People

Academic staff profile

Professor Darren Dalcher PhD (Lond) HonFAPM FRSA FBCS CITP FCMI

Professor Dalcher is the founder and Director of NCPM. He is Professor of Software Project Management at Middlesex University, Visiting Professor at the University of Iceland and Adjunct Professor at the Lille Graduate School of Management (SKEMA). He leads the Software Forensics Centre, a specialised unit that focuses on systems failures, software pathology and project failures.

Following industrial and consultancy experience in managing IT projects, Professor Dalcher gained his PhD from King's College, University of London. In 1992, he founded and has continued as chair of the Forensics Working Group of the IEEE Technical Committee on the Engineering of Computer-Based Systems, an international group of academic and industrial participants formed to share information and develop expertise in project and system failure and recovery.

He is active in numerous international committees, standards bodies, steering groups, and editorial boards. He is heavily involved in organising international conferences, and has delivered many international keynote addresses and tutorials. He has written over 150 refereed papers and book chapters on project management and software engineering. He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution, and of the Journal of Software: Evolution and Process. He is the editor of a major new book series, Advances in Project Management, published by Gower Publishing which synthesises leading edge knowledge, skills, insights and reflections in project and programme management and of a new companion series, Fundamentals of Project Management, which provides the essential grounding in key areas of project management.

He has built a reputation as leader and innovator in the area of practice-based education and reflection in project management and has worked with many major industrial, commercial and charitable organisations and government bodies. In 2008 he was named by the Association for Project Management as one of the top 10 influential experts in project management and has also been voted Project Magazine’s Academic of the Year for his contribution in “integrating and weaving academic work with practice”. He has been chairman of the APM Project Management Conference since 2009, setting consecutive attendance records and bringing together the most influential speakers.

He received international recognition in 2009 with appointment as a member of the PMForum International Academic Advisory Council, which features leading academics from some of the world’s top universities and academic institutions. The Council showcases accomplished researchers, influential educators shaping the next generation of project managers and recognised authorities on modern project management. In October 2011 he was awarded a prestigious Honorary Fellowship from the Association for Project Management for outstanding contribution to project management.

He has delivered lectures and courses in many international institutions, including King’s College London, Cranfield Business School, ESC Lille, Iceland University, University of Southern Denmark, and George Washington University. His research interests include project success and failure; maturity and capability; ethics; process improvement; agile project management; systems and software engineering; project benchmarking; risk management; decision making; chaos and complexity; project leadership; change management; knowledge management; evidence-based and reflective practice.

Professor Dalcher is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management, a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and the Royal Society of Arts, and a Member of the Project Management Institute, the Academy of Management, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Association for Computing Machinery. He is a Chartered IT Practitioner. He is a Member of the PMI Advisory Board responsible for the prestigious David I. Cleland Project Management Award; of the APM Group Ethics and Standards Governance Board, and, until recently; of the APM Professional Development Board. He is a member of the OGC’s International Reference Group for Managing Successful Programmes; and Academic and Editorial Advisory Council Member for PM Today, for which he also writes a regular column featuring advances in research and practice in project management.

Contact details
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8411 5313
Email: d.dalcher@mdx.ac.uk