Learning Objectives

After reading through this chapter you will be able to:

• Define a project, and understand the various approaches to event operations and the management of a project

• Explain the importance of project management and its application to event operations management

• Appreciate how the event operations management model has been created

• Understand the four stages within the event operations management model.

Introduction

Tukel and Rom (2001) have researched various definitions of what a project is, and cite the work that has been put forward over a period of time by Kerzner (1994). Initially he offered three objectives for a project that it should be:

1. Completed on time

2. Completed within budget

3. Completed at the desired level of quality.

It can be seen that these are only internally focused objectives, and are concerned with the success of the project from the organization's point of view.

By the late 1980s, after the introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM) into academic literature, Kerzner (1994) added a further two performance measurements:

1. Customer satisfaction and acceptance of the outcome

2. Customers allowing the contractor to use them as a reference.

This is an example of a trend by researchers to integrate customer involvement as a factor in determining project success.

Turner's (1999: 8) definition of a project starts to reflect some of the known and expected constraints and characteristics of a project:

an endeavour in which human, financial and management resources are organized in a novel way to undertake a unique scope of...