Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji joeb.80.1.10-16
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
The Eye Diagram: A New Perspective on the
Project Life Cycle
Bin Jiang & Daniel R. Heiser
To cite this article: Bin Jiang & Daniel R. Heiser (2004) The Eye Diagram: A New Perspective
on the Project Life Cycle, Journal of Education for Business, 80:1, 10-16, DOI: 10.3200/
JOEB.80.1.10-16
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.80.1.10-16
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
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The Eye Diagram:
A New Perspective on
the Project Life Cycle
BIN JIANG
DANIEL R. HEISER
DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois
M
anaging projects involves managing change. Every project has a
scope—the work that the project manager and team must complete to assure
the customer that the deliverables meet
the acceptance criteria agreed upon at
the onset of the project. Successful project management, deployed around the
project scope, is complex and difficult.
Project managers must pay attention
simultaneously to a wide variety of
human, financial, and technical factors.
Often, they are responsible for project
outcomes without being given sufficient
authority, money, or manpower. Not surprisingly, the project manager’s job is
characterized by role overload, frenetic
activity, and superficiality (Slevin &
Pinto, 1987). In this article, we introduce an extension to the conceptual
framework of the project life cycle to
enhance the project manager’s understanding of the dynamic and complex
job of managing projects.
The concept of a project life cycle is
well developed in project management
literature. By their very nature, projects
exist for a limited duration of time—
they are born from an idea, developed
into a finished product or service, and
then terminated (Kloppenborg & Petrick, 1999). Organization personnel who
manage projects routinely divide each
one into several phases to provide better
control and appropriate links to the
10
Journal of Education for Business
ABSTRACT. The project life cycle, a
well-established concept in project
management literature and education,
is used to highlight the dynamic
requirements placed on a typical project manager. As a project moves
through the selection, planning, execution, and termination phases, the project manager and team are faced with
different, vying areas of concern—
including the immediate task priorities,
the probable sources of conflict, and the
relevant critical factors for project success. Unfortunately, traditional representations of the project life cycle
emphasize accounting-oriented aspects
of the life cycle that are less interesting,
such as percent complete and level of
effort. In this article, the authors introduce a new framework, the eye diagram, that illustrates the more substantive aspects of the life cycle concept in
an intuitive and accessible format.
ment requirements of the relevant phase
of the project.
In this article, we describe a new
tool—the “eye diagram”—for enhancing a project manager’s understanding
of how his or her managerial perspective should change as a function of the
project life cycle. As the project life
cycle transitions from one project phase
to the next, the eye diagram also adjusts
and resets its focus on a new perspective
on the role of the project manager. The
eye diagram provides a practical, intuitive tool for project managers to cope
with today’s increasingly complex and
dynamic project environment.
A New Perspective on Project
Management
ongoing operations of the performing
organization. The project life cycle provides a useful framework for the project
manager to (a) identify critical issues
and probable sources of major conflict
and (b) prioritize them over the process
of the project implementation. We also
readily acknowledge that in different
life-cycle phases, the project will have
different management requirements
(Gray & Larson, 2003). As a project
moves through its life cycle, the project
manager and senior management should
continually refocus their attention, energy, and resources on the special manage-
No project exists in a vacuum; it is
subject to an array of influences including its team’s perceptions and emotions,
its organization’s control procedures,
and economic and industrial intervention. To cope effectively, the project
manager must have sophisticated knowledge of psychological, sociopolitical,
institutional, legal, economic, and technical influences. Therefore, a successful
project manager should be highly
skilled, perceptive, and display excellent
boundary communication skills at the
“institutional management level” (Morris, 1982) or the “strategic apex”
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(Mintzberg, 1979). A project manager
must know how to plan effectively and
act efficiently (Slevin & Pinto, 1987) to
coordinate project strategy and tactics
coherently in the relevant competitive
environment. In short, the project manager must manage an area larger than the
territory bounded by the scope of the
project.
The project manager faces a complex
task requiring attention to many variables. This inherent complexity arises
from the diverse and novel nature of
projects. The more specific a manager
can be regarding the definition and
monitoring of the pertinent variables,
the greater the likelihood of a successful
project outcome. It generally is useful to
use a multiple-factor model, because it
can help a project manager first understand the variety of factors affecting
project success, then to be aware of their
relative importance across project
implementation stages.
In Figure 1, the eye diagram, we
illustrate the multifactor project environment, which we use to define and
monitor the standard variables pertinent
in project management. The black “retina” of the eye represents the scope of
the project. Project managers should
have the skill set and ability to define
the project scope, set up the project
team, identify and address project risks
and constraints, and estimate and monitor time while staying within the budget. In recent years, researchers have
focused on identifying the factors most
critical to project success and failure
(Thamhain & Wilemon, 1975).
The gray “iris” surrounding the project scope represents the parent organization supporting the project. Although
it would be unusual for a project manager to control the interface between the
project and the parent organization (this
arrangement normally is a matter of
company policy decided by senior management), the nature of the interface has
a major impact on the project. According to the characteristics of this interface, the project manager will negotiate
with functional departments, be subject
to human resource directives, and bargain for and coordinate the organization’s scarce resources. The rapid
growth in the use of projects to implement strategic change, collapse product
development cycles, and improve ongoing operations has made the traditional
interface between projects and their parent organizations inadequate in many
cases (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2001).
