Engineer participation in scheduling and budgeting: the effect on project performance

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. The author looks at how engineer participation in the budgeting and scheduling of a research and development project affects the project's performance in these areas. Data were collected at a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). The FFRDC where the data were collected is involved in some projects which were of an exploratory nature and thus involve high levels of technical uncertainty. For this study, six projects were selected which span the range of projects from those with very little technical uncertainty to those with very high levels of technical uncertainty. The engineers on the six projects were surveyed regarding their participation in project budgeting and scheduling (response rate was 80.6 percent). The division leader for the division where the projects were housed rated each product's performance on budget and schedule as well as the project's overall performance. It was found that no correlation exists between engineer participation in project scheduling and budgeting and project schedule and budget performance. Further exploration via interviews found that it was how the inherent technical uncertainty was handled that seemed to drive project success. >