How do project managers’ competencies impact project success? A systematic literature review

Abstract

Despite the existence of systematic literature reviews focused on examining the factors contributing to project success, there remains a scarcity of reviews addressing the relationship between the project managers’ competencies and project success. To fill this gap in the literature, this review aimed to evaluate peer-reviewed articles, published between 2010 and 2022, and analyze the impact of project managers’ competencies on project success. The Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and ProQuest electronic databases were first consulted in September 2021, with an update in August and October 2022. A total of 232 titles were analyzed. Ten articles met the criteria and were fully reviewed. A content analysis and a citation network were carried out to analyze the included articles. The analysis revealed that the existing literature has primarily explored the influence of competencies from the personal and social dimensions, such as leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence, on project success. Conversely, competencies from other dimensions have received less attention in the literature. In addition, this review contributes to the literature by providing a holistic categorization of competencies associated with project success and examining and organizing project success criteria into three dimensions.