Factors impeding successful engineering project management in a specialised global drilling services company

[摘要] Projects that fail, for whatever reason, can impact negatively on society, organisations, and otherstakeholders. In a competitive business environment, the use of project management can alloworganizations to strategically structure themselves to achieve their business goals and needs. Inthis way, organizations can invest in more effective project management that is aimed at achievingbetter performance, maximizing the possibility of success, and minimizing the chance of failure.Within this context, organizations must know which critical factors are most responsible for thesuccess of a project to manage these factors in the best possible manner. Several researchershave identified various critical success factors that can influence the outcome and success of aproject. This research aims to identify the factors impeding successful project management withina global specialised drilling services company. The factors were identified through a literaturereview and applied in a qualitative study through looking at publications by various authors tonarrow down the list of critical success factors by identifying them in different studies. Throughanalysis of the company the list of critical success factors were narrowed down to five factorswhich includes the following: Clear realistic objectives, Sufficient/well allocated resources,Skilled/suitably qualified/ sufficient staff/team, Adequate budget, Good communication/ feedback.Best practises in project management were analysed and four of the ten knowledge areas asparaphrased by the PMBOK® Guide were identified. Recommendations based on the findings ofthe study were offered to the company to improve the project management process and reducethe impact of the identified factor on project success.

[发布机构] North-West University