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Although there has been an increase in the application of a variety of robust technologies and systems, the oil and gas sector relies on project managers’ soft skills for success because of their vital role. Therefore, this study aims to explore the profound influence of project managers’ soft communication skills on successful risk management within Libya’s oil and gas projects.

A review of relevant literature and a quantitative approach through the administration of a questionnaire were used to determine factors impacting risk management implementation related to managerial communication skills. A total of 246 valid responses were received from the oil and gas companies in Tripoli, Libya. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and moderating relationship drawn by the hypotheses.

The findings suggest that managerial soft skills may be used to improve continuous risk management processes and intra-project communication. It was found that the experience is strengthening the positive relationship between written communication soft skills and project risk management implementation among Libyan oil and gas construction projects.

This study defines project managers’ soft communication skills and analyzes project managers’ soft communication skills with the role of experience as a moderator. This paper presents a valuable contribution by offering original insights tailored explicitly to the Libyan context. The information presented in this paper is relevant to project managers operating within the oil and gas industry. It also offers a novel approach to risk management in the Libyan oil and gas industry that can improve project efficiency and effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify the soft skills of construction project management; and second, to investigate the influence of these soft skills on project success factors in the Vietnamese construction industry.

A questionnaire survey was conducted with 108 project management professionals from the Vietnamese construction industry. Partial least square structural equation modelling was employed in data analysis.

Four-dimensional structure of project success factors was confirmed in this study. Results also showed that soft skills of project managers significantly contributed to project success factors and hence the project success.

There may be geographical limitation on the conclusions drawn from the findings. Similarly, the sample size was still small, despite a relatively high response rate. In addition, the majority of the respondents were contractors and clients as other project players were reluctant to respond to the survey.

This study provides an understanding of the relationship between soft skills and project success factors.

Although there have been studies focused on soft skills of project management and project success factors, few have attempted to analyse the effects of these soft skills on critical success factors. Thus, this study adds significantly to the existing research on both project management skills and project success factors.

By adopting the “hard” and “soft” project management (PM) approaches from the PM-literature, this paper aims to problematize the expected role of client organizations in driving innovation in the transport infrastructure sector.

Addressing a large public client in Sweden, a case study design was initially applied to provide in-depth insights and perspectives of client project managers’ views and experiences of managing projects expected to drive innovation. In this paper, the concepts of “hard” and “soft” are used to discuss empirical findings on challenges associated with adopting a PM-approach for driving innovation in projects. The empirical material consists of interview data, complemented with observations and archival data.

Findings reveal challenges associated with combining hard and soft approaches, frequently demonstrating difficulties in balancing short-term project expectations with the promotion of innovation. In line with the literature, project managers note that there is a need for soft approaches to promote development and drive innovation. Yet, findings reflect a situation in which operational success criteria predominate, whereas soft approaches are not sufficiently used to create the grounds required for fostering innovation.

Insights are provided into how PM-approaches may impact construction innovation in the infrastructure sector, demonstrating a need for further research on the challenges and implications of applying and combining hard and soft PM-approaches.

The chapter evaluates the value of practice-based teaching and learning on a UK postgraduate unit and describes the development of conceptual models for the student practice-based experience.

Student experience is explored through the use of an in-depth case study. Student understanding is explored through an exit survey of students.

Student experience of the unit was positive and negative. Positive experiences stem from good client communications, a motivated student team, and the buzz of a real project. Positive experiences appear to lead to a perception of pride in outcomes and personal transferrable skills. Negative experiences stem from the lack of life experience, language difficulties, client unavailability, lack of subject knowledge, and literature gaps which left students feeling ill-equipped to deal with the international group context. Negative experiences lead to stress and poor group development.

The study is based on a single simple case. The methodology has sought to reduce problems with internal validity and bias. The data collection and analysis methods are repeatable and we encourage other academics to test our conceptual models and conclusions.

Conceptual models for positive and negative experience are proposed.

The study suggests there is a balance to be sought between providing a positive student experience and practical learning. Practice-based learning adds significant value to the student in terms of improved understanding of hard and soft tools, but may need to be based upon positive and negative experience.

The purpose of this study is to compare the trend of academic project management research in Iran and the World in five-year periods with a text mining approach and TF–IDF method.

The research population consists of 1205 theses presented between 2000 and 2019 in Iranian universities. The central library website of the mentioned universities was used for data collection, and the text mining approach with the TF–IDF method was used for data analysis.

The remarkable results of this study include: Concrete structures are the most frequent among structural systems, Risk Management is the most frequent among PMBOK Knowledge Areas, Design-build (DB) system is the most frequent among Project Delivery Systems, Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) is the most frequent among DB Project Delivery Systems, Financial Management is the most frequent among specialized construction knowledge areas, Soft Skills is the most frequent among Global Trends, Contracting Companies is the most frequent among Project Parties, Construction Projects is the most frequent among Project Areas, Power Plant and Refinery is the most frequent among Project Subjects, Optimization is the most frequent among Problem-Solving Approaches, Fuzzy Logic is the most frequent among Novel Algorithms and Motivation is the most frequent among Soft Skills.

The innovative aspect of this research is that for the first time, text mining has been used to analyze academic research on project and construction management, and also for the first time, academic research on construction industry in Iran has been compared with global research.

The purpose of this paper is to facilitate further understanding of project complexity by highlighting the factors contributing to project complexity as reported by the practitioners facing the “actuality” of projects.

