Exploring Project Management by Exploiting Analogy with the Game of Go

397 Pages·2012·4.53 MB·English

Exploring Project Management by
Exploiting Analogy with the
Game of Go

By
E. Grant Kerr

A thesis submitted for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Strategy, Programme & Project Management
SKEMA Business School, Lille
December, 2011
© Grant Kerr, 2011
Supervisor
Pr. Dr. Christophe N. Bredillet, Centre for Advanced Study and Research in Project,
Programme and Portfolio Management
Examiners
Dr. Derek Walker, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Dr. Ginger Levin, SKEMA Business School
Jury Members
Dr. Rodney Turner, SKEMA Business School (Chair)
Dr. Laurence Lecoeuvre, SKEMA Business School
Dr. Mehran Azaran, SKEMA Business School
Dr. Mohamed Shihata, United Arab Emirates Embassy, Paris
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Certificate of Authorship / Originality
I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a
degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully
acknowledged within the text.
I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received
in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In
addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the
thesis.

Signature of Student ________________________

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Acknowledgements
There are many, many people who have helped me reach this goal of a
completed PhD thesis. First of all, my deep thanks and respect to my supervisor Dr.
Christophe Bredillet. Thank you to Dr. Janice Thomas and Dr. Lynn Crawford for
helping me to find this path. Thank you to Dr. Rodney Turner, Dr. Philippe Ruiz, Dr.
Paul Giammalvo, and other professors, staff, students and alumni of SKEMA Business
School (formerly ESC-Lille) for their encouragement. Thank you to Shifu Yuan Zhou,
my Go teacher, to Professor Jeong of Myongji University, to the members of the Regina
Go Club, and to the writers of books for Go players, to professional Go players, and to
teachers of the game of Go for exploring and pushing the limits of the game of Go, and
communicating the knowledge gained from their experience. Thank you to co-workers,
peers, students, friends and acquaintances who expressed interest and support for my
work. Thank you to SAIC Canada for financial as well as moral support.
Finally, and most importantly, thank you to my wife, my children and my
extended family for their ongoing love and encouragement.
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background of the Problem ........................................................................... 1
1.1.1 Limitations of Traditional Project Management .......................................... 2
1.1.2 Calls for Change ....................................................................................... 4
1.1.3 New Ideas ................................................................................................. 4
1.2 Statement of the Problem .............................................................................10
1.3 Purpose of the Study ....................................................................................11
1.3.1 Research Objectives ................................................................................11
1.4 Research Questions ......................................................................................12
1.5 Significance of the Study ..............................................................................12
1.6 Conceptual or Substantive Assumptions ....................................................13
1.7 Research Design ...........................................................................................14
1.8 Thesis organisation ......................................................................................16
1.9 Limitations and Delimitations .......................................................................17
1.9.1 Limitations ................................................................................................17
1.9.2 Delimitations .............................................................................................18
1.10 Expected Contribution ..................................................................................19
1.11 Definition of Terms ........................................................................................19
2 Literature Review ....................................................................................... 26
2.1 The Game of Go .............................................................................................26
2.1.1 Origins of the Game of Go ........................................................................26
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2.1.2 The Game of Go Today ........................................................................... 29
2.1.3 Description and Rules of the Game of Go ................................................ 30
2.1.4 Characteristics of the Game of Go ........................................................... 32
2.1.5 Go Knowledge ......................................................................................... 36
2.1.6 Process of Playing Go ............................................................................. 41
2.1.7 Deciding Where to Play Next ................................................................... 49
2.1.8 Characteristics of Go Players ................................................................... 65
2.1.9 Analogy with Project Management ........................................................... 68
2.2 Project Management ..................................................................................... 71
2.2.1 Characteristics of Projects ....................................................................... 71
2.2.2 Positivist Project Management ................................................................. 77
2.2.3 Constructivist Project Management .......................................................... 83
2.2.4 Characteristics of a Project Manager ....................................................... 91
2.3 Project Management and the Game of Go .................................................. 92
3 Research Perspective: The Theory of Analogy ...................................... 94
3.1 Analogy Backgrounder................................................................................. 94
3.1.1 What is Analogy? ..................................................................................... 94
3.1.2 Why Use Analogy for this Research? ....................................................... 98
3.2 The Multiconstraint Theory (MT) of Analogy Used in this Research ....... 101
3.2.1 Selection ................................................................................................ 103
3.2.2 Mapping ................................................................................................. 106
3.2.3 Evaluation .............................................................................................. 109
3.2.4 Learning ................................................................................................. 112
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3.3 Limitations and Constraints ....................................................................... 113
3.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 114
4 Drawing Analogies and the Key Findings ............................................. 116
4.1 Selection ...................................................................................................... 118
4.2 Mapping and Generating Inferences .......................................................... 123
4.3 Evaluating and Adapting ............................................................................ 130
4.3.1 Go Principles Already Part of Standard Project Management ................. 132
4.3.2 Go Principles Partially Incorporated into Project Management ............... 134
4.3.3 Go Principles not part of Standard Project Management ........................ 138
4.3.4 Go Principles that Should Not be Applied to Project Management ......... 139
4.4 Learning ....................................................................................................... 140
4.4.1 Shared Structure – Complex Problem Perspective ................................. 141
4.4.2 Shared Structure – Game Theory Perspective ....................................... 145
4.4.3 Shared Structure – Taoist Perspective ................................................... 148
4.4.4 Summary ................................................................................................ 152
5 Applying Go Principles to Project Management ................................... 272
5.1 Understanding Complex Problem Projects ............................................... 272
5.1.1 Complex Problem Solving ...................................................................... 274
5.2 Ways of Managing Projects ........................................................................ 276
5.2.1 Decision-Making ..................................................................................... 277
5.2.2 Dealing with Frequent Change ............................................................... 277
5.2.3 Dealing with Uncertainty ......................................................................... 283
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5.2.4 Dealing with Weaknesses ...................................................................... 293
5.2.5 Dealing with Conflict .............................................................................. 295
5.2.6 Dealing with Complexity ......................................................................... 298
5.2.7 GO’S RULES ......................................................................................... 298
5.3 Project Manager .......................................................................................... 308
5.3.1 Characteristics of a Project manager ..................................................... 309
5.4 Limitations and Constraints ....................................................................... 315
5.4.1 Limitations of the Analogy ...................................................................... 315
5.4.2 Limitations of Analogy ............................................................................ 316
5.5 Summary ..................................................................................................... 316
6 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 318
6.1 Summary ..................................................................................................... 318
6.2 Value of the Research ................................................................................ 321
6.3 Suggestions for Further Research ............................................................ 323
References ...................................................................................................... 325
Appendices ..................................................................................................... 365
Appendix A. Go principles: Alternative sources .............................................. 366
Appendix B. Principles of Standard Project Management Practise ................ 375
Appendix C. Other Project Management Knowledge Sources ........................ 377
Appendix D. Two Decision-Making Processes ................................................. 380
Appendix E. A Sample Game of Go .................................................................. 382

