Benchmarking Project Resilience

Authors

  • Khalil Rahi Department of industrial engineering, Polytechnique Montreal Canada
  • Mario Bourgault Department of industrial engineering, Polytechnique Montreal Canada
  • Benoit Robert Department of industrial engineering, Polytechnique Montreal Canada

Keywords:

project risk management, resilience, organizational resilience, project resilience, awareness, adaptive capacity

Abstract

Projects still suffer from low project management success rates, mainly due to events that occur during their life-cycles, which cause deviations from their main objectives. That is why, recent studies have begun exploring the concept of resilience in project management. These studies aim to reinforce current project risk management practices and improve the capacity of a project to deal with disruptive events. Therefore, this paper reviews first the literature on the concepts of resilience, and of organizational resilience in order to propose a definition of project resilience and to set its dimensions. Second, the development of indicators to assess project resilience is achieved by conducting semi-structured interviews with 10 senior project managers from different industries, in which, 10 case studies were explored and analyzed. As a result, a definition is proposed, and 10 indicators are established to assess two dimensions of project resilience: awareness and adaptive capacity. In future research, these indicators would require a rigorous validation in different project types. This provides project team members with a robust set of indicators with which they would be able to assess their project’s capacity to effectively and efficiently deal with disruptive events.

Author Biographies

  • Khalil Rahi, Department of industrial engineering, Polytechnique Montreal Canada

    Khalil Rahi has been involved in IT project management for the last eleven years. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Polytechnique Montreal. His doctoral research focuses on defining the concept of project resilience and developing indicators to evaluate it. He has a BEng in electrical engineering from Polytechnique Montreal, and an MBA in IT management from Laval University. He is also certified PMP and ITIL v3 foundation.

  • Mario Bourgault, Department of industrial engineering, Polytechnique Montreal Canada

    Professor Mario Bourgault has held research and teaching positions at Polytechnique Montréal since 1998. He has been an active member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec since he obtained his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Laval University, in 1986. Since the beginning of his academic career, he led several research projects related to the management of engineering projects and technological innovation. From 2004 to 2014, he held the Canada Research Chair in Technology Project Management. Over the past 20 years, Pr Bourgault has gained a rich and diversified experience in conducting research activities with both academic and industrial partners. The vast majority of research projects he has led involved major private and public national organizations. He has contributed to more than 100 scientific publications on his own, or with colleagues and students, and has a long experience of supervising students at all academic levels: bachelor's, master's, doctorate and postdoctoral. Before becoming a professor, Pr Bourgault pursued a career as a project engineer in various private and public organizations. Pr Bourgault currently holds the Pomerleau Research Chair in Innovation and Governance of Construction Projects at Polytechnique Montréal.

  • Benoit Robert, Department of industrial engineering, Polytechnique Montreal Canada

    Benoît ROBERT is a civil engineer, professor and director of the Centre risque & performance (CRP), a research centre dedicated to the integration of risks in the evaluation of the performance of critical infrastructure (CI). The Center specializes in the study of cross-sector interdependencies and domino effects between CI, namely the energy, telecommunications, water and transportation sectors. Professor Robert has developed an expert system of interdependency modeling currently being applied by the civil security authorities of the City of Montréal in collaboration with the Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec. He is also currently leading a research project in collaboration with Defense Research & Development Canada, Industry Canada and the Centre de services partagés du Québec. This project aims at developing a sharing information framework for the telecommunications sector in order to better understand and potentially model keys functional interdependencies between the main Canadian and regional stakeholders of this sector. Professor Robert has also developed a resilience methodology for the critical systems of the Province of Québec with numerous governmental partners and organizational resilience indicators. In addition to his research activities, Professor Robert teaches technological risk management, emergency and business continuity planning and organizational resilience engineering.

References

Akgün, A. E., & Keskin, H. (2014). Organisational resilience capacity and firm product innovativeness and performance. International Journal of Production Research, 52(23), 6918–6937.

Albert, M., Balve, P., & Spang, K. (2017). Evaluation of project success: a structured literature review. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 10, 796–821.

Anbari, F. T. (1985). A systems approach to project evaluation. Project Management Journal, 16(3), 21–26.

Aubry, M., Hobbs, B., & Thuillier, D. (2007). A new framework for understanding organisational project management through the PMO. International Journal of Project Management, 25(4), 328–336.

Bannerman, P. L. (2008). Risk and risk management in software projects: A reassessment. Journal of Systems and Software, 81(12), 2118–2133.