A qualitative research approach was undertaken by conducting semi‐structured interviews with the primary focus on the aerospace industry. Participants are involved in a variety of project settings, exhibiting different types and levels of complexity.

Analysis of responses highlights “people” issues as the main factor contributing to project complexity and the importance of soft skills in managing complex projects.

The research is based on a limited number of respondents from the aerospace sector. This will be further refined and improved upon by compiling views of additional practitioners involved in multiple aerospace projects.

The main research conclusions are that “hard” project management skills help to organise, plan and manage, and track changes during the course of the project. However, understanding of project complexity and its contributing factors helps practitioners to understand the dynamic, social and complex contexts of projects, thus highlighting the importance of “soft” skills.

This paper proposes the “project complexity triangle – people, product and process”, highlighting their importance as the three major areas contributing to project complexity.

The focus of this paper is on life‐cycle objective‐based project management systems in general, and SPMIS in particular. SPMIS (short for Smart Project Management Information System), has been designed: (a) to facilitate the employment of life‐cycle objective‐based project management approaches; and (b) to support concurrent engineering and construction, thus promoting greater integration of the processes under which projects are proposed and implemented. In order to validate the functions designed for SPMIS the authors undertook a detailed case study of a large capital project. The actual project management functions employed by the project team on the case project were researched and charted using the best current PM practices as the guide. While this field research shed light on the actual needs and requirements, the design of the SPMIS functions was approached from first principles in order to incorporate the basic shift from the traditional objectives of cost, time, and quality to life‐cycle objective functions, such as return on investment, facility operability, and life‐cycle integration. This paper describes the fundamental philosophy and framework for the development of life‐cycle objective function‐based project management systems in general, and contrasts these with the existing PM methods.

Drawing motivation from the greater exposure to uncertainty and condition changes that affect large projects due to their long lifecycle, this paper aims to investigate how the time factor affects the use of governance mechanisms to pursue the success of these projects.

To pursue its aim, the article applies the dichotomization between the hard and soft mechanisms of project governance to the analysis of a historical case study, whose findings are organized over the short, medium and long periods. The case selected is referred to the peculiar water system, made up of tunnels named “bottini,” that was in use in Siena (Italy) as the old aqueduct. Specifically, the study focuses on the project of expansion of this water system that was realized during the 14th century for the construction of the “Bottino maestro di Fontegaia.”

This article highlights the different relevance that, during the lifecycle of large projects, is assumed by hard and soft governance mechanisms, with the former having main relevance in a short and medium period, and the latter usually emerging in the medium period and, subsequently, playing a growing role for the project success in the long period.

The article contributes to the literature on large projects by providing novel insights about how the time factor impacts the governance of these projects. Furthermore, the case study, with its unique history, highlights the relevance of combining effectively the hard and the soft dimensions of project governance to pursue success.

In repetitive projects, repetition offers more possibilities for activity scheduling at the sub-activity level. However, existing resource-constrained repetitive scheduling problem (RCRSP) models assume that there is only one sequence in performing the sub-activities of each activity, resulting in an inefficient resource allocation. This paper proposes a novel repetitive scheduling model for solving RCRSP with soft logic.

In this paper, a constraint programming model is developed to solve the RCRSP using soft logic, aiming at the possible relationship between parallel execution, orderly execution or partial parallel and partial orderly execution of different sub activities of the same activity in repetitive projects. The proposed model integrated crew assignment strategies and allowed continuous or fragmented execution.

When solving RCRSP, it is necessary to take soft logic into account. If managers only consider the fixed logic between sub-activities, they are likely to develop a delayed schedule. The practicality and effectiveness of the model were verified by a housing project based on eight different scenarios. The results showed that the constraint programming model outperformed its equivalent mathematical model in terms of solving speed and solution quality.

Available studies assume a fixed logic between sub-activities of the same activity in repetitive projects. However, there is no fixed construction sequence between sub-activities for some projects, e.g. hotel renovation projects. Therefore, this paper considers the soft logic relationship between sub-activities and investigates how to make the objective optimal without violating the resource availability constraint.

This paper aims to discuss the development of an integrated management system (IMS) by linking quantitative and qualitative decision parameters with a view to rank and optimise capital projects. Roles and impacts of the non‐financial criteria have been combined with traditional financial criteria for decision‐making and management processes in dynamic project environment.

Both tangible and intangible information associated over project life cycle have been integrated and the dynamic operating environment is evaluated in proactive decision‐making process. In this research, a closed loop feedback system incorporating stakeholder's input with project's business objectives has been developed. The triple bottom line has been employed as decision‐making criteria. While the architecture, communication protocols and conceptual modelling framework of the overall system are briefly discussed, modelling of soft issues and underlying impacts have been discussed in details. The overall functionality of the system has been established incorporating a multi‐criteria decision hierarchy module and a number of intelligent functions. Integration of the system is achieved through a common database and appropriate user's interfaces.

The capability and functionality of the system prototype have been discussed with the focus on a road infrastructure project. Implementation of the model has been highlighted with appropriate examples.

The initial design of the model is based on data gathered from a real life project. The practical implication of the prototype is significant for holistic analysis of investment decisions on complex projects.

The stated modelling technique of soft issues (e.g. overall satisfaction level and stakeholders benefit values) along with project's financial objectives in an integrated framework will benefit all industry sectors.