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Research Methods MGT6070 marking sheet 60197922
Criteria and comments
Clear objectives and parameters of the research
The aim is clear on page 1, but the objectives, page 6, are not so clear and
should be related to the aim. They could be made more precise by
focussing on specific collaborative projects between QCI and partners.
Review: applied and critical
Review is well structured to draw out implications for this research, although
it should consider how the material on project management and project
success in general relates to the collaboration for NPD between OBM and
OEM in Taiwan’s IT industry. Good literature and critical points. Ideally
the review would have identified the key people in the management
structure of both collaborating organizations to justify who to interview or
send questionnaires to.
Methods: justified, practical and detailed
Case study of a speicifc company is justified – but should it rather be of
specific projects involving collaborating partners [see objectives].
Questionnaire – good detail of how the questionnaire is related to the
review. However, sampling and administration is not clear; and surely it
needs to include key people in both collaborating organizations. Why 200?
Pilot? Is this the best method to use?
Interviews – again – who are the key people to interview, in terms of
position in the company/s?
Logical connection between the objectives, review and methods.
Good – but see points above.
Referencing good
Overall comments
A sharper focus on specific collaborative projects would allow refinement of
the research questions and tools, and possibly lead to the need to research
collaborative partners as well as the main organization. More review of
the process of project management would help identify the key people to
interview or give questionnaires to.
Appendices – check list:
· ethics form yes
· record of meetings with staff and brokers/stakeholders no – but
contact with the company is good
· draft research methods tools yes
2
· timetable. yes
Marker
1st / 2nd gn
Mark (awarded after second marking – moderation if appropriate) 70
Course Module: LEM 6070
Dissertation Title
Analysing the critical factors to project success across new product development in Taiwan’s
IT industry: an empirical case study based on an OEM/ODM company
Introduction
This dissertation aims to analyse the critical factors to project success of collaborative new
product development (NPD) between own brand manufacturing (OBM) and original
equipment/design manufacturing (OEM/ODM) in Taiwan’s Information Technology (IT)#p#分页标题#e#
industry. Here, the critical success factors (CSFs) of project will be analysed and sorted from
critical literature researches and thus hypothesized for empirical research in the case study.
Generally, the success of project management is supposed to be associated with the final
result of the project, however, more and more researches illustrate that it is possible to achieve
a successful project even without successful project management and vice versa (Wit, 1988).
Besides, Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) explain that project success can be assessed not only by
project management techniques but also on other external factors outside the project
management control and plan. Successful project management techniques may potentially
contribute to the project success, but project management will not stop a project from failing
to succeed.
The author of this dissertation will chronologically look into plenty of the checklist of CSFs
to project in literature and hypothetically utilize the finding factors to evaluate and analyse the
case company. Accordingly, a checklist of CSFs and a project management framework will be
developed and used as the criteria to investigate the project management success and project
success in the case company. Lastly, this paper will conclude and prioritise how critical
factors may affect the project and lead to a total project success that consists of a better
appreciation of distinction between project management success and project success.
Background
In the paper “Taiwan companies switch to hi-tech” by Flannery (1991) indicates that the
3
government of Taiwan initiated a shift into knowledge-intensive industries by opening and
operation of the Hsinchu Science and Industry Park in 1979 and the emergence makes Taiwan
a major player in the global computer and microelectronics industry. In addition, as Tsan and
Chang (2005) indicate that Taiwan has nine major IT products such as laptops, desktops,
motherboard, server, digital cameras, projectors, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, and
colour display tube and 90 percent of these products have been dominated on Taiwan’s supply
chain around the world. Thanks to the rapid growth and prosperity of Taiwan’s IT industry,
there have been many prominent brand companies (OBM) like IBM, Apple, or Dell have
given their new product development projects to Taiwan’s ODM (original design
manufacturers) in order to facilitate their new product launch to the market on time with
effective benefit and look for partnership for needed technology. The co-operation between
OBM and ODM attracts me to look into the project management within the client-supplier
relationship that may reflect the need of a comprehensive analysis on CSFs related to total
project success. Especially in IT industry, to cope with short product life cycle (PLC) and#p#分页标题#e#
rapid change in technology will require more comprehensive project management to enhance
the project success for reaching the win-win of both companies’ success (Lu and Yang, 2004).
