The three roles of a project portfolio management office: Their impact on portfolio management execution and success

Project portfolio management offices (PPMOs) are a subset of project management offices (PMOs) that handle collections of multiple single projects and programmes, i.e. portfolios. PPMOs are centralised organisational units that cater to the demands of various stakeholders by performing specialised tasks. They are initiated by their organisation's leadership in response to increasing management challenges originating from project portfolios. Although there has been considerable research on PMOs in general, not only a clear understanding of multi-project PMOs' activity patterns set in specific contexts like project portfolio management, but also both existence and mode of multi-project PMOs' contribution to successful performance are still lacking. By quantitatively analysing PPMOs in 278 portfolios, we identify three different activity patterns, which are interpreted as distinctive roles. We show a significant positive effect of PPMOs' coordinating and controlling roles on performance in terms of project portfolio management quality, which is a predictor of portfolio success.     

Multiproject lineage management: Bridging project management and design-based innovation strategy

Innovation-based strategies are widely recognized as key drivers to maintain competitive advantage. The design and strategic literature underline the possibility of triggering a multiproduct value-expansion dynamic based on the creation of new concepts dynamically twinned with corporate strategy. However, the multiproject-management literature—portfolio, program, and platform—lags behind and remains focused on ex ante coordination, resource allocation and selectionism. Thus, there are still few indications of the processes that stimulate and orient continuous, profitable multiproject creative expansion. Bridging the multiproject-management literature and design theory, we propose a model of multiproject lineage management (MPLM), which focuses on the key processes that drive exploration efforts and shape innovation trajectory. We conduct a multiple longitudinal case analysis in the automobile sector. Based on this analysis, we expose the principles of MPLM, mapping the roles of corporate, program and project management within a global expansion project. Finally, we highlight our contributions to managerial practices and the related literature.     

The cumulative power of incremental innovation and the role of project sequence management

In innovation and project management studies incremental development projects are perceived as theoreticlly and organisationally uninteresting. By means of a longitudinal study of product improvement projects at an automobile firm, this paper challenges such views and shows how the cumulative impact of the studied sequence resulted in a competitive repositioning of the company's product portfolio during a financially difficult period. Project managers achieved this by transcending the separation between exploration and exploitation projects; they not only adhered to time, cost and quality goals but also tried out new ways of testing and experimenting with controversial technical ideas. The paper analyzes the intensive inter project learning that generated these ambidextrous capabilities and emphasizes that practices at the project-level need to be buttressed by expanded management learning and capability development also at the sequence level.     

建筑工程项目管理的创新

通过分析建筑工程项目施工管理中存在的问题,阐述了项目施工管理创新的必然性,提出了创新的原则和方案,以不断深化施工管理体制改革,提高建筑施工企业的经济效益,从而提高企业竞争力。     

The integration of ideation and project portfolio management — A key factor for sustainable success

Effective management of single projects is no longer sufficient. In today's business market, proactive management of the whole project portfolio has become increasingly important for achieving long-term success and competitive advantage. At the front end of projects, opportunities are discovered, ideas are created, and the foundation for later project, portfolio, and, eventually, corporate success is laid. This paper contributes to the project management body of knowledge by combining the front end view on projects with the holistic view of managing project portfolio landscapes. It focuses on establishing a framework for conceptualization of the relationship between ideation and project portfolio management in product development environment by relating ideation portfolio management, front end success, and project portfolio success, and lays the groundwork for further empirical research. The overarching topic I address is the conceptualization of how ideation can facilitate and sustainably improve portfolio success in the product development environment in the long-term.     

Project management office a knowledge broker in project-based organisations

Current research into project management offices (PMOs) has stressed the PMOs' potential to act as knowledge brokers between projects, and between project and top management. Nonetheless, the literature does not provide sufficient evidence of the brokering role of PMOs. The research reported here aims to examine PMO's functions from a knowledge sharing perspective and explore whether or not these functions reflect the knowledge sharing needs of project managers (PMs). These issues are investigated through a cross-case analysis of seven organisations. The main contribution is insight into how PMs share knowledge and awareness of the need to structure PMOs to align with PMs' nature, needs and expectations in order to improve knowledge sharing in PBOs. Finally, some practical steps for helping PMOs to better adapt their functions to the needs of PMs and their learning and knowledge sharing style are proposed.     

