How to choose the appropriate project management approach?

Abstract

During the process of managing a project, requirements and approaches are changed, depending on the project implementation stage or certain challenges that occur during the project implementation. The degree of project's complexity changes over its life cycle phases, where the uncertainty might be considered as highest at the initial phase with the tendency to reduce as information gathers over time. Within the paper different project management approaches are presented, emphasizing the difference among them and their sensitivity to uncertainties and projects characteristics. The traditional approach is suitable for managing well-structured projects in the project environment with clear requirements and project scope. But, stakeholders cannot always specify all the requirements at the very beginning of the project and changes throughout the project life cycle can be expected. Agile project management is most appropriate for managing projects with expected frequently changes throughout the project life cycle and related to that high uncertainty. For managing projects with not clearly defined goals and solutions, which are high-risk and high-change projects, with high failure rates, possible option might be extreme project management. In the situation when a project has clear solution but not clearly defined goals, emertxe project management could be best project management approach. The requirements of project management could be developed during the project life cycle, depending on different characteristics of project life cycle phases. Also factors that affect project success are discussed in the paper as well as importance of considering project complexity, uncertainty and project environment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.