Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
SpringerLink
Log in

Sustainability and Agility in Project Management: Contradictory or Complementary?

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing III (CSIT 2018)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 871))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the new perspective within the sustainability in project management considering contemporary project management methodologies, practices, knowledge and skills and future trends in this management discipline. One of the main issues at the begging of the 21st century is how to achieve sustainable development. Sustainability as a concept is present at the society level and at the business level as well, therefore there is an increasing effort among researchers and practitioners to integrate project management and sustainable development. In recent years project management discipline is also facing a growing challenge of how to create value and respond to changing the environment, in order to profit. Facing this challenge requires agility. Agile management is now present not only in software development but in other industries too. Based on the analysis of sustainable project management concept, the main challenges of its application, and the key elements of agile project management, the main conclusions of this paper is that sustainability and agility are complementary concepts that help project managers to deal with environment burden.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Marotta, A.: Visione sostenibile (Sustainable vision in the conservation of cultural heritage project). Le vie dei Mercanti - XI Forum Internazionale di Studi tenutosi a Aversa/Capri Politecnico di Torino, pp. 1210–1219 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Henshaw, C.: The Wellcome Digital Library: building a sustainable infrastructure. Library Hi Tech. News 28(1), 18–21 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Seo-Jeong, L., Eung-Hyun, L., Deog-Seong, O.: Establishing the innovation platform for the sustainable regional development: tech-valley project in Sejong city, Korea. World Technopolis Assoc. 6(1), 75–86 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  4. William Young, C., Quist, J., Green, K.: Strategy for sustainable shopping, cooking and eating for 2050 – suitable for Europe? In: International Sustainable Development Research Conference, pp. 430–437 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Maltzman, R., Shirley, D.: Green Project Management. CRC Press, US: Taylor & Francis Group (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Savić, D., Bogetić, Z., Dobrota, M., Petrović, N.: A multivariate approach in measurement of the sustainable development of european countries. Manag.: J. Sustain. Bus. Manag. Solut. Emerg. Econ. 21(78), 73–86 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Oehlmann, I.: The Sustainable footprint methodology. Delft University of Technology (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Gareis, R., Heumann, M., Martinuzzi, A.: Relating Sustainable Development and Project Management. IRNOP IX, Berlin (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Obradovic, V., Jovanović, P., Djordjević, N., Beric, I., Jovanovic, F.: Using project management as a way to excellence in healthcare. HealthMED 6(6), 2100–2107 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Petrović, N., Bošnjak, I., Nedeljković, S.: Disaster risk reduction for sustainable development goals. Eur. Proj. Manag. J. 7(2), 27–35 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Aarseth, W., Ahola, T., Aaltonen, K., Økland, A., Andersen, B.: Project sustainability strategies: a systematic literature review. Int. J. Project Manage. 35, 1071–1083 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Schoper, Y.G., Gemünden, H.G., Nguyen, N.M.: Fifteen future trends for Project Management in 2025. In: International Project Management Association, IPMA Expert Seminar, Zurich (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Conforto, E.C., Salum, F., Amaral, D.C., da Silva, S.L., de Almeida, L.F.M.: Can agile project management be adopted by industries other than software development? Proj. Manag. J. 45, 21–34 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Beck, K., Beedle, M., Van Bennekum, A., Cockburn, A., Cunningham, W., Fowler, M., Thomas, D.: The Agile Manifesto. Manifesto for Agile Software Development. http://agilemanifesto.org/. Accessed Nov 2016

  15. Albarosa, F., Valenzuela Musura, L.: Social sustainability aspect of agile project management. Umeå School of Business and Economics (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Turner, R.: Responsibilities for sustainable development in project and program management. In: International Project Management Association. IPMA Expert Seminar, Zurich (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Scally, J.: Sustainability in project management. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 57, (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Silvius, G.: Sustainability as a new school of thought in project management. J. Clean. Prod. 166, 1479–1493 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Green Project Management: The GPM P5 Standard for Sustainability in Project Management, USA. https://greenprojectmanagement.org/. Accessed Nov 2017