The surrounding “white of the eye”
represents the external environment in
which the project and the organization
are located. This environment includes
The retina:
Project boundary
The iris:
Organization boundary
Customers
Competitors
Administration
Critical success
factors
versus
Coordination
Economy
Communication
Politics
Major conflicts
Industry
Negotiation
Society
Technology
White of the eye:
Competitive environment
FIGURE 1. The eye diagram of project management.
the established and latest state-of-theart technology relevant to the project; its
customers and competitors; and its geographical, climatic, social, economic,
and political settings—virtually everything that can affect a project’s success.
These factors can influence the planning, organizing, staffing, and directing
that constitute the project manager’s
main responsibilities. Therefore, for the
project managers to be consistently successful, they must take into account the
effects of the wider environment.
Changing Focus During the
Project Life Cycle
Successful project leaders are aware
of the links between completion of the
project life-cycle phase and the changing internal and external variables
affecting project management. For the
present study, we employed a fourphase life-cycle model including project
selection, planning, execution, and termination, as suggested by Hormozi,
McMinn, and Nzeogwu (2000). As a
project moves through each phase, the
project manager and senior management
should continually monitor the project’s
critical success factors to ensure it is still
viable. As a result, the managers will
need a variety of leadership and management skills to guide the project
through each phase of the project life
cycle (Verma, 1996). The life cycle must
be understood and internalized by the
project manager because the necessary
managerial foci subtly shift at different
phases (Kaplan, 1986).
When we read the “project life cycle”
section in current project management
textbooks and handbooks, we typically
find the two illustrations shown in Figure 2 (Meredith & Mantel, 2003). These
frameworks remain useful because they
help to define the level of effort needed
to perform the tasks associated with
each phase. During the early phases,
requirements are minimal; however,
they rapidly increase during late planning and execution stages and diminish
during project termination (Pinto &
Prescott, 1990).
However, although the traditional
illustrations show that project management is affected by the elapsing life
cycle, they are so simple that they lose
September/October 2004
11
Project selection, the initial phase,
refers to the time frame during which a
strategic need is recognized by top management. It starts with identifying the
needs and desires of the user of the project deliverables—the customer. The
company’s major business objectives
and strategies need to be identified and
understood so that project goals can be
accurately associated with them. In this
phase, top management needs to be outward looking to serve as project champion, publicist, and persuader, harnessing the approval and commitment of
investors, regulatory bodies, government, interest groups, and even the general public. This phase demands flexibility, awareness, entrepreneurial skill,
and political insight (Thamhain & Wilemon, 1975). The eye diagram relevant
to the selection phase emphasizes the
outward-looking, environmental scanning requirements of this initial phase of
the life cycle (see Figure 3).
at this stage occurs outside the boundaries of the project scope (the work to be
performed for the end customer) and
consists primarily of administrative
tasks inside the sponsoring organization.
Phase 3: Execution—Sequential Eye
Diagram
The third phase in the life cycle is project execution. During this phase, the
actual work of the project is performed
(Pinto & Prescott, 1990). The main
activities of this phase include securing
the necessary resources to perform each
project task, executing the activities
identified in the project plan in the
planned sequence, monitoring and
reporting on progress, and replanning
and adapting to fluid conditions as needed. Progress needs to be monitored and
reported on a regular basis to track
progress. This is generally the longest
phase of the project both in terms of duration and effort (Kloppenborg & Petrick,
1999). The project manager must cope
with a large, diverse, action-oriented
100%
Dollars or manhours
Phase 1: Project Selection—OutwardLooking Eye Diagram
accomplished: dealing with iterative
planning and initiating the formation of
the project team. The project manager
needs to stimulate the design professionals, liaise and negotiate with functional departments, and deal with any
regulatory and other oversight bodies.
The project manager and newly
assigned team members meet to plan
jointly at a macro level of detail the
major activities that must be accomplished. Then project team members,
individually or in smaller groups, often
will flesh out the details of necessary
work in their respective areas (Kloppenborg & Petrick, 1999). Then the team
“rolls up” these detailed activity plans to
identify schedule, cost, and resource
plans in detail. This phase requires the
project manager to have empathy when
setting the design objectives and
patience for coping with organizational
bureaucracies (Sidwell, 1990). In Figure
4, we illustrate this planning phase’s eye
diagram and emphasize the iterative
nature of activities required to refine
project plans. As illustrated, the activity
Percentage project completion
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much of the underlying power of the
life-cycle concept—and even may mislead inexperienced project managers.
For example, according to the graphs
in Figure 2, one easily could believe
that a project’s life cycle is used for
measuring project completion as a
function of either time or resources.
However, the real purpose of a project
life cycle is to provide project managers with an a priori strategic and tactical tool rather than a post hoc measurement scale. In this article, we point
out the advantage of using the eye diagram for tracking different phases of
the project life cycle. With the eye diagram, we find that each new perspective supports the underlying concept
and requirements of the individual lifecycle phases better than do traditional
illustrations.
Project Planning Execution Termination
selection
Project Planning Execution Termination
selection
FIGURE 2. Traditional project life-cycle illustrations.
