Pergamon International Journal of Project Management Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 7-11, 1996

Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved

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How generic and how industry- specific is the project management profession?

Itzhak Wirth College of Business Administration, St John's University, New York, USA

A sample of 41 projects and their project managers includes five industries: construction, utilities, pharmaceuticals, information systems and manufacturing. The five industries are compared using an internally consistent scoring method for their typical project size characteristics, project management uncertainties, and their project managers' qualifications. The results would indicate the extent to which the project management profession is transportable across different industry sectors.

Keywords: project management, generic project management, industry-specific project management

In recent years, the range of project management applic- ations has greatly expanded. Today project management professionals have gained recognition and employment opportunities beyond construction, aerospace and defense, in pharmaceuticals, information systems and manufacturing. Preliminary studies were reported on the applicability of project management concepts and techniques in insurance, financial engineering, theatrical production, sports and other organizational activities ~ 3.

Against this background, students of project management and individuals pursuing careers in project management are interested in finding out to what extent the project manage- ment profession would accommodate the needs of any industry, and how transportable is an academic degree in project management across the different industries 4~. Business organizations, on the other hand, concerned with their own industry-specific needs, are interested in finding out to what extent is the project management profession fragmented into industry-specific areas, or to what extent would an academic degree in project management accom- modate industry-specific needs and thereby avert the need (and the expenditure) for supplementary in-house specialist training 7"8. Finally, planners of educational pro- grammes and instructors in universities and other training institutions, are interested in accommodating the opposing needs of both individuals and organizations involved in project management. Also, they must take into consideration the possibility that those needs are subject to change along with passing time and ever-changing circumstances 9.

Objectives Following from the above, the objective of the study

reported here is to identify differences and commonalities in the practice of project management across different industries and thereby help determine the merit of the generic project management notion t°.

Study method

A questionnaire survey was administered within a population of project management professionals in North America. The questionnaire was designed to capture:

• Characteristics of the project size, such as budget, duration and personnel.

• Uncertainties associated with project management, such as deviations from planned budget or duration and administration of part-time personnel.

• Characteristics of the project manager, such as formal education, career path, responsibility held and annual salary earned j-j~.

A random sample of 41 responses was obtained. As shown in Figure 1, the sample contained a representation of five exclusive industry sectors, namely information systems (12 projects), construction (10), utilities (10), pharmaceuticals (6) and manufacturing (3). The rather small sample size per industry requires that students and researchers of project management treat this as a pilot study. The results and hypotheses are viable as a basis for future expanded sampling and further analysis, possibly replicating the methodology offered here.

Preliminary observations

Our sample gave rise to three observations with respect to

How generic is the project management profession ?: 1 Wirth

Constr~ l0 (24'

lnfnrmation systems ~)

harmaceuticals (15%)

zv, aHu~a~.turing 10 (24%) 3 (7%)

Figure 1 Project management sample (n = 41)

career paths in project management. First, the sample unveiled careers ranging from 3-35 yr yielding a sample mean of 15 yr of uninterrupted career path. This observ- ation in itself demonstrates the presence of careers in project management, refuting the notion suggested occasionally that project management careers are rare or non-existent since projects are temporary by definition. Second, res- pondents enlisted the specific tasks contained in their project management jobs. The resulting average job profile consisted of some 80% generic tasks, used across all in- dustries (e.g. planning, coordinating work, using PERT/ CPM, personnel hiring, motivating and others), and 20% industry-specific tasks (e.g. laboratory work, software development, construction design, electrical engineering and others). This observation supports the generic project management notion and demonstrates significant potential for the applicability of the project management profession across different industries ~2-~4. Third, the sample further revealed that the formal academic backgrounds of all 41 respondents were geared quite strictly towards industry- specific needs (e.g. civil engineering for employment in the construction industry; industrial engineering for the utilities industry; electrical/mechanical engineering for manufac- turing; chemical engineering for the pharmaceuticals; computer science for the information systems industry needs, and others). Project management training, according to our sample, is largely provided by supplementary/con- tinuing education progranunes, short seminars and symposia, corporate in-house training and on-the-job training. Under these circumstances, indeed, our sample demonstrated that no career paths cross over industry sectorial lines.

