The effects of schedule-driven project management in multi-project environments

Prior work has affirmed the importance of studying project management in multi-project environments. A challenge in these settings pertains to the need to share skilled resources across concurrent projects when project management is schedule-driven and resource capacity is fully committed. To probe into this problem, we use a system dynamics simulation grounded on in-depth fieldwork with a high-performance truck developer. We simulate the effects of capturing resources allocated originally to one project so as to speed up another product development project that started late. Our central contribution is to illuminate how a schedule-driven project management policy can lead to a vicious cycle that degrades the organizationʹs capability to meet the planned project milestones in the long-term. Whilst capturing resources can ensure that a tardy but ‘business-critical’ project is delivered on time, if the organization has no free resource capacity and is also not recruiting more staff, this practice harms the schedule performance of the projects deprived from resources. Further, the workforceʹs productivity gradually deteriorates as the frequency with which staff switches back and forth between projects increases. These effects compounded cause delays in all the subsequent projects, irremediably degrading the organizationʹs capability to deliver projects on time reliably.