Evaluation of Chinese projects and comparison with Norwegian projects

Project work in developing and emerging economies is complicated and unpredictable. It would be of great help to equip project managers with an easily applicable tool to assess whether the project is on the right track or not. A Project Evaluation Scheme (PEVS) has earlier been used on Norwegian projects. Data from 89 Chinese projects has been collected using the scheme. This article analyses the Chinese data and compares them to the Norwegian findings. The Chinese projects are scoring higher in all areas investigated, except on informal contacts. Particularly high were goal setting, overall planning and control execution. The Chinese projects achieve their goals and are regarded as a success by all participants. They should improve in project closeout work. The article discusses the reasons for differences between Chinese and Norwegian projects, ranging from differences in perception regarding the questionnaire, to the possibility that Chinese projects in fact are better. The qualities of activity execution are found to be the most important factor in predicting project success. PEVS is proven to be applicable to Chinese projects, yet further customisation is needed.