Towards Improved Project Management Practice Uncovering The Evidence For Effective Practices Through Empirical Research Terence J Cookedavies

Towards Improved Project Management Practice
Uncovering The Evidence For Effective Practices
Through Empirical Research Terence J Cookedavies
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Towards Improved Project Management Practice:
Uncovering the evidence for effective practices
through empirical research
by
Terence John Cooke-Davies
ISBN: 1-58112-128-8
USA 2001

Towards Improved Project Ma~iageme~rt
Practice: Ur~covering
the
evidence for eJfective practices through empirical researcli
Copyright 82001 Terence John Cooke-Davies
All rights reserved.
Dissertation.com
USA 2001
ISBN: 1-58112-128-8

Uncoveringtheevidencefmeffective
pl.actlcesthrough~irid~h
Terence John Cooke-Davies
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillmentofthe requirementsof Leeds
Metropolitan Universityfor the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
August 2000

Abstract
Projects are important to industry. hut pmjeci performance continually
disappoints stakeholder expectations. Organizations react to this performance
problem in many ways, and purchase consultancy, training, methods and tools
as possible solutions.
Thcre is no published evidence that any of these solutions arc consistently
successfi~l
in improving project perfomlance. This thesis answers the question.
"What can be done to improve projcct management practices, and thus project
performance?': by demonstrating that a novel form of
research can contribute such evidence.
success.
A well-resourced support structure was established to administer the
programme. facilitate dialoguc, hold confidential data securely, and provide
data analysis. Members provided data for the anonymous databases about their
practices and about specific project results, and tirst-hand case studies for
discussion at workshops. They discovered, shared and created both tacit and
explicit knowledge through the fomial programme and through informal
contact.
Secondly, the thinking of practitioners, theorists and researchers was
challenged. The literature on pmjoct management was found to reveal an
unbalanced worldview that lacked coherent undcrlying theory. The literature
on theory was found not to distinguish adequately between one-off "discrete"
projects and the ongoing continuous operations of an organization. The
academy's "paradigm wars" were found to have discouraged the creation of an
appropriate research metliodology.
Thirdly, different pieces of research using the community's data showed that
some practices (notably aspects of risk management) lead to superior
pcrfomiance independently of context, while others appear to be context-
dependent. No companies were found to have all the answers, and each
member of the community has been able to learn from others.

Dedication
This work is dedicated to two remarkable women. Doreen, my wife,
without whose constantsupport 1 would not have stayed tlie course, and
Nora, my mother, who made great sacrifices to give nie the foundation
of my education.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1.0 Thinking aboutprojects and project management............17
1.1 Summary..............................................................................................17
1.2 Whatprojects are and what some keyterms mean......................17
1.3 Theimportanceof projectsto industry...........................................
20
1.3.1 The conceptual basis to project management................................. 21
IA Projectmanagementinits socialandeconomicenvironment........23
1.4.1 Projects in a pre-and proto-capitalistsociety (before c.1850). ..........24
1.4.2 The era of classic capitalism: project management from c.1850 to
c.1950. ...................................................................................................
27
1.4.3 The era of "managerial capitalism": project management from c.1950
to the mid-1980 29
1.4.4 The era of "intellectualcapitalism": project management since the mid-
1980s. 32
1.5 Project managementtoday.how industtythinksaboutprojects.....34
1.5.1 How project performance is measuredin industry.............................35
1.5.2 The need for improvement: why so many projects are seen to fail....38
1.6 Researchquestionsthat this thesiswill attemptto answer........40
1.7 Conclusion........................................................................................... 40
2.0 The worldview of the project manager ..........................43
2.1 . Summary.............................................................................................. 43
2.2 Whichpracticeshave been correlatedto project successand
project failure? ..............................................................................................44
2.2.1 Baker. Murphy and Fisher 46
2.2.2 Pinto and Slevin................................................................................ 46
2.2.3 Lechler............................................................................................ 48
2.2.4 The implicationsof "critical success factors" .....................................50
2.3 Whata worldviewis and how it can bemade visible ...................50
2.4 Theproject management"worldview"............................................52
2.4.1 "Praxis"- What a project manager does....................
.
.
............... 52
2.4.2 Salient elements of the "praxis".........................................................
53
2.4.3 Validationof the core "praxis" element 57
2.4.4 A review of the "praxis" elements .....................................................
58
Summary of themes. topics and terms......................................................
59
Theme 1: Practicesrelating to the nature of the particularproject............60

Table of Contents
Theme 2 (Topic6): Practicesrelating to the stages the project will need to
pass through.............................................................................................
72
Theme3: Practices relatingto "beneficialchange" that the project is
intended to accomplish.............................................................................73
Theme 4: Practices relating to the people that are associatedwith the
enterprise..................................................................................................
81
2.5 A systemic view of the projectmanager's worldview...................90
2.5.1 Correlationsof empiricalresearchwith the systemicworldview.........92
2.6 How can the searchbe conductedfor improvedproject
management practice?................................................................................ 95
2.7 Conclusion...........................................................................................96
3.0 Research methods and underlying theory..........................99
3.1 Summary..............................................................................................
99
3.2 Fundamentalresearchissues of philosophy. knowledge.reality
andlanguage............................................................................................... 0 0
3.2.1 Preliminary considerationsof philosophy ........................................
102
3.2.2 What is golng on when people gain "knowledge"?...........................104
3.2.3 EpisternicConsiderations................................................................107
3.3 Developingan appropriateresearch procedure..........................112
3.3.1 The role of Community in the Acquisitionof Knowledge..................117
3.4 Anew research methodology......................................................... 119
3.5 Conclusion.......................................................................................125
4.0 Developing and applying fhe new tesearchmodel..........127
4.1 Summary.......................................................................................... 127
4.2 Three Cyclesof ActionResearch...................................................128
4.3 The First Cycle of ActionResearch................................................130
Step 1: Assemble the network ........................................................ 133
Step 2: Agree Topics........................................................................133
Step 3: Write questions and scoring guidelines................................133
Step4: Analysedata and publish report...........................................
134
Step 5: Select topics for individual workshops ..................................134
Step 6: Hold interactive learningworkshops....................................135
Step 7: Review the year's learning and consider a second cycle of
.............................................................................................
activity 135
4.3.1 Experiencegained in practice.......................................................
136
Assemblinga netwo ................136

Table of Contents
Defining the programme of work........................................................... 137
Identifyingand gathering the data ...........................................................138
Sharing andlearning fromthe information...........................................138
4.4 The SecondCycle of Action Research: Challenging
Perceptions.................................................................................................. 140
Step 1: Hold SD modelling workshop................................................ 140
Steps 2 and 3: Developproject-leveldatabasestructure and build
project-level database Mk I.....................................................................141
Step 4: Populate database with 10pilot projects...............................142
Step 5: Collect additional project data............................................. 142
Step 6: Analyse project-level data..................................................... 142
Step 7: Workshops on specific topics ..............................................143
4.5 The ThirdCycleof Action Research: Refiningthe Method.......143
4.5.1 Developing the Mk II data collectioninstrument. and establishing the
habit of continuous learning........................................................................ 145
4.5.3 Developingthe CorporatePracticeQuestionnaireversion3 and an
organisational project managementmaturity model....................................149
4.6 Addingthe Final Element: InterpretationandIn-house Support.....150
4.7 C O ~ C ~ U S ~ O ~ :
The OrlginsoftheResearchMethodin ThreeCyclesof
Development .................................................................................................151
5.0 Whatdoes thedata show?.lllustrativeanalysesfrom two
data sets ........................................................................................
155
5.1 Summary ............................................................................................ 155
5.2 How data are used bythenetworks............................................... 156
5.2.1 Applyingthe data in workshops....................................................... 156
5.2.2 Building on the data in workingparties............................................158
5.2.3 Combininginsightswith freshanalysis...........................................159
5.3 The CorporatePractice Questionnaire.......................................... 161
5.3.1 How organisations use the CPQ .....................................................162
5.3.2 Illustrativeresults produced from the CPQ ......................................164
5.3.3 Individualcompany indications........................................................ 173
5.4 The data collectioninstrument (DCI) ............................................. 176
5.4.1 Project type and industryenvironment............................................177
.................................................................................
5.4.2 Project results 184
..........................................................................
5.4.3 Strategic decisions 189
5.4.4 Project managementpractices........................................................192
CHAD Analysis ......................................................................................194
Bivariate Correlations..............................................................................
197

Tableof Contents
Further investigationof the correlations ............................................. 199
5.4.5 Conclusions about effectivepractices ........................................ 202
5.4.6 A "relative" spin-off from a "positivist"search ..................................204
5.5 ConcluSion:The link between projedmanagement practicesand
prolectperformance....................................................................................... 206
6.0 Conclusions and further work to be done......................... 209
6.1 Summary............................................................................................ 209
6.2 Answersto the researchquestions............................................... 2
0
!
4
6.3 The contributionmadebythisresearchprogramme .................211
6.3.1 A researchdrivenapproachto project improvement.......................212
6.3.2 An innovative research method....................................................... 212
......................
6.3.3 Enhancementof the project managementworldview 213
....................
6.3.4 An internationalinter-company communityof practice 213
6.3.5 Specific resultsthat pave the way for project management
benchmarking.............................................................................................
213
.......
6.3.6 Locating projectsin the context of strategic bus.improvement 214
6.4 Developingbenchmarkingtechniquesforuse with projects....214
6.4.1 Three difficultiesto overcome .........................................................
214
Few pmject management processes produce the project's primary product
. .
or service d~rectly
......................
.
...... .........................................
214
Different projects contain different profiles of risk................................... 215
Projectsare executed within differingorganisational environments.........216
6.4.2 Two ways to progress towards a benchmarking capability ..............216
Incorporate existing performancedata ................................................... 216
Extend the rangeof performancemeasures ......................................... 217
6.5 Improvingcomparabilityofdata.....................................................218
Improvedcomparability for the CPQ .......................................................218
Improveddata categories for the DCI............................................ 219
6.6 Applying systemsthinking and systemdynamics ......................219
6.6.1 Deepening understandingof the project management worldview....220
The "people side" of project management...............................................
220
Benefitsmanagement.............................................................................
221
Understanding project strategies.............................................................222
6.6.2 Developing a predictivemodel ..................................................
223
Developinga new research instrument ................................................. 223
Developinga Wight simulator".................................................................225
6.7 Conclusion.........................................................................................
225
ReferenceList ............................................................................................. 227

Table of Contents
Appendix I:Portrait
Appendix II:Landscape

Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1: Where projects fit into the spectrum of work................................... 19
Figure 2: The context for projects.....................................................................
22
Figure 3: Different types of project metric.........................................................37
Figure 4: Pinto & Slevin's Modelof Project Success.(Pinto and Slevin
.1988b
.
p. 69) ................................................................................................................47
Figure 5: Lechler's Causal Analysis ..............................................................49
................
Figure 6: Systemicrelationships in the pmject manager's worldview 90
Figure 7: Gaps in the systemic worldview........................................................91
.................
Figure 8: First- and second-ordercybernetics (Schwaninger
.1997) 92
Figure 9: A framework based on Habermas' three worlds. Adoptedfrom
Mingers.1997.................................................................................................. 101
Figure 10: Researchmethods and underlyingparadigms..............................
104
Figure 11: The classic shape of single-paradigmresearch............................119
Figure 12: The concept of a continuousresearchmethodology.....................120
Figure 13: The BenchmarkingProcess..........................................................130
Figure 14: The First Cycle of Action Research...............................................
132
Figure 15: The SecondCycle of Action Researc 140
Figure 16: The First Structure of a Pmjects Database ................................. 141
Figure 17: The Third Cycle of ActionResearch............................................ 145
Figure 18: The Second Pmject Database Structure....................................... 146
Figure 19: Structure of Project Analysis..........................................................148
Figure 20: The ThirdStructure of the Project Database.................................148
Figure21: Two Levels of Capability ...............................................................149
Figure 22: The Seven Components of the ResearchMethod.........................152
Figure23: Transferring'lessons learned'from project to pmject ..................... 158
Figure24: Pmject start-upand Post Project Reviews .....................................
160
Figure25: Range of appmach scores.............................................................166
Figure26: Range of deployment scores.........................................................
167
Figure27: Range of appmach scores by perspective....................................168
Figure28: Comparison of CPQ deployment scores over time.........................169
Figure29: CPQ Scores for Topic 1: Integration ............................................ 171
Figure 30: IndividualCompany CPQ Scores..................................................
174
Figure 31: CPQ scores for topicI..................................................................
174
Figure 32: CPQ scores for topic l a compared across three networks............175