“扁平化”管理模式在国际工程管理中的实践与探索

目前中国施工企业在国际工程项目管理中普遍采用＂金字塔＂型管理模式,造成资源成本浪费,管理效率低下。在竞争日益激烈的国际承包市场中,如何提高项目的管理水平,以增强竞争力,是中国施工企业普遍面临的一个挑战。文章结合某国际工程案例推行＂扁平化＂管理模式的探索,提出＂扁平化＂管理模式相对于＂金字塔＂型管理模式的优点以及成效。指出在国际工程管理中采用＂扁平化＂管理模式是提升企业竞争力的有效途径之一。     

浅谈施工项目管理

本文主要从施工项目管理的组织机构、质量管理、进度计划、安全生产和文明施工等方面给以详尽的阐述,深入分析,提出个人对施工项目管理工作的认识。     

Systems thinking in innovation project management: A match that works

This paper discusses why conventional project management practices lead to the failure of publicly funded innovation deployment projects, and investigates how the use of systems thinking in project management can help projects be more successful. Based on 12 case studies of two EU innovation policies, we provide evidence that by using systemic project management, which entails providing flexibility in planning, communicating and controlling activities, innovation projects are more successful. This research refutes previous theory that claims that we should formalize to manage complexity and uncertainty. The key finding is that systems thinking methods provide the flexibility to manage innovativeness, complexity and uncertainty in innovation projects more successfully. Suggestions for further research include suggestions of how to embed flexibility in project management methods using the constructs of equifinality and causal embeddedness.     

The integration of CPM and material management in project management

The problem of scheduling a project for which expensive, long-lead inventory items have to be ordered from outside vendors is addressed. A logic aimed at minimizing the cost of such projects is presented along with an illustrative example. The logic is based on adding a material management module to the CPM analysis, evaluating the feasibility of the CPM schedule, and rescheduling the project in case long-lead items make the schedule generated by CPM infeasible. An attempt to integrate CPM and material management in a large-scale construction project is reported and possible extensions of this research are suggested.     

谈现代工程项目管理的组织创新

从组织创新基本概念的研究出发，通过分析目前传统工程项目组织管理中存在的问题，提出了现代工程项目管理的组织创新基本方向，以期应用不同的方法和途径实现工程项目的最佳效益。     

Stakeholder management influence on trust in a project: A quantitative study

This article aims to analyze the influence of stakeholder management on trust in project environments. Data was collected from 130 project professionals in companies from several national and multinational segments operating in Brazil. PLS-PM was applied for treatment and for data analysis. The results show that the relational stakeholder management influence on the three types of trust is relevant and significant. Therefore, it is important that the project manager not fail to consider actions such as communication with empathy as of the beginning of the project.     

Competing management approaches in large engineering projects: The Dutch RandstadRail project

The management of large engineering projects is often a combination of the focus on planning and control, and the ambition to be flexible given the complexity and uncertainties that characterises these kinds of projects. However, control and flexibility impose contradictory requirements upon the management of these projects. The literature on project management reflects this contradiction. Some authors underline that projects require firm planning and control, thus downplaying the role of flexibility. Others emphasise that projects require flexibility and responsiveness, thus moving away from rigid planning and control. In this contribution, we suggest that in practice project managers acknowledge the weakness of both extremes and therefore strive to combine the two. Moreover, we argue that project success is at risk when project managers do not succeed in meeting the requirements of control and flexibility. To be able to investigate how these competing requirements are dealt with in practice, a framework is developed. The usefulness of the framework is explored by applying the framework to the large engineering project Randstadrail—a light rail project in The Netherlands.     

Formalization of project portfolio management: The moderating role of project portfolio complexity

Companies frequently implement formalization to improve success. Previous research has found supporting evidence for the performance-enhancing effects of formalization in both single project management and project portfolio management. However, there is no research on how formalization at the project level interacts with formalization at the portfolio level, or on how this interaction may impact success. This study investigates the interaction of formalization at both levels and examines the moderating effect of project portfolio complexity on formalization. Using a sample of 134 firms, this study shows that single project management formalization and, likewise, portfolio management formalization are directly connected to portfolio success. Simultaneous formalization at these two levels delivers a complementary effect, resulting in an increase in success that is more than additive. A contingency analysis confirms that the proposed positive effects become more prominent if complexity is high. Complexity measured as project interdependency has a stronger moderating effect than complexity measured as portfolio size.     

