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trap, the lack-of-project-management-capacity trap, and the cultural trap. He investigated the importance of contextual understanding, the pitfalls of results-based management (RBM), and the complexities of scaling up and replicating successful projects across different locations to enhance the positive impact on beneficiaries, especially the poor and marginalized. Focusing on the theory of capacity building project delivery, his 2017 research examined structural, institutional, and managerial conditions for the success of international development projects in different contexts, proposing that high levels of multi-stakeholder commitment, collaboration, alignment, and adaptation were crucial. In related research, his 2022 study analyzed the evolution of the concept of "capacity building" through a literature review, suggesting a "new pragmatism" framework that emphasized context sensitivity, methodological pluralism, and collaborative knowledge creation for more effective public administration practices.
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Human
Development and critic of Daniel Kahneman, he argued that the Planning Fallacy, along with its remedy "bias uplifts" such as Reference Class Forecasting (RCF), might work under risk, not uncertainty, where probability calculus falls short. He recommended instead, the use of heuristics and "best fit" practices. Such heuristics or rules of thumb included "Your biggest risk and asset is you" and "Plan your work and work your plan, but be ready for a few surprises down the road". He also argued that the Cassandras or the over-pessimistic and the Pollyannas or the over-optimistic promoters of projects were both right and wrong and called on promoters to be Januses, who are much more pragmatic characters in the world of projects.
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scenarios and that many projects should never have been started. The Hiding Hand proposed that if promoters had known the real costs and benefits of many projects, they would not have been done. He critiqued Bent
Flyvbjerg's dismissal of Hirschman's Hiding Hand principle, arguing that Flyvbjerg's narrow focus on cost-benefit analysis overlooked broader project impacts and problem-solving aspects, and thus that ignorance may be good for projects. He presented evidence that the Hiding Hand was more prevalent in project successes than Flyvbjerg acknowledged. Furthermore, he also demonstrated that 60% of projects are prone to optimism bias.
214:. In particular, he has sought to strengthen project management theory and practice in Africa. His work focuses on project management, primarily on project management and strategy implementation, major infrastructure delivery, international development, grand challenges, project behavior, and project performance. He twice received the Global Research Award from the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He is the author of a book titled
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involvement and participation positively influenced project outcomes. It also emphasized the importance of tailored approaches and factors like beneficiary trust in project governance for maximizing impact, especially in low- and middle-income countries, notably in Africa. Additionally, this second stream led to a "project management school" in global development, which explored how project activities and processes are really carried out.
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bedfellows, but a more adaptive, agile, collaborative, and best-fit project management approach, where strategic logic, heuristics, intuition, and agile experimentation prevailed, could work, considering the fuzziness that often characterized grand challenges. He further added that a portfolio, program, network, or national development plan approach was the best shot at tackling grand challenges sustainably.
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Ika's project management research is divided into two main streams. The first stream investigates the prevalence of cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in the West (e.g., Canada and USA), assessing whether biases (e.g., over-optimism) or errors (e.g., poor management) played a more significant role.
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Looking into World-Bank funded projects, Ika also showed that 60% of them are prone to optimism bias, which affects up to 20% of their performance. His investigation of how beneficiary engagement levels influenced short and long-term success in global development projects found that both beneficiary
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versus Albert
Hirschman's Hiding Hand principle, particularly during significant infrastructure investments for post-COVID-19 economic recovery. The Planning Fallacy, the tendency to over-promise and under-deliver, suggested that forecasts of costs and benefits are unrealistically close to best-case
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Ika is most known for his contribution to the academic and policy debate on why large-scale projects experience cost overruns and benefit shortfalls worldwide, and how to make them work and deliver more success in the short and long terms. He is also known for his research on project success and for
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Ika coined the term grand challenge projects, which represented projects that sought to tackle grand challenges or those complex problems the world faced (e.g., climate change, global pandemics, and unsustainable development). He suggested that grand challenges and project management were strange
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In his second research stream, Ika explored the factors contributing to the success and failure of global development projects, with a particular focus on Africa. He suggested that projects in Africa often fall into four traps: the one-size-fits-all technical trap, the accountability-for-results
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Ika's first stream of research culminated with a new theory of project behavior and performance, coined "The Fifth Hand", which asserted that biases and errors combined to exact a heavy toll on projects. Following the work of Gerd
Gigerenzer, the longtime director of the Max Planck Institute for
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Furthermore, Ika examined the causes of cost overruns in transport construction projects by analyzing contextual factors such as program management, quality, safety, design, and management practices, recommending alternative procurement strategies to address these issues. He also explored the
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Fellow, but the fellowship was later suspended due to COVID-19. In 2022, Ika was named the program director of both the MSc in
Management and Health Systems Programs at the University of Ottawa. Additionally, since 2023, he has been an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria.
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in
Project Management. He completed his Master of Science in Project Management from Université du Québec à Hull in 2001. He obtained his Ph.D. in Business Administration in 2011 from Université du Québec à Montréal, through a joint doctoral program with
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Ika provided guidance for the World Bank as external advisory panel member on their
Results and Performance of the World Bank Group 2023 and for the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 2024 as a lead scholar on how to measure project success
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multidimensional nature of project success, addressing business case benefits delivery, diverse stakeholder perceptions, sustainability concerns, and proposed a four-dimensional model to assess and understand project outcomes over time.