Table of Contents
Figure 33: CPQ Scores for individual questions.............................................176
Figure34:Project cost categoriesacross industries.......................................178
Figure35: Types of project undertakenby industry........................................179
Figure36:Number of projectsin each life cycle phase...................................181
Figure37:Percentageof cost categories for each type of project...................182
Figure38:Durationof projectswithin each type............................................ 183
Figure39:Project cost (f'000)
and project duration(weeks)...........................184
Figure40:Relationshipbetween time and cost predictability..........................187
Figure41:Relationshipbetween cost and scope predictability.......................188
Figure42: Types of project strategy...............................................................191
Figure43:CHAD analysis. showing practices influencingtime predictability..195
Figure44:Practices correlatingto cost predictability...................................... 196
Figure45:Influence of company-widerisk education on time predictability.....199
Figure46:Effect of assigning risk owners on time predictability ..................... 201
Figure47:Comparison of relative cost & time predictabilityby company........204
Figure48:Variabilityof Mean Risk Management Adequacy between
Companies.....................................................................................................
206
Figure49:Benefitsmanagement and the relationshipbetween projects and
operations...................................................................................................... 221
Figure 50:How practicesrelate to performance..............................................224

Summary
Summary of Thesis
This thesis describes a programme of continuous action research,
involving an international network of major organisations to which
projects are important. The research concerns the development of
methodology and content to build this nchvork into a learning
community for project improvement. The research started with six
quite basic questions about project management practices but it has led
to significant developments in: -.
A research-driven approach to project improvement.
An innovative research method.
Enhancement of the existing project management worldview.
A growing international network of project-based organisations.
Specific results that pave the way for project management
benchmarking.
A means of relating project performance to business improvement.
Thc thesis contains six Chapters.
Chapter 1 describcs what projects are and the role they play in business,
and explains why the research qucstions arc important.
Chapter 2 reviews the corpus of project management literature, and
extracts an account of the way a project manager views the world. This
view is consolidatcd into eleven topics and given a form and substance
that shows how they inter-relate. Comparison with prior empirical
research identifies a number of gaps.
Chapter 3 considers the epistemic foundations for a research method
that has seven explicit components, making allowance for the fact that
neither a pure positivist nor a pure constructivist philosophy provides a
sufficiently rich basis to research into project management.
Chapter 4 traces the historical development of the seven components of
the research method, and summarises the answers to three of the
research questions.
Chapter 5 illustrates the results obtained from data analysis, answering
a fi~rtlier
two research questions by describing both observed variations
in project perforn~ance,
and practices that partially account for these.

Summary
Chapter 6 summarises the contribution made by the research
programme, and lists the current plans for further work.

Contributions
Contributions
In the course of this research, hvo things have been happening in
parallel. One has been the commercial creation and support of a
network of major organisations to improve project management
practice. The other has been tlie developnient of research in terms of
both niethodology and content, which has transformed that network into
a learning community. It is this research, quite separate from the
commercial activities, that is submitted for the degree.
The original research concept came to me during 1993, at a time when I
saw many organisations making far-reaching decisions about their
project management practices with very little evidence to support them.
I was driven by the desire that decisions should be based on the
foundations of solid evidence, and to create a method for obtaining that
evidence.
My personal contributions to the programme have been in:-
* Developing the conceptual design of the study, including the
overall process steps and the epistemic underpinnings described in
Chapter 3, the method of choice that was used for significant
decisions, the structure of all workshops involving network
members during the tirst few years, the structure of all analysis
carried out and reports issued, and the conimercial relationships
between network members and Human Systems Limited.
Developing the analytical framework and performing analysis on
the data, as well as directing additional analysis from time to time
from members of Human Systems working under my instructions.
Formulating theories that have guided each stage of thc work.
Assembling and maintaining the networks, or ensuring that suitahly
qr~alificdmcmbers of the Human Systems teani working under my
instructions, assemble and maintain thc networks.
Facilitating the dialogue that results in agreement on the
information to be collected from the networks and tlie fonn that it
will take, and obtaining agreement for this from network members.
Ensuring that data is collected, and assuring its quality.
Facilitating the discussion between network members and members
of the Human Systems team that result from the announcement of

Contributions
insights arising from the analysis, and the framing of more detailed
research questions as a result of these discussions.
Writing all research proposals and submissions, including the
whole text of this thesis.
Clearly I could not have done this work without the support of many
people, and I wish to acknowledge the assistancc received from the
following. Throughout the programme, 1 have received the financial
and practical support of Human Systems Limited, the company of
which I am Managing Director.
My colleagues at Human Systems Limited have each been involved in
different aspects of the programme. John Gandcc, one of the first
people to be approached at ICL when the idea of forming the
community was first mooted in 1993, has been continually involved.
From the output of the initial workshops he wrote the first version of the
corporate practice questionnaire, he has attended each of the workshops
for and performed much of the managcrnent activity involved in
supporting and administering the work of the first two networks, and
more recently he has produced the Foxpro version of the corporate
practice questionnaire and its derivatives, and has overseen and
augmented development of the commercial Access version of the DCI.
John facilitated the first working party on "learning lessons on
projects".
Brian Trelty, the first representative of Wellconie in the first network,
has subsequently been a stalwart member of the Human Systems team.
It was largely through Brian's effort that the joint venture with CMR
International came about that has resulted in the creation of two global
pharmaceutical networks. Apart from leading that effort, Brian has
workcd closely with John Gandee in the creation and support of Europe
2, the second network to be created. He has facilitated working parties
on "real risk management" and "implementing process improvements".
Alan Cumberland, a fellow Director of Human Systems Limited has
continually supported the venture, and played a significant part in
decisions about the management of the commercial aspects of the
programme. Alan has facilitated several of thc network's workshops,
and the working party on "measuring project performance". Jean
Adams, Matthew Nixon and Debbie Garrett have also provided
generous and professional support to the activities, in addition to which

Contributions
Jean very kindly assisted with the unenviable task of proof reading this
text.
As the networks took on an international aspect, Lynn Crawford, Frank
Davies, Chivonne Watts and Andrew Durbridge headed the effort to
create co~nmercialnetworks and to apply the research method in
Australia, and did an excellent job in recruiting thirty additional
organisations. Lynn has provided valuable encouragement and support
to me and to the Hunian Systems team, and Frank has been tireless in
his professional efforts to assemble and support the Australian
community, and to manage the network activities based in Sydney. As
the programme rolls out to USA, Dalton Weekley, Peter Rogers and
Steve Neuendorf of CCG LLC have become joint venture partners, and
Steve has contributed the excellent Excel spreadsheets that enrich the
presentation of relative data to members of all current networks.
The programme has been built around a "conimunity of practice", and it
would not have been possible without the active participation and
support of the representatives of the many organisations that have been
member., of the networks since their inception at the beginning of 1994.
They have been generous in their provision of time. data. knowlcdgc,
expertise, resources and support. It is wrong to single out some more
than others for mention by name, since many have made invaluable
contributions, and 1 would like to acknowledge every one of them. It
would equally be wrong, however, to fail to acknowledge the special
contribution made by two people. In the early days of creating the first
network, Steve Grey of ICL worked tirelessly with me to assemble the
first community of practice, and to refine the proposal that was put to
prospective members. Without Steve's help, I doubt that the
programme would have got off the ground. Paul Armstrong and his
team at BT Group Projects have also made a unique contribution. Not
only has Paul been continually associated with this activity as BT's
representative since the formation of the first network, but in the
development of the data collection instrument, Paul and his team took
the lead in developing the prototype Microsoft Access application, that
was subsequently refined by conlmercial software developers into the
instrument that it now is.
Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for the
unstinting guidance, encouragement and support of my supervisor,
Professor Eric Wolstenholme.

Contributions
ConJidentiality
There is a commcrcial nccd to protect the confidentiality of information
provided by members of the networks. For this reason, the data and
other material included in the thesis have been presented in such a way
as to protect the interests of the network members after this thesis has
been published.
TcrryCooke-Davies. August 2000.

Towards Improved Project ManagementPractice:
Chapter 1
Chapter1:
1: Thinking about projects and project
management.
1.1 Summary.
The term "project" is used widely and in a variety of contexts, and a
tcchnical vocabulary has grown up to describe different aspects of
projects. Industry throughout the world today uses the concept of a
"project"to talk about particular kinds of work (generally unique, self-
contained pieces of work that are intended to create a product or service
that will lead to beneficial change), and this kind of work is of grcat
economic and social importance. The development of the concepts and
language about prqiects is considered briefly in relation to its social and
economic environment throughout history and in the present day, before
the present worldview held by private sector commercial and industrial
organisations is sketched out in relation to projects. The question of
how these organisations measure the performance of projects is
introduced, and it ic shown that there is a widespread perception that
many projects "fail". The social and economic cost of this failure is
reviewed.
The literature of project management offers a variety of definitions,
which have classically included the three characteristics of a cominon
objective, a set of activities that arc complcx enough to need managing.
and a defined start and finish time.
A coniplex eflort to achieve a spectficohjertive within a srhedttb and
budget target, which &vically cuts aclasr organisational lines, is
tmiqtre, and i~ustrally not repetitive within the or-ganisntion. (Cleland
and King, 1983,p.70)
More recently, definitions have been modified to reflect the existence of
a "product"or "scrvice" that the project creates.

Towards lrnpmved Project Management Practice:
Chapter I
1A temporary etzdeovourundertaken to create a unique product or
& serwce. Temporary means that tlze project ltas a definite ending point,
e4
and tcnique means Rat theprod~tctor service differs in some
I$$ distinguishing wayfi-orn all similar prodtrcts or services. (Duncan,
.
:1996, p. 4.)
$2
Rodney Turncr dcvclops this theme even further, by including the
concept of the "beneficial change" that the product of the projcct is
supposed to deliver.
An endeavour in ~:hicR
Izunzan, nzatericrl nnd.finatzcia1 resources are
organised in a novel wcly, to un~lertuke
a ztnique scope of wjork,of
given .specification, within constraitits of cost and tinze,so as to achieve
beneficial change defined by qtlantitative and qrralitativeobjectives.
f (Trrtzer, 1993,p. 8
.
)
5 .
One in particular, however, illustratcs just how widely the term
"project"can be applied in common parlance:-
Any plan, scheme or task - inclttding the writing of this book - can be
1and ir refired eas a '@oject9'.(Stall+~~nhy
and Kharbanda, 198.7,
$jPreface.)
In order to providc appropriate boundaries for the definition of what a
projcct is, it is perhaps appropriate to approach the topic from the othcr
end, as it were, and ask the question, "What kinds of cndeavour cannot
legitimately be regarded as projects?" That yields very different
answers, and in practice, they seem to boil down to four different
categories:.
1. Sets of activities that are reoeated indefinitely, such as the
continuous operations of a process plant. These are perhaps more
usefully thought of as"processes".
2. Sets of activities that are repeated in a oredictable manner, such as
batch manufacturing, the raising of invoices, or the conduct of
annual appraisals. These can be thought of as processes, but can
equally well be thought of as"operations" in the business context.'
3. Sets of activities that may well include projects, but which are
sufficiently large and complcx and have sufficient flexibilitv about

Towards ImprovedProject Management Practice:
Chapter 1
their start and finish that they are better thought of as
"pr.ogrammesn.
4. Activities that are so brief, so simple or so straightforward that they
rcauire no sieniticant management effort, and that can better be
thought of as tasks or actitsities.
Figure I illustrates the relationships of these different clcmcnts.
Figure I: Wherpprojects,/it
into the sl>ectrumofwork.
It seems clear that there is no chance of reaching universal agreement
on a single definition of a prqject. but it is important to be clear about
thc meaning of a word that is so central to this piece of research. The
stance taken in this research, therefore. is to adopt a pragmatic approach
and recognise that thinking about an cndcavour as a "pro.jectWis a
matter of choice for any organisation or individual. Adding this
recognition to the classical definition, and the concepts included by
Duncan and Turner, the definition of a project used throughout this
work is:

