Tomas Blomquist

Project-as-Practice : In Search of Project Management Research That Matters

Research on projects is not only an immature field of research, but it is also insubstantial when it comes to understanding what occurs in projects. This article contributes to making project management research matter to the academic as well as to the practitioner by developing a project-as-practice approach, in alignment with the ongoing debate in social science research. The article outlines a framework and argues that there are two major challenges to the researcher and also suggests how these challenges can be met. Underlying notions of the practice approach are outlined to ensure a development of the project-as-practice approach that makes project management research matter!

Project Portfolio Control and Portfolio Management Performance in Different Contexts

This article investigates the nature and relationship of project portfolio control techniques and portfolio management performance, and how this relationship is moderated by situational idiosyncrasies of internal and external dynamics, industries, governance types, and geographic location. A worldwide questionnaire with 242 responses was used, of which 136 high-performing responses were filtered out for quantitative analysis of best practices. Three portfolio control factors were identified: portfolio selection, portfolio reporting, and decision-making style. Two measures for portfolio management performance were identified: achievement of desired portfolio results and achievement of project and program purpose. The results indicate that different portfolio control mechanisms are associated with different performance measures. A contingency model was developed, including moderating effects by contextual variables.

Practices, Roles, and Responsibilities of Middle Managers in Program and Portfolio Management

Practices for program and portfolio management, together with the associated roles and responsibilities of middle managers, were investigated. The results of the multi-method study show that high-performing organizations apply dedicated portfolio management processes and tools, plus use the associated roles of middle managers, to address the requirements stemming from the complexity of the organizations environment and the types of projects executed. This is not the case in low-performing organizations. The study takes a transaction costs economics perspective and develops a contingency model for program/portfolio management roles of middle managers. Managerial and theoretical implications are also discussed. This paper summarizes the highlights of research findings that can be found in the full report published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) (Blomquist & Müller, 2006).

Learning from Renewal Projects: Content, Context and Embeddedness

During the last decade there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of “embeddedness” as an important dimension in analysing projects. While traditional project management theory presupposes that projects are clearly defined and separable from the context in which they are implemented, the notion of embeddedness implies that contextual factors affect the project organisation throughout the whole project. In the most embedded kind of projects, renewal projects, most actions are in fact taken with the learning context in mind rather than the project contents.

Identifying forces driving PMO changes

Project management offices (PMOs) are dynamic organizational entities, frequently in transition from one charter and structure to the next. Within this article, we present empirical results on the nature and reasons for this transition. The article reports the second of a series of studies aimed at understanding the dynamics of PMOs. It addresses the mistaken paradigm that PMOs change because characteristics or functions in an existing PMO are wrong and require a new PMO charter or structure that can last for a long time. Instead of that, the article proposes a process view on the transformation of the PMO as being triggered by conditions within the external and/or internal context and producing outcomes in terms of impacts from the transformation. A global web-based questionnaire on PMO transitions in structure and charter yielded 184 responses. Factor analysis and correlation analyses revealed that the transition of a PMO from one configuration to the next is not a question of being right or wrong. PMOs in transition can rather be understood as a multilevel dynamic process anchored in a specific organizational context change. From the academic viewpoint, the authors believe that this research filled a large gap in the under-standing of the reasons for and nature of PMOs to transition.

Relevance Lost! : A Critical Review of Project Management Standardisation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the consequences of the diffusion of generic project management knowledge.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is conceptual in its ...

Projects – real, virtual or what?

Purpose – At the heart of this paper is the question of how to describe the ongoing changes of project management (PM) and how to cultivate the understating of projects. In line with the theme of t ...

Co-creation as a strategy for program management

Purpose – Little attention has been paid to the initial development of programs. The purpose of this paper is to explore co-creation as an alternative strategic approach for program management. Co- ...

On productivity in project organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at the underlying unit cost considerations in project conduct at the firm level and an established business unit concept is extended to multi-project ...

Failure prevention and management in business incubation: practices towards a scalable business model

ABSTRACT How support systems such as a business incubator deal with failure, a common phenomenon in new venture creation, is less understood. Employing a value creation perspective helps us to understand failure, the inability of an entrepreneurial team to build a scalable business model. Based on case studies at nine Swedish business incubators, we develop a dynamic process model towards understanding failure prevention and management in business incubation. We find business incubation practices towards failure prevention and management to be a mix of predictive and non-predictive strategies. These practices could help prevent and mitigate failure at personal, organisational and social levels towards value creation for the startups and their stakeholders and channel the effects of failure towards social benefit.