Coursework Scenario Most commentators remark that Project Management in construction now resembles a relatively mature discipline and the nature of projects and project management are well understood. Yet there is empirical evidence that what happens in project management practice is not a precise match for what is generally understood in theory. In terms of project outputs there are differing levels of performance with some projects seeming to be incredibly successful, for example Heathrow T5, the London Olympics in 2012 and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. On the other hand there are notable failures, most recently the Edinburgh Tram Project (completed in 2015). Some project management theorists have become experts in studying project failures and there are even rumoured to be unofficial competitions for projects that have the greatest margins of failure! The conflicting evidence could be interpreted as a basis for assuming that there may be a recipe for the successful (and perhaps unsuccessful) project management of construction projects. Perhaps this recipe is not well yet very well understood. In fact, the subject of what is required for project management and project managers to be successful has been, and continues to be a topic of debate amongst project management academics and practitioners. For this coursework, you are to assume that you work for a large project management practice and you have been invited by a leading UK Project Management Institute to be a keynote speaker at a national conference that will have as its title, “Construction project management performance the recipe for successful project completion”. As the basis for your keynote presentation you have been asked to produce a conference paper that will be included within the Conference Proceedings. These Proceedings will be published by the conference organizers and will be made available to the conference delegates. The title of the conference paper that you have been asked to submit is:- “The most important traits and skills that project managers must have to deliver successful construction projects with respect to the key characteristics found in construction projects”. Coursework Tasks “The most important traits and skills that project managers must have to deliver successful construction projects with respect to the key characteristics found in construction projects”. Your coursework task is to prepare and submit this conference paper. To do this you will need to research recent opinion on the subjects of project management skills, characteristics and project management success and you need to use that opinion to evaluate the critical skills and characteristics that project managers ought to display if they are to be associated with projects that achieve successful project outcomes. While it is expected that the paper will be predominantly literature review based, you may also introduce empirical evidence from your own experience of a project or projects if appropriate. (It is appropriate to introduce personal experience within the paper, however, it is not appropriate to discuss ONLY personal experience with no reference to published literature. Therefore, some consideration of experience is optional, whereas review of literature is compulsory). A suggested structure for the discussion section would be: An Introduction; in which the purpose, aims and objectives of the paper are explained: A Discussion of Project Manager Traits and Skills and Project Characteristics; in which you more fully investigate and explain the range of opinion on this subject: An Evaluation of the skills and characteristics that are thought to be essential for successful project management; in which you assess which of the skills you have identified from literature can be argued (with supporting evidence) to be of the most critical importance to success in relation to project characteristics: Finally, a Conclusion in which you sum up the findings and the contribution that your paper has made.