Towards Improved ProjectManagement Practice:
Chapter I
"A human endeavour may legitimately be regarded by its stakeholders
a s a project when it encompasses a unique scope of work that is
constrained by cost and time, the purpose of which is to create or
modify a product or sewice s o as to achieve beneficial change defined
by quantitative and qualitative objectives."
This research programme has been undertaken in order to identify how
. -
the performance of projects can be improved through the identification
and understanding of those project management practices that lead to
superior performance. It is essential to understand what is meant by
several terms that will be used throughout this document, and in
particular to distinguish what project management is taken to mean and
what it isn't. Thrcc conccpts lie at the heart: -
a) The product or sewice that will be brought into existence or
modified through the agency of the "project", and that will remain
after the project has been completed will be referred to throughout
this text as the PRODUCT of the project. This applies to any or
all of the purposes of projects described above.
b) The series of activities carried out by people or their agents directly
to create or to modify the product will be referred to throughout
this text as PROJECT EXECUTION activities.
c) The series of activities cam'ed out by people or their agcnts to
initiate, plan, control and terminate the projcct execution activities
will be referred to throughout this text as the PROJECT
MANAGEMENT activities.
The distinction between project execution and project management is
not always a neat and clear one. For example a meeting of site
personnel in a construction projcct might be considered to fall into
either or both of these categories. Nevertheless, the distinction remains
broadly valid, and presents special problems for the use of techniques
such as benchmarking for the assessment of project management
efficiency or effectiveness (see Chapter 4).
1.3 Theimportance of projectsto industry.
In business and commerce, projects represent a substantial proportion
of the productive effort of enterprises in every industrial scctor. A
"straw poll"of fifteen enterprises recently estimated conservatively that
their combined annual spend on projects exceeds f 15bn.l The range of

Chapter1
products that are created or modified by projects gives some indication
of the extent and value of project work to industry, and of the beneficial
change that projects achieve.
New facilities are produced - factories. offices. plants or pieces of
infrastructure. These are then operated for economic advantagc.
New products are designed or developed for manufacture in
ongoing operations or for use to generate wealth in some other
way.
Services are delivered, such as the refit of a ship, the renovation of
a building or the conduct of a piece of research.
Changes are engineered to business systems and to organisation
stnlcturcs, so that enterprises can be operated more efficiently.
It is no exaggeration to say that projects lie at the heart of human
economic activity, and it follows that any improvements that can be
made to the practice of managing projects will have a significant cffcct
of the output of all wealth creation in advanced industrial or post-
industrial societies.
1.3.1 The conceptualbasis to project management.
Very few of the published works on project management make explicit
thc philosophical approach that underscores their work. Most writers
seem to imply that some form of empirical realism is possible. Some
descrihe project management as a science or suggest that it uses
"scientific" techniques, as for cxample Kharbanda, Stallworthy and
Willianls (1980) who define cost eneineerine as "that arca of
- -
engineering principles where engineering juclgement and experience are
utilised in the application of scientific principles and techniques to
. .
problems of cost estimation, cost control. business planning and
management science."(p. 5)
Morris (1994) states that "there is not yet an adequate conceptual basis
to the discipline [of project management]", and concludes that "the
current fonnal view of, and indeed practices of, project management are
oAen inadequate to the task of managing projccts successfully: and that
wc would do better to enlarge the subject to the broader one of thc
'managenlent of proiects"' by including topics such as "design and
technology management, thc management of political forces
(governmental and non-governmental, and 'political with a small p' -

Chapter I
business, labour and community), cost-benefit management and the
raising and management of the project's finance, the management of the
timing or phasing of the project (something quite differcnt, incidentally,
from the theory and practice of project scheduling), and even contract
strategy and administration." (p. 2)
create. mrmtcrr ror
/
I i
I
SYSTEM
BOUNDARY
Figure 2: The conlerlfor projects.
One way to provide a framework for an "adcquate"conceptual basis is
to recognise the dynamic linkages that exist between an enterprise, the
projects it undertakes, the practices and techniques it employs, and the
products or services that are created or modified by the projects (See
Figure 2 above). To include the full range of topics that Morris
believes to have an influence on the performance of projects, however,
it is also necessary to recognise that this activity takes place within a
social and economic environment that creates the context for
enterprises, that itself is changed by the products or services created by
projects, and that exerts a strong cultural and technical influence on the
practices and techniques employed in the management of projects.

Towards Impmved Project Management Practice:
Chapter 1
A second way in which this research will seek to add to the conceptual
basis to project management is by seeking to bridge the gap between
"academic knowledge" and "industrial practice". As one leading
management thinker has expressed it: -
Specialiratronis herorningan ohstack to tlie acqvisition of knon,led~e
and an even greater harrier to making it efectiije Acadernia defines
knowledge ar w,l7atgetsprinted. But %rely this is not knoit~ledge:
it is
raw data. Knowledge is information that r1tange.ssorttethlrtg or.
sonlebody - either /?JI becon~ing
ground7 for nctiori,or b j ~
making an
indlc7idual(or an invtifution)capable oftnoreefrectii action... Wlio
or what is to blamefir the obscurantism ofthe learned is heside the
point. Whatmatters is that the learning of the academic specialist is
rapidly ceasing to be "knowledge". It r p at itr hert "erztdition"and at
its more conimon worst mere "data". (Dr~~cker,
1989: 251 - 252)
Although this work is not about the history of projects, modcrn project
management is built on foundations nearly as old as civilisation itself.
Key concepts that are still used today have emerged from the very
different social and economic environments of different historical times,
and have become part of today's "accepted wisdom" of projcct
management.
A brief review is appropriate of how these key concepts and "tools"
arose within their social context (see Table 1). so that the contribution
of each of them to project management practice can be examined. In
later Chapters serious questions will be asked about the effectiveness of
each of them, and their relevance to today's business environment.
There have been a number of attempts to summarise the history of
projects, and the introduction to many books on project management
contains its own brief summary. The one that has exerted the greatest
influence on this work is that by Morris (1994). although the four broad
periods that will be considered below. along with the proiect
management legacy from each of them, are not those used by him.

Chapter 1
1.4.1 Projects in a pre- and proto-capitalistsociety
(before c.1850).
Writers on the subject of project management are agreed that activities
that could be described as "project management" date back to very
early tinies in the history of civilisation. "Projects have been part of the
human scene since civilisation started." (Lock, 1987) "Managing
projects is one of the oldest and most respected accomplislinients of
mankind. We stand in awe of the achievements of the builders of the
pyramids, the architccts of ancient cities, the masons and craftsmen of
great cathedrals and mosques; of the might and labour behind the Grcat
Wall of China and other wonders ofthe world."(Moms, 1994, p. 1.)
One characteristic of these very early projccts was the use of huge
amount of manpower in what would today be called "the construction
phase", and this "workforce" appears to have been organised in a way
that reflected the social constructs of the culture in which the projects
were taking place. Many early edifices had a religious connotation, and
some (e.g. Stonclicngc) rnay well have included large elements of
voluntary labour. Others, such as the pyramids of Egypt, made usc of
large quantities of slave labour under the oversight of an architect.
The subdivision of manpower into smallcr units for the purposes of
oversight appears to have been well established in the ancient world.
The first recorded reference to a supervisor dates from c.1750 B.C.
(Wren, 1994). The term is frequently used in connection with the
Egyptian "rule of ten" (whereby one supervisor is placed in charge of
ten slaves or workmen) and an early text from the ~ i b l e ~
(dating from
perhaps 650 B.C. and referring to some 500 years earlier) illustrates the
principle of establishing a management hierarchy with a reasonable
span of control. This has been one of the most enduring management
principles. and has been applied in both military and civil life right
down to the present day.
In addition to the labour element, the role of "contracts" was also
important. Nearly all these early construction projccts were let under
contract to a single "contractor", who in turn would often let "sub-
contracts" for various elements of the work. "The Long Walls in
Athens, for example, were managed as a whole by tlic architect
Callicrates, with the work let to ten contractors; the Colosseum was
built by four contractors." (Morris, 1994, p. 4.). Even where the

Chapter 1
"contract"was less formal, a Pharaoh such as Rameses II (c. 1270 B.C.)
would contract the oversight of his major building works to his vizier
and Royal Architect Rahotep. (Rohl, 1995)
Throughout the era of Classical Greece and Rome and continuously
through the growth and domination of the Christian Church, projects
continued to he undertaken to construct thc grcat "public works"
required by society.
As first the enlightenment, and then industrialisation began to mould the
social context, and industrial and commercial enterprises began to act
as agents for society at large, thc number of projects, and the fields of
human endeavour within which they were undertaken began to
proliferate. The predominant context, however, within which projects
were undertaken remained the areas of building and civil engineering,
with a dominant format comprising "the professional designer
'representing' the owner's interests in preparing a design and awartling
and administering the contract between the huilder and the owner."
(Morris, 1994, p. 6.)

Chapter 1
ISocial Environment I Emergentconcepts I
II. Projects in a prc- and proto-
capitalist society. (before c.lX50).
2. Projects and project
managcment in a world dominated
economically by 'klassic
capitalism". (c.1850 to c.1950)
Evolution of formal techniques.
3. Projects and project
management during the era of
"managerial capitalism". (c.1950 to
mid-1980s)
Birth of a profession.
Widespread adoption of projcct
management hy the engineering and
construction industries in the 1970s.
Early application of project
management techniques in other
industries such as IT and
Entertainment.
Thc expansion of project
a) Mobilisation and management
hierarchy.
b) Client-contractor relationship
C) Management disciplines
d) Project planning tcchniques.
e) Logistics planning.
f) Work breakdown structure.
g) Time-driven research.
h) Systcms management.
i) Scheduling techniques.
j) Procurement management.
k) Performance measurenient
(Earned Value Analysis).
I) Programme management.
ni) Project management
professional societies.
n) Project matrix organisations.
o) Refinement of defence
development lifc-cyclcs.
1 p) Widespread acceptance of
project management practices.
q) New forms of contract - BOO
management from "traditional"
environments into stratepic business Macro-technology programmes.
-
management and IT during the
1980s.
4. Projects and projcct management
during an age of"intellectual
capitalism". (mid-1980s and
beyond).
Project management as a "core
business discipline":
The current trend towards the
"project-based organisation"and
"management by proiects".
s) Application of project
management to IT projects.
t) Systcms engineering and
software project management.
U) Business pmcess re-engineering.
v) Pro.ject-based organisations.
w) New contract philosophies
(Pamering, Alliancing).
x) Attempts to apply
"Benchmarking" techniques to
projects
- . . I
Fable I: Or~grns
of elements present rn currentprojert rnunagement practice.

TowardsImprovedProject Management Practice:
Chapter 1
1.4.2 The era of classic capitalism: project
management from c.1850 to c.1950.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the shape of modern
economic activity was in full swing in many Western countries, with
engineerimg and cotistn~ctionprojects making a major impact on the
environment. Unlike earlier periods, however, at least three
characteristics marked the social environment for projects during this
period:
1. The existence of a market economy. in which commercial motives
dominated the thoughts of both the owner (si~clias the Great
Western Railway company) and the professional designer (such as
Brunel).
2. Massive increases in the rate of tcchnological development, and,
with it, the establishment of a physical infrastructure that increased
both the opportunities for and the complexity of project
management.
3. The parallel development of management theory and practicc as
the search for industrial efficiency gathered pace.
Technological developments such as the railway, the motor car and the
wireless telegraph played their part in shaping both opportunities for
and the coniplexities of project management, and the products created
by projects themselves helped to develop the infrastructure within
which the projects themselves were carried out.
The pressure of market forces led to pioneering work by such
management thinkers as Henri Fayol and Frederick Taylor which laid
the foundations for much modcm management practice. Fayol's
principles and elements of management (Fayol, 1949), and Taylor's
Scientific Management (Wrege and Greenwood. 1991) both had a great
influence, the former on the "art" of management and the latter on the
development of "scientific techniques".
Not only did many of the thought constructs emerge that underpin
modeni nianagcrncnt practice (it is not uncommon to find text books
published since 1990 that still enumerate Fayol's five elements of
management - planning, resourcing, commanding. co-ordinating and
controlling - as the basic tasks of management) but under these
compelling economic conditions, engineers such' as Henry Gantt
27

Towards ImprovedProjectManagement Practice:
Chapter I
developed tools that allow project work to be better planned. The
eponymous Gantt chart is probably still the most widely used
management tool today for communicating a project schedule.
The Second World War and its immediate aftermath brought the
classical era to a close. The planning of military operations bears more
than a slight rcscmblance to the planning of projects, but the only real
advance that the military in World War I1can claim to have made to the
practices of project management is in the increasing sophisticated
planning of logistics (getting the right rcsources to the right place at the
right time and in a fonn where they are useful).
Perhaps the most significant legacy of the Second World War was in
the developments associated with the conduct of major technological
research against tight timescales, culminating with the Manhattan
Project (the USA's dcvclopment of the atomic bomb). The
characteristics of this massive undertaking (involving over 600,000
people and costing over $2bn) were urgency and tcchnical uncertainty,
combined with the need to co-ordinate a wide range of activities in
multiple locations.
The person in charge of the Manhattan Project was General Leslie M.
Groves, and he attributes the success of the projcct to five factors.
Firstly we had a clearly defined, unmistakable, specific objective....
Second each part of the project had a specific task. These tasks were
carefully allocated and supervised so that the sum of their parts would
result In the overall accornplishnzent of our overall mission ... Third,
there was po~itive,
clear-cut, unquestioned direction of the project at
all levels. Authority was invariably delegated with responsrhility,and
this delegation MJQS absoltite and without reservation.... Fortrth,the
project made ma.nmimm use of already existing agencies, facilities and
services... Consequently, our people were able to devote them~elves
exclusively to the task at hand, and had no reason to engage in
independent empire building. FIftItlv, andfinally, we had the full
backing of otir governrnentwith the nearly infinite [availability of
resources]. {Morris, 1994,p. 17.)
Although much of this makes use of management principles developed
during the era as a whole, the combination of factors quotcd by Groves

