By screening the books addressing project management topics, it can be noted that most publications are aimed at project managers and, more generally, the people responsible for coordinating complex and innovative initiatives. In recent years, it was understood that without the support of senior management a project manager has greater difficulty in managing the project. For this reason other
... [Show full abstract] publications, targeted to senior management which commissions and sponsors the projects (Archibald and Archibald 2013, West 2010, Englund and Bucero 2006, Love and Love 2000), appeared.
Other publications, instead, recognize the importance of the project team as key player in project environments and they provide hints to the project managers on how to lead, motivate, and manage project teams (DeMarco and Lister 2013, Brown and Hyer 2009, Wong 2007).
It was only very recently that some companies and training providers realized it is necessary to work on the whole team in order to achieve positive results. The trend is moving toward a “widespread” project management where the project leadership is shared among the entire project team. For example, the Agile Project Management approach goes in this direction.