For a comprehensive understanding of project success, it is proper to review the literatures of
project, project management, critical success factors of project and new product development
(NPD) project.
Literature Review
According to Meredith and Mantel (2006), there three main reasons for the emergence of
project management to meet the demand of managerial skills in contemporary society:
(1) The exponential expansion of human knowledge;
(2) The growing demand for a broad range of complex, sophisticated, customized goods and
services;
(3) The evolution of worldwide competitive markets for the production and consumption of
goods and services
These three forces lead to the need for more sophisticated systems to control project
management and project outcome. Besides, they conform to the characteristics of the
project-oriented circumstance in IT industry with the features of rapid and ever-changing
environment that require even more complex techniques for the achievement of project.
What is project and project management?
In the book “Project Management: a managerial approach” by Meredith and Mantel (2006),
the meaning of project defined by PMI (Project Management Institute, 2004) is “A temporary
endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.” Mantel et al. (2001) explain that
projects are specific and unique with a specific deliverable aimed at meeting a specific need
4
or purpose.
Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) define that a project is considered to be the achievement of a
specific objective, which involves a series of tasks that will consume a company’s resources
with the expectations of set specification, definite start and end. In contrast, project
management can be defined as the process of controlling and planning the accomplishment of
project objectives.
Accordingly, it is clear to understand that the objective of project is different from that of
project management. Project management emphasizes the achievement of specific and
short-term goals while project focuses on wider aims in terms of long-term objective.
Project management success and project success:
Wit (1988) distinguishes project success and project management success, the former is
measured against the overall objectives of the project whereas the latter is measured against
the widespread and conventional methods of performance against cost, time and quality. He
emphasizes that it is possible to achieve a successful project even when project management
failed.
Munns and Bjeirmin (1996) assert that project success has an orientation towards higher and
long-term goals. A range of factors can affect the ability to achieve the goals that led to#p#分页标题#e#
project success. Referring to a current research done by Morris and Hugh (1986), they imply
that project success is dependent on having:
- A realistic goal
- Competition
- Client satisfaction
- A definite goal
- Profitability
- Third parties
- Market availability
- The implementation process
- The perceived value of the project
On the other hand, they explain that the factors to affect project management success are also
various, including the obvious indicators of completion to budget, satisfaction of project
schedule, adequate quality standard and achievement of project goals. According to Avots’
(1969) “Why does project management fail”, the project management success may require:
- Planning with a commitment to complete the project
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- Careful appointment of a skilled project manager
- Spending time to define the project adequately
- Correctly planning the activities in the project
- Ensuring correct and adequate information flows
- Changing activities to accommodate frequent changes on dynamic
- Accommodating employees’ personal goals with performance and reward
- Making a fresh start when mistakes in implementation have been identified
Munns and Bjeirmi (1996) declare the need of an improved distinction between success and
failure for the project and project management since over time it has been shown that project
management and project success are not necessarily related. Project success can be assessed
by using three basic criteria based on only on project management techniques but also on
other external factors that essentially contribute to the project success without project
management control and plan. One shall bear in mind that project management success often
is not related to project success. Any project can be successful by using executive meddling,
brute force, and a big stick. This is by no means implies that a successfully accomplished
project is the result of excellent project management (Kerzner, 2004).
In addition, Pinto and Slevin mention that it is still ambiguous to measure project success
since the parties who are involved in projects perceive project success or failure differently
(Pinto and Slevin, 1989, cited by Belassi and Tukel, 1996). A project that is considered to be
successful by the client might be seen as a failure by top management, if the project outcome
does not meet top management specifications even though it may satisfy the customer. So,
both of these parties are evaluating project success differently and thus they may interpret
project success differently. Therefore, the critical success factors for project management and
project will be seen independently to evaluate project success in this paper.
Literature reviews of critical Success Factors (CSFs) to project:#p#分页标题#e#
After addressing clearly that project success is not necessarily linked to project management
success, this paper will continue by a chronological review of literature researches regarding
critical factors to affect project success. The main task of this part is to chronologically review
the critical literature papers related to critical success factors to project. After collecting
literature researches on critical success factors to project, these factors will be sorted and used
to hypothesize another critical success factor checklist which will be employed to be the
criteria while designing the questions for questionnaires and interviews in the case company
of this dissertation. Besides, these literature references will utilized to compared to the finding
of the case company in the end to see how empirical research may deviate from the literature
or follow it.
