in the project and the competence of the project organization.