Towards best practices in project management: profiling professional excellence in identifying and acting on early warning signs in complex projects within a Russian context

This thesis studies complex projects where assessments conducted formally and informally detect early warning signs (EWSs). Documenting informal approaches in detecting and acting upon EWSs is far from easy in general, and more specifically in Russia. Russian organizations often fail in their attempts to develop guidelines for detecting “gut feel” indicators to deal with emerging problems. This thesis provides a useful guide to deal with EWSs in complex projects within the Russian context. It was a qualitative research study. The data collection was performed via interviews, case-study analysis, observations, focus group and by a literature review. In total 19 people took part in the research study and provided in-depth insight into the research problem. Five case-studies were narrated by the participants of this research and provided a broad picture of the context. Eight participants of recently completed case-studies were interviewed. These supported interpretation and understanding of issues that project participants faced in their complex projects. The thesis takes a story telling format that helps us to learn from the incidents, to “feel” Russian realities and to understand the mindset of people working in other countries. I also held a focus group feedback workshop to summarize the responses and report the findings of the research. The thesis is also a good tool that may be used by trainers to teach case-studies.<br><br>This thesis investigates best practices shared by the participants of this research. A System model was developed to assist in the process of best practices documentation and to analyze the case-studies initially through four themes lenses: Uncertainty, Relationships, Knowledge, and Value. A fifth System lens was later added after analyzing the participants’ interviewees. The Competency model that built was based on the case-study analysis and the interview analysis. Nine key competences were defined and classified into five competency groups: System approach and Crisis management (the System group); Considering context and Learning (the Contextual group); Modeling and Conducting assessments (the Technical group); Considering Values (the Cultural group); Leadership and Relationships (the Social group). These best practices and key competences were mapped on the System model to illustrate the key competences as well as the best practices to deal with EWS. This thesis is very important because there is so little literature in the English language on the lived reality of PM in Russia. A substantial amount of the relevant literature was analyzed to identify gaps in the literature and a comparison made by addressing relevant questions to mature Russian project managers. The major contribution of this research was to advance PM complexity theory by combining several theories to study the research issue. Findings of this research may be applied in the international projects being managed in Russia. <br><br>