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Generally, most of the project use time, cost, and quality as three main factors to measure a
project success in project management. Atkinson (1999) states that cost, time and quality, The
Iron Triangle, have been inextricably associated with the measurement of the success of
project management over the last 50 years, but the limited set of success factors, cost, time,
and quality, is suggested to be two guesses (time and cost) and one phenomena (quality) as a
more narrow view to define project success. Success defined as accomplishing the object on
time, within budget, and at the desired level quality is no longer a complete but an internal
definition for project success (Kerner, 2004). Today it is clear to know that determining a
project success or failure is far more complex.
According to Kerzner (2004), the measurement of project success has changed over years. In
early days, project success was measured in technical terms only. As companies begin to
understand more and more about project management, project success changed to lie in the
achievement of the effort on time, within cost, and at the desired level quality. But the factors
to affect project success are still incomplete. He defines project success in a modern way in
terms of primary factors and secondary factors such as:
- Primary factors: on time; within cost; at the desired quality
- Secondary factors: accepted by the customer; customer allows you to use the customer’s
name as a reference
Lists of success or failure factors vary in various studies in the literature (Pinto and Slevin,
1989, cited by Belassi and Tukel, 1996). Thought several lists of factors are produced, they
seem to table individual factors rather than grouping them according to some criteria. This
part of critical success factors reviews from literature papers will aim to classify critical
success factors and identify the effects of the factors to project performance.
Classification of critical factors to project from chronological literature reviews:#p#分页标题#e#
Year Author(s) Critical success factors to project
1983 Baker, Murphy, and
Fisher
Clear goal, goal commitment of project team, on-sit project
manager, adequate funding, project team capability, accurate
cost estimates, minimum start-up difficulties, plan and control
techniques, absence of bureaucracy
1987 Morris and Hough Project objectives, technical uncertainty, innovation, politics,
community involvement, schedule duration urgency, financial
contract legal problems, implement problems
1987 Kerzner (cited by
Lim and Mohamed,
Corporate understanding of project management, executive
commitment to project management, organizational
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1999) adaptability, project manager selection criteria, project
manager’s leadership style, commitment to planning and
control
1989 Pinto and Slevin
(cited by Pinto and
Covin, 1989)
Mission, top management support, project schedule,
client consultation, personnel, technical tasks, client
acceptance, monitoring and feedback, communication,
trouble shooting, characteristics of the project team leader,
power and politics, environmental effects, urgency
1996 Belassi and Tukel Factors related to the project management and project team:
ability to delegate authority, ability to tradeoff, ability to
coordination, perception of his role and responsibilities,
competence, communication.
Factors related to the project:
Size, value, uniqueness of project activities, density of a
project, life cycle, urgency.
Factors related to the organisation:
Top management support, project organizational structure,
functional managers’ support, project champion.
Factors related to the external environment:
Political environment, economical environment, social
environment, technological environment, nature, client,
competitors, sub-contractors
The classification of critical success factors to project success is subject to be changed and it
may not be finalized until the author of this dissertation has an in-depth scrutiny throughout
the literature review.
Research questions and objectives
1. To address a better appreciation of distinction between project management success and
project success.
2. To find out and hypothesize a checklist of critical factors to project success based on the
literature reviews, which will be applied to the questions in the questionnaire and
interview in the case company for primary data collection.
3. To prioritize the critical factors to affect project success or failure by collecting primary
data from the case company and suggest a possibility of total project success based on the
result of CSFs.
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This area is meant to be blank for a better view of the figure in the next page.
Method
Following figure illustrates six main process of this dissertation and it is subject to be change#p#分页标题#e#
for necessary contingency in the future:
1 Clarify research topic: the dissertation title is “Analysing the critical factors to project
success across new product development stages in Taiwan’s IT industry: an empirical
case study based on an OEM/ODM company”.
