A Comparison of System Dynamics-Based Simulators for Project Management Training: A Literature Review

The constant pressure on the industrial workforce to successfully achieve projects’ scope within time, resources and budget constraints is constantly increasing because of the volatile market conditions worldwide. To palliate this issue, Project Management (PM) has been proposed as a suitable approach to cope with the varied sources of pressure. For instance, PM facilitates the control and tracking of multiple steps involved in delivering value to customers. However, to fully take advantage of a PM implementation in an organization, managers need hands-on experience to properly use PM principles in real-life situation. Nowadays, simulation-based training has become an affordable approach to provide novice project managers with situational-based learning they need during different stages in the career in PM. Unfortunately, little is known about the effectiveness of simulation as a training tool for new and current project managers. To fill the knowledge gap in how effective simulation has been to train project managers, this work presents the results of a systemic literature review study. A key finding of this work is a paucity in computer-based simulation approaches to train project managers, particularly in the agile paradigm.