  20. Silvius, A.G., Schipper, P.R.: Sustainability in project management competencies: analyzing the competence gap of project managers. J. Hum. Resour. Sustain. Stud. 2(02), 40 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Sholarin, E.A., Awange, J.L.: Environmental Project Management: Principles, Methodology, and Processes. Springer (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Brent, A., Labuschagne, C.: Social indicators for sustainable project and technology life cycle management in the process industry. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 11(1), 3–15 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Martens, M.L., Carvalho, M.M.: A conceptual framework of sustainability in project management. In: Project Management Institute Research and Education Conference, Phoenix, AZ. Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, PA (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Campanelli, A.S., Parreiras, F.S.: Agile methods tailoring – a systematic literature review. J. Syst. Softw. 110, 85–100 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Cubric, M.: An agile method for teaching agile in business schools. Int. J. Manag. Educ. 11, 119–131 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Van Waardenburg, G., van Vliet, H.: When agile meets the enterprise. Inf. Softw. Technol. 55, 2154–2171 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Nerur, S., Mahapatra, R.K., Mangalaraj, G.: Challenges of migrating to agile methodologies. Commun. ACM 48(5), 72–78 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Boehm, B., Turner, R.: Management challenges to implementing agile processes in traditional development organizations. IEEE Softw. 22(5), 30–39 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Patel, C., Muthu, R.: Agile maturity model (AMM): A Software Process Improvement framework for agile software development practices. Int. J. Softw. Eng. IJSE 2(1), 3–28 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Edum-Fotwe, F., McCaffer, R.: Developing project management competency: perspectives from the construction industry. Int. J. Proj. Manag. 18(1), 111–112 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Hwang, B.-G., Ng, W.-J.: Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: overcoming challenges. Int. J. Project Manage. 31, 272–284 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. IPMA: Individual competence baseline for project, programme and portfolio management. In: International Project Management Association (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Mei, C., Dainty, A., Moore, D.R.: What makes a good project manager? Hum. Resour. Manag. J. 15(1), 25–37 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Tabassi, A., Argyropoulou, M., Roufechaei, M., Argyropoulou, R.: Leadership behavior of project managers in sustainable construction projects. Procedia Comput. Sci. 100, 724–730 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Tharp, J.: Project management and global sustainability. In: PMI® Global Congress 2012—EMEA, Marsailles, France. Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, PA (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Agarval, R.S., Kalmar, T.: Sustainability in project management – Eight principles in practice. Umeå School of Business and Economics, Sweden (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Todorovic, M., Obradović, V.: Sustainability in project management: a project manager’s perspective. In: Ljumović, I., Ėltető, A. (eds.) Sustainable Growth and Development in Small Economies. Institute of World Economics, pp. 88–107 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Little, T.: Context-adaptive agility: managing complexity and uncertainty. IEEE Softw. 22(3), 28–35 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Wong, C.Y., Arlbjorn, J.S.: Managing uncertainty in a supply chain reengineering project towards agility. Int. J. Agile Syst. Manag. 3(3/4), 282–305 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Fernandez, D.J., Fernandez, J.D.: Agile project management - agilism versus traditional approaches. J. Comput. Inf. Syst. 49(2), 10–17 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Cho, J.: Issues and challenges of agile software development with SCRUM. J. Comput. Inf. Syst. 9, 188–195 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Cobb, C.G.: Making Sense of Agile Project Management: Balancing Control and Agility. Wiley, Hoboken (2011)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  43. Measey, P.: Agile foundations: principles, practices and frameworks. In: Radstad (ed.) Swindon, SN2 1FA, BCS Learning & Development Ltd, UK (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Wenying, S., Cecmil, S.: Practitioners’ agile-methodology use and job perceptions. IEEE Softw. 35(2), 52–61 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Whiwort, E., Biddle, R.: The social nature of agile teams. In: Agile Conference (AGILE), IEEE; Washington, DC, USA (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Calvo, R., Domingo, R., Sabastián, M.A.: Systemic criterion of sustainability in agile manufacturing. Int. J. Prod. Res. 46(12), 3345–3358 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Mohrman, S.A., Lawler, E.E.: Generating knowledge that drives change. Acad. Manag. Perspect. 26(1), 41–51 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This paper is a result of the Project No. 179081 funded by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia: Researching Contemporary Tendencies of Strategic Management Using Specialized Management Disciplines in Function of Competitiveness of Serbian Economy.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Vladimir Obradović & Marija Todorović

  2. Kiev National University of Construction and Architecture, Kiev, Ukraine

    Sergey Bushuyev

Authors
  1. Vladimir Obradović
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marija Todorović
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sergey Bushuyev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vladimir Obradović .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine

    Natalia Shakhovska

  2. Institute of Computer Science and Information Technologies, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine

    Mykola O. Medykovskyy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Obradović, V., Todorović, M., Bushuyev, S. (2019). Sustainability and Agility in Project Management: Contradictory or Complementary?. In: Shakhovska, N., Medykovskyy, M. (eds) Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing III. CSIT 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 871. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01069-0_37

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation