Topic 1: Is Project Management Software Worth the Cost?

Research Aim: Project management as an individual academic subject has flourished in recent decades. With it has come companies and software development firms that churn out what they consider project management tools most focused on scheduling time, cost, and team. The research will analyse different project management software in order to conclude if they do increase productivity and lead to project success.

Topic 2: Team Conflict Dynamic Model & Project Success

Research Aim: The research uses the team conflict dynamics model to analyse different conflict types and team conflict profiles to produce resolutions that can improve or lead to project success.

Topic 3: Culture and Conflict Management

Research Aim: The research examines how cultures of project managers may influence their methods of conflict resolution. How does a project manager’s culture affect the way they name, frame, blame, and try to tame conflict that arises in their project?

Learn more about Conflict Management.

Topic 4: Is the “Wall” Possible?: Analysing the Mexican-American Border Wall from a Project Management Perspective.

Research Aim: During the 2016 Presidential Election President Donald Trump boosted about building a big, beautiful border wall across the American southern border. The current research analyses the feasibility of the “Wall” using project management principals and civil engineering. The research will examine if the project is possible to be completed within the 4 years of President Trumps current term and within a possible budget.

Topic 5: Analyzing the project delay causes and how global construction companies are coping with it

Research Aim: The main aim of the research will be focusing on identifying the main causes and symptoms of project delays and how it impacts the over project life cycle. The second phase of the project will be focusing on how global construction companies have devised different strategies to cope with this issue.

Topic 6: Assessing the importance of communication in maintaining quality and timely delivery of project activities.

Research Aim: This research will be focusing on analyzing the significance of communication between project organization and its stake holders (both internal and external) and how this this efficient communication helps the organization in maintaining quality and timely delivery of project activities.

Topic 7: Identifying the factors of project selection: A drastic shift project benefits approach towards customer-centricity

Research Aim:The main purpose of this research paper is to identify the most important factors that helps in selecting a project. This paper will specifically be focusing on analyze the shift of project benefits approach towards customer-centricity. Project benefits are focused more on attaining tangible things such as high sales, more revenue, faster call handling times etc; whereas customer centricity approach is focused more on selecting those clients who are easy to work with, having high brand value etc.

Topic 8: Analyzing the impact of project misalignment with business objectives on the overall project performance

Research Aim: Although there are many factors that causes projects delays or makes it unsuccessful, however this research will be focusing on identifying the consequences of project misalignment with business objectives on the overall project performance.

Topic 9: Assessing the importance of project management soft skills in the context of project success rates

Research Aim: This research will be having a detailed critical analysis of project management soft skills including its benefits and cost and how it helps the project in achieving the desired result and outcome.

Topic 10: Analyzing the Impact of psychosocial stressors on project manager performance. The mediating effect of organizational culture.

Research Aim: Using a research model, the impact of psychosocial stressors (health & well-being, work individual interface, work environment, etc.) is tested on project manager’s performance using dimensions of performance. Project managers are asked to complete a questionnaire that will be the basis of collecting empirical data. The data is then analyzed using Smart PLS. 

Topic 11: Analyzing the Impact of Culture on Project Performance in the IT Industry

Research Aim: The research aims to analyze the causes of delay and failure due to cultural factors. The research model analyzes the impact of national culture and organizational culture, through the mediation of interpersonal conflict, on project performance which is measured through various dimensions.

Topic 12: Examining the Impact of Organization to Implementation of Project Management Practices

Research Aim: Researcher will use mixed methods research techniques to undercover the informal people focused project management practices that are implemented in SMEs. Using interviews and surveys firms from a specific industry will be selected to collect data in order to examine the perceived size of the firm and how it impacts project management practices.

Topic 13: Examining Project Management Research Trends that influence Project Success

Research Aim: The researcher will use systematic literature review techniques to identify and analyze project management research trends. Then using comparative analysis, a plausible relationship between project management research trends and social and economic trends are analyzed.

Topic 14: Analyzing the impact of project management maturity factors on project success in large enterprises.

Research Aim: The role of projects has significantly increased worldwide due to more improved international standards, and training in the field. Many studies still identify that the amount of successful projects hasn’t changed. The purpose of this research is to study the possible relationship between project performance/success factors and organizational project management maturity.

Topic 15: The impact of agile project management on productivity in the IT industry.

Research Aim: The research will use quantitative research techniques to analyze the impact on productivity in companies working in the IT industry. Particularly, productivity will be measured using the dimension of customer satisfaction, improvement of productivity, and job satisfaction. Empirical hypothesis testing methods will be used to analyze and report that outputs of the data.

Topic 16: Agile-Scrum for Healthcare Project Management

Research Aim: Agile-scrum project management was developed originally for the IT industry, however it has unlimited potential to bring benefits to other industries, including the healthcare industry. The research will attempt to show how it may be applied in the healthcare industry to develop frameworks to improve quality, timeliness, and overall value for delivering healthcare in a large scale patient setting.

Learn about creating best environment for research and writing your project.

Research Based Project Management Dissertation Topics

Topic 17: Investigating project management success for project oriented business organisations from the perspective of technical capacity, organization structure and leadership

Topic 18: Understanding the role of project management soft skills to increase project success rates – Review of statistically meaningful and documented evidence

Topic 19: Understanding the role of project management methodologies to increase project success rates – Review of statistically meaningful and documented evidence

Topic 20: Does the “Triangle model” of project management accurately represent the PM process? – Why do project managers across the globe continue to cling to the triangle as a model for project management despite the obvious problems?

Topic 21: Should “project exit strategy” be part of the project management philosophy? An empirical investigation to conclude to what extent projects have an “exit strategy”

Topic 22: Learning from History – Does general management have established theories that support it? If so, presumably the originators faced the same challenges of legitimacy as project management research faces to day. In which case, what can be learned from the original emergence and growth of general management?

