Future Research

Following Phase I, which was completed in the fall of 2000, the authors initiated the second phase of the study. It involved an online international survey with a response rate of 1,867. The study found that 71 percent of respondents agreed that selling project management was an important issue. 82 percent agreed that project management was used to deliver successful projects. Yet in another question, 60 percent disagreed that projects were completed on schedule or on budget. In keeping with the findings of Phase I, 77 percent agreed that executives were more interested in project management when there was an internal crisis or failure. Another finding that related to Phase I was that approximately one-third disagreed that emphasizing the detailed features, tools, or techniques were helpful ways of describing project management when selling to executives.

Briefly, the demographics for Phase II showed that 53 percent were project management personnel, 26 percent consultants, and 20 percent executives. 70 percent were male and 71 percent between the ages of thirty-one and fifty. The majority of participants were from North America.

At the time of this publication, the authors were in the process of conducting descriptive statistics on the data using SPSS and qualitative software on the open-ended questions. Phase II research publications are forthcoming through PMI as a book in 2002.