Chapter1
describes the principles on which the more recent practice of employing
a "Work Breakdown Structure" is based.
1.4.3 The era of "managerialcapitalismw4
: project
management from c. 1950 to the mid-1980s.
The prolonged period of post-war development, and its transition into
the modcrn "information society" has been referred to as the period of
"managerial capitalism" because it is marked by a growing separation
of business ownership from management. with professional managers
increasingly dictating the practices and the focus of business
enterprises.
For project management it was a heady period seeing the birth of a
profession (that of project manager), tlie widcspread adoption of project
management principles and practices by tlie engineering and
construction industries during the 1970s, the early application of prqiect
management techniques to other industries such as IT, Entertainment
and Services, and finally during the 1980s the wholesale expansion of
project management from its "traditional" environments into the
mainstream of business management and IT.
Thc first decade of the period saw the introduction and development of
"Systems Management"-the "elaboration of the specification for the
tcchnical, organisational, cost, time and other parameters of a system
(and hence its subsidiary programmes and projects) and the subsequent
management of the planning, designiengineering, procurement,
implementation and testing of the work needcd to realise thc system
concept."(APM, 1995, p. 9.).
Growing through USAF procurement activities, it took root in the Atlas
and tlie Polaris missile programmes. In the course of the last-named of
these three, one of the most visible and (at least in its derivatives)
widespread techniques of project management was developed. PERT
(Program Evaluation and Review technique) combined the concept of
linking activities together in a network that showed their logical
dependencies, the combination of estiniates of the likely duration of
activities from bench engineers using a mathematical formula for
determining the expected time of achieving a particular event, and the
identification of the 'critical path', i.e. the sequence of activities in a
project that requires the longest timc for completion. (Morris, 1994).

Chapter I
At the same time as the US defence industry was leading the way in the
dcvclopment of Systems Management and PERT, construction
industries on both sides of the Atlantic began to apply the principles of
Work Study and Operational Research to recurrent projects such as
plant maintenance or plant shut-down. From this work, most
influentially through Du Pont, an alternative set of tools emerged,
known collectively as CPM (Critical Path Method). There are many
similarities between the two approaches, and both use a form of
network diagram in which activities are represented by arrows with the
logical dependencies of one activity upon another shown by the
relationships between the arrows. On the other hand, there are also
diffcrenccs since CPM (which deals with activities whose duration can
be estimated more predictably that the R&D environment of PERT)
emphasises cost and resource allocation as well as schcdulc, whereas
PERT is more concerned with predicting thc likely duration of an
uncertain project.
These developments gave rise to the article that classically defined the
role of the project manager (Gaddis, 1959). In it Gaddis pulled
together some of the concepts that still lie at the centre of project
management: the primacy of objectives, the need for organisation, the
unique characteristics that distinguish projects, the unique functions of a
project manager - "the man in between management and the
tcchno1ogist"- and the necessary qualifications for success.
As the 1950s gave way to the 1960s and project-based activity
increased not only in the defence and construction industries but also in
the emergent world of computer, a second family of techniques grew to
rival the PERTICPM approach. Originating with Professor B. Roy's
"Method of Potentials" in France (Roy, 1962) but described as a
generic approach by Joseph Moder and Cecil Phillips (Moder and
Phillips, 1964), this method differs from PERTICPM in that it
represents each activity by a box rather than an arrow, and then links
the activities together by means of arrows. This allows the concept of
"lag" to bc used, showing the extent by which one activity lags behind
another. Although it was slow to spread, this family of methods is now
more widespread in common use than PERTICPM.
During the early 1960s a study published jointly by the Department of
Defence and NASA (DoD and NASA Guide, 1962) not only
emphasised the need to include cost control aspects in PERT, but also

Towards Improved Projecf Management Practice:
Chapter 1
introduced the formal adoption of Work Breakdown Structure as a tool
for project at~d
programme management. Shortly afterwards, the USAF
specified that a specific form of PERT/Cost planning should be used.
that related the physical progress of the project to thc development of
both schedule and cost. This technique, known as Earned Value, was a
specific form of performance measurement that is now in widespread
use in traditional environments for project management.
The 1960s (although not only the 1960s) were characterised by major
cost and schedule overruns on high-visibility projects, with notorious
examples such as the TSR2 project in UK leading to, on the one hand, a
focits on the acquisition process in general and alternative forms of
contract in particular, and, on the other hand, to a broadening of the
application of project nianagcmcnt into wider areas than the aerospace,
defence and construction industries that had provided its development
environment.
Organisation theory, meanwhile, was developitig in parallel, and by the
end of the 1960s there was not only a recognition of the need for
project management as a discipline in its own right, but also the
creation of the two major professional bodies for project managers,
PMI (tlie Project Management Institute) in USA and IPMA (tlie
international Project Management Association, formerly known as
Internet) internationally, with its constituent national bodies such as
APM (the Association for Project Management) in UK.
As organisation theory and project management met, the concepts of
matrix organisations developed as applied to pro.jects/functions, with
some recognition that the nature of a project manager's job wodd vary
depending upon where along the spectrum from functional organisation
through matrix to project organisation the enterprise chose to structure
itself.
During tlie 1970s project management continued to spread thro~~ghout
the traditional industries, with a specific impetus coming from the rise
in the oil price from $3 per barrel to $12, with tlie consequent change in
attractiveness of production from areas such as the North Sea. where
the first discoveries in 1969 to 1971 werc followed by an investment of
over f60bn in oil and gas exploratioti and production facilities. This
spawned the development of new methods of financing projects, with

Chapter 1
funds being raised for specific projects themselves rather than for the
enterprise that is commissioning the project.
The 1980s saw a notable change in the political and economic
environment on both sides of the Atlantic, and for the first time since
the ancicnt world, a fundamental reconsideration of the roles of
"owner" and "builder" through the introduction of BOO (T) contracts
(Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) such as the Channel Tunnel and the
Dartford Crossing.
The introduction of thc IBM PC in 1982 also ensured that the role of 1T
in any business enterprise would be fundamentally transformed during
the 19XOs, and huge amounts of money were spent on managing
international, national and enterprise-wide IT projects.
1.4.4 The era of "intellectual capitalism": project
management sincethe mid-1980s.
The social and economic climate at the cnd of the second millennium is
presenting enterpriscs with a fresh set of challenges, many of which are
having an effect on the nature of projects that are undertaken, and on
the project management practices that they employ.
The development of global competition, for example, is resulting in
major projects requiring the co-ordination or suppliers from
different enterprises, based in different countries, with different
languages and divcrgcnt cultures.
Thc dcvclopment of a global IT infrastructure is not only creating
opportunities for many projects with a high IT content and with a
business re-engineering focus, but is also changing the fundamecital
patterns of work within enterprises and within project teams.
The growth of service industries is increasing the number of
projects that produce "services" as products, as manufacturing
productivity increases, and as the industrial needs of the first world
are increasingly met by the growth economics of the developing
world. Many writers on management and leadership trends
(e.g.Belasco and Stayer, 1993) make the point that work,
increasingly, involves the creation, transmission and manipulation
of information and knowledge.
The trend in the dcveloped world to constraining government
expenditure is leading to new approaches to infrastructure projects,

TowardsImprovedProject Management Practice:
Chapter I
with increasing private sector involvement in initiatives such as PFI
(Private Finance Initiative).
Enterprises are responding to the changed environment in many
ways. A few of these ways that havc significant implications for
project management are worth mentioning.
As stock markets develop more and more sophisticated electronic
means of analysing, comparing and predicting corporate
performance, enterprises are developing new and sophisticated
methods of valuing themselves, and their component clcments.
adopting techniques such as EVA (Economic Value Added) or
"balanced scorecards".
As specialised knowledge becomes more highly valued,
organisations are increasingly turning to techniques such as
"outsourcing" to obtain better valuc for non-essential activities, and
different forms of strategic relationships with other enterprises that
possess complementary capabilities to their own.
The drive for survival and financial performance are combining to
lead enterprises to continually seek fundamental performance
improvements through such activities as business process re-
engineering and competitive bcnchmarking.
Within enterprises, as all these trends combine, the traditional
relationships between managers and employees have been forced to
respond. Increasingly enterprises are employing concepts such as
"self-managing teams" and "empowcmient" with the basic
intention of getting higher productivity from each employee.
The effect of these changes on projects and project management
has been far reaching.
The improved business perfomlance resulting from effective use of
information technology is leading to an immense increase in the
number of "business change'' projects with their associated IT
components.
Radically new relationships between the "owner" the "operator"
the "designer"and thc "constructors" of a particular product such
as a road, a hospital or an oil rig arc leading to radically new forms
of contract, and to radical new practices such as "alliancing"
(whcre different parties to the agreement, for example the operator,
the designer and the constructors commit themselves to a common

Towam'sImproved Project Management Practice:
Chapter I
set of objectives, and operate as a single organisation, with gain-
sharing and pain-sharing arrangements to safcguard the economic
interests of each party) or"partncring"(where supplies negotiate a
strategic relationship that encompasses many projects, and that
establishes the contractual rights, duties, service levels, and
financial arrangements by which each project will bc conducted).
The overall availability of inexpensive s o h a r e packages such as
Microsoft Project and the ease of access to PCs or workstations,
combined with the business trends to self-managed teams and to
increased employee "empowerment" are changing the focus of
project monitoring and control practices. The resulting
"decentralisation" is leading to an increased need for large
proportions of the project work-force to understand concepts such
as risk management and change management, that lie at the heart of
good practice for project control.
The increasing intensity of global competition is raising the
pressure for enterprises to reduce both costs and timescales for
their projects.
1.5 Project managementtoday -how industry
thinksaboutprojects.
A review of project management practices and techniques in morc than
30 enterprises5
in industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, oil,
construction, utilities, engineering, aerospace, rail transport, electronics.
IT, financial scrvices, tclecomrnunications. retail and manofacti~ring
shows up a number of characteristics of projects in the 1990s.
Different industries each have their own way of thinking about
projects, their own vocabulary for talking about projects, and thcir
own versions of the disciplines of project management. Fora exist
to promote cross-business dialogue6
, but managers in industry are
still prone to complain that since each project is unique, and the
drivers of perfornlance in different industries are so different, there
is relatively little that can be learned from each other.
There is an increasing prc-occupation with the competencies that
successful project managers need to possess. Ground-breaking
work by Gadeken (1994) identitied that the set of competencies
possessed by outstanding project managers is different from that

Chapter 1
possessed by outstanding line managers, and many leading
enterprises are now seeking to confirm this for themselves and for
their own kind of projects. Professional bodies such as PMI and
APM are responding by offering a range of pmfessioiial
qualifications.
Enterprises that need to respond quickly to external opportunities
and that have large numbers of employees engaged on "prqjcct
work" rather than "routine work" are turning themselves into
"project-based organisations". The language of project
nianagcment is thus being extended to include terms such as
"project-based managenient" or "management by projects'.. while
techniques for the effectivc control of the organisation's resources
(such as programme management) are being developed.
As the focus of enterprises on business processes continues to
sharpen, there is a developing emphasis 011thc processes of projcct
management. The 1995 re-issue of PMl's "Guide to the Bociy of
Knowledge" (Duncan, 1996), for example, structures most of its
text around the 37 processes that it sees as constituting the effective
management of projects. Incidentally, only 8 of these are classified
by PMI as relating to "project execution", with the remaindcr
relating to various aspects of project managenient. Similarly, the
release of the CCTA's PRINCE 2 project managenient
nlethodology in 1996 is designed around the processcs of projcct
management. This increasing focus on processes i s allowing the
related conccpts of identifying and describing "best practice" and
of "benchmarking"to cnter the arena of project managenient.
These factors combined to make the iniprovcmcnt of pro,ject
performance a pressing need for industry and coninierce in the closing
years of the 2othCentury.
1.5.1 How project performanceis measuredin industry.
Projects represent an enormous investment by large sectors of industry,
so impmving project performance could have a major impact on
competitiveness. Although there is general agrccment within industry
on the need to improve project performance. there is far from general
agreement on how to measure. or even quantify, that improvement. The
question of how project performance is measured is both important, and
far from straightforward. Recent rescarch such as O'Connor and

Chapter 1
Reinsborough (1992) suggcst that far from improving over time, the
actual proportion of projects with a performance regarded as poor or
1
worse is increasing.
De Wit (1988) distinguishes between pro.ject success (measured against
the overall objectives of the project) and project management success
(measured against the widespread and traditional measures of
performance against cost , time and quality). He points out that the
different objectives that projects are dcsigned to achieve can be
arranged in a hierarchy, with not all equally important, and that the
diffcrcnt stakeholders in the project such as owner, user, sub-contractor,
supplier, or designer may all have success criteria that differ from cach
other. This makes the measurement of success a complcx and inexact
matter, since it is possible for a project to be a success for one party and
a disasZer for another. It can also appear to be a success one day and a
failurc the next.
The most widespread practice in industry today is to harmonise project
and project management success by establishing quantified project
objectives in terms of cost (the project budget), schedule (milestones
and thc project completion date) and product quality (usually defined in
terms of project scope, but often including definitions of the
performance of the facility, product or service produced by the project,
and increasingly during the 1990s, the benefits that are to be harvested
from the product.). Project performance is then measured in terms of
actual out-turn compared with the planned out-turn in each of these key
dimensions.
This is useful for an enterprise in terms of answering the question, "Did
things turn out as we planned that they would?", but it doesn't answer
questions such as, "Did we get value for money?", "How well did we
manage this project?", or "How did our performance compare with that
of our competitors?".
At present, few organisations are truly in a position to obtain answers to
these questions. The answers that are obtained are either restricted to a
narrow set of metrics that can bc obtained (such as time to market for a
new motor car design) or are largely anecdotal.
To answer this kind of question more fully, threc different kinds of
metrics are needed (See Figure 3).

