Gabriela Fernandes

Developing a Framework for Embedding Useful Project Management Improvement Initiatives in Organizations

This paper describes the quantitative analysis phase of an exploratory study to identify useful project management improvement initiatives and factors contributing to their successful embedment in organizations. A preliminary framework, based on a literature review and a series of interviews with practitioners, was tested via a questionnaire, which elicited 793 responses from project management practitioners worldwide. The paper focuses on factor analyses of the questionnaire responses, addressing issues of construct validity and reliability. The resulting final framework highlights 15 key project management improvement initiatives and 26 embedding factors grouped by the factor analyses into three project management improvement initiative themes and six embedding themes.

Project and Program Management Implications in the Portfolio Management of IT Projects in Applied R&D Organizations

Nowadays, projects represent a significantinvestment for organizations, their intrinsic role asorganizational change mechanisms is being increasinglyrecognized. In this context, project portfolio management effortsare considered as a main efficiency and effectiveness mechanismto align the projects execution with the organization strategy. Thecomponents of a project portfolio management should bemeasured, ranked, and prioritized according to criteria preestablished. The main objective of the PhD research work is todevelop a new method for portfolio management of Informationand Technology projects, by taking into account the implicationsfrom Project Management Institute and Office of GovernmentCommerce project and program management reference models.

Mapping Between Artefacts and Portfolio Processes from the PMI Standard for Portfolio Management

Among the decisions that software development organizations need to take is to define which projects should developed, as these are, ultimately, the reason for their existence. This decision is part of a broader decision-making process than the strictly project management efforts of every day, involving aspects that go beyond the limits of a project itself, such as: strategic alignment, economic viability, risks that an organization is willing to assume, the capacity of available resources and the returns that will be achieved. These concerns are within the scope of project portfolio management. The Project Management Institute (PMI) has developed the ‘Standard for Portfolio Management’, whose objective is to propose a strategy for project portfolio management throughout processes. This paper presents the dependencies between all portfolio management process and artefact’s from that PMI standard with Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM).

Dependency Analysis Between PMI Portfolio Management Processes

Software projects are no longer managed in isolation, but as a core business activity increasingly exposed to a high-level of rigor and responsibility. In this context, portfolio management efforts should be adopted in order to meet the organization’s strategic goals. The Project Management Institute (PMI) has developed the ‘Standard for Portfolio Management’, whose objective is to propose a strategy for project portfolio management through processes. An efficient adoption of this PMI standard to manage projects in software development companies benefits from a thoroughly understanding of the existing dependencies among all portfolio management process. This paper presents the dependencies among all portfolio management process from the standard for portfolio management from PMI. The presented dependencies were identified by performing a systematic analysis of the process groups and knowledge areas of the PMI standard.

OPM3® Portugal Project – Information Systems and Technologies Organizations – Outcome Analysis

Increasing the maturity in Project Management (PM) has become a goal for many organizations, leading them to adopt maturity models to assess the current state of its PM practices and compare them with the best practices in the industry where the organization is inserted. One of the main PM maturity models is the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®), developed by the Project Management Institute. This paper presents the Information Systems and Technologies organizations outcome analysis, of the assesses made by the OPM3® Portugal Project, identifying the PM processes that are “best” implemented in this particular industry and those in which it is urgent to improve. Additionally, a comparison between the different organizations’ size analyzed is presented.

The roles of a Programme and Project Management Office to support collaborative university–industry R&D

While the literature provides some advice on managing programmes and projects in general, the specific context of the university–industry collaboration is being scarcely reported, demanding a strong research effort to produce effective guidelines. Pursuing this effort, a Programme and Project Management Office (PgPMO) structure, specifically devoted to support collaborative university–industry R&D funded contracts, is proposed. This paper is focused on the set of key functions and responsibilities established for the overall PgPMO, as well as on the equivalent ones for the four proposed PgPMO roles: the PgPMO Officer, PgPMO Finance, PgPMO Communication and PgPMO Quality Assurance Management. Additionally, it discusses the implementation process of such structure, shedding light on the success factors for its implementation. The PgPMO described in this paper has been implemented in two case studies. The programme stakeholders of both case studies perceived that such PgPMO structure has contributed to achieve the success of the corresponding university–industry programmes.

Risk Response Strategies for Collaborative University-Industry R&D Funded Programs

Universities are centers of knowledge in our societies and their role when it comes to innovation has become more important over the years. Companies have several reasons to engage in research collaborations with universities, namely to gain access to innovative technologies. University-Industry R&D collaborations are expected to play an important role in regional economies, and to fulfill the industry’s demand for innovative products, technologies and processes. However, the knowledge on what are the potential risks resulting from these collaborations and the risk response strategies to reduce the negative risk impacts and to enhance positive risk impacts is still limited. Thus, this paper aims to fill the gap in literature when it comes to risk identification and risk responses’ planning, by identifying, based on a case study analysis, 19 potential risks and 53 potential risk response strategies.

Input and output artefacts in portfolio practices from the OGC standard for Management of Portfolios

There is a new economic paradigm that establishes the need for continuous updating, concern with customer satisfaction and the generation of products and services with higher added value in the software development organizations. The organizations execute projects with the objective of support their operations, to respond the strategic objectives or a challenge/idea, to resolve a problem or investment opportunities. The projects represent the business of software development organizations, thus, the decision making of which projects to be developed is very important. Within the scope of management of project portfolios these concerns are included‥ The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) developed “Management of Portfolios” (MoP), whose objective is to propose a set of practices for management of project portfolios. This paper presents input and output artefacts in portfolio practices from the OGC Standard for Management of Portfolios and the graphic representations are supported by the Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM).

Improving and Embedding Project Management Practices in Organizations—The Human Perspective

A conceptual framework of the factors that facilitate embedding useful project management improvement initiatives (PMIIs) was developed from an exploratory study. This paper aims to make some contribution to theory as well as to practice by exploring the human perspective of the framework conceptualization. The framework resulted in 15 key PMIIs and in 26 key embedding factors, that can act as levers to be used by organizations in devising strategies to promote embedding PMIIs into their systems. Almost half of each, seven PMIIS and twelve embedding factors, are directly related to Human aspects.