Phase 2: Planning—Iterative Eye
Diagram
During the planning phase, a more
formalized set of project plans (e.g.,
schedule and budget) are established for
accomplishing the intended project
scope. Two main types of activities are
12
Journal of Education for Business
FIGURE 3. Project selection
phase: Outward-looking eye
diagram.
FIGURE 4. Planning phase:
Iterative eye diagram.
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team and often must operate under
extreme time and cost pressures. The project manager is involved in simultaneously monitoring and controlling the
project and may need to become the primary driver of the project (Sidwell,
1990). The execution perspective of the
eye diagram emphasizes the sequential
nature of the project activity (see Figure
5). Although the majority of the work
occurs within the black retina of the eye
diagram (the project scope), the interface with the sponsoring organization
(e.g., coordinating with functional
departments and reporting progress)
remains an important element of the project manager’s concern.
gram provides improved guidance for
managerial focus when compared with
the traditional project life-cycle illustrations in Figure 2. However, the usefulness of the tool can be extended into
additional areas of interest that typically
are prevalent during each phase of the
project management life cycle. The
dynamics of the project implementation
process have been examined from a
variety of perspectives, but researchers
often concentrate on two areas: critical
success factors and dealing with conflict. The eye diagram also can be leveraged to represent characteristics relevant to both areas of concern.
Critical Success Factors
Phase 4: Termination—Focus Eye
Diagram
The last phase in the project life cycle
is the termination phase. During the
transition from execution to termination, the project manager leads the project team in assisting the end users in
operating the new product or service.
Once the project scope has been accomplished, the resources assigned to the
project must be released. Personnel
from the project team are reassigned to
other duties, and ownership of the project output is transferred to its intended
users. This phase is a valuable opportunity for evaluating and improving the
organization’s project management
capability and capturing “lessons
learned” for the organization’s knowledge management system. The introspective nature of the termination perspective is shown by the inward flow of
the eye diagram in Figure 6.
When we place the four eye diagram
perspectives in order, an interesting progressive pathway of changing managerial foci emerges (see Figure 7). Beginning with all potential variables that
influence a project and ending with an
exclusive focus on a satisfied customer,
the changing perspectives show how a
project manager must change his or her
focus from the initial macro level to the
final micro point.
It is well recognized in project management research that the project implementation process can be facilitated
greatly if a variety of critical success
factors are addressed (Boynton &
Zmuc, 1984; Shank, Boynton & Zmuc,
1985). One of the typical studies on this
topic was reported by Slevin and Pinto
(1987). After interviewing more than
400 project managers, Slevin and Pinto
identified the 10 most common critical
factors relevant to project success:
1. Project mission. Initial clarity of
goals and general directions.
FIGURE 5. Execution phase:
Sequential eye diagram.
Infinite space
Finite space
2. Top management support. Willingness of top management to provide the
necessary resources and authority/
power for project success.
3. Project schedule and plans. A
detailed specification of the individual
action steps required for project implementation.
4. Client consultation. Communication, consultation, and active listening
to all concerned parties and potential
users of the project.
5. Personnel. Recruitment, selection,
and training of the necessary personnel
for the project team.
6. Technical tasks. Availability of the
required technology and expertise for
accomplishing the specific technical
action steps.
7. Client acceptance. The act of “selling” the final project to its ultimate
intended users.
8. Monitoring and feedback. Timely
provision of comprehensive control
information at each stage in the implementation process.
9. Communication. The provision of
an appropriate network and necessary
data to all key actors in the project
implementation.
10. Troubleshooting. Ability to handle
unexpected crises and deviations from
the plan.
FIGURE 6. Termination phase:
Focused eye diagram.
Progress
Point
The work packages
A satisfied customer
Additional Relationships
Environmental scanning Resources in organization
Thus far, we have demonstrated that
the changing perspective of the eye dia-
FIGURE 7. Changing focus during the project life cycle.
September/October 2004
13
Managing conflict is a fundamental
part of overseeing complex projects. To
anticipate and quickly address conflict,
it not only is essential for project managers to be cognizant of the potential
sources of conflict; they also must know
when in the life cycle such conflicts are
most likely to occur. Such knowledge
can help the project manager avoid
unnecessary delays in dealing with the
detrimental aspects of conflict and maximize any opportunities presented to
capture the beneficial aspects of conflict
(Thamhain & Wilemon, 1975).
The causes of project conflicts are
varied. After investigating more than
100 projects, Thamhain and Wilemon
(1975) identified several different
sources of conflict and noted that the
sources seemed to differ when a project
is in different phases of its life cycle
(see Figure 9). Despite the passage of
several decades, Thamhain and Wilemon’s findings are considered relevant
to the modern project-management
environment (Mantel et al., 2001).
Again, many of the results of
Thamhain and Wilemon’s (1975)
research align with the multiple perspectives of the eye diagram. As strategic level conflicts (e.g., conflict over
14
Journal of Education for Business
The project selection phase. In this
phase, the eye diagram suggests that the
project manager and top management
should focus on environmental scanning—assessing both the opportunities
and threats affecting the project.
Thamhain and Wilemon (1975) argued
that if project managers are aware of
the importance of each potential conflict source by project life cycle, then
they can employ more effective conflict
minimization and resolution strategies.
