Process Management: Why Project Management Fails

More and more decisions have to be made in networks. Networks have no hierarchy, which precludes simple command and control-type decision making. In addition, project-based techniques are unlikely to succeed in networks, since project management presupposes that one actor, the project manager, is at the top of a hierarchy.

How to make decisions, when both command and control and project management are ineffective? This book offers decision makers operating in networks a new perspective.

If neither command and control nor project management are effective, process management offers a solution: to reach decisions, invest in a structured interaction process. This book provides an in-depth analysis of process management: how to design and manage a process and why, what risks does it pose and how can we address them? With its crystal clear style, this book appeals to scientists, practitioners as well as students interested in the subject.

Hans de Bruijn is professor of Organisation and Management at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology.

Ernst ten Heuvelhof is professor of Policy Science at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology and at the Department of Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Roel in 't Veld is dean of the Netherlands School of Public Administration, professor of Organisation Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, professor of Management of Public Organisations at the Utrecht School of Governance and professor of Hybrid Organisations at the Open University of the Netherlands.