Observations concerning project size

We show in Table I survey results for the three fundamental

characteristics of every project. They are: project budget, project duration and project workforce. They are freq- uently referred to as project size indicators. As can be seen in Table 1, our sample mean is a project with a planned budget of $12.7m, a planned duration of 20.8 months and a workforce of 40 employees.

The average information systems project stands out below the above sample mean and is the smallest across our five industry sectors sample. Its planned budget, as shown in Table 1, is $1.93m, duration 13.7 months and workforce of 15.7 employees. Small group dynamics principles would most likely apply under these circumstances including reliance upon group cohesiveness, informal intra-group relationships, shared responsibilities and shared decision making. This is consistent with and likely necessitated by the research and development orientation and the rather abstract nature of the information systems project product (e.g. a software package).

The average manufacturing project appears significantly larger than our overall sample mean, with a planned budget of $64.12m, duration of 16.0 months and workforce of 96.7 employees. Here, employment terms between em- ployees within a given project may very well vary with respect to employment duration, work schedule and skill requirements. This introduces workforce diversity and obstructs cohesiveness and productivity growth.

The average pharmaceuticals project, much like the average manufacturing project, is larger than the overall sample mean project, specifically with respect to its planned budget ($20.9m) and its planned duration (42.8 months) see Table 1. Pharmaceuticals projects, being largely new product or process development projects, are subject to the scrutiny of relatively intense regulatory intervention. Not unlike manufacturing, the pharmaceuticals project employs a diverse skills workforce and varied employment schedules.

Utilities and construction projects, for the most part, seem to match the characteristics of the overall sample mean project.

Observations concerning project uncertainty indicators

We consider three project characteristics as project uncer- tainty indicators. They are: budget mean absolute deviation, duration mean absolute deviation and proportion of part- time employees. As shown in Table 1, the overall sample mean project is subject to 11.8% budget deviation, 23.1% duration deviation and 49.8 % part-time employees.

Our average construction project falls below the above indicated sample mean and is the least subject to uncertainty across the five industry sectors sample (budget deviation 5%, duration deviation 7% and proportion of part-time workforce 43.8%, as shown in Table 1).

The average information systems project, by contrast, is

Table 1 Project size and uncertainty characteristics

Project characteristic Construction Utilities Pharmaceuticals Information systems Manufacturing Mean

Mean planned budget ($m) 9.2 Mean absolute deviation (%) 5.0

Mean planned duration (months) 18.0 Mean absolute deviation (%)* 7.0

Mean total number of employees 54.1 Proportion of part-time employees (%) 43.8

9.6 20.9 1.93 64.12 12.7 8.3 10.0 16.9 9.6 11.8

22.3 42.8 13.7 16.0 20.8 10.1 22.4 49.0 19.4 23.1

40.0 39.2 15.7 96.7 40.0 65.6 45.2 47.2 74.0 49.8

*Mean absolute deviation is the sum of the absolute values of all individual project deviations divided by the number of projects (n MAD = (~ deviations)/n).

associated with the sample's highest uncertainty levels (budget deviation 16.9%, duration deviation 49.0% and proportion of part-time work force 47.2%). This is con- sistent with the information systems project research and development orientation, coupled with the rather abstract nature of the project outcome (e.g. a software package).

At the intermediate levels of uncertainty, the average pharmaceuticals project, typically research and development oriented, is associated with a 10% budget deviation and a 22.4% duration deviation next to the information systems project. The utilities project (budget deviation 5% and duration deviation 7%) and the manufacturing project (budget deviation 9.6% and duration deviation 19.4%), with direct production orientation and tangible project outcomes, demonstrate relatively lower uncertainties, closer to the construction project (see Table 1).