Therefore, during the selection phase,
the project manager should focus on
macrolevel issues, such as project mission, top management support, project
schedule, project priorities, and administrative procedures.
The planning phase. Once the selection
is complete, the eye diagram refocuses
from an outward scanning mode to an
intra-organizational mode. This means
0.7
Importance (beta weights)
Conflict and Projects
project priorities and administrative
interfaces) gradually fade, high-ranking
conflicts shift to microlevel issues (e.g.,
technical opinion, personality, manpower). Although other sources of conflict (such as those related to the schedule) always rank high, the eye diagram
helps to filter the probable areas of concern into a smaller, more digestible
subset.
0.6
Strategy
0.5
0.4
0.3
Tactics
0.2
0.1
0
Project selection
Planning
Execution
Termination
Phases
FIGURE 8. Changes in strategy and tactics across the project life cycle.
Conflict intensity
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Among the 10 factors, the first three
(mission, top management support, and
project schedule and plans) are strategic; the remainder are tactical. Slevin
and Pinto (1987) also studied the shifting balance between strategic and tactical issues over the project’s life cycle
(see Figure 8). During the two early
phases, selection and planning, strategy is significantly more important to
project success than tactics. As the proj
ect moves toward the final stage, strategy and tactics achieve almost equal
importance. The initial strategies and
goals continue to “drive” or shape tactics throughout the project (Slevin &
Pinto).
This view coincides with the eye diagram’s changing perspectives. The
focus shifts from broad scale (strategy)
to small scale (tactics), but the fundamental goal—to satisfy the customer—
is always driving the project manager’s
attention and activity.
0.00
Project selection
Planning
Execution
Terminating
a b c d e f g
a b c d e f g
a b c d e f g
a b c d e f g
-0.10
-0.20
-0.30
-0.40
a.
c.
e.
g.
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Conflict over priorities
Conflict over tech. opinions
Conflict over cost
Personality conflict
Project selection
Project priorities
Administration
Schedules
Manpower
Cost
Tech. opinions
Personality
b. Conflict over administration
d. Conflict over manpower
f. Conflict over schedules
Planning
Execution
Termination
Project priorities Schedules
Schedules
Schedules
Tech. opinions Manpower
Administration
Manpower
Personality
Tech. opinions
Project priorities Project priorities
Manpower
Administration Cost
Personality
Personality
Tech. opinions
Cost
Cost
Administration
FIGURE 9. Ranks of conflict intensities in different project life-cycle phases.
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that the project manager needs to plan
carefully how to make full use of the
organization’s resources. The project
manager still needs to think at a strategic level to negotiate with functional
departments for resources and capacity
to support a practical master plan.
While keeping the project mission in
mind, the project manager should place
attention on project priorities, schedules, administrative procedures, and
communication.
The execution phase. During project
execution, the relevant critical success
factors tend to emphasize the importance of focusing on the “how” instead
of the “what” (Slevin & Pinto, 1987).
Factors such as personnel, communication, and monitoring are concerned with
better management of specific action
steps in the project implementation
process. Throughout this phase, the
actual progress of the project, in terms
of cost, schedule, and performance, is
Life-cycle
phases
measured against the planned goals.
The eye diagram shifts focus to the
sequential activities necessary to drive
project progress. High priority factors
should be scheduling, monitoring and
feedback, technical tasks, and troubleshooting.
The termination phase. By the time the
project nears completion, many project
team members are tired and behind in
other work (Kloppenborg & Petrick,
1999). Thus, the eye diagram suggests
that the project manager and team should
focus their limited energies on the fundamental goal—satisfying the customer. As
a result, the critical factors should be
schedule completion, client acceptance,
and personality (i.e., team motivation
and selling the solution to the client).
In Figure 10, we provide a summary
of the relations among the eye diagram,
critical success factors, and sources of
project conflict across the project lifecycle phases.
Eye diagram
perspective
Critical success
factors
Conclusions
Compared with the traditional “percent completion” or “level of effort” project life-cycle models, the eye diagram
provides project managers with a more
complete and intuitive framework to support project management. It guides the
project manager to shift his or her
thoughts from the broad competitive
environment to the internal organizational political framework, to the work associated with the project scope, and, finally, to an ultimate spotlight on customer
satisfaction. The disciplined use of an
eye diagram model, associated with critical success factors and conflict prediction methods, will help project managers
know how and where to focus their energies and resources during different project life-cycle phases. Thus, the eye diagram provides a clear and intuitive
guideline to assist project managers as
they cope with today’s increasingly complex project-management environment.
Probable sources
of conflict
Selection
Project mission
Top management support
Project schedule
Project priorities
Administration procedures
Schedule
Planning
Project mission
Top management support
Project schedule
Communication
Project priorities
Schedule
Administration procedures
Execution
Project schedule
Monitoring and feedback
Troubleshooting
Technical tasks
Personnel
Client consultation
Schedule
Technology opinions
Manpower
Termination
Monitoring and feedback
Client acceptance
Communication
Client consultation
Personnel
Schedule
Manpower
Personality
FIGURE 10. Eye diagram, critical success factors, and project conflicts.
