Week 3 Blog Entry: What Makes a Project Innovative?

What Makes a Project Innovative?

I read an article from the Project Management Journal, which is located in the PMI.org Knowledge resource center.  This article entitled "Labeling Projects as Innovative: A Social Identity Theory" is based on the findings of a case study conducted by researchers in London (Sergeeva, 2017).  Their question was whether or not an "Innovative" project was something that could be tangibly or precisely defined and identified, or if it was a term thrown about too easily to generate publicity.

The research team conducted a series of interviews with a number of project managers, from various fields of work, and of varying years of experience.  They chose their sample set number (30) by determining that the answers to their questions were no longer yielding different answers.  These are the questions they were asked:

1. What sorts of projects are you involved in?

2. Could you please describe one particular innovative project that you are especially proud of?:

3. What is distinctive about the particular project seen as innovative from other projects?

4. What are the contextual factors that  influence innovation in projects?

By asking these questions, researchers hoped to identify common themes amongst the answers.  They hoped to isolate: tangible examples, intangible examples, multiple levels, and market niches.  The result was that an "Innovative Project" could be either a process or a product (intangible vs tangible).  It could be Top-down driven, i.e. top managers influence the project by communicating the goals/mission; or it could be Bottom-up, where an employee or team member developed the idea and the project grew from there.  Another interesting finding was the "Base-moving", which meant that a radical change to the industry occurred after a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches were implemented.  

Ultimately, researchers concluded that an "Innovative Project" is often a label that is attached to a project in order to generate excitement.  Some projects truly are different, but most fall under the aforementioned categories and follow a similar approach.  The researchers summarized that social-identity theory is a driving factor for identification of innovation, and that it is often a matter of perspective.

Reference

Sergeeva, N. (2017). Labeling Projects as Innovative: A Social Identity Theory. Project Management Journal, 48(1), 51–64.