2 Critical literature review: conduct a chronological review of critical literature works that
1. Clarify research topic
2. Critical literature review
3. Decide research strategy
4. Data collection by in-depth
interviews and questionnaires
5. Analysing data by using both of:
6. Analysing the finding and finalise
the dissertation
Qualitative methods Quantitative methods
9
are related to project management success, project success, and critical factors to project
success, which has been outline in the previous mentioned part in Literature review.
3 Decide research strategy:
The research strategy of this dissertation will adopt case study method. Case study has
been defined in different way without a standard definition. Robson (2002) defines case
study as’ a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a
particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of
evidence.’ (Cited by Saunders et al. 2003). Saunders (2003) suggests the method to collect
data may include questionnaires, interviews, observation or documentary analysis.
According to the definition of case study by Robson and data collection data by Saunders,
it is appropriate to adopt case study as the research strategy for this dissertation because,
first, this paper is going to do an empirical investigation for studying phenomenon in real
life, second, the investigation will be proceeded by in-depth interviews and
questionnaires as the multiple sources of evidence to analyse the addressed problem.
Case company
The case company in this paper is Quanta Computer Incorporate (QCI) in Taiwan which
ranks in 31st in global information technology 100 survey (BusinessWeek, 2007) and has
been the largest laptop manufacturer for prominent brand companies such as IBM, Dell,
Toshiba, and so on. The author of the dissertation used to work for the case company for
almost 3 years, which is helpful for research progress due to the author’s familiarity and
connection within the company.
4 Data collection:
As Saunders (2003) suggests that the method of data collection for case study includes
questionnaires, interviews, and so on. Therefore, the case study in this paper will be
conducted by two methods to collect data for comparison and analysis in latter stage.
This area is meant to be blank for a better view of the figure in the next page.
10
Questionnaire1
First, a questionnaire will be devised with questions based on the critical factors that are#p#分页标题#e#
found and synthesized from literature checklist of CSFs. Questions will be designed based
on:
- The critical factors to project success, which are hypothesized according to critical
literature researches
- The following conceptual framework
Conceptual Framework of Total Project Success
The questionnaire used to investigate in the case company will be designed into three
main categories, rating (or scale) questions, close questions and the open questions.
Rating questions aim to ask the respondents how critical they feel the factors within the
project may affect both project management success and project success. For example,
Rating question:
How critical do rate the importance of PM’s competence to affect project success? Please
1 Appendix A: an initial questionnaire example attached
Project Success
Project Success
but
Project Management Failed
Project Success
&
Project Management Success
Project Failed
&
Project Management Failed
Project Failed
but
Project Management Success
Project Management Success
High
Low High
CSFs
CSFs
Total
Success
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rate: □ not critical □ a bit critical □ average critical □ very critical □ extremely critical
Close question:
Do you think this factor can be controlled by the company (Quanta Computer)?
Please tick: □Yes, □ No
Open question:
Are there any critical factors you think they are very important to affect project success or
failure but not included in this questionnaire? □ No,
□ Yes. If yes, please explain as below:
There is an initial questionnaire attached in Appendix A which will not be finalized until a
pilot is completed. Besides, a minimum sample size is expected to be 200 questionnaires.
Interview2
Second, interview is one of the most important primary data in the case study, which
consists of structured and unstructured interview. Ghauri and Grønhaug (2002) assert that
interviews are often considered the best data collection methods and they are categorized
into structured and unstructured interviews. In structured interviews, a standard format of
interview is used with an emphasis on fixed response categories and systematic sampling
and loading processes combined with quantitative measures. On the other hand,
unstructured interview method gives the respondents almost full liberty to discuss
reactions, opinions and behaviours on a particular issue. The interviewee will be just given
questions and the interviewer can record the responses in order later to understand “how”
and “why”.
For this dissertation, both methods will be employed. Structured questions will be
hypothesized in advance before meeting the interviewees while unstructured questions are#p#分页标题#e#
likely to be developed during the interviews with the respondents in order to see any
possibility of unique finding.
The interviewees will be selected from experienced project managers (PMs) and
influential people who are closely associated with project implementation in the
organisation or people who may be concerned outside the organisation such as third
parties or customers for in-depth investigation. Interview questions are based on the
following figure of conceptual framework. For example, an experienced project manager
2 Appendix B: an initial interview questions attached
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may be asked the questions as below:
(1) How many years have you been worked for the company?
