Professor Darren Dalcher

Professor in Strategic Project Management

Profile

Professor Darren Dalcher, PhD (Lond), AKC, HonFAPM, FCMI, FRSA, FBCS, CITP, SMIEEE, SFHEA, MINCOSE

Darren Dalcher is Professor in Strategic Project Management at Lancaster University Management School. He is a senior academic with a successful track record of consulting and working with businesses, charities, professional associations and governmental organisations. He works to foster interactive dialogue about the integration of successful practice with theoretical research in the management of projects. He holds visiting appointments at a number of institutions, including the universities of Kent, Warwick, WU, Drexel, Vaasa, Reykjavik and the Supply Chain Academy. He is the founder and Director of the National Centre for Project Management (NCPM), an interdisciplinary centre of excellence operating in collaboration with industry, government, academia, third sector organisations and the learned societies.

Following industrial and consultancy experience in managing technology projects, Professor Dalcher gained his PhD from King's College, London for his work on continuous delivery, dynamic feedback and extended project life cycles. In 1992, he founded an IEEE taskforce focused on learning from systems failures. He is active in numerous international committees, standards bodies, steering groups, and editorial boards. He is heavily involved in organising international conferences, and has delivered many keynote addresses, masterclasses and tutorials. He has written over 300 refereed papers and book chapters and published over 30 books. His work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Portuguese. He is Editor-in-Chief of Wiley’s Journal of Software: Evolution and Process and Editor of two book series focused on advances in managing projects and change initiatives, published by Routledge.

He has built a reputation as leader and innovator in the area of practice-based education and reflection in project management and has designed, developed and launched the UK’s first professional doctorate in project management, alongside an extensive suite of executive and professional masters programmes and diplomas. He was named by the Association for Project Management as one of the top 10 influential experts in project management and has also been voted Project Magazine’s Academic of the Year for his contribution in “integrating and weaving academic work with practice”.

He served as chairman of the influential APM Project Management Conference for an unprecedented five years, expanding the scope of the event, setting consecutive attendance records, bringing together the most influential speakers, exploring the boundaries and interactions of the profession and forging cross-disciplinary dialogue.

He received international recognition in 2010 with his appointment as a member of the PMForum International Academic Advisory Council. He has been elected as an Associate of King's College London by the Academic Board. In October 2011 he was awarded a prestigious Honorary Fellowship from the Association for Project Management for considerable achievements and outstanding contribution to the discipline of project management.

He is a very popular speaker and is regularly invited to deliver lectures and courses at many international institutions. He has won multiple awards and prizes, including most recently, Best Paper Award from the British Academy of Management in 2015, CMI’s Management Articles of the Year competition in 2016, Outstanding Paper Award in the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence in 2017 and PMWJ Editor’s Choice Awards in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. His research interests focus on rethinking project success and the concept of agility, especially in the context of strategy and innovation, as well as considering the role of process in relation to maturity and capability, process improvement, systems engineering, decision making, change management, and reflective practice.

Professor Dalcher is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management, a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and the Royal Society of Arts, a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Professional Member of the Agile Business Consortium, and a Member of the Project Management Institute, the International Council on Systems Engineering and the British Academy of Management. He sits on numerous senior research and professional boards, including the PMI Academic Insight Team, the International Advisory Council of PM World Today, the CMI Academic Council, the British Computer Society Fellows Advisory Group and the APM Group Ethics and Standards Governance Board.

He is the Editor and Academic Advisor of the APM Body of Knowledge, 7th Edition, released to mark the formal award of the Royal Charter to the project profession. The new edition positions project management in an organisational perspective and focuses on the delivery of beneficial change and strategic transformation through projects, programmes and portfolios.

Development of the APM BoK
01/02/2018 → 20/05/2019
Consultancy

Responsible Project Management
Invited talk

APM 50th Anniversary Panel Discussion
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

From excellent projects to excellent innovation
Invited talk

BSI Technical Committee IST/15: Software and systems Engineering (External organisation)
Membership of board

Routledge (Publisher)
Publication peer-review

Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (Journal)
Editorial activity

Project Leadership and Society (Journal)
Editorial activity

APM Group Ethics and Governance Board (External organisation)
Membership of board

PM World Journal (Journal)
Editorial activity

Project Management Institute Curriculum Committee (External organisation)
Membership of committee

BCS Fellows Technical Advisory Group (F-TAG) (External organisation)
Membership of committee

PM World Journal (Journal)
Editorial activity

BSI Technical Committee MS/2: Project Management (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (External organisation)
Membership of committee

APM Community Champion (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel For Social Community and Cultural Engagement

ISO International Study Group on Agile and Adaptive Management (External organisation)
Membership of committee

HonFAPM (External organisation)
Member of an organisation

Management Book of the Year (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Morality and spirituality in project management
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

APM Inspiring Projects Panel (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel

Managing urgent and unexpected projects: Lessons from the pandemic
Invited talk

Value Chains 4.0
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Robotized and Digitalized Workplaces of Smart Manufacturing Processes
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Emergency projects in times of crisis: What’s different now?
Invited talk

The shape of project management - conference closing plenary
Invited talk

A good failure is better than a bad success
Invited talk

Scaling for success
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Engaged Scholarship in a Post-Covid World: Explorations of Methodological Challenges in Management Practice Fields
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Qualitative research and practice
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Project Management Institute Curriculum Committee (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (Journal)
Editorial activity

PM World Journal (Journal)
Editorial activity

PM World Journal (Journal)
Editorial activity

Project Leadership and Society (Journal)
Editorial activity

APM Group Ethics and Governance Board (External organisation)
Membership of board

Project Management Institute - Academic Insight Team (AIT) (External organisation)
Membership of committee

BCS Fellows Technical Advisory Group (F-TAG) (External organisation)
Membership of committee

BSI Technical Committee MS/2: Project Management (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (External organisation)
Membership of committee

APM Community Champion (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel For Social Community and Cultural Engagement

HonFAPM (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Management Book of the Year (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Routledge (Publisher)
Editorial activity

Emergency: Urgent and unexpected projects
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (Journal)
Editorial activity

VUCA, hybrids and adaptability: Reflections on BoK7
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (Journal)
Editorial activity

Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (Journal)
Editorial activity

Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (Journal)
Editorial activity

Routledge (Publisher)
Editorial activity

Award for Outstanding Contribution - 32nd IPMA World Congress
Prize (including medals and awards)

  • Centre for Technological Futures
  • Pentland Centre