Delivering Better Outcomes Through Customer-Led Project Management: The Case of the Major Project BT 21st Century Network in the UK

Abstract

Traditional approaches of major project management take the strategy of selecting a supplier-led prime/systems integrator. Although this strategy pushes a significant amount of risk to the supplier, project performance may suffer due to lower engagement of the customer in the anticipation of potential issues involving a major project. Thus, this research investigates the implications of the customer, as opposed to a selected external supplier, assuming the role of systems/prime integrator, as a problem structuring method (PSM) to better deal with the soft side and uncertainties of the project. A case study approach is conducted on the major project British telecom (BT) 21st century network (BT21CN) to demonstrate that customer-led systems integration projects may provide more balance in the relationship and distribution of risks between supplier and customer, having a positive impact on project performance, accelerating the development of BT’s organisational capabilities, and producing better project outcomes in the long term.