Augmenting the delivery of public research and development projects in developing countries

Abstract

This research took the form of a qualitative study to evaluate the experiences of project management practitioners and identify barriers affecting the application of strategic project management best practices in public research and development projects. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted in four different public research organisations. Variance estimates were achieved by selecting a sample size of the four public research organisations that are project based, taking into consideration their respective peculiarities with reference to their mandates. The selected case organisations, being government public research organisations, had their projects scattered in every state of the Nigerian federation. The research established that unfamiliarity with best project management practices and strategic project management processes, together with organisational structures and a lack of skilled project management practitioners were found to be the core factors that affected strategic project management application in public research organisations. This research contributes to practice by proposing a framework that could be used to enhance the adoption of strategic project management best practices and execution of research and development projects in public research organisations.