September/October 2004
15
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Boynton, A., & Zmuc, R. W. (1984, Summer). An
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ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
The Eye Diagram: A New Perspective on the
Project Life Cycle
Bin Jiang & Daniel R. Heiser
To cite this article: Bin Jiang & Daniel R. Heiser (2004) The Eye Diagram: A New Perspective
on the Project Life Cycle, Journal of Education for Business, 80:1, 10-16, DOI: 10.3200/
JOEB.80.1.10-16
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.80.1.10-16
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 167
View related articles
Citing articles: 1 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 12 January 2016, At: 22:22
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The Eye Diagram:
A New Perspective on
the Project Life Cycle
BIN JIANG
DANIEL R. HEISER
DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois
M
anaging projects involves managing change. Every project has a
scope—the work that the project manager and team must complete to assure
the customer that the deliverables meet
the acceptance criteria agreed upon at
the onset of the project. Successful project management, deployed around the
project scope, is complex and difficult.
Project managers must pay attention
simultaneously to a wide variety of
human, financial, and technical factors.
Often, they are responsible for project
outcomes without being given sufficient
authority, money, or manpower. Not surprisingly, the project manager’s job is
characterized by role overload, frenetic
activity, and superficiality (Slevin &
Pinto, 1987). In this article, we introduce an extension to the conceptual
framework of the project life cycle to
enhance the project manager’s understanding of the dynamic and complex
job of managing projects.
The concept of a project life cycle is
well developed in project management
literature. By their very nature, projects
exist for a limited duration of time—
they are born from an idea, developed
into a finished product or service, and
then terminated (Kloppenborg & Petrick, 1999). Organization personnel who
manage projects routinely divide each
one into several phases to provide better
control and appropriate links to the
10
Journal of Education for Business
ABSTRACT. The project life cycle, a
well-established concept in project
management literature and education,
is used to highlight the dynamic
requirements placed on a typical project manager. As a project moves
through the selection, planning, execution, and termination phases, the project manager and team are faced with
different, vying areas of concern—
including the immediate task priorities,
the probable sources of conflict, and the
relevant critical factors for project success. Unfortunately, traditional representations of the project life cycle
emphasize accounting-oriented aspects
of the life cycle that are less interesting,
such as percent complete and level of
effort. In this article, the authors introduce a new framework, the eye diagram, that illustrates the more substantive aspects of the life cycle concept in
an intuitive and accessible format.
ment requirements of the relevant phase
of the project.
In this article, we describe a new
tool—the “eye diagram”—for enhancing a project manager’s understanding
of how his or her managerial perspective should change as a function of the
project life cycle. As the project life
cycle transitions from one project phase
to the next, the eye diagram also adjusts
and resets its focus on a new perspective
on the role of the project manager. The
eye diagram provides a practical, intuitive tool for project managers to cope
with today’s increasingly complex and
dynamic project environment.
A New Perspective on Project
Management
ongoing operations of the performing
organization. The project life cycle provides a useful framework for the project
manager to (a) identify critical issues
and probable sources of major conflict
and (b) prioritize them over the process
of the project implementation. We also
readily acknowledge that in different
life-cycle phases, the project will have
different management requirements
(Gray & Larson, 2003). As a project
moves through its life cycle, the project
manager and senior management should
continually refocus their attention, energy, and resources on the special manage-
No project exists in a vacuum; it is
subject to an array of influences including its team’s perceptions and emotions,
its organization’s control procedures,
and economic and industrial intervention. To cope effectively, the project
manager must have sophisticated knowledge of psychological, sociopolitical,
institutional, legal, economic, and technical influences. Therefore, a successful
project manager should be highly
skilled, perceptive, and display excellent
boundary communication skills at the
“institutional management level” (Morris, 1982) or the “strategic apex”
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(Mintzberg, 1979). A project manager
must know how to plan effectively and
act efficiently (Slevin & Pinto, 1987) to
coordinate project strategy and tactics
coherently in the relevant competitive
environment. In short, the project manager must manage an area larger than the
territory bounded by the scope of the
project.
The project manager faces a complex
task requiring attention to many variables. This inherent complexity arises
from the diverse and novel nature of
projects. The more specific a manager
can be regarding the definition and
monitoring of the pertinent variables,
the greater the likelihood of a successful
project outcome. It generally is useful to
use a multiple-factor model, because it
can help a project manager first understand the variety of factors affecting
project success, then to be aware of their
relative importance across project
implementation stages.
In Figure 1, the eye diagram, we
illustrate the multifactor project environment, which we use to define and
monitor the standard variables pertinent
in project management. The black “retina” of the eye represents the scope of
the project. Project managers should
have the skill set and ability to define
the project scope, set up the project
team, identify and address project risks
and constraints, and estimate and monitor time while staying within the budget. In recent years, researchers have
focused on identifying the factors most
critical to project success and failure
(Thamhain & Wilemon, 1975).
The gray “iris” surrounding the project scope represents the parent organization supporting the project. Although
it would be unusual for a project manager to control the interface between the
project and the parent organization (this
arrangement normally is a matter of
company policy decided by senior management), the nature of the interface has
a major impact on the project. According to the characteristics of this interface, the project manager will negotiate
with functional departments, be subject
to human resource directives, and bargain for and coordinate the organization’s scarce resources. The rapid
growth in the use of projects to implement strategic change, collapse product
development cycles, and improve ongoing operations has made the traditional
interface between projects and their parent organizations inadequate in many
cases (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2001).
