The paradox of project performance. Team and project dynamics in the new Scottish Parliament’s case, ECCH – European Case Clearing House, 312-191-1.

This case study is about the controversial story of a project, unfolding and exploring several project and team management challenges project managers, team members and organizations face in project based contexts. The project is the one for the design and construction of the new building for the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. It is a brilliant example of how success and performance often have conflicting dimensions: from an economic point of view, the project was a complete disaster, opening four years later with respect to what was planned and costing £431 million instead of the initial budget of £40 million; from a symbolic point of view, it was an incredible success with nine major architectural national and international awards won between 2005 and 2006. The Scottish parliament’s project also shows what can goes wrong on when scope, time, cost and risk management are not planned and monitored all over the duration of a project. The case is organized into eight separate main chapters, plus an introduction followed by the mandate given to participants and a conclusion. Each part has its own suggested questions (multiple choices and short open ended ones) to be distributed in class and discussed by participants before moving to the following chapters.