Managing Innovative Projects

Abstract

Businesses and organisations are undertaking innovative projects to gain competitive advantage in the market. Research into innovative project management has been biased towards how innovative projects are managed to the detriment of the formulation of success criteria for innovative projects. There is a need to evaluate how innovative projects are managed. Project managers for innovative projects find it difficult to do so because success criteria for innovative projects have not been formulated. This paper is a theoretical study on managing different types of projects as different types of projects are managed in different ways. The paper also explores the characteristics of conventional projects as opposed to inno-vative projects and R&D projects. In addition, it critically analyses the differences between project man-agement in conventional projects and project management in innovative projects. By comparing the char-acteristics of conventional projects to those of innovative projects and R&D projects, and the way these different types of projects are managed, the paper attempts to formulate success criteria for innovative projects that can be used by project managers to determine the success or failure of innovative projects.