The surrounding “white of the eye”
represents the external environment in
which the project and the organization
are located. This environment includes
The retina:
Project boundary
The iris:
Organization boundary
Customers
Competitors
Administration
Critical success
factors
versus
Coordination
Economy
Communication
Politics
Major conflicts
Industry
Negotiation
Society
Technology
White of the eye:
Competitive environment
FIGURE 1. The eye diagram of project management.
the established and latest state-of-theart technology relevant to the project; its
customers and competitors; and its geographical, climatic, social, economic,
and political settings—virtually everything that can affect a project’s success.
These factors can influence the planning, organizing, staffing, and directing
that constitute the project manager’s
main responsibilities. Therefore, for the
project managers to be consistently successful, they must take into account the
effects of the wider environment.
Changing Focus During the
Project Life Cycle
Successful project leaders are aware
of the links between completion of the
project life-cycle phase and the changing internal and external variables
affecting project management. For the
present study, we employed a fourphase life-cycle model including project
selection, planning, execution, and termination, as suggested by Hormozi,
McMinn, and Nzeogwu (2000). As a
project moves through each phase, the
project manager and senior management
should continually monitor the project’s
critical success factors to ensure it is still
viable. As a result, the managers will
need a variety of leadership and management skills to guide the project
through each phase of the project life
cycle (Verma, 1996). The life cycle must
be understood and internalized by the
project manager because the necessary
managerial foci subtly shift at different
phases (Kaplan, 1986).
When we read the “project life cycle”
section in current project management
textbooks and handbooks, we typically
find the two illustrations shown in Figure 2 (Meredith & Mantel, 2003). These
frameworks remain useful because they
help to define the level of effort needed
to perform the tasks associated with
each phase. During the early phases,
requirements are minimal; however,
they rapidly increase during late planning and execution stages and diminish
during project termination (Pinto &
Prescott, 1990).
However, although the traditional
illustrations show that project management is affected by the elapsing life
cycle, they are so simple that they lose
September/October 2004
11
Project selection, the initial phase,
refers to the time frame during which a
strategic need is recognized by top management. It starts with identifying the
needs and desires of the user of the project deliverables—the customer. The
company’s major business objectives
and strategies need to be identified and
understood so that project goals can be
accurately associated with them. In this
phase, top management needs to be outward looking to serve as project champion, publicist, and persuader, harnessing the approval and commitment of
investors, regulatory bodies, government, interest groups, and even the general public. This phase demands flexibility, awareness, entrepreneurial skill,
and political insight (Thamhain & Wilemon, 1975). The eye diagram relevant
to the selection phase emphasizes the
outward-looking, environmental scanning requirements of this initial phase of
the life cycle (see Figure 3).
at this stage occurs outside the boundaries of the project scope (the work to be
performed for the end customer) and
consists primarily of administrative
tasks inside the sponsoring organization.
Phase 3: Execution—Sequential Eye
Diagram
The third phase in the life cycle is project execution. During this phase, the
actual work of the project is performed
(Pinto & Prescott, 1990). The main
activities of this phase include securing
the necessary resources to perform each
project task, executing the activities
identified in the project plan in the
planned sequence, monitoring and
reporting on progress, and replanning
and adapting to fluid conditions as needed. Progress needs to be monitored and
reported on a regular basis to track
progress. This is generally the longest
phase of the project both in terms of duration and effort (Kloppenborg & Petrick,
1999). The project manager must cope
with a large, diverse, action-oriented
100%
Dollars or manhours
Phase 1: Project Selection—OutwardLooking Eye Diagram
accomplished: dealing with iterative
planning and initiating the formation of
the project team. The project manager
needs to stimulate the design professionals, liaise and negotiate with functional departments, and deal with any
regulatory and other oversight bodies.
The project manager and newly
assigned team members meet to plan
jointly at a macro level of detail the
major activities that must be accomplished. Then project team members,
individually or in smaller groups, often
will flesh out the details of necessary
work in their respective areas (Kloppenborg & Petrick, 1999). Then the team
“rolls up” these detailed activity plans to
identify schedule, cost, and resource
plans in detail. This phase requires the
project manager to have empathy when
setting the design objectives and
patience for coping with organizational
bureaucracies (Sidwell, 1990). In Figure
4, we illustrate this planning phase’s eye
diagram and emphasize the iterative
nature of activities required to refine
project plans. As illustrated, the activity
Percentage project completion
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much of the underlying power of the
life-cycle concept—and even may mislead inexperienced project managers.
For example, according to the graphs
in Figure 2, one easily could believe
that a project’s life cycle is used for
measuring project completion as a
function of either time or resources.
However, the real purpose of a project
life cycle is to provide project managers with an a priori strategic and tactical tool rather than a post hoc measurement scale. In this article, we point
out the advantage of using the eye diagram for tracking different phases of
the project life cycle. With the eye diagram, we find that each new perspective supports the underlying concept
and requirements of the individual lifecycle phases better than do traditional
illustrations.
Project Planning Execution Termination
selection
Project Planning Execution Termination
selection
FIGURE 2. Traditional project life-cycle illustrations.