Finally, we note in Table 1, with respect to the project uncertainty indicators, the presence of correlation between project duration and project budget deviations across our five industry sectors, implying a cause and effect relation- ship between the two quantities.

Observations concerning the project manager

Four fundamental characteristics of the project manager are introduced in Table 2. They are: academic background, years of project management experience, recent annual pay and time-span of discretion. The latter, time-span of dis- cretion, is a measurement of responsibility (and matching authority) delegated to the project manager. Our overall sample mean, the average project manager, has 14.9yr of project management experience, gross annual pay of $66600.00 and time-span of discretion equal to 16 days.

Notably, the academic background of project managers is largely industry-specific, with limited overlap across the five industry sectors shown in Table 2. Representation of academic background in project management is lacking in our sample (as has been indicated earlier), but will probably gain visibility in future sample plans in view of the establishment of a number of project management academic programmes during recent years.

Also in Table 2 we observe that it takes longest to achieve the project manager'a rank in utilities and pharmaceuticals

How generic is the project management profession ?: I Wirth

(average of 20.4 and 16.5 yr respectively). At the same time, the average project manager is more highly paid in these industries ($73 800.00 and $85 000.00, respectively) and appears to carry more responsibility (time-span of discretion 20 and 18 days, respectively). It takes a relatively short time to achieve the project manager's rank in manufacturing and information systems (average of 9.0 and 10.3 yr, respectively). However, at the same time, the average project manager in these industries would receive a moderately high annual pay ($62 700.00 and $65 600.00, respectively) and carry moderately high responsibility (time-span of discretion 16 and 18 days, respectively). Finally, according to our sample, it takes a relatively moderate number of years (13.9) to achieve the project manager's rank in construction, coupled with a relatively low average annual pay ($57900.00) and delegated res- ponsibility (time-span of discretion 13 days).

We are able to confirm the presence of correlation between annual pay and time-span of discretion quantities already established in previous research.

Quantified comparative analysis A 3-point scale is presented in Table 3. Low presence of a given project management characteristic is indicated by assigning it score 1. A relatively high presence of a charac- teristic is assigned score 3, leaving score 2 for an inter- mediate presence level. For example, personnel size in our sample ranges from an average of 15.7 employees per project in the information systems industry to 96.7 employees in the manufacturing industry (see Table 1). Subsequently, according to Table 3, score 1 was assigned to personnel size below 40, score 3 was assigned to personnel size above 60 and the intermediate level of 40-60 was assigned score 2. Indeed, turning to Table 4, information systems received score 1 for personnel size, while manufacturing received score 3 for the same charac- teristic. Scores were assigned in a similar fashion to the remaining project management characteristics with respect to the five industries under study.

In Table 4 score sub-totals are introduced to indicate the presence level of size characteristics, uncertainty

Table 2 Project manager's characteristics

Project manager's characteristics Construction Utilities Pharmaceuticals Information systems Manufacturing Mean

Academic background (degree) CE/Arch/IE/ EE/ME/IE/ Sci/Bio/Chem/ CS/Eng/Hum/BAdm ME/EE/BAdm ME/BAdm EngMgt/BAdm Pharm/BAdm (BA/BS/MS/MBA) (BS/MS/MBMA) (BS/MS/MBA) (BS/MS/MBA) (BS/MS/MBA/PhD)

13.9 20.4 16.5 10.3 9.0 14.9

57.9 73.8 85.0 65.6 62.7 66.6

13 17 20 18 16 16

Mean number years of experience

Mean gross annual pay ($'000s)

Mean time-span of discretion* (days)

*The time lapse separating two successive supervisory reviews.