Topic 23: Investigating various career paths available to project managers in light of relative evidences examining the significance and value of Project Management Office (PMO) in comparison with Project Portfolio Management Offices (PPMO) and Project Program Offices (PPO)

Topic 24: To validate and test principles supporting the concept of PMI’s Project Management Maturity (OPM3) to suggest improvements

Topic 25: Discussing the relative merits of different project management certifications

Topic 26: Examining the differences between process groups and project life cycle – Potential problems for PM practitioners

Topic 27: The importance of PMBOK in improving project management performance – Why and how project management complexity affects projects

Topic 28: To identify and analyse the most important elements to improve project management performance

Topic 29: Why there are substantial differences between project management theories and practices? The role of users and tutors

Topic 30: To identify and discuss the differences between project management and operations management

Topic 31: What is the most suitable time to develop project plan and how detailed it should be?

Topic 32: To establish the first principles of project management for project community

Also Read: Construction Engineering Dissertation Topics

Why is engineering management is important?

Dissertation Topics on Project Management in Construction Industry

Research Aim: The purpose of the research is to examine how actors use relational institutional work (IOPs) to activate key stakeholders from coupled subfields in order to institutionalize new project delivery methods. The study will be cross-sectional and be based on the UK construction industry. The study will use mixed methods research.

Topic 34: Proposing a Multi-Methods Framework of Project Management Operations and Total Building Performance- Towards a Low Carbon Construction Industry

Research Aim: The research will develop a new multi-methodology framework to analyze the effects of building development project process that includes operations management, building energy consumption, carbon emissions, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ).

Topic 35: Analyzing Practices, Needs, & Delivery Benefits of Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) of Project Management in the Construction Industry

Research Aim: The research will examine the nature of SMEs in the construction industry that allow them to adopt informal practices of project management and explore its comparative costs and benefits. The research will use mixed methods research techniques to collect and analyze data.

Topic 36: Examining Causes and Effects of Poor Communication in the Construction Industry

Research Aim: The research examines the identification of causes and effects that may result in poor communication in the construction industry of the UK. The research will use mixed methods research to conduct the study in order to compare current and past factors that may result in poor communication through the project life cycle of construction projects.

Topic 37: Analyzing Risk Management in Procurement Options in the Construction Industry

Research Aim: The purpose of the study is to analyze the various risk management factors according to procurement options – design-bid-build, design-build, and collaborative forming contracts. The research will use mixed methods research to collect and analyze data.

Topic 38: The Impact of Organizational Characters on Construction Project Performance

Research Aim: The research will examine the relationship between project performance and organization characteristic in construction companies. The study will use key performance indicators (KPIs) to collect data on project performance. The study will also document organizational characteristics using social network analysis tools. The study will be conducted using quantitative research techniques.

Dissertation topics on different Project Management Knowledge-areas

Conflict Management/Resolution

• The Role of the Project Manager in Internal and External Relationship Management – A Study on New Project Management
• Examining the relationship between Project’s Added Value and Trust-Conflict Interaction among Project Teams – A Study on Calculative and Relational Trust.

Leadership

• The Mediating Role of Leadership Styles in the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Collaboration Satisfaction – Perspectives from Emotional Intelligence
• A Framework for Balancing Person-Centered Leadership and Team-centered Leadership in Project Managers – Examining the Archer’s Realist Social Theory

Scheduling (Time)

• Project Scheduling for Construction of Renewable Energy Plants using Critical Path Method – Application of Planning and Scheduling
• Setting Effective Target Benefits using Project Benefit Management – A Research using Goal Setting Theory

Quality Management

• Improving Quality using Multi-Project Strategies – New Competence Based Theories
• Analyzing the Impact of Cultural Heritage on Project Appraisal and Quality Assurance in Major Public Investments – A Cast Study

HR Management

• Adopting Dynamic Capability among Human Resource related Quality Management practices – Improving Product Development
• Allocation of Human Resources to Projects in Service Units – A Comparative Study

Communication

• The Impact of National and Organizational Culture on Communication in Projects
• Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Competencies in Project Management of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Check project management top case studies. 

Important Notes: 

As a student of project management looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment on existing project management theories – i.e. to add value and interest in the topic of your research.

The field of project management is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like civil engineering, construction, law, and even healthcare. That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic; it is the basis of your entire research. There are several major downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic credit-ability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the research is not viable. This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the very initial stage of dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

Keeping our advice in mind while developing a research topic will allow you to pick one of the best project management dissertation topics that not only fulfill your requirement of writing a research paper but also adds to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when making your topic you read recently published literature in order to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill. Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and can also be practically implemented. Take a look at some of our sample project management dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

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A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

• A Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Declaration
• Abstract/Executive Summary: A summary of the research completed
• Table of Contents
• Introduction: This chapter includes project rationale, research background, key research aim and objectives, and the research problems to be addressed. An outline of the structure of dissertation can also be added to this chapter/
• Literature Review: This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analyzing published and unpublished literature available on the chosen research topic, in light of research questions to be addressed. The purpose is to highlight and discuss the relative weaknesses and strengths of the chosen research area whilst identifying any research gaps. Break down of the topic and key terms can be really useful for the students.
• Methodology: The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter which usually includes research design, research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods and data analysis strategy.
• Findings and Analysis: Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts and tables to this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
• Discussion and Conclusion: The researcher presents his interpretation of results in this chapter, and state whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An important aspect of this section of the paper is to draw a linkage between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations in regards to implications of the results and directions for future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research along with final judgments, opinions, and comments must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
• References: This should be completed in accordance with your University’s requirements
• Bibliography
• Appendices: Any additional information, diagrams, graphs that were used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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