The paradoxes of project management

Revision as of 22:30, 19 February 2023

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand what paradox of project management is and how having knowledge of it can help a project manager understand what is counterintuitive when managing a project. Thus, reducing the probability of making project governance mistakes. The paradox of project management is understood as a contractionary concept that does not seem to have logic cause and is there for not intuitive or understood as common knowledge. However, the concept is considered well founded or true. Knowing this as a project manager is key. The knowledge can provide deep insights in the general nature of every project. Also, the understanding found in this abstract is applicable throughout the different project management discipline. To investigate the paradox of project management, the article investigates different types of paradoxes within the discipline of project management. Hereunder the paradox of planning, the paradox of front-end project management, the result versus effort-oriented project management and so on. At the end of the article limitations and applicability of the findings are discussed. The investigation conducted is based on relevant papers founded on either literature review, research, or case study.

_TOC_

The Big Idea: How understanding the paradoxes of project management can improve execution of the project

What is a paradox?

Definition of the paradox

The concept of the paradox

Where do we see paradoxes in project management?

Explanatory example of a paradox within the field of project management

What kind of paradoxes are there?

Deep dive into different paradoxes within project management

The following paradoxes will be discussed in-depth

Control vs. result

Project control

Front end management

Early information overflow

Strategic alignment

Cost estimation

Conclusion