Bhamra, R., Dani, S., & Burnard, K. (2011). Resilience: the concept, a literature review and future directions. International Journal of Production Research, 49(18), 5375–5393.

Blay, K. B. (2017). Resilience in projects: definition, dimensions, antecedents and consequences (Ph.D.). Loughborough University, United Kingdom, Loughborough.

Borekci, D. Y., Rofcanin, Y., & Gürbüz, H. (2015). Organisational resilience and relational dynamics in triadic networks: a multiple case analysis. International Journal of Production Research, 53(22), 6839–6867.

Borekci, D. Y., Rofcanin, Y., & Sahin, M. (2014). Effects of organizational culture and organizational resilience over subcontractor riskiness: A multi-method study in longitudinal time setting. European Business Review, 26(1), 2–22.

Brady, T., & Davies, A. (2014). Managing Structural and Dynamic Complexity: A Tale of Two Projects. Project Management Journal, 45(4), 21–38.

Carlson, J. L., Haffenden, R. A., Bassett, G. W., Buehring, W. A., Collins, M. J., Folga, S. M., … Whitfield, R. G. (2012). Resilience: Theory and Application (No. ANL/DIS-12-1). Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).

Crawford, L., Langston, C., & Bajracharya, B. (2013). Participatory project management for improved disaster resilience. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 4(3), 317–333.

De Bakker, K., Boonstra, A., & Wortmann, H. (2010). Does risk management contribute to IT project success? A meta-analysis of empirical evidence. International Journal of Project Management, 28(5), 493–503.

Demmer, W. A., Vickery, S. K., & Calantone, R. (2011). Engendering resilience in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): a case study of Demmer Corporation. International Journal of Production Research, 49(18), 5395–5413.

Duarte Alonso, A., & Bressan, A. (2015). Resilience in the context of Italian micro and small wineries: an empirical study. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 27(1), 40–60.

Geambasu, G. (2011). Expect the Unexpected: An Exploratory Study on the Conditions and Factors Driving the Resilience of Infrastructure Projects (Ph.D.). École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, Lausanne.

Giezen, M., Salet, W., & Bertolini, L. (2015). Adding value to the decision-making process of mega projects: Fostering strategic ambiguity, redundancy, and resilience. Transport Policy, 44, 169–178.

Gunasekaran, A., Rai, B. K., & Griffin, M. (2011). Resilience and competitiveness of small and medium size enterprises: an empirical research. International Journal of Production Research, 49(18), 5489–5509.

Hanisch, B., & Wald, A. (2013). Effects of complexity on the success of temporary organizations: Relationship quality and transparency as substitutes for formal coordination mechanisms. Scandinavian Journal of Management.

Hillson, D. (2014). How to Manage the Risks You Didn’t Know You Were Taking. Presented at the PMI® Global Congress 2014, United States, Phoenix, AZ. Newtown Square: PMI.

Hinkin, T. R. (1998). A Brief Tutorial on the Development of Measures for Use in Survey Questionnaires. Organizational Research Methods, 1(1), 104–121.

Holling, C. S. (1973). Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4, 1–23.

Holling, C. S. (1996). Engineering Resilience versus Ecological Resilience. Engineering Within Ecological Constraints, P C Schulze, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 31–43.

Jones, B. A. (2015). Benchmarking organizational resilience: A cross-sectional comparative research study (Ph.D.). New Jersey City University, United States, New Jersey.

Jung, K. (2015). Sources of organizational resilience during the 2012 Korean typhoons: An institutional collective action framework (Ph.D.). University of North Texas, United States, Texas.

Kopczyński, T., & Brzozowski, M. (2015). Systems Thinking in Project Management : Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidence from Polish Companies. Retrieved from https://repozytorium.uph.edu.pl/handle/11331/618

Lee, A. V., Vargo, J., & Seville, E. (2013). Developing a Tool to Measure and Compare Organizations’ Resilience. Natural Hazards Review, 14(1), 29–41.

Mafabi, S., Munene, J. C., & Ahiauzu, A. (2015). Creative climate and organisational resilience: the mediating role of innovation. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 23(4), 564–587.

McManus, S. T. (2008). Organisational resilience in New Zealand (Ph.D.). University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Christchurch.

Otulana, O. (2011). The role of organisational resilience in maintaining long term performance, especially after undergoing major organisational changes: a consideration of the critical success factors involved (Ph.D.). Loughborough University, United Kiingdom, Loughborough.