Table 3 Scoring method of project characteristics

Score Budget Duration Personnel Budget Duration Part-time Experience Annual Time-span of ($m) (months) (number) deviation (%) deviation (%) personnel (%) (years) pay ($K) discretion (days)

1 < 10 <20 <40 <5 < 10 <40 < 10 <60 < 15

2 10-50 20-40 40-60 5-10 10-20 40-60 10-20 60-70 15-20

3 >50 >40 >60 > 10 >20 >60 >20 >70 >20

How generic is the project management profession ?: 1 Wirth

Table 4 Scoring of project management characteristics hy industry sector*

Industry type Size characteristics Uncertainty characteristics Project manager's characteristics Total score¢

Budget Duration Personnel Sub- total

Budget Duration Part-time Sub- Exper- Annual Time-span Sub- dev. dev. personnel total ience pay of disc. total

Construction I 1 2 4 2 1 2 5 2 1 1 4 13

Utili t ies 1 2 2 5 2 2 3 7 3 3 2 8 20

Pharmaceuticals 2 3 1 6 2 3 2 7 2 3 2 7 20

Information 1 1 1 3 3 3 2 8 1 2 2 5 16 systems

Manufacturing 3 1 3 7 2 2 3 7 1 2 2 5 19

*Score based on a 3-point scale: 1 equals low, 2 equals intermediate and 3 equals high characteristic presence. See Table 3 for further information on scoring method. ¢Assuming the Student 's t distribution for the five-industry sectors total scores, a 99% two-tail confidence interval for the mean total score emerges, ranging from 11 .3 -23 .9 points.

characteristics and project manager's characteristics. The Project 8

total score permits an all-encompassing comparison across (a) size our five industries. 7

An examination of the data in Table 4 reveals the follow- 6 ing trends: first, a relatively low score, 4, is assigned to 5 the project manager's characteristics in construction, coupled 4 with a low score, 4, assigned to size characteristics and 5 3 to uncertainty characteristics. Second information systems, like construction, is assigned a relatively low score, 5, with respect to size characteristics. Information systems, how-

Project 8 ever, achieved a relatively high score, 8, with respect to (b) Manager

uncertainty characteristics. Finally, the remaining three 7 industries, utilities, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing, 6 form a cluster within the relatively small range of sizes s (scores range 5-7) , uncertainty (score 7), and project 4 manager 's characteristics (scores range 5-8) . 3

As shown in Table 4 we assume the Student's t distrib- ution with respect to the total scores obtained for the five industries sampled. The scores range of 11.3-23.9 was Project

derived from the 99% two-tail confidence interval repres- (o) Manager

enting the extent to which generic project management can be assumed.

C o n c l u d i n g remarks

The objective of this study was to determine the merit of the generic project management notion and consequently, the extent to which the project management profession is transportable across different industry sectors. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the five industry sectors under study in the three-dimensional space of project size, project uncertainty and the project manager's characteristics.

The total scores achieved by each of the five industries (ranging from 13-20 as shown in Table 4) suggest a distinction among three clusters within the above three- dimensional space. The first cluster includes utilities (total score of 20), pharmaceuticals (20), and manufacturing (19). It suggests that transferability of the project management profession across these three industries is feasible. Since the uncertainty score is identical for the three industries (i.e. 7), it seems possible that a trading relationship exists between the project size and project manager's charac- teristics for the equal total score results of 19-20 (see Figure 2 (a) and (b). For example, the relatively high score of the utilities project manager could conceivably qualify him for a transfer to the lower score pharmaceuticals or manufacturing project manager's position, pending adjust-

