Keywords

1 Introduction

The Organizations constantly adapting have caused significant developments in the utility business. Despite an economic slowdown, critical projects in solar, nuclear, and desalination energy are developing rapidly (Bacon, 2018). Utility supply is hard. It requires a suitable framework with creative ideas and technology to allow continual innovation that meets public wants and utility sector difficulties. Most countries are adopting agile management (Booth et al., 2018) to adapt to changes (Bacon, 2018). Agile project management allows for more flexibility than conventional approaches.

Communication is difficult for the organization since there are many departments and synchronization between departments, teams, and team members is vital. Project operations cannot be completed efficiently without a communication plan and a strategy to overcome communication barriers. Agile project managers must focus on communication to improve outcomes (Yagüe et al., 2016).

2 Problem Statement

The primary point of the study is that agile project management bridges the gap because stakeholders regularly request planned changes, either during concession or design, which might have an unforeseen influence on project success (Larson, 2018). Involving stakeholders in each stage of development helps manage change requests quickly and eliminates several red flags that benefit the project. It has also been revealed that agile management changes were made due to inefficient communication processes, communication challenges, management styles, fewer opportunities to formalize systems, or project sponsors, which can negatively impact utility project success. Communication is crucial, and the best communication tactics must be used to effectively manage stakeholders and the project (Azanha et al., 2017). Agile project management demands more research and communication to succeed. Multiple researchers have studied agile project management in various sectors, including consulting (Foschini, 2021), ICT (Kaczorowska, 2015), public (Bogdanova, Parashkevova, and Stoyanova, 2020), telecommunication (Balashova and Gromova, 2017), and others. Water, electricity, solar energy, and other energy-related subsectors make up the utility sector. The utility sector needs agile project management and effective communication to address project failures, high losses, delays, poor procurement, increased costs, and other risks (Mtembi and Kanakana, 2015). Communication-based agile project management will boost utility project success. The following goals are based on the above discussion.

3 Research Aim and Objectives

The aim of this investigation is to determine the effectiveness of communication processes in an agile project management approach and their impact on project success in the UAE’s utility sector projects.

  • To understand the importance of communication in agile project management.

  • To investigate the types of communication challenges that the UAE utility sector faces in regards to agile project management.

  • To evaluate the impact of communication in agile project management on the project success of the UAE’s utility sector projects.

  • To find an agile management style of communication that will be helpful to the leaders of the UAE’s utility sector.

4 Research Questions

  • What is the importance of communication in agile project management?

  • What types of communication challenges will the UAE utility sector face?

  • What is the impact of communication in agile project management on project success of the UAE’s utility sector projects?

  • How will the agile management style of communication be helpful to the leaders of the utility sector in the UAE?

5 Literature Review

Structural theory emphasizes social systems repeating the same actions (Giddens, 1993). Cognitive functions are essential to interpersonal relationships, according to this idea (Ismail and Mansor, 2018). According to structuration theory, every organization, including a project, is a collection of relational interactions formed by human actors through negotiating interpretations, duties, and communication norms (Mouzelis, 1989). Structural theory has shown how industry linkages and home organizational capacities affect development organizations (Scarbrough et al., 2004). According to structuration theory, the above process takes a long period yet produces long-lasting world features. Local discussions and institutionalization may be needed to adapt rules to institutionalized norms and ethical implications, balance their contradictory needs, and rationalize keeping them despite recurring deficiencies and disagreements (den Hond, Frank et al., 2012). Even if actors' thinking controls processes, theoretical processes might explain materiality's engagement in projects. Project management researchers may benefit from studying structuration theory. Finally, structuration theory emphasizes power and interests in project-based organizations and initiatives. Giddens (1993) defines power as actors' capacity to effect transformative acts (driven by their own interest or desire) and established differences in actors' access to assets (the means by which such actions are carried out). Thus, project power requires the presumption of regularized actor independence and dependence (Giddens, 1993). Finally, structuration theory highlights the challenges project organizations confront due to mindless repeating of old systems and strives to reconcile different practices and imagine new ones. Project participants use routine, often subconscious, cognitive models of social networks and the material context of activities in the absence of difficulties or unexpected conditions. They recognize power and resource disparities, but they also know that stronger players depend on them. This image depicts Gidden's structuration hypothesis:

Fig. 1.
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(Source: Giddens, 1984)

Structuration Theory

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5.1 Agile Project Management

Agile project management is based on the principles that the time between planning and execution must be drastically reduced, that the planning process must not include all the details of its application, and that one must be creative and learn to make sense of one's surroundings. Agile project management involves short iterations of value proposition generation and code deployment, unlike conventional project management's sequential set of well-defined processes.

Communication is one of the factors that can help project managers overcome scheduling, cost, planning, leadership, and other issues (Salman et al., 2020). Agile project management with effective communication may enhance utility project success. Next, we'll discuss agile project management communication and how it works (Fig. 1).