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Love, P. E., Ika, L. A., & Pinto, J. K. (2023). Smart heuristics for decision-making in the âwildâ: Navigating cost uncertainty in the construction of large-scale transport projects. Production
Planning & Control,
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Love, P. E., Ika, L. A., & Sing, M. C. (2022). Does the planning fallacy prevail in social infrastructure projects? Empirical evidence and competing explanations. IEEE transactions on
Engineering Management, 69(6),
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Love, P. E., Sing, M. C., Ika, L. A., & Newton, S. (2019). The cost performance of transportation projects: The fallacy of the
Planning Fallacy account. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 122,
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Ika, L. A., Diallo, A., & Thuillier, D. (2010). Project management in the international development industry: the project coordinator's perspective. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 3(1),
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his contributions to research on managing global development projects, those initiatives that seek to address the challenges of sustainable and equitable poverty reduction and improvement of living standards in the
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Ika, L. A., Love, P. E., & Pinto, J. K. (2020). Moving beyond the planning fallacy: The emergence of a new principle of project behavior. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 69(6), 3310â3325.
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Ika, L. A., Diallo, A., & Thuillier, D. (2012). Critical success factors for World Bank projects: An empirical investigation. International journal of project management, 30(1), 105â116.
275:, turning associate professor in 2015 and reaching the rank of full professor of Project Management in 2019. In 2020, he became the founding Director of the Major Projects Observatory.
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Ika, L. A., & Donnelly, J. (2017). Success conditions for international development capacity building projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(1), 44â63.
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Ika, L. A. (2012). Project management for development in Africa: Why projects are failing and what can be done about it. Project management journal, 43(4), 27â41.
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Ika, L. A. (2018). Beneficial or detrimental ignorance: The straw man fallacy of Flyvbjerg's test of Hirschman's hiding hand. World Development, 103, 369â382.
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Ika, L., Pinto, J. K., Love, P. E., & Pache, G. (2023). Bias versus error: why projects fall short. Journal of Business Strategy, 44(2), 67â75.
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683:"Beneficiary participation is an imperative, not an option, but does it really work in international development projects?"
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697:"Tackling grand challenges with projects: Five insights and a research agenda for project management theory and practice"
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Ika, L. A. (2009). Project success as a topic in project management journals. Project management journal, 40(4), 6â19.
540:"Does the Planning Fallacy Prevail in Social Infrastructure Projects? Empirical Evidence and Competing Explanations"
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596:"Before You Start Managing that Major Project, What You Should Know about Cost Overruns and Benefit Shortfalls 1"
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554:"The 'context' of transport project cost performance: Insights from contract award to final construction costs"
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Managing fuzzy projects in 3D: A proven, multi-faceted blueprint for overseeing complex projects
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Managing Fuzzy Projects in 3D: A Proven, Multi-Faceted Blueprint for Overseeing Complex Projects
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638:"Success conditions for international development capacity building projects"
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in 1997 from the Institut National d'Ăconomie in Benin. In 1998, he moved to
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2022 â Global Research Award, International Project Management Association
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2017 â Global Research Award, International Project Management Association
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of the Major Projects Observatory, as well as the program director of the
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This research explores the practical implications of Daniel Kahneman's
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Ika began his academic career in 2001 as a part-time professor at
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The key success factors for international development projects
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2017 â The Emerald Outstanding Project Management Paper Award
450:"Meet IPMA Research Award Winner 2017- Prof. Lavagnon Ika!"
725:"Telfer Established Researcher Award 2021 â Lavagnon Ika"
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in Management at the Telfer School of Management at the
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The Cambridge University Handbook of Project Behavior
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669:"Optimism Bias and World Bank Project Performance"
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765:Academic staff of the University of Pretoria
467:"IPMA Global Research Awards Winners 2022"
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278:In 2021, Ika was appointed as a
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267:, where he eventually became
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363:(2023) ISBN 9781264278343
336:2021 â Fellow, World Bank
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433:"LAVAGNON IKA - TELFER"
218:. He is also editor of
100:Business Administration
204:University of Pretoria
178:, thought leader, and
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265:Université du Québec
200:University of Ottawa
172:management scientist
144:University of Ottawa
57:management scientist
273:assistant professor
269:associate professor
75:Academic background
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188:Project Management
92:Project Management
368:Selected articles
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140:Institutions
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20:Lavagnon Ika
38:Citizenship
739:Categories
412:References
400:2588â2602.
280:World Bank
107:Alma mater
249:Concordia
226:Education
184:professor
80:Education
291:Research
238:for his
192:Director
182:. He is
176:academic
170:project
168:Canadian
61:academic
55:Project
46:Beninese
42:Canadian
166:-born,
377:61â93.
259:Career
251:, and
245:McGill
236:Canada
180:author
123:Thesis
65:author
407:1â18.
393:1-20.
355:Books
164:Benin
162:is a
96:Ph.D.
88:M.Sc.
31:Benin
63:and
44:and
26:Born
240:MSc
196:MSc
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