Chapter I
Business metrics - the financial and other parameters applied by the
provider of funds for the project. Financial measures could include
return on investment, while others might include cntry into a ncw and
attractive market. These measures will depend upon the strategic intent
of the provider of funds.
Product metrics - the detailed benchmarks, by which the provider of
funds can test whether or not they have been provided with the right
product performing to the right standard for the right price and in a
timely manner. Comparisons here are likely to bc industry-specific
such as the cost of designing and building a 500 MW generator, or thc
building of 5 miles of 8-lane motorway.
Best-practice mctrics - relate to the practices and disciplines of
managing projects, and examine the efficiency and effectiveness of the
processes associated with managing the project from start to finish.
This research focuses on the third of these, "best practice ntetrics"
Figure 3: D~ferenitjpes ofproject melric

Towards lmproved Project Management Practice:
Chapter 1
1.5.2 The needfor improvement: why so many projects
are seen to fail.
Projects in many industries continuc to be plagued by poor performance
(e.g. KPMG, 1997). Well publicised project difficulties such as the
Channel Tunncl or the West Midlands Ambulance System, are matclicd
by many less visible projects that are marked by "cost overruns, late
deliveries. poor reliability, and users' dissatisfaction." (Abdel-Hamid
and Madnick, 1991). Cost and schedule overruns, failure of the product
to deliver the performance specified, failure to accomplish the
beneficial change for which the product was intended, and aborting
projects after significant expenditure are all part of cveryday project
experience for many enterprises.
In spite of the substantial effort invested in projects, enterprises are
slow to lcarn lessons from specific projects and apply them to othcrs.
Why this should be so is a part of the "conceptoal basis to project
management" to which this research intends to contribute.
Certainly every project is by definition to some extent unique, and that
makes every project a potential learning experience, but it also
enhances the difficulty in applying lessons learned on one project to
subsequent ones. This is why project based organisations have to learn
how to lcarn, both from other organisations' experiences and from their
own.
Most general textbooks on project management include an early section
on "the causcs of pro,ject failure". Kharbanda and Stallworthy (1983)
attribute much of the cause of failure to the fact that decisions on
project investment are taken by Boards of Directors on the basis of
"matheniatical wizardry" applied to numbers that have a very high
degree of inherent uncertainty.
More generally, "shopping lists"of key reasons are cited, as in the two
following.
Projects that have,failedgeneralIj>display se~zeral
of the following
chamcferisticr:-
1. Tlre ctutornerS condi+ionsqfsati~fiction
have not been
k
$ negotiated.
#
12. The project no longer has a high priority.
13. No one seenr to 11. fir churge

Towards Improved Pmject Management Practice:
Chapter I
4. The schedule is too optimistic.
5. The project plan is not used to manage the project.
6. Sufficient resources have not been con~rrritted.
7. Project status is not monitored against theplan.
8. No formalcommunications plan is in place.
9. The project has lost sight ofits orrginalgoals
10. There is no change manage~tlent
process irt place
(I+:~~socki
R. K.. Beck R. Jnr:, and Crane D. B., 1995, p. 57.)
Some common reasons,for project nianagentent.faihlreare a.r,follot~:r:
-
I. Lack of a pvo,ject,focal point.
2. Poor choice of organisational form ofstructltr'e.
3. Project efforts in the hands qfone of the lendfu~rctionalgroitp.~.
4. lnadeqrrateinvol~ament
of team menihers.
5. Inadequate planning.
6. Lack qf top managerrrent support or project ad~i~inisfratiwr
eforts.
7. Too little authority in the hands qf tlie project manager.
8. Poor choice of project nzanager.
9. Team not prepared for team efirt.7.
10. Poor project communication.
I I. Lack of team blending.
12. Unclear project mission.
13. Objectives are not agreed on; end result is unclear.
14. Innbilir);to estimatetat-get dates.
15. No hard milestone.^; little project control.
16. Poor planning ofproject installation and termination.
17. Poor technical and user doctrmentation.
(Kezsbom, Schilling. and Edward. 1989,p. 10).

Chapter I
The trouble with such shopping lists is that each Board of Directors,
each Director of Projects and each Project Manager is free to pick for
himself or herself the cause that they feel most comfortable eliminating.
And when they feel that they have done that, there are plenty of others
still left on the list! The task facing the profession of project
management is to identify which causes lead to which effects, and thus
to pave the way for a transition from "experience-based project
management"to "evidence-based project management".
The cyclic nature of this programme of "continuous action research"
will become clear in the course of this thesis. At an early stage in the
process, after reviewing the discussion in this chapter, six fairly basic
research questions were identified as follows: -
I) What aspects of project management are common to different
industries?
2) Which aspccts of project management (such as practices or
processes) are sufficiently important to project-based organisations
that they are felt to be worthy of measurement across industries?
3) What useful cross-industry "metrics" can be developed to mcasure
the relative performance of these practices or processes, and what
constitutes the "benchmark" for them?
4) What evidence is there from actual project outcomes that the
"benchmark" practices translate into actual project performance?
5) In the light of project performance, which practices andfor
processes can bc dcrnonstrated to have a determinative influence
on project performance?
6) How can metrics that are relevant to determinative practices OT
processes be incorporated into useful predictive models?
1.7 Conclusion
Projects are a basic element of human endeavour. They have a long
history extcnding back to times long before the terms ''project" or
"project management" were in common usage. Projects are integral to
the way businesses work. One of the fundamental ideas on management

Chapter I
is to break work up into "chunks" that can be managed, and projects are
one important type of these "chunks".
Projects are immersed in a social and economic environment, and a
systemic context for studying projects will nccd to recognisc thc social
context within which enterprises are initiated, the role that projects play
in the enterprises and in modifying the social context itself, and finally
the way that practices and techniques used in the management of
projects are themselves conditioned by the social context.
Prqiects have gained in importance during the past two decades as
competitive pressures in the business environment have necessitated the
creation of products and sewices using increasingly complex
technological solutions undcr increasingly tight time, cost and quality
constraints. Pel-fomiance is critical, and failure carries a high social
and economic cost, so the current state of the art is in developing
performance improvement techniques, tools and methods.
The stance taken by this research is to make the systemic context
explicit, to seek a sound epistemic basis to the research, to adopt a point
of view that formally involves a broad range of disciplines and
industries, to utilise a pragmatic approach at all times, and to develop a
methodology that both makes its concephlal basis explicit and also
recognises the contributions that can be made by combining
quantitative disciplines (such as benchmarking) with qualitative
disciplines (such as process mapping and social-science research).
There is a big gap between the abstract concept of how to improve
projcct performance and the reality of the existence of tools to do it, so
the purpose of this research is above all practical. Answers to six
questions will be sought through the research.
Chapter 2 will start the search by extracting from projcct management
literature a summary of the prevailing worldview adopted by the
Western world's projcct management communities, and Chapter 3 will
explore why it has been necessary to adopt a new research paradigm in
order to create the tools necessary to measure improvetnents in projcct
perfortiiancc.

Chapter 1
'Rodney Turner argues this point at some length in Op. Cit. Pages 5 and 6
'The assembly of fifteen organisations into a project managcrnent
benchmarking network known as "Europe I" was a part of the comtnercial
activity that supported the research programme. The names of these and all
subscqt~cnt
organisations that became members are given in Appendix P-9.
"xodus 18:13-26
The framework for dividing capitalism into thrce eras -classic, managerial,
and information - was developed by James Belasco and Ralph Stayer in some
unpublished papen prior to their monograph, "The Flight of the Buffalo".
The original material for this research has been gathered from a network of
major organizations. Chapter 4 describes the programme's historical
development. These general observations are drawn from the members of the
network, and from other organisations that are known well to the author.
For example PMI (The Project Management Institute) or IPMA (formerly
known as Internet), the International Association of Project Management along
with its national constituent bodies such APM in UK.
'Internal docu~nents
available to the author from a number of blue-chip
private-sector enterprises substantiate this assertion.

Towards improvedProject Management Practice:
Chapter 2
2: The worldview of a project manager.
The previous Chapter described why it is a matter of practical interest
and importance to large sections of industry to irnprovc the practice of
project management. The literature on project management is
dominated to an overwhelnling degree by practitioner-oriented writings
- books and articles dcscribing techniques that have been developed to
help with specific aspects of managing projects in particular
circumstances, or techniques that have been found to be generally
Iielpful for project managers. The whole discipline could be described
as "practitioner-led".
A classical approach to the task of rcvicwing the litcrature would be to
examine all the theoretical approaches that have been laid down with
respect to project management. And this was done. The literature
proved to contain a fragmented world of people quoting or assuming
theories and applying them to project management with specific
circumstances in mind (Cleland and King, 1983; Elmes and Wilemon,
1988; Abdel-Hamid and Madnick, 1991: Barnes, 1996) with no
overarching approach to thcory. A notable exception is the recent
approach adopted at Erasmus University (Turner and Kecgan, 1999;
Turner and Keegan, 2000), although even this is characterising the
whole field of project management as being concerned with control
theory, thereby playing down the body of theory on organisation
developmental and learning (Thomas and Tjider, 2000).
The situation was further complicated by the specd of dcveloprnent of
the corpus. A recent review of the research into project management
during the past forty years (Kloppenborg and Opfer, 2000) found that
60% of the articles published on the subject have been published during
the 1990s - which means that approximately a half of all the writing
about project management has been written during the period of the
research for this thesis.
In view of this, and since this research is essentially practical in its
intentions, a different approach has been adopted. The chapter bcgins
by referring briefly to three representative pieces of empirical research

Chapter 2
- one each from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s - in order to unde~stand
which practices are seen to correlate most closely to project
management success.
A more global contcxt for these empirical studies and the present
research has then been established by searching the corpus of project
management literature for what is distinctive about the way a project
- . ~-
manager approaches his or her task - what, if you likc, is the distinctive
uroiect management "worldview". To focus the search, a somewhat
. - -
mechanistic analysis has bccn carried out that combines six
rcprcsentative "bodies of knowledge"about project management with a
recently published analysis of the topics ofjoumal articles about project
management. This created a list of 60 terms that could be said to
constitute the"core concepts"of the project manager's worldview.
A qualitative analysis of thc definitions of these terns has then been
carried out, to create a "narrative framework" of four themes dividcd
into eleven topics, which is then described with illustrative citations
from the literature. In thc course of this narrative, comments about
relevant theory have been interwoven with descriptions of practice, in
order to paint as complete a picture as possible of the thinking that has
led to the creation of the worldview.
The narrative framework is made explicit in a "systemigram" which
hypothesizes how the eleven topics relate to each other, and how thcy
combine to deliver the benefits of the project managcmcnt worldview to
society, industry and commerce.
Finally, the major elements of the existing worldview are compared
with the practices found by the empirical research quoted at the start of
the Chapter to lead most surely to project succcss, and questions are
raised about the completeness and adequacy of current research into the
worldview.
2.2 Whichpracticeshave been correlatedto project
success and project failure?
Many of the practitioner-focused textbooks on project management
define project success in terms of the time, cost and product
perfomlance (expressed as quality, or scope, or conformance to
requirements) compared to the plan, but as has been seen above, De
Wit (1988) diffcrcntiates between the success of project management

