Project Management in Extreme Situations

Monique Aubry, Ph.D., is a professor at the School of Business and Management, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She teaches in executive MBA and graduate project management programs. Her research interests focus on the planning process in extreme situations and on the organizing of projects and organizational design, more specifically on Project Management Offices (PMO). The results of her work have been published in major academic journals in project management and have been presented at several research and professional conferences. She is a member of the Project Management Research Chair (pmchair.uqam.ca) and the UQAM's Health and Society Institute. She is a senior editor for the Project Management Journal. She is involved in the local project management community that oversees practices regarding organizational project management, where she promotes engaged scholarship and dialogue between professionals and researchers.

The growing complexity of projects and the uncertainty that reigns in today's global economy are rendering ineffective traditional project practices and processes. These outdated techniques are based on the premise that knowledge about a project is complete before it ever starts-this is nearly impossible in today's ever-changing world. New methods are needed to allow projects to adapt to changing conditions. Simply said, project management has to evolve! This book presents the latest steps in this evolution.

Foreword. Introduction: Blowing Hot and Cold on Project Management. A Polar Expedition Project and Project Management. Ambidexterity as a Project Leader Competency: A Comparative Case Study of Two Polar Expeditions. Mobilization and Sensibility on Polar Expeditions: More than Mere Motivation. Mobilizing Social Networks beyond Project Team Boundaries: The Case of Polar Expeditions. A Methodology for Investigating the "Actual" Course of a Project: The Case of a Polar Expedition. A Traditional Cree Expedition on the Ancestral Lands of the Neeposh Family of Northern Québec. Borrowing Concepts from Expedition Travel to Stimulate Alternative Tourism. The Project Front End: Financial Guidance Based on Risk. Lessons Learned from Sports Climbing: Some Disrespectful Discourse on Project Planning. Managing Extreme Situations in Fire and Rescue Organizations: The Complexity in Implementing Feedback. Coordination Practices in Extreme Situations: Lessons from the Military. Developing Collective Competence in Extreme Project Teams: The French Special Forces Case. Situated Teams: Dropping Tools on Mount Everest. Planning Risk and Cool Heads: Survival Conditions Required for Managing Projects. Flexibility and Rigidity in Planning a Program: The Case of the Montreal Metro Renovation Project. Project Manager: Specialist or Generalist? Project Management and the Unknown. Control and Flexibility: Which Balance Do We Mean? Conclusion. Epilog. Afterword: Looking for the Ordinary in the Extraordinary! Index.