Projectification of Society – the case of Italy

First introduced by Christophe Midler in 1995, the term “projectification” was intended to describing the evolution of Renault in regards to project-related activities and organizing. Nowadays, the term is used more widely to describe the diffusion of projects as one form of organizing in organizations, specific sectors of the economy and the society at large. […]

Agility and Self-Organisation – Success Factors for the Prussian Army in 19th Century

Nowadays we require people, projects and organisations to become agile through self-organisation because they operate in a complex and dynamic environment. However, this is nothing new. Already the Prussian Army during the 19th Century was confronted with many challenges, which caused their leadership to change the military doctrine and implement what is (until now) called […]

Against all odds – learning from great projectors: George Westinghouse

With this article we continue a series of pioneers and projectors to learn from. You are all encouraged to write about great projectors out of your context so we may learn from them and improve our way of performing projects. “Projector” is a term introduced by Daniel Defoe in “An Essay upon Projects” (1697). It […]

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) – An Action Guide for Leaders

The construction industry has suffered from a productivity decline during the last two decades: “Globally, construction sector labour-productivity growth averaged 1 percent a year over the past two decades, compared with 2.8 percent for the total world economy and 3.6 percent for manufacturing. In a sample of countries analysed, less than 25 percent of construction firms matched the productivity […]

The ability to change perspectives is a key to success in projects

Your boss is calling you and you expect to get a special project assignment, which was – by your colleagues – already labelled as “mission impossible… too difficult, tight schedule, very limited budget… nobody wants to take responsibility for the project!” Should you reject the assignment and ask for something more feasible. “Change the way […]

Sunk-Cost Fallacy – or why we cannot let projects go

The beginning of a new year is a great opportunity to analyse our portfolio of projects and other activities whether there are some of them that should be cancelled. Sometimes we invest time, funds and energy in projects and they still do not come to end. What makes the situation worse is that we do […]

Achieving Business Agility through Agile Portfolio Management

Most businesses aspire to or try hard to be agile. However, in today´s VUCA world this isn´t a “nice to have” yet an increasingly important capability. Thus, the Agile Business Consortium has published a guide on Agile Portfolio Management in order to achieve Business Agility. In essence, Business Agility means to adapt quickly to market […]

New year is bringing (many) new opportunities, but can we realize them all?

It was a busy year, busy as all the previous years and you may not have finished all the work due to lack of time, funds or energy. The same procedure as every year… And now? We start with regained energy, optimism and time… yes, we have another year ahead of us… However, in one […]

Artificial Intelligence and Project Management – Results of a World Café

During ProMAC 2018, a conference of the Japanese Society of Project Management in Bangkok, I had the pleasure of facilitating a World Café session with the topic “Will Artificial Intelligence replace Project Managers?”. The topic is quite relevant as in social media there is a wide discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI), whether, which, when and […]

Projects and Project Management in Chemical Industry

The Chemical industry is with a global turnover of approximately 3.5 Trillion USD a significant industry. After a period of stagnation in 2016, since the year 2017 the industry is growing again. According to data of the German Chemical Industry Association, about 62% of that turnover is generated in Asia, 19% in Europe and 13.5% […]