Towards lmprovedProject ManagementPractice:
Chapter 2
(for which thesc measures might be broadly appropriate) and the
success of the project, which will depend on a wider range of measures.
This distinction is important, although often ignored.
In this case, De Wit is following the classic work of Baker, Murphy and
Fisher (1974), which is described below, and which was subsequently
developed further by the same authors (1988). They conclude that "if
the project meets thc technical performance specifications and/or
mission to be performed, and if there is a high lcvcl of satisfaction
concerning the project outcome among key people in the parent
organisation, key people in the client organisation, key people on the
project team and key users or clientele of the project effort, the project
is considered an overall success."(ibid. p.903)
The importance of the distinction is eniphasised by Munns and Bjeirmi
(1996). who draw attention to the short-term goals of the projcct
manager (in delivering the required product or service to schedule and
within budget) as opposed to the long-tern1 goals of the project (to
deliver the promised business benefits). Kerzner makes a similar
distinction between "successful projects" and "successf~~lly
managed
projects". "Successful implementation of project management does not
guarantee that individual projects will be successful . . . Conipanies
excellent in pro,ject management still have their share of project
failures. Should a company find that 100 percent of their projects are
successful, then that company is simply not taking enough business
risks." (Kenner, 1998a,p. 37)
This discussion gives some indication of the complications inherent in
assessing the extent to which improved project management practice
can be shown to be of benefit to an organisation. Much of thc literature
has been derived directly or indirectly from Baker, Murphy and Fisher's
analysis of 650 projects (1974), as is shown in Crawford's (2000)
comprehensive review of the literature on project management success.
In order to establish a datum against which to compare the findings
from this research programme, three studies based on empirical
research have been described below: Baker, Murphy & Fisher's (1988)
considered findings from their analysis of 650 aeronautical,
construction and other projects; Pinto and Slevin's studies (1988a;
1988b) of answers provided by 418 project managers various industries
, and Lechler's survey (1998) of 448 projects in Germany. These three

Towards Improved ProjectManagement Practice:
Chapter 2
have been chosen as representative because of their empirical data froni
large samples of data, because they include projccts from different
industries, because they use complcmcntary data analysis methods, and
because they cover thc past three decades, during which time 99% of all
the articles published about project management have been written.
(Kloppenborg and Opfer, 2000)
2.2.1 Baker, Murphy and Fisher
Baker, Murphy and Fisher adopted the definition of success that has
already been cited above. It includes a number of factors, and the
perceptions of success of different groups of stakeholders. Their
conclusion is that there are 29 factors that strongly affect the perceived
failure of projects, 24 factors that are necessary, but not sufficient, for
perceived success, and 10 factors that are strongly linearly related to
both perceived success and perceived failure (i.e. their prcscnce tends
to improve perceived success, while thcir absence contributes to
perceived failure).
The output nieasure (whether the project was successful or not) was a
simple categorization of projects into three success "bands", based on a
multiple of the factors contributing to their definition of success.
The ten factors are set out below.
1. Goal commitment of project team.
2. Accurate initial cost estimates.
3. Adequate project team capability.
4. Adequate funding to completion.
5. Adequate planning and control techniques.
6. Minimal start-up difficulties.
7. Task (vs. social) orientation.
8. Absence of bureaucracy.
9. On-site project manager.
10. Clearly established success criteria.
2.2.2 Pinto and Slevin
Pinto and Slcvin derived from Baker, Murphy and Fisher an
understanding of the factors that influence project success, and then
developed from it a more explicit definition of the factors that

TowardsImproved Project Management Practice:
Chapter 2
contribute to success (See Figure 4). Thcy then assesscd the opinions
of 418 PMI members who responded to a questionnaire about which
factors were critical to which elements of project success (just over half
of them were project managers, and nearly a third were members of
projcct teams).
They also related the results to the particular phase of the projcct's lifc
cycle within which each of the factor9 were signiticant., using a simple
four-phase model: conceptualisation, planning, execution and
termination. Participants were instructed to "think of a project in which
they were involved that was currently imcier way or recently completed.
This project was to be their framc of rcfcrence while completing the
questionnaire. The four phase project life cycle ... was included in thc
questionnaire, and was used to identify the current phase of each
project." (Pinto and Slevin, 1988a,p. 70)
The results identified ten "critical success factors", which were then
devclopcd into an instrument to allow project managcrs to identify how
successful they were being in managing their project. The ten factors
are listed below.
1. Project mission - initial clarity of goals and general direction.

TowardsImprovedProject ManagementPractice:
Chapter 2
2. Top management support - willingness of top management to
provide the necessary resources and authoritylpower for project
success.
3. Project schedule/plans - a detailed specification of the individual
action steps required for project implementation.
4. Client consultation - communication, consultation and active
listening to all impacted parties.
5. Personnel - recruitment, selection and training of the necessary
personnel for the project team.
6. Technical tasks - availability of the required technology and
expertise to accomplish the specific technical action steps.
7. Client acceptance- the act of "selling"the final product to its
ultimate intended users.
8. Monitoring and feedback - timely provision of comprehensive
control infomiation at each phase in the implementation process.
9. Communication - the provision of an appropriate network and
necessary data to all key factors (sic) in the project implementation.
10. Trouble-shooting- ability to handle unexpected crises and
deviations from plan.
2.2.3 Lechler
Lechler, in the most recent of the three empirical studies, also started
from an analysis of the literature. His starting point was that "cause and
effect" is rarely taken into consideration, but rather that the "critical
success factors" are analyscd as separate, independent variables. He
reviewed 44 studies, covering a total of more than 5,700 pro.jects and
from them deduced that 11 discrete key success factors could be
identified. Out of these, he chosc the eight that were most frequently
cited for his own empirical analysis.
Working from Pinto & Slevin's questionnaire, Lechler isolated 50
questions that corresponded to his chosen eight critical success factors,
and distributed it to members of the Gernlan project Management
Society (Gescllschaft fur Projektn~anagement - GPM). Each
respondent was sent two questionnaires and asked to complete one for a
project that they considered to be successful, and one for a project that
they considered to be unsuccessful. They were invited to assess the
project as successful if "all people involved" regarded the process

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"No," said Nicolaia, "they are only surata, that is, they have
adopted each other as sisters. Any girls can do that if they love each
other enough. I was at the Church when the ceremony was
performed, and saw their feet chained together in token of the bond.
It made them the same as born sisters. Sometimes a young man
adopts another young man for his brother in the same way. The
priest always asks them if they are sure of their affection, for he
says the ceremony makes the new relationship very binding."

CHAPTER VII
ST. GEORGE'S DAY
The next day the boys walked over to the home of Nicolaia's
village friend, Demetrius, and here a delightful surprise awaited
them. Two young bear cubs trotted like dogs at the feet of the
village boy as he came to meet them.
"Where did you get these?" both boys shouted with delight.
"From my uncle," returned Demetrius. "He captured them after
their mother had been killed. At first they had to be fed sheep milk
with a spoon."
As he spoke, one of the little fellows ran up a tree in the yard and
the other began to play with a young puppy. Soon the boys were
trying to help Demetrius teach them to turn somersaults and do
other tricks. They gave this up only when they remembered there
were other things to settle before parting. These things all related to
St. George's Day, or, as it is sometimes called, the "Witch's Sabbath."
This would come the very last of the week. There were mysteries in
regard to the day, for the boys spoke in whispers while Jonitza was
trying to make one of the bears jump through a hoop. He was so
much interested in the antics of the little creatures that he paid no
attention until just at leaving he heard something which made him
open his eyes wide. Hidden treasure was to be found!
On the way home he answered Nicolaia in monosyllables and
looked moody, much to the latter's surprise. "What's the matter?"
Nicolaia finally asked.

For answer Jonitza glared and then burst out with: "What have I
done that you won't let me go with you on St. George's Eve?"
Nicolaia was taken aback. "You've done nothing," he made haste
to say. "But this must be kept a secret and your mother wouldn't like
your going."
"I won't tell her," said Jonitza, wincing a little as he spoke; "that is
—not until—eh—I show her the treasure. Then she won't care."
Nicolaia looked up and down the road as if trying to find a way
out of a difficulty. At last he said faintly, "Well, all right, if you can
meet us in the yard by the cow-sheds at ten o'clock."
On the day before the "Witch's Sabbath," Jonitza watched
Nicolaia's father cut square blocks of turf and place them before
every door and window of the farm-house and stables. "Why are you
doing that?" he asked. The farmer smiled at him but did not answer.
Katinka, however, came and whispered that it was to keep out the
witches. She turned from him to help her father place thorn
branches here and there in the cut turf. Jonitza followed every act
with a fascinated air. "What's that for?" he asked her. "The witches
run when they see thorns," she explained, smiling at the thought.
Two of the men who were helping on the farm at the time,
offered to keep watch all night near the stables lest the witches
should charm the cattle and do them harm. Mrs. Popescu, who
heard them make the offer, asked them if they really believed in
witches.
They looked at her with the air of grown up children. "If it wasn't
witches," said one with a triumphant air, "what made old
Theodoresco's cow give bloody milk last year for several months
beginning the very next day after the 'Witch's Sabbath'?" Mrs.
Popescu, seeing that it would be useless to argue the question, left
them.

A half hour later, Nicolaia appeared and beckoned to Jonitza to
follow him indoors. Here he took an earthen jar from a closet. "What
do you think that is?" he asked.
"One of your mother's jars," Jonitza answered.
"No," said Nicolaia without smiling. "Put your hand inside and see
what you find."
Jonitza did so and brought out some ancient coins dating back to
pre-Roman times.
"My father is keeping these for luck. He found them when he was
plowing," said Nicolaia. "I am showing this to you because I thought
you ought to know that it may be that kind of treasure that we'll find
to-night."
Jonitza had this constantly in mind the rest of the day. "How
wonderful it would be to find a real treasure," he kept thinking. He
ate little for supper, went to bed at once when his mother suggested
it, and tried very hard to keep from falling asleep. But alas, despite
his efforts, sleep came and it was a very deep sleep, so that when
he awoke it was bright morning.
He hurried out, ashamed of himself, and found his friend looking
very drowsy and grinning in a somewhat downcast way. In answer
to Jonitza's hurried explanations of what had happened to himself
and urgent questions, Nicolaia said: "It was just after ten o'clock
when we started. I was relieved that you didn't appear, for I didn't
know what might happen. There was no moon at the time, but the
stars were out, and as we know the hills well, Demetrius and I had
no trouble making our way over them. We heard all sorts of strange
noises, but we weren't a bit afraid. I thought we should surely find
the treasure. You see, they say around here that it is easiest for the
one born on a Sunday or at midday; and Demetrius was born just
two minutes after noon on a Sunday. So that ought to count.

'WE STOOD AS IF PARALYZED'"
"We spoke only in whispers as we tried to look in every direction
at once. Each of us wanted to be the first to see the blue flame
which shows where the treasure lies hidden. It must have been past
midnight when Demetrius seized hold of my arm. I felt his hand
tremble.
"'Do you see that?' he
whispered.
"I looked where he
pointed and saw in the
distance what really
seemed like a tiny fire. It
was not particularly blue
but we did not think of
that. I felt for my knife, for
it must be thrown through
the flame so that the
spirits who guard the
treasure won't harm you.
"'Have you your knife?'
I whispered back.
"'Yes,' returned
Demetrius. 'I'll throw first,
and if I miss, you throw
right after.' Before this we
had not minded anything,
but now as we crept on,
we shuddered whenever
we stepped on a dry twig or caused a stone to roll down hill.
"As we came nearer there was no sign of flame but there were
bright patches on the ground as if from the remains of a fire. This
could just be seen around a big bowlder where we stopped for a
moment to gain courage for the final step.

"As we stood there we heard a sound as of some creature rolling
over. Then on the other side of the big rock, a huge form arose. We
distinctly heard some cuss words and a threat so terrible that we
stood as if paralyzed. Suddenly the figure began to move, and
forgetful of everything else but our own safety, we ran down the
hillside, stumbling over each other, now rolling a way, tearing our
clothes on thorn bushes, and generally having a hard time until we
both landed in a brook. We crawled out very much chilled and stood
listening. Everything about us was quiet, so I don't know whether
we were followed or not. However, we did not dare return.
"So, of course, we didn't get any treasure. My father says it was
probably some old gypsy, but I know it was a bad spirit, for as I
have said, it was after midnight, and good spirits show the flame
only till twelve. When it is seen later, the treasure is guarded by bad
spirits."

