Dr. Tiendung (TJ) Le
Details
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Department: School of PCPM
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Campus: City Campus Australia
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tiendung.le@rmit.edu.au
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ORCID:
0000-0002-6048-8883
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LinkedIn
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Collaborative projects
- Career advice
- Join a web conference as a panellist or speaker
- Membership of an advisory committee
- Media enquiries
- Mentoring (long-term)
About
Dr. Tiendung (TJ) Le is a passionate educator who is one of the pioneers in using the case method in project management education.
He has a professional background in both industry and academia in Australia, the US, and Vietnam. His research focuses on various aspects of project management, including front end planning, project planning and controls, risk management, project management in cross-cultural environments, health and safety in construction, and education and career in project management.
Dr. Le leads Front End Planning research group that studies success factors, decision making process, best practices… during the early planning phase of projects.
He is the program manager for the popular Master of Project Management program.
While studying at the University of Texas at Austin (US), Tiendung worked mainly in front end planning and risk management under the supervision of Dr. Carlos Caldas and Dr. G. Edward Gibson, Jr. Tiendung then moved to Vietnam to work for real estate development companies at senior management levels. He co-founded a project management consulting training company and trained scores of practitioners.
While in Vietnam, he taught part-time at an international graduate program at National University of Civil Engineering and at the Vietnam campus of RMIT. He started teaching part-time at RMIT in Melbourne in 2014 and fulltime in 2015.
Career summary
LEAD Consulting JSC, Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City
Co-Founder & Partner, 2011—present
Nam Long Investment Corporation, Ho Chi Minh
Deputy Director, Planning & Project Controls Division, 2013—2014
HUAIC Infrastructure Development Company (HIP), Hanoi
Deputy Managing Director, 2010—2013
Tan Tao Group, Hanoi
Project Manager, 2009—2010
Uong Bi Power Project, Lilama Corporation, Hanoi
Project Construction Engineer, 2001—2002
Research fields
- 350713 Project management
- 330202 Building construction management and project planning
Degrees
- Masters Degree by Coursework, Business and Management
- University of Technology, Sydney
- Australia
- 2005
- Masters Degree by Coursework, Civil Engineering
- Asian Institute of Technology
- Thailand
- 2004
- Ph.D, Civil Engineering
- The University of Texas at Austin
- United States of America
- 2009
Supervisor projects
- A framework for improving safety performance of construction project performance based on the interaction of lean construction and BIM
- 7 Mar 2024
- Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) in Megaprojects Construction in Australia: Enhancing Collaboration, Performance, and Stakeholder Satisfaction
- 30 Oct 2023
- Investigating front end planning for government projects in Australia
- 3 Mar 2021
- A Front End Planning Decision-Making Framework for Infrastructure Project Selection and Prioritisation in Indonesia
- 17 Jul 2017
- Informing Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) Deployment in Australia: A Sociotechnical Perspective and Data Mining Methods
- 1 Mar 2017
- Investigation of Knowledge Management Process Within the Vietnamese Construction Industry
- 28 Sep 2015
Teaching interests
Teaching experience
RMIT University, Australia (Current)
Project Initiation Management (graduate): spring 2014, fall 2015, spring 2015
RMIT University, Vietnam
Project Management Leadership (graduate), spring 2014 (tutored)
Project Procurement & Ethics (graduate), fall 2014 (developed and taught part-time)
National University of Civil Engineering, Vietnam
(Joint Masters Program with HEC-Management School of University of Liege, Belgium)
Engineering Economy (graduate), fall 2010, 2011, 2012
Corporate Finance (graduate), spring 2011, 2012, 2013
The University of Texas at Austin, US
TA/grader in 10 classes from fall 2007 to spring 2009
- Project Management and Economics (undergraduate)
- Investment Theory & Practice (graduate)
- Investment Management (undergraduate)
- Financial Management for Engineering & Construction Firms (graduate)
- Project Controls (graduate)
- Contracts, Liability, and Ethics (undergraduate)
Research interests
Research programs
Front end planning
Research by Flyvbjerg et al. (2002) on a database of 258 mega projects that were completed worldwide in the last century shows an average cost escalation of nearly 28%. The escalation was arguably caused by more "lie" than "error", mainly during the front end planning (FEP) stage (a.k.a. pre?project planning). Poor FEP could lead to wasted resources, trust deterioration, and public frustration. Much of this can be minimised with proper early planning. Research by the Construction Industry Institute (2013) shows an average of 30% difference in budget performance between well-defined infrastructure projects (during FEP) and poorly defined ones.
We need a better understanding of the FEP phase in the project life cycle. At the end of this phase, critical decisions are made to commit significant resources to implementing the project. These decisions are to select 'right' projects to invest; the selected projects then need to be done 'right' (efficiently). Project management research and education tend to focus more on the latter, how to implement projects efficiently. Experience from industry suggests that the effectiveness of FEP can make or break a project. Decisions on project location, market niche, technology, project delivery strategy, master planning, financing, stakeholder relations, to name just a few, have profound impacts on project success and effectiveness.
Project Management in cross?cultural environments
The disparity among nations in terms of comparative advantage and level of development has created ample opportunities for companies to invest and win contracts overseas. The trend can happen in all directions, from developed countries to developing ones, and vice versa. As a result, most sizeable projects in the world are implemented by teams of diverse cultures. These cross-cultural teams always face challenges in adjusting and aligning to bring projects to successful completion. People from different cultures have to adjust their business practices, get to know the new environment (legally, culturally and socially), and present themselves effectively to be successful. While the challenges are always huge, technologies like social and professional networks (e.g. Facebook and LinkedIn), cloud computing and virtual meeting tools have positive impacts on team alignment. Investigation into the challenges and the roles of technologies would inform firms with overseas teams in their strategic planning and utilisation of resources. Research of this nature has potential contribution to our understanding of the global construction and engineering business.
