Researching complex projects: Using causal mapping to take a systems perspective

Ackermann, Fran; Alexander, James A.

doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.04.001

Cited by 73 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…A set process is followed during a semi-structured interview to order and reflect the interviewee’s view of the social system. The process of creating the CMI map aids participants’ reflection and sense-making [12]. The map produced during each interview consists of a network of nodes and arrows as links that are usually linear in structure [13].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The individual maps from each interview can then be combined to form a composite map, presenting the subjective data in a diagrammatic form that gives a holistic and systemic view of an issue. CMI has most often been applied to complex management problems [12] and in operational or action research [14]. This project is one of the first to use CMI in public health research.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systemic Barriers and Equitable Interventions to Improve Vegetable and Fruit Intake in Children: Interviews with National Food System Actors

Gerritsen

Harré

Swinburn

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Fruit and vegetable (FV) intake is declining in New Zealand, and over half of New Zealand’s children do not meet the recommendation of two serves of fruit and three serves of vegetables daily (with even lower adherence among children in high-deprivation neighbourhoods). The aim of this study was to map the potential causal pathways explaining this decline and possible actions to reverse it. Semi-structured interviews were held in April–May 2018 with 22 national actors from the produce industry, food distribution and retail sector, government, and NGO health organisations. The qualitative systems dynamics method of cognitive mapping was used to explore causal relationships within the food system that result in low FV intake among children. Barriers and solutions identified by participants were analysed using thematic analysis and according to a public health intervention framework. Participants were in agreement with the goal of improving FV intake for health and economic outcomes, and that health promotion strategies had been ineffectual to date due to multiple systemic barriers. Common barriers discussed were poverty, high food prices, low skills/knowledge, unhealthy food environments, climate change, and urbanization. Solutions with the strongest evidence of efficacy identified by the participants were subsidizing FVs and early childhood interventions to improve FV exposure.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systemic Barriers and Equitable Interventions to Improve Vegetable and Fruit Intake in Children: Interviews with National Food System Actors

Gerritsen

Harré

Swinburn

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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“…The purpose of the research was to identify risk factors in software development project available in the literature. Over 30 peer review papers in the field of information technology (IT) were reviewed [10,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The outcome of the research produced a list of 28 risk factors as shown in Table 1, that were validated by seven experts in the field of IT from Kuwait through focus group method.…”

Section: Literature Review and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Most severe risk factors in software development projects in Kuwait

Al-Shehab

Alfozan

Gadelrab

2021

IJEECS

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<p><span>Software development projects are famous of high rate failure, this made an encouragement for researcher to investigate reasons of failure. However, literature covering under developed countries is uncommon. This research investigates the most severe risk factors in software development project in the country of Kuwait. A face-to-face questionnaire with 109 IT practitioners in Kuwait from government and private organizations was conducted. The findings reveal and identify risk factors that have a high impact on the budget, quality, and schedule. The aim of this study is to validate risk factor taxonomy through quantitative methods by experts in the field of IT. Another purpose of this research is to provide a comprehensive and updated review of risk factors from Kuwait to be presented for IT practitioners and researchers.</span></p>

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“…Other applications of causal mapping have been in risk management where risks are presented as networks of risks which interact with one another (Ackermann, Eden, Williams, & Howick, 2007;Ackermann, Howick, Quigley, Walls, & Houghton, 2014;Pyrko, Howick, & Eden, 2017), structuring of messy problems, (Eden, 2004;Eden & Ackermann, 2006), or in project management to understand better the nature of complex projects (Ackermann & Alexander, 2016;Ackermann & Eden, 2005). Causal mapping has also been used effectively in the preliminary stages of studies aimed at constructing system dynamics models which, through capturing feedback dynamics, build the ground for quantitative analysis (Eden, 1994;Howick & Eden, 2001;Williams, Ackermann, & Eden, 2003).…”

Section: Applications Of Causal Mapping In Organization and Managemenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Causal Mapping in the Analysis of Semi-structured Interviews

Pyrko¹,

Dörfler²

2018

Proceedings

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In this paper we systematize Eden and Ackermann's approach to causal mapping as a technique for analyzing semi-structured interviews. By doing so, we aim to popularize causal mapping as an accessible, yet structured and formalized, method that can be used in a variety of studies within the broad organization and management research. In our discussion we characterize this approach to causal mapping as being grounded in Kelly's 'Theory of Personal Constructs'. Following Kelly's work, causal mapping seeks to represent some aspects of a person's thoughts about a given problem in question. On this basis, causal mapping, which is employed to work with different interviewees' individual maps carefully merged together, helps to enable an intersubjective position from where the interrelationships, and feedback dynamics, between elements of interview material can be explored. Thereby, while causal mapping can be a good way of surfacing aspects of the available interview material which could not be accessed by other methods, it can be used in combination with more traditional methods such as thematic analysis or narrative analysis. As a result, we argue, not only does causal mapping offer a structured approach to qualitative coding, but it lends itself well to adaptation in new areas of study where it has not been applied so far.

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Researching complex projects: Using causal mapping to take a systems perspective

Cited by 73 publications

References 39 publications

Systemic Barriers and Equitable Interventions to Improve Vegetable and Fruit Intake in Children: Interviews with National Food System Actors

Systemic Barriers and Equitable Interventions to Improve Vegetable and Fruit Intake in Children: Interviews with National Food System Actors

Most severe risk factors in software development projects in Kuwait

Using Causal Mapping in the Analysis of Semi-structured Interviews

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