(2) How many projects have you been responsible for so far?
(3) According to the following conceptual matrix, could you please exemplify any
project that can fit any one or more than one of the four cells result of project
outcomes? (A), (B), (C) or (D)
Conceptual Matrix of Project Success
(4) What do you think the critical factors that led to the result of the selected project?
Such as what may be the main critical factors led to project success or project
management success?
5 Analysing data by using qualitative method and quantitative methods:
Ghauri and Grønhaug (2002) explain that the main difference between qualitative and
quantitative research is not “quality” but procedure. In some studies, data may be
quantified, but the analysis is qualitative. The both methods are not mutually exclusive.
Based on Reichardt and Cook (1979), the difference in emphasis of qualitative and
quantitative methods can be tabulated as below (cited by Ghauri and Grønhaug, 2002):
Qualitative method Quantitative method
l Emphasis on understanding l Emphasis on testing and verification
Project Success
(A)Project Success
but
Project Management Failed
(B) Project Success
&
Project Management Success
(C) Project Failed
&
Project Management Failed
(D)Project Failed
but
Project Management Success
Project Management Success
High
Low High
CSFs
CSFs
13
l Focus on understanding from
respondents’ point of view
l Interpretation and rational approach
l Observations and measurements in
natural settings
l Subjective ‘insider view’ and closeness
to data
l Process oriented
l Etc...
l Focus on facts and/or reasons for social
events
l Logical and critical approach
l Objective ‘outsider view’ distant from
data
l Focus on hypothesis testing
l Result oriented
l Etc…
According to the characteristics of qualitative and quantitative methods above, it is
appropriate to adopt qualitative method for analyzing data collecting from interviews#p#分页标题#e#
while quantitative method for analyzing data from questionnaires in the case study of the
dissertation. Normally, SPSS will be employed to generate statistical data such as graph,
meanwhile, a qualitative analysis will be followed to interpret the statistical result.
6 Analysing the finding and finalise the dissertation writing:
To compare and the collected data with the hypothesized checklist of CSFs based on the
critical literature papers and thus analyse the finding to conclude how critical the finding
factors my affect project performance that will lead project result to success or failure
with overall assessment.
Timetable of dissertation
March 2007 to April 2007:
- review of critical literature
2nd May, 2007: proposal deadline
June 2007:
- week 1~2: compile literature papers
- week 1~2: review research methods literature and research strategy
- week 3~4: design questions for questionnaires and interviews
- week 4: start up dissertation writing
July 2007:
- week 1~2: write literature review part of the dissertation and continue refining
- week 1: contact case company to make interviewees list and appointment schedules, pilot
run and revise the questions of questionnaires and interviews
- week 2~3: formal proceeding with interviews and questionnaires
- week 4: final collection of questionnaire and analyse of primary data from the case
company
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- week 1~4: continue and refine dissertation writing
August 2007:
- week 1~4: keep refining dissertation writing and start to finalise dissertation writing
- week 4: start proofreading
- 26th Aug: finalise proofreading and dissertation writing
- week 4: buffer for contingency and start up the plan of dissertation binding
Sept 2007:
- 2nd Sept: finalise dissertation binding
- 10th Sept: dissertation submission deadline
Reference
Avots, I. (1969), Why does project management fail? California Management Review, 12:
77-82
Baker, B N, Murphy, D C and Fisher, D (1983), Factors affecting project success, Project
Management Handbook, Van Nostradnd Reinhold Co., NY
Belassi Wand Tukel O I (1996), A new framework for determining critical success/failure
factors in projects, International Journal of Project Management, 14(3): 141-151
Ghauri P and Grønhaug K (2002), Research methods in business studies: a practical guide,
Pearson Education Limited
Jack R. Meredith and Samuel J. Mantel, Jr. (2006), Project Management: a managerial
approach, sixth edition, JohnWiley & Sons
Kerzner, H. (2004), Advanced Project Management: best practices on implementation, John
Wiley and Sons
Louis Y.Y. Lu and Chyan Yang (2004), The R&D and marketing cooperation across new
product development stage: an empirical study of Taiwan’s IT industry, Industrial Marketing#p#分页标题#e#
Management, 33: 593-601
Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill (2003), Research Method for Business