5.2 Importance of Communication Processes in Agile Project Management

Open communication is essential to agile project management. Communication includes data sharing, information exchange, and teamwork (Sharp and Robinson, 2010). The "basic facilitators" of agile initiatives include collaboration, feedback, and clear communication, according to Conforto and Amaral (2010). In particular, bad project communication may lead to mistakes, poor adjustment administration, poor performance, and project failure. Kamaruddin, Arshad, and Mohamed (2012) suggest that good communication helps people identify practical solutions to complex challenges while working on the project, enabling problems to be addressed before revisions. As articulated in AltSimmons' (2015) agile framework, structuration theory also represents structure, people, and communication (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.
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(Source: AltSimmons, 2015)

Communication-Related Considerations in Agile Project Management

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6 Methodology

In the current study, a researcher will select the positivism research philosophy because the current research focuses on evaluating the empirical correlation between using agile methods and having a successful project in the UAE’s utility sector. It acts as a primary guide for the study's statistical correlations among its chosen constructs.

Keeping the above in mind, the researcher will choose the constituents of the deductive research approach for the current study because they fit with the quantitative research design. A researcher will study excerpts from previous research and analysis on communication in an agile project management approach and interpret existing theories associated with it. Then screen the research hypotheses that have been generated. A researcher will deduce meaning from the phenomenon in order to draw rational conclusions about it.

7 Conceptual Framework and Hypothesis Development

The primary study hypothesis was tested using the conceptual framework, which was created to examine the link between communication processes in agile project management and the projects' success in the UAE’s utility sector. The research's conceptual framework in the following figure demonstrates a causal connection between communication processes in agile project management (independent variable) and the project success of the UAE’s utility sector projects (dependent variable) (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3.
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Conceptual Framework

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7.1 Factors Affecting Communication in Agile Project Management

Researchers in the field of agile project management have discovered and explored a number of factors that have an impact on communication. The following table summarizes the results of a systematic literature study conducted to discover influences on communication (Table 1).

Table 1. Factors Affecting Communication in Agile Project Management
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In agile project management, communication strategy, decision-making support, team size, team dispersion, and collaboration quality are all important factors in communication processes. These characteristics were selected because they significantly impact employee communication and company performance.

Table 2. Determinants that can determine the project success
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From the above table, it can be observed that the most common project success indicators are project cost, schedule, scope, quality, and stakeholder satisfaction, and each of these is discussed in the following sub-sections (Table 2).

7.2 Relationship Between Communication Processes in Agile Project Management and Project Success

Every company relies on good communication. Better internal communication improves quality, earnings, innovations, and market share, which helps projects (Highsmith, 2009). Poor workplace communication may lead to worry, workplace irritability, lack of conviction, devotion, job-loss intention, and absenteeism (Miller, 2019). Communication is crucial to an organization's strategic objectives. Projects and organizations succeed with well-planned, proactive, and successful strategic planning-level communication (Alzoubi and Gill, 2014). Business success requires communication. Modern company need effective communication channels to satisfy client expectations with less resources. An insecure workplace with insufficient communication cannot succeed. Thus, utility companies should eliminate communication barriers and establish structured, collaborative, and transparent project team dialogue. Structural theory suggests concentrating on several communication channels to improve project success. The UAE utilities business lacks an empirical study on how agile process management communication affects project success. A review of the aforementioned studies led to this hypothesis: Effective communication is linked to project success.

H1: There is a positive impact of communication processes in agile project management on the project success of the UAE’s utility sector projects.

7.3 Hypotheses Development

Based on the above conceptual framework and a critical review of theory and literature, the following hypotheses will be tested in current research.

H1: There is a positive impact of communication processes in agile project management on the project success of the UAE’s utility sector projects.

8 Discussions

Descriptive statistics based on the aforementioned study showed that effective communication is significant for project success. Correlation research reveals a favorable and substantial relationship between open lines of communication and the final product quality in agile project management. The data also exhibits no abnormalities in terms of skewness and kurtosis, as measured by the normalcy test. Moreover, a regression study showed that in an agile project management setting, the quality of communication significantly affects the outcome.

Discussion is conducted in accordance with the study's conclusions via comparison and contrast with other research found in the literature.

9 Conclusion and Recommendations

9.1 Conclusion

The first objective was achieved by doing a critical literature review emphasizing the importance of communication in agile project management.

The study's secondary objective was also achieved based on a critical review, and it was identified that a poor working environment, a lack of procedures, project complexity, team size, team distribution, and the quality of teamwork could all create communication-related challenges.

By using hypotheses testing based on linear regression analysis, the third goal of this study was accomplished; this time, the effect of communication in agile project management was assessed on the completion of projects in the UAE's utilities sector.

The fourth objective was also achieved through statistical analysis.

Based on the analysis, it was found that the communication approach, decision-making style, and focus on team-related aspects can really help leaders in the UAE’s utility sector enhance project success.

9.2 Future Recommendation

There were many elements discovered to be connected. That’s why it is vital to analyze whether each component can be evaluated as a variable in order to investigate the effect of one variable on another. Moreover, future researchers can also conduct in-depth, semi-structured interviews with project managers to gather their perspectives on why communication is so important to the success of projects, what factors should be taken into account to improve communication among stakeholders, and what kinds of obstacles can be expected along those lines. However, quantitative approaches may not be enough for studying the complex social and behavioral processes of communication, which might lead to faulty or insufficient findings. One of the limits of the study is its relatively small sample size, which calls for future researchers to build on the study's quantitative and qualitative foundations by evaluating a more representative sample. Future studies might also zero in on the topic of integrating technology, since this is one of the most important ways to boost project results.