Pal, R., Torstensson, H., & Mattila, H. (2014). Antecedents of organizational resilience in economic crises - an empirical study of Swedish textile and clothing SMEs. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, 410–428.

Petit, F. D., Bassett, G. W., Black, R., Buehring, W. A., Collins, M. J., Dickinson, D. C., … Peerenboom, J. P. (2013). Resilience Measurement Index : An indicator of Critical Infrastructure Resilience (No. ANL/DIS-13-01). Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).

Pettit, T. J., Simpson, N. C., Hancock, P. G., Clark, H., Haydel, T., & Pierce, J. (2016). Exploring Operational Resilience in the Context of Military Aviation: Finding the Right Mode at the Right Time. Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 28(2), 24–36.

Ponomarov, S. Y., & Holcomb, M. C. (2009). Understanding the concept of supply chain resilience. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 20, 124–143.

Price, M. R. (2012). In Pursuit of Reliability: A District Level Action Research Concerned with Resilience (Ph.D.). Washington State University, United States, Washington.

Proag, V. (2014). The Concept of Vulnerability and Resilience. Procedia Economics and Finance, 18, 369–376.

Sapeciay, Z., Wilkinson, S., & Costello, S. B. (2017). Building organisational resilience for the construction industry: New Zealand practitioners’ perspective. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 8(1), 98–108.

Sawalha, I. H. S. (2015). Managing adversity: understanding some dimensions of organizational resilience. Management Research Review, 38(4), 346–366.

Schneider, A., Wickert, C., & Marti, E. (2017). Reducing Complexity by Creating Complexity: A Systems Theory Perspective on How Organizations Respond to Their Environments. Journal of Management Studies, 54(2), 182–208.

Schroeder, K., & Hatton, M. (2012). Rethinking risk in development projects: from management to resilience. Development in Practice, 22(3), 409–416.

Somers, S. C. (2007). Building organizational resilience potential: An adaptive strategy for operational continuity in crises (Ph.D.). Arizona State University, United States, Arizona.

Son JeongWook, & Rojas Eddy M. (2011). Evolution of Collaboration in Temporary Project Teams: An Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation Approach. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 137(8), 619–628.

Sonnet, M. T. (2016). Employee behaviors, beliefs, and collective resilience: An exploratory study in organizational resilience capacity (Ph.D.). Fielding Graduate University, United States, California.

Stephenson, A. V. (2010). Benchmarking the Resilience of Organisations (Ph.D.). University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Christchurch.

Sullivan-Taylor, B., & Branicki, L. (2011). Creating resilient SMEs: why one size might not fit all. International Journal of Production Research, 49(18), 5565–5579.

Sydow, J., & Braun, T. (2018). Projects as temporary organizations: An agenda for further theorizing the interorganizational dimension. International Journal of Project Management, 36(1), 4–11.

Thakurta, R. (2015). Projects as temporary organisations: insights from requirement volatility management practices. International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 7(2), 184–202.

Thamhain, H. (2013). Managing Risks in Complex Projects. Project Management Journal, 44(2), 20–35.

Thomé, A. M. T., Scavarda, L. F., Scavarda, A., & Thomé, F. E. S. de S. (2016). Similarities and contrasts of complexity, uncertainty, risks, and resilience in supply chains and temporary multi-organization projects. International Journal of Project Management, 34(7), 1328–1346.

Tillement, S., Cholez, C., & Reverdy, T. (2009). Assessing organizational resilience: an interactionist approach. M@n@gement, 12(4), 230–265.

Turner, N., & Kutsch, E. (2015). Project Resilience: Moving beyond traditional risk management. PM World Journal, 4(11).

Vidal, L.-A. (2009, December 18). Thinking project management in the age of complexity. Particular implications on project risk management. (Ph.D.). École centrale Paris, France, Paris.

Zhang, H. (2007). A redefinition of the project risk process: Using vulnerability to open up the event-consequence link. International Journal of Project Management, 25(7), 694–701.

Zhu, J. (2016). A System-of-Systems Framework for Assessment of Resilience in Complex Construction Projects (Ph.D.). Florida International University, United States, Florida.

Downloads

Published

2022-05-20

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2019): The Journal of Modern Project Management

Section

Articles-JMPM

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Khalil Rahi, Mario Bourgault, Benoit Robert

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Benchmarking Project Resilience. (2022). The Journal of Modern Project Management, 7(1). https://journalmodernpm.com/manuscript/index.php/jmpm/article/view/JMPM01901

Similar Articles

1-10 of 467

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.