M

I P

I u

3 4 5 6 7 8 ,Project Uncertainty

3 4 5 6

-- I

_2 8

Project Uncertainty

8 - - U

7 P

6 2 5 - - I - -

3

3 4 6 7 - - Project

8 Size

Figure 2 Trends of project management characteristics scores across industry sectors. C, construction; M, manufacturing; P, pharmaceuticals; U, utilities; I, information systems

ment to the project size characteristics differential. The second cluster includes the construction industry and it achieved the relatively low total score of 13 (Table 4). This is a combination of relatively low scores on all three dimen- sions, namely, project size (score 4), project uncertainty (5) and project manager's characteristics (4), as demonstrated in Figure 2. Consequently, it seems that a project manager's transfer from utilities, pharmaceuticals or manufacturing into construction is more readily feasible than a transfer in the opposite direction. The latter might require qualific- ations adjustment. The third cluster includes the infor- mation systems industry and it achieved an intermediate level total score of 16 (Table 4). This consists of the project size score of 3 and the project manager's score of 5, nearly identical to the respective construction industry scores (4 for project size and 4 for project manager's characteristics).

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How generic is the project management profession ?: I Wirth

However, the information systems industry takes the lead with respect to project uncertainty, scoring 8 as indicated in Table 4 and shown in Figure 2. Consequently, trans- ferability from the information systems into the utilities, pharmaceuticals, or manufacturing industries would be readily feasible with respect to project uncertainty charac- teristics, and would require qualifications adjustments with respect to project size and project manager's characteristics.

Further research

Further research based on a larger sample size within and across industry sectors is recommended. This should permit standard statistical methods and correlational analyses to delineate mutually exclusive project management charac- teristics and trends, yielding recommendations for specific professional adjustment and training and effective project management transferability across industry sectors.

8 Thamhain, H J 'Developing project management skills' Proc Project Management Institute (PMI) Seminar/Symposium Atlanta, Georgia (Oct 1989) 652-659

9 Wirth, I 'Project management education: Current issues and future trends' lnt J Project Management (Feb 1992) 10 (1) 49-54

10 Wirth, I and Tryloff, D E 'Preliminary comparison of six efforts to document the project management body of knowledge' lnt J Project Management (May 1995)13 (2) 109-118

11 Egan, Douglas S 'PMI's 1988 salary and demographic survey results' PM-Network III (3) 36-41

12 Carretta, A 'Project management "sof t" competencies' Proc l l th International Project Management Association (INTERNET) World Congress on Project Management Florence, Italy (Jun 1992) 265-276

13 Forrester, J D 'Training project managers--the intangibles' Proc 9th International Project Management Association (INTERNET) World Congress on Project Management Glasgow, Scotland (Sept 1988) 1 419-426

14 Graham R J and Birchall, D 'The developing behavioral emphasis in project management seminars and university programs' Proc 1989 Project Management Institute (PM1) Seminar/Symposium Atlanta, Georgia (Oct 1989) 648-651

References

1 Wirth, I "The project manager's profile: Field data and analysis' Proc Project Management Institute (PMI) Seminar~Symposium Atlanta, Georgia (Oct 1989) 660-678

2 Wirth, I "Expanding the scope of project management: Financial engineering and financial product development' Prosjekt Ledelse (Feb 1995)

3 Wirth, I "Project management and cost control in theatrical production' Cost Engineering (Sept 1995) 37 (9)

4 Stewart, T A "Planning a career in a world without managers' Fortune (20 Mar 1995) 72-77

5 Wakasugi, T "A model program for project management training suited to Japanese conditions' Project Management J (Mar 1986) 17 ( 1 ) 83-89

6 Ward, G G F 'Education and training of project managers' Proc l l th International Project Management Association (INTERNET) World Congress on Project Management Florence, Italy (Jun 1992) 715-724

7 Teplitz. C J 'Education in Project Management at PMI '92' PM- Network (Jul 1993)

ltzhak Wirth is Associate Professor of Management at the College of Business Administration, St. John's University, New York, USA. He is a graduate of the Technion in Haifa, Israel (BSME), INSEAD in Fontaine- bleau, France (MBA) and the University of California at Berkeley (MS1E and PhD). Dr Wirth has gained direct work experience and published extensively in the areas of project management, human resources management and service and manu- facturing operations. He is a member of several professional associations including International Association of Project Management (1PMA), Association of Project Managers (UK) and Project Management Institute (USA).

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