Authentic Project Management Cases

A strong case can be made out for learning from a real life management case. Unfortunately, there is a dire shortage of such published literature as far as project management literature in India is concerned. Not that there is a dearth of projects executed in India with very high level of competency in planning and execution. But unfortunately, the lessons learned are not systematically recorded and published for enlightening the path of other project management professionals. A predominantly large part of the published work on such projects is pitched at the public relations or propaganda level – which would not be helpful to another professional to learn from.  Of course, it is quite understandable for any private organization not to part with some special or proprietary technique employed in project planning or execution. But even leaving out such special or proprietary techniques, a considerable part of the experience could be shared. Such authentic reports of project management would, no doubt, highlight the competency and reputation of the individual project managers as well as the organization and thus brighten in the public mind the image of the individual contributors and brand value of the organization. More importantly, however, all future projects could stand to benefit to some extent from the lessons learned; our nation will be the real beneficiary in the final analysis.

But besides the limitations imposed for maintaining business secrecy, there are also other obstacles in the path of such knowledge sharing. The high level executives associated with the projects are often too busy to take out time to systematically organize and present the project details. In some instances, they have no interest or exposure in academic disciplines necessary for such knowledge sharing. These limitations could be remedied if the organizations, or those who manage them, would be ready to share their experience by permitting access to project details to academic institutions. In such institutions, the professors or other academicians, who are interested and proficient in collecting, analyzing and presenting the project details with rigour, can prepare and present project management cases, which as mentioned before will bring credit to the individual project managers and organizations on one hand and build a treasure of project management knowledge useful to the industry and the nation.

S P Jain Institute of Management & Research has been in the forefront of project management education among the top business schools in the country and it would be possible for setting up a very fruitful collaboration between the senior project managers and their academic counterparts in our institution. Fortunately, several alumni of SPJIMR have set up successful projects or managed them during their professional career. These common roots in the institution could help to set up an atmosphere of mutual trust and desirable chemistry in working partnerships.

Alumnus of our institution, to whom this idea appeals, please share with Prof. Gautam Desai,
(e-mail: gautam@spjimr.org, cc: divatia@spjimr.org) the project case you would wish to collaborate on.

Educational Qualifications

BE (Elec.), BE (Mech.) Gujarat Univ., MS (Mech. Eng.) Univ. of Illinois (USA)

Work Experience

With a brilliant academic career (securing rank within the top three at all examinations), Gautam Desai has extensive industrial experience (over 40 Years) in the high level general management and project management areas. The project management experience covers hands-on experience in all phases of project management - from conceptualization, feasibility studies and engineering design to actual project management and construction.

He is one of the co-authors of a book on Project Management – “Project Management: The Managerial process” ISBN-978-07-070085-7, published by McGraw Hill. He is also a major contributor of the contents for web based e-learning program developed by SPJIMR.