The craft of project shaping

Purpose – This paper aims to look closely at the actuality of project formation to investigate the performance of project shaping – those acts performed by individuals to make that form of “sense” that constitutes a new project, and to propose a framework for mapping the skills of those individuals who are directly involved in shaping projects. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a sensemaking approach from illustrative narratives in order to propose a model of how a project outcome is shaped. The analysis is based on thinking that emerged from the Rethinking Project Management Network and other academic communities. Findings – Significant factors in project formation are: the timing of the conversion of work into controlled project form (the control model of projects), the role of factional interests and power structures (tribal power), the alignment of project scope with a need for transformation (transformation and value), the fast production of tangibles such as project mandates that embody the project essentials (enacted reality), and responsiveness to the dynamics of the wider social context (external dynamics – peripety). Research limitations/implications – It is apparent that the process of project formation, and the shape each project takes, is highly dependent on the actions of key individuals (shapers' volition). There is further scope for expanding the understanding, within the structure of the framework, of the full array of activities performed by individuals in action as “project shapers”. Practical implications – The framework developed is of immediate value to those individuals who use their skills to mould a project, providing a conceptual basis they can use to learn and extend their skills. Originality/value – Much of the interest to date in project formation has focused on instrumental managerial practices of governance. This paper focuses on lessons to be learned from the actuality of project formation – the conversion of work in organisations from a muddle of ambiguity and complexity into that particular form of cohesion and accepted “sense” that is a defined project or programme.