Sample Characteristics
The fi nal qualifying sample included 304 project leaders
from 183 technical projects. The leaders had an average of
5.2 years of project management experience. As shown by
the sigma/standard deviation,* the sample data are distributed
widely:
Number of Project Leaders in Sample 304
Number of Projects in Sample 183
Number of Project Leaders 1.66 ( 1)
per Project
Project Size (Average) $850K ( 310K)
Project Duration (Average) 12 Months ( 4)
Multidisciplinary Nature 8 Team Members
(Average) ( 5)
Project Management 5.2 Years ( 2.5)
Experience/PM
Number of Previous 6 ( 4.5)
Projects/PM
Data were collected in three specifi c modes: (1) Openended
questions leading to a broad set of data, such as condensed
in Table 2, and used for broad classifi cations and
further, more detailed investigations; (2) Specifi c questions,
requested to be answered on a tested fi ve-point scale,
such as shown in Figure 1. The scores enabled subsequent
data ranking and correlation analysis; and (3) Interviews
leading to a discussion of the previous fi ndings and further
qualitative investigations into the practices and experiences
of project managers and their superiors.
All associations were measured by utilizing Kendall’s
Tau rank-order correlation. The agreement between project
managers and their superiors on the reason for project control
problems was tested by using the nonparametric KruskalWallis
one-way analysis of variance by ranks, setting the
null-hypothesis for agreement at various confi dence levels
depending on the strength of the agreement or disagreement
as specifi ed in the write-up.
Dis