Course Title: Doctor of Philosophy in Management

Thesis Title: Network Project Management: Visualising collective knowledge to better understand and model a project-portfolio

Supervisors: Professor Deborah Blackman and Assoc. Prof. Monica Kennedy

Abstract:

This research contributes to the bodies of knowledge in the general management, knowledge management, project management, network analysis, and system dynamics disciplines. The primary contribution is the proof of a holistic business methodology that elicits the capacity of an organisation to engage effectively in its activities, particularly within project-program and project-portfolio environments. The methodology, which I have called Business Network Analysis™, bridges the instrumental and social action management discourses, to help managers mobilise and leverage knowledge assets, and to understand their knowledge landscape. It provides any combination of quantitative, qualitative, and graphical answers across the ‘know-how, know-what, know-why, know-who, know-where, know-when, and know-how-much’ business knowledge components.

In project-program and project-portfolio environments the methodology can be used at the level of artefacts, processes, individuals, teams, departments, or organisations to:

• assess project-program and project-portfolio operations by mapping the formal and informal process flows of an organisation;
• identify and then integrate current actual practice across core processes;
• understand inter-departmental document relationships;
• assess project-program and project-portfolio operations by plotting the communication path and time taken for a decision to propagate through an organisation;
• identify and accelerate the flow of information and knowledge across functional, project-program, and organisational boundaries by detecting and correcting information bottlenecks, and identifying where increased knowledge flow will have the most impact;
• improve decision making in project-program and project-portfolio manager networks by mapping inter and intra-organisational dependencies;
• improve decision making in project-program and project-portfolio manager networks by identifying and correcting structural holes (Burt 1995, 2004) in personal networks;
• improve decision making in project and project-program manager networks by plotting project dependencies;
• support project and project-program manager collaboration by identifying potential partnerships and connecting people to people to ensure effective knowledge creation and sharing;
• assess the state of social capital by identifying individuals and project teams playing central roles, such as key knowledge brokers;
• assess the state of individual and project team social capital by identifying trust, support, and advice networks;
• support collaboration by raising the awareness of the importance of informal networks, and weaving communities of practice;
• simulate the effect of unknown dependencies on project rework; and
• determine an optimal number of projects for a project-program or project-portfolio.

Potential Implication for Policy Reform or Management Practices:

Business Network Analysis™ is both a management audit methodology and a project-program or project-portfolio knowledge management methodology. Hargie & Tourish (2009) stress the requirement for organisations to develop and implement auditing techniques that measure organisational climate, in the same way they audit financial statements. Similarly Edvinsson & Malone (1997) and Huff & Jenkins (2002) stress the need for the firm to map routinely strategic knowledge, but note the difficulty in identifying knowledge assets, and more importantly presenting visually the outcome. Business Network Analysis™ satisfies both requirements, and in so doing bridges the gap between theory and practice. At the same time it is a diagnostic bottom-up methodology that gives an emancipatory voice, in keeping with Ulrich’s (1998, 2003) critical systems approach, to all participants in the organisation. In so doing, it also helps connect existing management disciplines in trans-disciplinary ways as opposed to multi-disciplinary ways. The final proof of the value of the Business Network Analysis™ methodology is the fact that the Australian Defence Force’s Capability Development Group are using it, and continue to do so! Furthermore the methodology has been adopted in other areas of Defence, and is the cornerstone of an already successful business venture called HyperEdge Pty Ltd.

Short Bio:

Graham Durant-Law CSC is the owner and chief scientist of HyperEdge Pty Ltd. He is an expert in network analysis and developed the business network analysis™ methodology. He is an acknowledged thought leader in knowledge management, and is one of the international adjudicators for the Singapore Knowledge Management Excellence Awards. He holds numerous academic qualifications and has won prizes for academic achievement, as well as awards for innovation and practice. For example, in 2010 he was a finalist in the Project Management Institute’s Project Manager of the Year Award, and on Australia Day 2011 he was awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross within the Australian Honours System. He is passionate about building superior organisations using evidence-based methods and maintains a blog called Knowledge Matters with this theme.