CHAPTER VIII
THE CASTLE OF STEPHEN THE GREAT
How quickly the month at the farm-house passed! Every day
there was so much to see and do, and once in a while there was an
excursion to some place of interest. The furthest one taken was
when Jonitza and Katinka went with the maid who had accompanied
Jonitza's mother to the country, for a couple of days' visit to her
home in a place called Niamtz.
The day after they reached the straggling village, the children
were allowed out to play. They were attracted to a great red earth
cliff, where they began digging tunnels and building little cave
houses. Tiring of that they wandered up toward the cliff's summit,
gathering the beautiful wild flowers that they found on the way, and
resting now and then under some leafy tree. When they reached the
top they both shouted with delight at finding the ruins of a castle.
What a delightful place in which to play! There were four corner
towers, strong buttresses and battlemented walls, as well as a large
moat all the way around, now overgrown with trees.
Jonitza, who was blessed with a good memory, recalled what he
had been told about the place and so hastened to instruct Katinka in
his own fashion, emphasizing every word that he considered of
importance. "This," said he, in his tutor's manner, "is the old castle
celebrated in many of our songs, of one of our greatest kings called
Stephen the Great.
"One day, Stephen the Great was fighting the Turks who were
winning. He thought it was no use fighting any longer and made for
home as quickly as he could. He thought his mother would be glad

he wasn't killed. But instead of that she met him at the big gate you
see over there, and told him he ought to be ashamed to give up;
that he was fighting to free his people, and that she wouldn't ever
open the gates to him and his army unless he came back as victor."
(Here Jonitza gave an especial emphasis to the last word.) "So
Stephen said, 'All right,' and went back. He met the Turks in a
narrow valley and was so mad that he killed almost every one of
them. He was a very brave man, and I'm going to be like him."
These last words were hardly spoken when there was a clap of
thunder and flash of lightning, followed by a sudden heavy
downpour of rain. The children hurried to shelter which they found
in one of the towers.
It was dark there and the wind and rain threatened to break
through the walls. Bat-like things flew about, and strange noises, like
the mournful voices of imprisoned spirits, began to be heard. Jonitza
lost his brave air entirely as he and his companion crouched side by
side against one of the walls. Suddenly there was a peculiarly long
whistle, probably made by the wind passing through some crevice.
Katinka gave a little shriek. "It is the Stafii," she cried, clinging to her
friend.
Jonitza, though trembling, put his arm around her. He knew very
well that she was referring to harmful elves whom all the Roumanian
country folk believe dwell in ruins and are always unfriendly to
human beings. He tried to think of something comforting to say, but
at first only managed to clear his throat. After a bit what he did
whisper was: "We ought to have some milk to give them." At this
Katinka cried more than ever. "That's what they say, but we haven't
any, we haven't any," she repeated almost in a shriek.
This was followed by another shriek as a dark form shut out what
little light reached them. But it was only Maritza, who had come with
a big umbrella to their rescue.

CHAPTER IX
A SPINNING BEE
The evening before they left Niamtz, a crowd of Maritza's girl
friends gathered at her home for a Spinning Bee.
They came with heads uncovered, for only married women in
Roumania wear veils or kerchiefs. They were all dressed in holiday
finery, with their hair beautifully waved.
At first a merry little maiden with very red cheeks, and very black
eyebrows over sparkling eyes, and black hair twisted into a double
plait, came in for a good deal of teasing for some reason or other.
She didn't seem to mind it and her bright answers caused much
laughter and good feeling. Finally she succeeded in drawing
attention from herself by asking a riddle. This was followed by
another and another until everybody in the room was guessing.
Then Maritza's mother, who had been busy getting refreshments
ready, came in exclaiming, "Time for work, girls!"
At this there was a general cry of "Maritza!" "We want Maritza!"
"Maritza must be our leader!"
Maritza stepped forward with some show of reluctance. "There
are better spinners and better singers than I am," she said modestly.
But the girls, rising quickly, formed a ring around her, singing in
chorus, "It's you we want."
Then Maritza took her spindle and began to spin. At the same
time she improvised a strange song all about a mysterious heiduk or
chieftain who passed through their village. Suddenly she threw her

spindle to the black-eyed, red-cheeked maiden, holding it by a long
thread as she did so. The merry maiden caught it and was obliged to
continue both the spinning and singing while Maritza pulled out the
flax. This required much dexterity.
When each girl had had her turn, both in spinning and singing,
refreshments were passed around. There was mamaliga, baked
pumpkin, potatoes, and last of all, plenty of popcorn.
Then, while all seated resumed their work, one of their number
was begged for a story.
She smilingly consented, and told the following strange and
pathetic tale.
The Story of a Lilac Tree
"This is a story of what once must have taken place, for if it had
never occurred, I would not now have it to tell.
"In a little valley among the high mountains, there lived a maiden
all alone. She worked all day at her spinning and weaving and sang
with joy as she worked.
"So the years went on, each year adding loveliness to her face
and figure. One day when out gathering firewood for her small
needs she heard what sounded like a cry of pain. Making her way
into the thicket she found a man sorely wounded.
"She spoke to him but he had become unconscious, and, not
knowing what else to do, she took him in her strong arms and
carried him to her hut and laid him on her own bed. Then she
washed out his wounds and tended him like a sister.
"As soon as he could speak, he tried to express his gratitude.
'Dear maiden,' he said, 'had it not been for you I should never again
have seen the light of day, and even as it is, I fear I shall never walk
again. For it was no ordinary mortal by whom I was wounded, but a
demon of some kind who threatened that even should I survive, all

power to move my legs will have left me. Of what good will life then
be to me? Trouble yourself no longer, sweet maiden, to cure me.
Rather let my wounds bleed anew.'
"But the beautiful girl shook her head. 'Why should we believe all
that ill?' she said. 'I am skilled in herb lore and shall cure you.'
"For more than a week the man lay in bed while the girl tended
him. And she grew to love him, he was so patient, so grateful for all
she did. Then, one morning, he looked brightly at her: 'Lo, I am
cured.' And he sat up in bed. But when he tried to get down he
could not.
"And the next day it was the same and the next. But the man did
not speak of any disappointment. Instead, he told his nurse strange
stories of the life he had seen, and one day something that she
found hard to bear. It was of the beautiful woman whom he loved
and would have wed.
"The maiden, though now sad, still tended him faithfully, but to
no avail. At last, in her distress, she sought out a witch who was
famed for her wisdom over the whole mountain side.
"'The man is under enchantment,' said the old woman. 'He knows
his cure, but will not tell it to thee.'
"'Tell me what it is!' exclaimed the maiden. 'I will pay any price for
the cure!'
"'Are you sure?' asked the witch with a disagreeable laugh.
"'I am sure,' answered the maiden.
"'Know then,' said the witch, 'that only a virgin life like yours can
save him. Will you give your life?'
"The girl looked down in thought. At last she spoke. 'If it is indeed
so, why should I not? He is strong again and the world has need of
him. He loves another from whom only bewitchment separates him.

The happiness of two is worth the sacrifice of one. I will give my life
that they may wed.'
"The next morning when the man made his daily trial to arise, he
found to his amazement that he could do so. He looked around for
the maiden, but she was nowhere to be seen. He waited all day and
till the next morning but she did not come. Then, full of regret, he
went away. Near the threshold of the hut he stopped to pick a
branch of fragrant lilac. As he did so, the whole bush swayed with
delight, and it seemed to him that a spirit within it called his name
as he turned away."

CHAPTER X
NEW PLANS
Jonitza tried to forget that the time for leaving the country was
approaching. The month had meant much to him. It had made a
remarkable change in his appearance. His listless air had given way
to a wide awake interested look, and his pale cheeks had already
something of a ruddy hue.
Although for her own sake, Mrs. Popescu longed for a return
home, she felt something like guilt in taking her son back with her.
Every night she gave much thought to the subject and every night
she knelt in prayer before the ikon that hung in her bedroom, asking
that light be given her as to her duty. Finally, unable to decide, she
wrote a long letter to her busy husband and begged his advice.
Instead of a written answer, her husband himself arrived. His
solution of the difficulty startled her.
"Why shouldn't Jonitza accompany Nicolaia as a sheep herder into
the Carpathians?"
"I'm afraid," she said, "there are gypsies there—and bad
shepherds—and wild animals—and the life is too hard."
Her husband made light of all these things. "I've talked it over,"
he said, "with the Doctor. He declares that the only trouble with our
boy is that we've molly-coddled him. He advised me to trust him to
Nicolaia, whose family he knows. He says that Jonitza is just the age
to enjoy the experience and that he will thank us all his life for it."

But at first Mrs. Popescu did not agree. "He has grown much
heartier," she said. "Perhaps he would get along very well at home
now."
So it was not settled until after the whole thing was talked over
with the peasant and his wife and Mrs. Popescu was persuaded that
her son would be in safe hands and that, besides, the dangers were
less than in the city. Then Katinka was sent to call in the boys who
were busy as usual with some outside work. They came in with a
surprised air, but when all was explained to them both set up a
shout that echoed from the darkened rafters of the room.
Mr. Popescu laughed with pleasure. "Can that be really my son?"
he said.

CHAPTER XI
IN THE CARPATHIANS
"I feel as free as a bird!" Jonitza could not help exclaiming when
they had actually started with their flocks for the Carpathian
mountains. Like his friend, he was dressed in typical shepherd
costume, consisting of a coarse white linen shirt and trousers, a long
mantle of very heavy wool, and a straight round sheepskin cap. His
very shoes were the same, for the boys had fashioned both pair
together. They were made of pieces of goatskin that had been
soaked in water until soft, gathered into pleats by means of thongs
over the ankles, while other bits of thong held them securely in
place.
They had a big flock of sheep under their charge, for besides
those belonging to Nicolaia's father they were to herd those
belonging to the richest man in that neighborhood. Besides the
sheep, two intelligent wolf dogs belonging to the neighbor went with
them, as well as a donkey, to be used later to carry the packs of
cheese and milk.
It was high time for the boys to start, for the other shepherds had
gone, and the hot Roumanian summer was beginning to be felt.
Although Nicolaia had already spent two summers on the
mountains this was the first time that he was in charge of so large a
flock. In consequence he shared some of Jonitza's excitement. There
was another reason why this summer might prove a notable one for
him. It was probably his last experience of the kind, for his parents
had decided to have him apprenticed that autumn to his uncle, a

cabinet maker in the city of Bukurest, and apprenticeships in
Roumania are for six years.
It was a hard climb for the boys. At first as they made their way
upward they occasionally passed one-room shanties, each shared by
an entire family and all the domestic animals. At the last one of
these they stopped to ask for a drink of water. The door was open
and inside they could see the scanty furniture—a rude table, a
bench, a stove, and a cot covered with the skins of wild beasts. A
fierce looking man answered their call and handed them the water
with so surly an air that Nicolaia, who was accustomed to the great
hospitality of the section where he lived, felt a mingling of
amazement and indignation. There was no garden of any kind
around this house, but there was a wealth of wild flowers. Yellow
foxgloves, gladiolas, and wild honeysuckle seemed determined to
make the place a thing of beauty.
Just at noon, near one of the little streams that constantly
crossed their path, they came upon a small band of the gypsies that
are as numerous in Roumania as in Hungary. By a small fire over
which a kettle hung, sat two women. A short distance from them lay
a dark-skinned lad, with matted hair, while leaning against a giant
beech on the other side, was a young man playing a weird air that
made one think of a mountain storm, on a crude violin.
From this wayside camp, the path wound around and around until
at last it suddenly branched into two parts. Nicolaia stopped at this
point perplexed. "I do not remember this," he said, as he chose the
broader looking of the two roads. Soon, however, he saw the
mistake he made in doing so. What he had taken for a path was the
channel of a mountain torrent. It ended in a steep abyss, down
which some of the sheep had already scrambled.
The boys spent fully half an hour of the hardest kind of work
before they got these sheep back. When, shortly after, they came to
a grassy valley, both, panting hard, threw themselves under a tree.