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List of Tables
Table 1. Major topics discussed and their location in the thesis .......................................... 16
Table 2. Glossary of Go terms .................................................................................................. 20
Table 3. Glossary of other terms .............................................................................................. 22
Table 4. Consequences table ..................................................................................................... 56
Table 5. Surface similarities between the game of Go and projects .................................... 68
Table 6 Surface similarities between Go players and project managers ............................ 69
Table 7 Surface similarities between playing a game of Go and managing a project ...... 70
Table 8. Terms used in the mapping ..................................................................................... 126
Table 9. Structural similarities ................................................................................................ 152
Table 10. Analogy between the game of Go and project management ............................ 154

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List of Figures
Figure 1. Oldest recorded Go game. ........................................................................................ 28
Figure 2. A Go board. ................................................................................................................ 31
Figure 3. Ko. ................................................................................................................................ 32
Figure 4. Manifesto for Agile Software Development (Agile Manifesto) ........................... 84
Figure 5. Declaration of Interdependence .............................................................................. 85
Figure 6. Generalizing from A to B and from B to C ........................................................... 100
Figure 7. Decision-making process based on Hammond et al. (1999) .............................. 277
Figure 8. Dealing with change................................................................................................ 279
Figure 9. Dealing with uncertainty ........................................................................................ 284
Figure 10. Dealing with weakness ......................................................................................... 294
Figure 11. Dealing with conflict ............................................................................................. 295

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