Quasi-experimental method to identify the impact of ambiguity and urgency on project participants in the early project phase

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the potential of gaming simulation as a research method in project management. Gaming simulation is used for identifying the impact of ambiguity and urgency on project participants' attitudes in the early phase. By ambiguity we mean lack of clarity of goals and objectives of the project. Urgency refers to time pressure, in the sense that the project has to be completed within specified time frame. The results of the experiments shows that ambiguity and urgency leads to three significant response patterns by the project participants 1) the tendency to overly focus on the technical solution, 2) the tendency to make unverified assumptions 3) significance rise to personal emotions, such as fear, diffidence, competitiveness and eagerness. The results obtained using gaming simulation as a research method are consistent with previously published studies. The paper concludes that gaming simulation can be used in project management research. Threats to validity and reliability can be controlled to a satisfactory level if the game design and configuration guarantee an adequate level of realism and insight.