A Systematic Literature Review of Project Management Tools and Their Impact on Project Management Effectivenes

This thesis was conducted to examine project effectiveness and the best methodologies to use for managing projects as supported by the literature. Project effectiveness depends on multiple dimensions and has many situational issues that demand flexibility in method selection and utilization. Three of the most important dimensions explored in this study included: organizational structures, cost and schedule management typologies and leadership styles. A systematic literature review was utilized to collect data on the most common project management methods found to be effective according to the current literature. As projects are complex and vary greatly it was concluded from the literature that project management effectiveness cannot be measured by a single metric. An outline of methods and tools that may best be utilized based on project type and needs was created to better understand potential applications for each method and tool.