Project Management: Novice-To-Expert!

A Qualitative Comparative Case Study

The project management profession is proliferating, and many company executives have ascertained that efficient and effective project management is required to help them achieve their strategic goals and objectives. However, there are challenges; according to the Standish group, 52% of all IT projects are delivered at 189% of budget, and 70% of all IT projects are late. As a result, many company executives are requiring project managers to enhance their project management acumen and become “leaders” who manage projects. Essentially, leaders who are equipped with business and domain knowledge, pragmatic tools and techniques, conflict resolution skills, and soft skills among others, that will galvanize their project teams and create an environment in which project success is the norm.

Project Management: Novice-To-Expert is a qualitative comparative case study approach that investigates how project managers in the context of the Engineering Procurement and Construction management (EPCM) industry initiate, navigate, and successfully traverse the arduous, but rewarding path that the author calls the “Novice-To-Expert Continuum”. Specifically, this book is an expose on “how project managers become experts?” The book primarily focuses on the EPCM industry, but the information uncovered by this research, can be applied to other professions such as IT, Healthcare, Banking, library science, Real Estate, Marketing, Sales, Accounting, Finance, government, sanitation, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and beyond.

The three major constructs of expertise: Absolute, relative, and the theory of deliberate practice are used as the study’s conceptual framework, along with project management, continuing professional education (CPE) and informal learning to investigate, and ultimately expound on how project managers become experts in the context of the EPCM industry and other industries as mentioned above.