Students, third edition, Pearson Education Limited, Essex
Morris, PWand Hough, G H (1987), The anatomy of major projects, JohnWiley and Sons,
15
NY
Munns A K and Bjeirmi B F (1996), The role of project management in achieving project
success. International Journal of Project Management, 14(2), pp81-87
Pinto, J K and Covin J G (1989), Critical factors in project implementation: a comparison of
construction and R&D projects, Technovation, 9: 49-62
Roger Atkinson (1999), Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a
phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria, International Journal of Project
Management, 17(6), pp. 337-342,
Russell Flannery, (1991), Taiwan companies switch to hi-tech, Asian Business, pp. 52-54
Wen-Nan Tsan and Chao-Ching Chang (2005), Intellectual capital system interaction in
Taiwan. Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 285-298
Internet Resources
Business Week. 2007. The Information Technology 100. [on line] available from:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_27/b3991427.htm?chan=search
Access on 10th April, 2007
Appendices
AppendixA: questionnaire example
Appendix B: interview questions example
16
AppendixA: Questionnaire example
Questionnaire Example
Thank you very much for helping with this questionnaire survey. This questionnaire is to
investigate the critical factors to affect project success in your company. Appreciate that you
must be very busy, the completion of the questionnaire is estimated about 15~20 minutes.
Please follow the instruction below to respond the questions. Thank you.
There are two major types of questions asked:
l Part I: Rating questions: all the questions are related to critical factors to affect project
success. You just need to tick how critical these factors may lead to project success.
l Part II: Open question: there is no limited structure for you to answer the question. Just
feel free to answer according to your evaluation of the questions.
If you have difficulties responding the questions, please email to: ecp06yh@shef.ac.uk
Name of Respondent: ____________________ (anonymous is acceptable)
Position: ______________________________ (such as project manager in R&D department)
How long have you worked for Quanta Computer: ___________________
What product does your business unit in charge for: __________________ (such as notebook)
Part I
Rating Questions:
1. How critical do you rate the factor of project managers’ competence to affect project
success?
Please rate: □ not critical □ a bit critical □ average critical □ very critical □ extremely
critical
Do you think this factor can be controlled by the company (Quanta Computer)?#p#分页标题#e#
Please tick: □Yes, □ No
17
2. How critical do you rate the factor of the schedule control and plan to affect project
success?
Please rate: □ not critical □ a bit critical □ average critical □ very critical □ extremely
critical
Do you think this factor can be controlled by the company?
Please tick: □Yes, □ No
3. How critical do you rate the factor of the quality of specification to affect project success?
Please rate: □ not critical □ a bit critical □ average critical □ very critical □ extremely
critical
Do you think this factor can be controlled by the company?
Please tick: □Yes, □ No
4. How do you rate the factors of cross-functional communication (this is limited to the
internal communication among different department in the company) to affect project
success?
Please rate: □ not critical □ a bit critical □ average critical □ very critical □ extremely
critical
Do you think this factor can be controlled by the company?
Please tick: □Yes, □ No
5. To be continued
Part II
Open question:
1. Are there any critical factors you think they are very important to affect project success
or failure but not included in this questionnaire? □ No,
□Yes. If yes, please explain as below:
2. To be continued
18
Appendix B: Questions for interview
1. How many years have you been worked for Quanta Computer?
2. How many projects have you be responsible for so far?
3. According to the following conceptual matrix, could you please exemplify any
project that can fit any one or more than one of the four cells of project outcomes?
(A), (B), (C) or (D)
Conceptual Matrix of Project Success
4. What do you think the critical factors that led to the result of the selected project?
Such as what may be the main critical factors led to project success or project
management success?
5. What do you personally think the critical factors that led to total project success?
6. To be continued
Project Success
(C) Project Success
but
Project Management Failed
(D)Project Success
&
Project Management Success
(C) Project Failed
&
Project Management Failed
(E) Project Failed
but
Project Management Success
Project Management Success
High
Low High
CSFs
CSFs
|
