The Impact of the Project Manager in the Process of Project Initiation

Assignment Brief:

Write an academic paper on the topic of " The impact of the project manager in the process of project initiation."

Students should read and reference at least seven (7) peer reviewed publications to find at least 3 (max 5) concepts that are discussed in the literature as impacting the project manager's role in the process of project initiation. These concepts can be wanted or unwanted personal attributes, managerial or technical skills, types of knowledge, organisational structures or anything else that is discussed as impacting the project manager's role in the process of project initiation.

Your paper should be written as a thematic literature review. That is, a review of your cited literature discussing the topic, organised around what those publications say about the concepts you have chosen. These are the themes of your literature review and your writing should provide a focused overview and critical analysis of how these themes are discussed in the cited publications. Doing a thematic analysis requires you to summarise what your cited literature says about the chosen topic and gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your narrative writing skills in an academic context. A good thematic literature review not only summarises what the cited authors have said about the topic, covering where they have agreed or disagreed on particular points, it does so clearly, concisely and effectively. It tells a story.

For this assignment, you will be required to utilise your academic research skills to find peer reviewed academic literature (i.e. academic conference and/or journals papers and industry white papers, standards, etc.) on the assignment topic, as well as to evaluate and critically appraise this literature for what it says about the topics of interest.

Cited publications are best sourced from refereed journal articles obtainable through the University of Sydney electronic library. The three main refereed journals in the discipline of project management are:

• International Journal of Project Management
  • Project Management Journal
  • International Journal of Managing Projects in Business

In addition, many of the general management journals contain papers and articles relevant to project management. The advantage of using journal papers as a source for your learning is that:

1.  They are generally more current than many text books.

2.  They are generally more comprehensive than many textbooks because the entire paper is focused on a given topic.

3.  They are generally very useful for follow-on references, publications in their reference list that may provide a path to follow for more information.

4.  They provide a good model for you to develop your academic style of writing and to provide you with an appreciation of the rigour, expected level of details and requirements for academic writing.

5.  They provide hints and tips on research methods and approaches.

This assessment is designed as an assessment for learning. As such, upon completion of this assignment, in addition to acquiring knowledge regarding the impact of the project Manager in the process of project initiation, you should gain confidence in the learning process - that is, you would have "learned how to learn".

Word limit: 2000 (+/- 10% excluding references)

Format: Times New Roman 12-point font, double lines spaced, left justified. Submitted in pdf, doc, or docx on Canvas

Include your name, student ID, and email on separate a front page in your submission. Abstracts or tables of contents are not required. The first paragraph should be an introduction explaining the topics chosen and the themes identified.

Your submission should end with a reference list.

Referencing Style: APA 7th (please double-check before downloading references through Endnote)