Optimising decision-making: Devising a framework applicable to project management practitioners.

Abstract

Projects are defined as being temporary concepts which are planned, designed, and delivered to achieve a single aim which is often transformative in nature. Project management is therefore the process of monitoring and controlling such projects to ensure optimal delivery of project outcomes can be achieved. Decision-making is a soft skill which is recognised as being an essential tool for successful project managers to be able to use. Decisions made need to take into account multiple factors including risks and impacts. Because each project is unique, each decision will be unique too. This research study has investigated the concept of decision-making when applied to project management and has considered the drivers, methods and processes which are commonly used. Within this, the concept of Deep Smarts is explored in which a project manager brings together a range of their own personal, and often disparate, knowledge and experiences to make efficient decisions. From this research, a framework is proposed which separates project management decision-making into four elements, these being context, methods, processes and impact. This framework can be used by project management practitioners to aid their decision-making, and to help them to ensure that the decisions which they make, which will have to take into account the risk appetite of the organisation, are not overly influence by stakeholder pressure, and consider the best interests of the project being delivered. As such, this framework can be applied to any project, in any country, in which similar formalised project management processes are utilised.