Crowdsourcing in a Project Lifecycle

Abstract

Project management is an essential part of an organization's research, development, and innovation activities. A new products or services are carried out with projects. New products and services are innovative because of elements of newness. Project management is managing the lifecycle of a project and it has four main phases: initiation, planning, execution, and closure. Crowd can be seen as a project resource. This research is focusing on how crowdsourcing is utilized in a project's lifecycle and it is a case study. The case organizations are operating in a wide range of industry sectors. The outcome of the study shows that crowdsourcing can be utilized in a project's lifecycle in several ways. Crowdsourcing can be effective in the projects. However, the risks and possible failure of crowdsourcing activities should be taken into account. Crowdsourcing activities can be private or public and can be implemented inside or outside of the organization. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.