A Review of the Most Significant Challenges Impacting Conventional Project Management Success

Abstract

To remain competitive, it is important for organizations to be aware of the success factors for effective conventional project management. It is equally important for them to develop knowledge about project management challenges and how such challenges can be addressed. Organizations and their project management teams are influenced by the three categories of enablers, limitations, and challenges. In this article, a review was carried out to highlight the challenges impacting the effectiveness of conventional project management. The review process comprised of identifying the research question; identifying relevant references; selecting studies; charting the data; and collating, summarizing, and reporting results. This process resulted in the inclusion of eight relevant references. Based on the frequency of challenge occurrence, the following five significant challenges have been identified: communication, control, competence, culture, and complexity. Complementarity and dependence links between these five challenges have been highlighted in this article. In this article, some project management challenges may not be presented. Due to the selected databases, search terms, chosen publications, and the authors’ assessment, the research may have some limitations. Furthermore, the challenges of conventional project management can partly be overcome by a mixture of other project management methods and identified recommendations.