Phase 2: Planning—Iterative Eye
Diagram
During the planning phase, a more
formalized set of project plans (e.g.,
schedule and budget) are established for
accomplishing the intended project
scope. Two main types of activities are
12
Journal of Education for Business
FIGURE 3. Project selection
phase: Outward-looking eye
diagram.
FIGURE 4. Planning phase:
Iterative eye diagram.
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team and often must operate under
extreme time and cost pressures. The project manager is involved in simultaneously monitoring and controlling the
project and may need to become the primary driver of the project (Sidwell,
1990). The execution perspective of the
eye diagram emphasizes the sequential
nature of the project activity (see Figure
5). Although the majority of the work
occurs within the black retina of the eye
diagram (the project scope), the interface with the sponsoring organization
(e.g., coordinating with functional
departments and reporting progress)
remains an important element of the project manager’s concern.
gram provides improved guidance for
managerial focus when compared with
the traditional project life-cycle illustrations in Figure 2. However, the usefulness of the tool can be extended into
additional areas of interest that typically
are prevalent during each phase of the
project management life cycle. The
dynamics of the project implementation
process have been examined from a
variety of perspectives, but researchers
often concentrate on two areas: critical
success factors and dealing with conflict. The eye diagram also can be leveraged to represent characteristics relevant to both areas of concern.
Critical Success Factors
Phase 4: Termination—Focus Eye
Diagram
The last phase in the project life cycle
is the termination phase. During the
transition from execution to termination, the project manager leads the project team in assisting the end users in
operating the new product or service.
Once the project scope has been accomplished, the resources assigned to the
project must be released. Personnel
from the project team are reassigned to
other duties, and ownership of the project output is transferred to its intended
users. This phase is a valuable opportunity for evaluating and improving the
organization’s project management
capability and capturing “lessons
learned” for the organization’s knowledge management system. The introspective nature of the termination perspective is shown by the inward flow of
the eye diagram in Figure 6.
When we place the four eye diagram
perspectives in order, an interesting progressive pathway of changing managerial foci emerges (see Figure 7). Beginning with all potential variables that
influence a project and ending with an
exclusive focus on a satisfied customer,
the changing perspectives show how a
project manager must change his or her
focus from the initial macro level to the
final micro point.
It is well recognized in project management research that the project implementation process can be facilitated
greatly if a variety of critical success
factors are addressed (Boynton &
Zmuc, 1984; Shank, Boynton & Zmuc,
1985). One of the typical studies on this
topic was reported by Slevin and Pinto
(1987). After interviewing more than
400 project managers, Slevin and Pinto
identified the 10 most common critical
factors relevant to project success:
1. Project mission. Initial clarity of
goals and general directions.
FIGURE 5. Execution phase:
Sequential eye diagram.
Infinite space
Finite space
2. Top management support. Willingness of top management to provide the
necessary resources and authority/
power for project success.
3. Project schedule and plans. A
detailed specification of the individual
action steps required for project implementation.
4. Client consultation. Communication, consultation, and active listening
to all concerned parties and potential
users of the project.
5. Personnel. Recruitment, selection,
and training of the necessary personnel
for the project team.
6. Technical tasks. Availability of the
required technology and expertise for
accomplishing the specific technical
action steps.
7. Client acceptance. The act of “selling” the final project to its ultimate
intended users.
8. Monitoring and feedback. Timely
provision of comprehensive control
information at each stage in the implementation process.
9. Communication. The provision of
an appropriate network and necessary
data to all key actors in the project
implementation.
10. Troubleshooting. Ability to handle
unexpected crises and deviations from
the plan.
FIGURE 6. Termination phase:
Focused eye diagram.
Progress
Point
The work packages
A satisfied customer
Additional Relationships
Environmental scanning Resources in organization
Thus far, we have demonstrated that
the changing perspective of the eye dia-
FIGURE 7. Changing focus during the project life cycle.
September/October 2004
13
Managing conflict is a fundamental
part of overseeing complex projects. To
anticipate and quickly address conflict,
it not only is essential for project managers to be cognizant of the potential
sources of conflict; they also must know
when in the life cycle such conflicts are
most likely to occur. Such knowledge
can help the project manager avoid
unnecessary delays in dealing with the
detrimental aspects of conflict and maximize any opportunities presented to
capture the beneficial aspects of conflict
(Thamhain & Wilemon, 1975).
The causes of project conflicts are
varied. After investigating more than
100 projects, Thamhain and Wilemon
(1975) identified several different
sources of conflict and noted that the
sources seemed to differ when a project
is in different phases of its life cycle
(see Figure 9). Despite the passage of
several decades, Thamhain and Wilemon’s findings are considered relevant
to the modern project-management
environment (Mantel et al., 2001).
Again, many of the results of
Thamhain and Wilemon’s (1975)
research align with the multiple perspectives of the eye diagram. As strategic level conflicts (e.g., conflict over
14
Journal of Education for Business
The project selection phase. In this
phase, the eye diagram suggests that the
project manager and top management
should focus on environmental scanning—assessing both the opportunities
and threats affecting the project.
Thamhain and Wilemon (1975) argued
that if project managers are aware of
the importance of each potential conflict source by project life cycle, then
they can employ more effective conflict
minimization and resolution strategies.
