Abstract
Project management has become important to the management of projects in organisations. Running projects successfully is crucial particularly for public enterprises that offer crucial services, knowing that when these projects fail, this has a very antipathetic impact on the organisation, society and all stakeholders. It is always important to know if the project will be successful, and if it is not, we need to know the factors that will help us to arrive at the decision to terminate certain projects. Electrical research and development (R&D) projects in the institution of higher learning in the majority seem not to be successful; therefore the study establishes the factors, which led to these projects not having a natural termination.
The research study focuses on electrical R&D projects that are undertaken by an institution of higher learning that is geographically located in Gauteng, in South Africa. The research is aimed at answering one vital research question:
What are the factors causing the high rate of electrical R&D project non-completion over the specified period at the specified institution of higher learning that is located geographically in Gauteng, South Africa?
The research will focus on the theoretical background and experiences of different project stakeholders and archival analysis of documents as guidance for this research.
The study will adopt a case study approach and utilised a mixed method methodology to carry out the objectives of the research, with the quantitative part of the research being the questionnaire and the qualitative part utilising documents from institutional archives.
The research study revealed termination factors that this project experienced and many professionals identified the ‘availability of capital’, ‘top management’,’ completion size’, ‘budget estimate’ and ‘time schedules’ as the factors affecting the electrical R&D projects not succeeding in the institution of higher learning. The other factors that were identified from the document analysis were project life cycle, R&D management support, and corporate structure and R&D structure. These factors played a huge role in these projects not having a natural termination.
Identification of these termination factors will play a significant role in future electrical R&D projects in institutions of higher learning. This will assist project stakeholders to concentrate on most of these termination factors that lead to the project not being a success and to ensure that necessary support is given to improve project performance.
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)