Projects overshooting Deadlines and Budgets: Is Bureaucracy the issue?

It is common knowledge as well as perhaps accepted that in complex projects, overshooting time and budget goals is a norm. When we hear about it, it sounds all to regular and routine news on such projects. “There are bound to be delays in large infra projects”, says a PM or was he a program manager (well, that is a topic for another discussion). Most practitioners and managers of such projects or even ones facing similar challenges in multi- stakeholder projects/programs agree, “That, inspite of the project management discipline being 50 years there is very little we know about how to deal with complexity.”

While the practice of planning and scheduling is being practiced on such projects, it is just one dimension for project success. Managing a complex web of stakeholders and defining an approach to ensure alignment among all is more that just documentation of a “standard” procedure. Most project managers working on large complex initiative, complain of bureaucracy and decision making delays. Is bureaucracy bad/wrong? Our observation is that leaders need to know when and how much of it is essential for project success.

According to us, in most organizations, the art and science of execution is typically behind the needs of the modern organization. In fact, research shows that although the conventional approach to project management provides the necessary basic guidelines for managing projects, it is not enough to guarantee project’s success.

Based on 15 years of research conducted by Dr. Aaron Shenhar and team, we now have a framework and method to assist in deciphering this. The framework shows how to deal with projects in a highly flexible and adaptive way as well as how it can be applied on top of your current organizational processes to increase the chances of project success. (“Meeting Time, Cost, and Moneymaking Goals with Strategic Project Leadership® - Aaron Shenhar; Professor of Project and Program Management”)

PM Academy, strategic partners of Dr. Aaron in India has now put together an India specific program, “Project Strategy based on Project Context: The SPL Experience

Learn more about it

Contact Us to get more details about our Strategic Project Leadership® programs.

Strategic Project Leadership® is a registered trade mark of Dr. Aaron J Shenhar.
Dr. Shenhar’s work on Strategic Project Leadership (SPL) connects the existing practices of Project Management to business results. The objective of SPL is to enhance Project Management and is not intended to challenge Project Management processes. Project Management Academy Inc. partners with Dr. Aaron Shenhar and is certified to deliver SPL related education and services in India.