Therefore, during the selection phase,
the project manager should focus on
macrolevel issues, such as project mission, top management support, project
schedule, project priorities, and administrative procedures.
The planning phase. Once the selection
is complete, the eye diagram refocuses
from an outward scanning mode to an
intra-organizational mode. This means
0.7
Importance (beta weights)
Conflict and Projects
project priorities and administrative
interfaces) gradually fade, high-ranking
conflicts shift to microlevel issues (e.g.,
technical opinion, personality, manpower). Although other sources of conflict (such as those related to the schedule) always rank high, the eye diagram
helps to filter the probable areas of concern into a smaller, more digestible
subset.
0.6
Strategy
0.5
0.4
0.3
Tactics
0.2
0.1
0
Project selection
Planning
Execution
Termination
Phases
FIGURE 8. Changes in strategy and tactics across the project life cycle.
Conflict intensity
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Among the 10 factors, the first three
(mission, top management support, and
project schedule and plans) are strategic; the remainder are tactical. Slevin
and Pinto (1987) also studied the shifting balance between strategic and tactical issues over the project’s life cycle
(see Figure 8). During the two early
phases, selection and planning, strategy is significantly more important to
project success than tactics. As the proj
ect moves toward the final stage, strategy and tactics achieve almost equal
importance. The initial strategies and
goals continue to “drive” or shape tactics throughout the project (Slevin &
Pinto).
This view coincides with the eye diagram’s changing perspectives. The
focus shifts from broad scale (strategy)
to small scale (tactics), but the fundamental goal—to satisfy the customer—
is always driving the project manager’s
attention and activity.
0.00
Project selection
Planning
Execution
Terminating
a b c d e f g
a b c d e f g
a b c d e f g
a b c d e f g
-0.10
-0.20
-0.30
-0.40
a.
c.
e.
g.
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Conflict over priorities
Conflict over tech. opinions
Conflict over cost
Personality conflict
Project selection
Project priorities
Administration
Schedules
Manpower
Cost
Tech. opinions
Personality
b. Conflict over administration
d. Conflict over manpower
f. Conflict over schedules
Planning
Execution
Termination
Project priorities Schedules
Schedules
Schedules
Tech. opinions Manpower
Administration
Manpower
Personality
Tech. opinions
Project priorities Project priorities
Manpower
Administration Cost
Personality
Personality
Tech. opinions
Cost
Cost
Administration
FIGURE 9. Ranks of conflict intensities in different project life-cycle phases.
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that the project manager needs to plan
carefully how to make full use of the
organization’s resources. The project
manager still needs to think at a strategic level to negotiate with functional
departments for resources and capacity
to support a practical master plan.
While keeping the project mission in
mind, the project manager should place
attention on project priorities, schedules, administrative procedures, and
communication.
The execution phase. During project
execution, the relevant critical success
factors tend to emphasize the importance of focusing on the “how” instead
of the “what” (Slevin & Pinto, 1987).
Factors such as personnel, communication, and monitoring are concerned with
better management of specific action
steps in the project implementation
process. Throughout this phase, the
actual progress of the project, in terms
of cost, schedule, and performance, is
Life-cycle
phases
measured against the planned goals.
The eye diagram shifts focus to the
sequential activities necessary to drive
project progress. High priority factors
should be scheduling, monitoring and
feedback, technical tasks, and troubleshooting.
The termination phase. By the time the
project nears completion, many project
team members are tired and behind in
other work (Kloppenborg & Petrick,
1999). Thus, the eye diagram suggests
that the project manager and team should
focus their limited energies on the fundamental goal—satisfying the customer. As
a result, the critical factors should be
schedule completion, client acceptance,
and personality (i.e., team motivation
and selling the solution to the client).
In Figure 10, we provide a summary
of the relations among the eye diagram,
critical success factors, and sources of
project conflict across the project lifecycle phases.
Eye diagram
perspective
Critical success
factors
Conclusions
Compared with the traditional “percent completion” or “level of effort” project life-cycle models, the eye diagram
provides project managers with a more
complete and intuitive framework to support project management. It guides the
project manager to shift his or her
thoughts from the broad competitive
environment to the internal organizational political framework, to the work associated with the project scope, and, finally, to an ultimate spotlight on customer
satisfaction. The disciplined use of an
eye diagram model, associated with critical success factors and conflict prediction methods, will help project managers
know how and where to focus their energies and resources during different project life-cycle phases. Thus, the eye diagram provides a clear and intuitive
guideline to assist project managers as
they cope with today’s increasingly complex project-management environment.
Probable sources
of conflict
Selection
Project mission
Top management support
Project schedule
Project priorities
Administration procedures
Schedule
Planning
Project mission
Top management support
Project schedule
Communication
Project priorities
Schedule
Administration procedures
Execution
Project schedule
Monitoring and feedback
Troubleshooting
Technical tasks
Personnel
Client consultation
Schedule
Technology opinions
Manpower
Termination
Monitoring and feedback
Client acceptance
Communication
Client consultation
Personnel
Schedule
Manpower
Personality
FIGURE 10. Eye diagram, critical success factors, and project conflicts.
September/October 2004
15
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