"This is where we'll camp for the night," said Nicolaia, "now that
we have all the sheep together." As he spoke, he unpacked the
supper of cold meat, onions, and mamaliga that they had brought
with them. They also helped themselves to a drink of sheep's milk,
which is richer and thicker than cow's and of quite a different flavor.
The sun was already low, and when it sank from sight, darkness
followed very soon. Quickly wrapping themselves in their mantles,
the boys lay down beside their sheep. So strenuous had the day
been, that hardly had they exchanged a few sentences than both
were fast asleep.
The next day, after an early breakfast, they were again on their
way. The scenery around was grandly wild. Enormous birch and oak-
trees towered on both sides of the narrow path, while lime-trees
gave forth the honeyed sweetness of their blossoms. Here and there
a precipice would yawn on one side of the pathway. No homes of
any kind were to be seen.
The afternoon was far advanced when they reached another
valley which was to form their headquarters for the summer. Several
of the shepherds who shared this section noted their arrival and sent
a welcome to them on their boutchoums, long pipes of cherry wood
which can be heard for a great distance. In the Middle Ages,
Roumanians used the boutchoums to proclaim war to the troops.
Nicolaia at once led Jonitza to a sort of cave formed of large,
loose stones. "This," he said, "is the store-house of six or eight of us
who herd in this vicinity."
The next morning the work began in earnest. Some of it was
splendid training. Each day Nicolaia and Jonitza had to creep along
the crags with the flocks. Sometimes the footing was very insecure,
so it was no wonder that at the end of the first day Jonitza was
covered with bruises from his many falls. "I'm as stiff as a board,
too," he confided to Nicolaia, as they lay down near each other to
sleep. But, by the end of the week, the stiffness was entirely gone,

and Jonitza could manage to keep his footing on the rocks even
better than Nicolaia. By that time, too, he had learned the call that
would make the sheep clinging to the steep mountainsides stop
eating, look up, and then come scrambling to him.
The donkey had been let loose as soon as the valley was reached
and got into all kinds of scrapes from his dislike to being alone.
Sometimes when he found that he couldn't follow the sheep, he
would stand on a bowlder and bray loudly as if proclaiming to an
unsympathetic world his loneliness.
Sometimes the report would spread that wild animals had been
seen prowling near. This meant extra watchfulness on the part of the
shepherds. But whether there was reason for any especial alarm or
not, every night each shepherd wrapped himself in his sheepskin or
woolen mantle and lay down by his flock ready to spring up at the
least sign of danger.

CHAPTER XII
IN THE CARPATHIANS (Continued)
Although Jonitza and Nicolaia could not be constantly together,
they tried to share at least one meal every day. Once at such a time
Jonitza remarked: "How I wish I could get to the top of that
mountain yonder. See what a queer shape it is! It makes me think of
the picture of a peak called 'La Omu,' the man."
Nicolaia thought that a funny name. "How did it come to get it?"
he asked.
"Let me think," replied Jonitza. "Oh, yes, I remember now what
was written about it in my story book. It said that it had another
name, 'Negoi,' but that most of the country people preferred 'La
Omu' because of its resemblance to a human figure. When one
came near he could see that this was caused by a big rock in the
center of a mass of others. According to tradition, a shepherd once
lost his way there and began to curse God for his misfortune.
Suddenly as he was cursing, God turned him into stone as a warning
to others."
"Although that probably isn't 'La Omu,'" said Nicolaia, "I should
like to climb it nevertheless. Perhaps Vasili would keep an eye on our
sheep for a few hours if we asked him."
"Do you think so?" asked Jonitza eagerly. And he at once ran to a
bluff and shouted to Vasili, who was stationed nearer to them than
any of the other shepherds. Vasili called back good-naturedly, "Go
on. I'll see the sheep don't wander far." And the boys started.

"THERE . . . LAY TWO LONG SHINY
SNAKES"
It took them half an hour to reach the peak. Gradually, as they
ascended it, the pine and fir-trees dwindled into misshapen goblin-
like bushes, each of which seemed to be hiding behind one of the
great bowlders that were everywhere so plentiful.
At one point the boys
were clambering up a
steep rocky path when
suddenly Jonitza gave a
shriek and at the same
time jumped high into the
air. Nicolaia, who was a
short distance behind,
stopped so suddenly that
he almost lost his balance.
There, stretched out
between the two boys, lay
two long shiny snakes
sunning themselves and
apparently paying no heed
to what had happened.
Nicolaia recovered
himself first. He grasped
tight hold of his shepherd
staff and approached.
"Pshaw!" he called
disdainfully, to Jonitza on
the other side. "They're
harmless." Then jumping
without fear over them, he ran to where his companion, panting
hard, was leaning against a bowlder.
Seeing an open space near, the boys looked it over carefully and
sat down. "It was the suddenness of seeing the snakes that made
me jump," said Jonitza, apparently feeling that his natural action
needed explanation. At this Nicolaia chuckled and then began to

lecture Jonitza on the necessity of always keeping wide awake in the
mountains and never allowing himself to be surprised.
Jonitza did not relish this and interrupted his companion to ask
questions. "How is one to tell harmless snakes from others? Have
you ever seen snakes just born?"
At this last question, Nicolaia's eyes flashed. "How I wish I could
find a snake's nest!" he exclaimed. "Don't you know that precious
stones are made from snake saliva? If I found a snake nest, I'd not
run but kill the snakes, and then I'd be so rich I'd be able to buy a
big farm of my own."
An answering flash came into Jonitza's eyes. "Let's go hunt for
one now," he said, springing up. Nicolaia rose more slowly. "I'm
willing, but I warn you that we must be careful."
So with their long shepherd staves in their hands, and keeping
watch where they trod, they began a hunt among the bowlders.
How it might have ended no one can tell, for they had gone
scarcely twenty yards when they heard a loud cry from down below.
"It must be for us," said Nicolaia, and quite forgetful of snakes or
anything else he led the way back as fast as he was able.
When they reached the slopes on which their sheep were grazing,
they met a shout of laughter. "It was your donkey," Vasili explained.
"He tried, as usual, to follow the flock and this time slipped down
between two rocks and couldn't go forward or back. Didn't you hear
him bray? I didn't know what to do and so called for you. But in the
meantime this other Vasili here came bounding up from nowhere.
And you ought to have seen him manage! He tied the donkey's feet
together with a thong and lifted him out as easily as one would a
baby."
"You know you helped me," said a new voice.

The boys looked up to see a stranger standing near. He was of
medium height but thickset and very hardy in appearance. Instead
of a sheepskin cap a broad-brimmed hat was set well back over a
mass of glossy black curls. His features were regular; his eyes were
now smiling but there were angry lines written long before around
them. The boys shook hands with him and thanked him. "It was
nothing," he said. "Aren't we brothers?"
"Where are you from?"
"I belong to the other side," the youth answered, and then
added, "The side that isn't free."
All knew at once that he referred to Transylvania, which, although
a part of Hungary, is largely inhabited by Roumanians.
"We intend to make it free," Nicolaia answered with feeling. The
Transylvanian smiled and shook his head. Then, without a word
more, he left them.
There was one other shepherd that they learned to know. He was
the oldest there and came from Jassy, once the capital of Moldavia,
a city so old that the Turks claim that it dates back to the time of
Abraham. The Roumanians, however, feel that they can do better
than that. They put its foundations to the time of their beloved
Trajan!
This shepherd, of whom later they heard strange wild tales, kept
much to himself. Often, however, the monotonously melancholy
notes of a wooden flute on which he played would reach them.
Sometimes, too, especially at early dawn, they would hear him draw
forth powerful notes on the boutchoum, such as no other shepherd
could equal.

CHAPTER XIII
LEAVING THE MOUNTAINS
Thus the summer slowly passed in healthy out-of-door life that
began to grow exceedingly monotonous at the end. It was lonely,
too, for after the boys became used to the work even the noon
meals together became rarer, and sometimes several days passed
with no other communication than a few calls to each other.
At last September came. This is the month when the herdsmen
take their sheep again to the valleys. The donkey was laden with
cheeses of sheep's milk, and the boys followed the procession back
to the village from which they had started. They found it delightful
to be together again, and somehow, as they talked it over, the
summer experience that had begun to be trying regained its charm.
They joked, they told folk tales, and Nicolaia even sang a ballad
that had long been a favorite with the Roumanians. It was very
touching, and, of course, had to do with a shepherd, of his love for
his sheep and his dogs and his longing to lie near them even in
death.
Long before they reached the farm-house they had been seen by
Katinka who ran out to meet them.
Jonitza found some letters awaiting him. He picked out the
daintiest, knowing it to be from his mother, and, begging to be
excused, tore it open to read immediately.
It was from Sinaia, the fashionable mountain resort where
"Carmen Sylva," the late loved dowager Queen Elizabeth, had had
her summer home.

"Your father," said the letter among other things, "has to make a
business trip among our Wallachian farmers. He intends to take you
with him and finally spend a day or two with me here. Later on, we
shall visit relatives for some time at the capital, Bukurest."
Two days later Mr. Popescu took his son away.
As Mr. Popescu's business was with the peasants, most of the trip
was made by carriage through the very rich agricultural sections of
Wallachia. Now they stopped at the farms of the wealthy, where the
very latest in farm machinery could be seen at work; then at some
of the hundreds of small farms where the peasants still harvested
their grain with the sickle, and threshed it with the flail. On the way
they passed orchards of damson plum, from which brandy is made,
and vineyards with their rich yield.
The weather favored them. Only once were they caught in a
storm. The sky directly above had been monotonously blue for
several days when clouds seemed suddenly to form in all directions.
A wind arose that soon changed into a tempest, raising enormous
clouds of dust. Angry lightning began to fly across the sky, while not
only the thunder but the storm itself threatened. Through the dust
they could just make out a tower which showed that they were near
a village. The obedient horses strained every sinew to reach it and
did just manage to get under cover at a rude inn when enormous
hail stones began to fall.
It proved to be rather an interesting place where they had
secured shelter, for it was not only an inn but a general store where
a little of everything was kept for sale. As no especial room was
assigned them, Jonitza felt free to wander about the place. On a sort
of screened back porch he found a woman pickling whole heads of
cabbage, adding corn-meal to the brine to hasten fermentation.
This, when stuffed with chopped pork, onions and rice, forms one of
the national dishes.

Mr. Popescu smiled at the supper that was placed before them an
hour later. There was, of course, mamaliga and its string, with a big
pitcher of rich milk, then some salted cheese, raw onions, and some
sun-dried beef that had been seasoned with spices and garlic when
cooked. The platters, spoons and forks were of wood, the knives
alone being of steel.
Although the owner of the inn was evidently pleased at having so
much to place before his guests, he seemed to think that he could
do still better. "One of my pigs," he said, "is to be killed to-morrow.
If you will stay till then I can offer you something really fine."
Although that might not have been the reason, Mr. Popescu
decided to stay.
"Come," the landlord's wife said to Jonitza next morning as he sat
on the stoop in front of the inn. In answer to her mysterious
beckoning, Jonitza followed her to the rear. Here he found a group
of men and boys gathered around a big fire from which a very
pleasant odor rose.
"What is it?" Jonitza inquired. The landlady laughed and then
whispered, "The pig has been killed and we are burning off its hair."
After the meat had been exposed to the heat for a sufficient
length of time, thin slices were cut off and handed to each person
present. This resulted in loud exclamations from some of the
children whose fingers were burnt and even louder smacking of lips
as the delicious morsels were tasted.
They left late that afternoon for the next village, overtaking on
the way a party of reapers with scythes over their shoulders. A
young woman crowned with wheaten ears led several others, all of
whom chanted some melancholy air about the end of the harvest.
Everywhere they went people sang, the number of folk songs
about soldier life being particularly noticeable. Many of these songs
were exceedingly touching; some, however, were wild in character.

All were full of a spirit of rare bravery and resignation to whatever
fate had in store.
At last among the grand forests near the Prahova River, the pretty
rustic houses of rural Roumania changed to Swiss looking cottages,
and then to fine brown and red-roofed villas, hotels and baths.
Sinaia had been reached.
A little apart from the villas stood the Royal Summer Palace, with
its tall roofs and glittering pinnacles.
During the trip they had changed vehicles and drivers many
times, and now a very old man acted as their coachman. His eyes
sparkled as he pointed out the Château. "I lived near here," he said,
"when this Château was built for King Carol and Queen Elizabeth,
whom they tell me is now generally called 'Carmen Sylva.' My
daughter was better acquainted with her than I. Might I tell you the
story, sir? It was not long after the Château was finished that the
King and Queen drove up to spend a few days here. They had
splendid horses and came fast. My little girl was playing by the
roadside and somehow frightened the horses for they leaped to one
side. They were brought under control at once, but the child had
been more frightened than they and cried loudly.
"Her Majesty must have heard her for she ordered the coachman
to stop. When he had done so, she herself got out and went back to
my little one, whom she comforted in a few minutes. As she kissed
her and put some coins in her hands, she whispered, 'Be ready to
pay me a visit to-morrow morning. I'll come for you.'
"We did not think anything of this, but the next day, sure enough,
a carriage came to our little hut for Florica. You can imagine our
excitement until we had our little one again and heard from her the
whole story of her visit to Fairy Land, for that is what the visit to the
Château was to her.
"But I have another and better reason to bless her Gracious
Majesty. My brother, sir, was blind—couldn't see a thing, sir—and our

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