建筑工程造价管理的分析与研究

从多角度对我国建筑工程造价管理领域存在的问题进行全面、科学和系统的分析,找到了问题的所在,并对其进行深入的剖析,在此基础上提出了问题的解决方案,为提高建筑工程造价管理水平提供了依据。     

Grasping project complexity in large engineering projects: The TOE (Technical, Organizational and Environmental) framework

This paper presents a framework for characterising project complexity in large engineering projects, which can be used to adapt the front-end development phase of engineering projects to the particular complexity. Recently, a large number of project complexity related papers were published, demonstrating the evident importance of “complexity” in current project management research. However, no generally accepted framework is available to support the characterising and understanding of project complexity that appreciates the richness of project complexity in large engineering projects. Therefore the TOE (Technical, Organizational, and Environmental) framework was developed, based on a literature survey building upon existing work and on new empirical work consisting of eighteen interviews about six projects in the process engineering industry. As a result of an inductive approach, this framework presents the elements that contribute to project complexity from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective. The framework can be used to assess the complexity of engineering projects, and subsequently adapt the front-end development phase of projects in order to better manage the complexity of the project.     

A new approach for project control under uncertainty. Going back to the basics

In this paper we propose a new methodology for project control under uncertainty. In particular, we integrate Earned Value Methodology (EVM) with project risk analysis. The methodology helps project managers to know whether the project deviations from planned values are within the “expected” deviations derived from activity planned variability. Although the methodology is new and innovative, we only go back to the fundamentals of project simulation to generate the “universe” of possible projects, according to the assumed variability of project activities. Then we organize and gather the information in order to make the data coherent with EVM. We explain the steps to implement the methodology and we show three case studies. The methodology makes explicit that the schedule and budget resulting from traditional methods like PERT are statistically very optimistic.     

How to build trust in inter-organizational projects: The impact of project staffing and project rewards on the formation of trust,knowledge acquisition and product innovation

The importance of trust in projects that involve multiple project partners is widely acknowledged. This research analyzes both outcomes and antecedents of trust in inter-organizational projects. On the outcome side, the findings show that trust between project team members working on an inter-organizational project positively impacts the acquisition of external knowledge which, in turn, promotes product innovation. With respect to the antecedents of trust data reveal that a stable pool of project team members and objective project reward criteria facilitate the formation of inter-organizational trust.     

A history of project management models: From pre-models to the standard models

The basis of project management theory includes, as is the case of many management theories an “articulated collection of best practices”, drawn for the most part from the study of major North American engineering projects. There is no history of project management comparable to the ones that have been produced for marketing, accounting or strategic analysis. Very few historians have studied projects as a specific activity and academics in project management are rarely specialists with archives or have familiarity with historical reasoning. Defining the historic trajectory of project management implies specifying the scope of what this history includes beforehand. To write a history of project management we must specify the object of this “historicization”. What are we dealing with when we talk about “history of project management”? A first objective of this paper is to define object and scope of this history. The author suggests a difference between “managerial practices” and “management models” and recommends writing a history of models rather than a history of singular practices. A second objective is to sketch the transition between pre-models of project to the standard North American model.     

How knowledge management impacts performance in projects: An empirical study

This paper develops theory and tests the relationships between knowledge management and various aspects of performance in IT-enabled business projects. The proposed theory posits that knowledge management is instrumental to Project Performance when mediated by a new concept, Knowledge Alignment. The research model is tested on survey data from 212 IT-enabled business projects. Findings show that project managers who achieve Knowledge Alignment among the people and the artefacts from three parts of the project – the IT team, the business change team, and the governance team – can have a significant positive impact on the achievement of business value from the project. Achieving higher levels of Knowledge Alignment is shown to have no significant negative impact on attainment of schedule and budget targets. This is the first statistical study to demonstrate the effect of knowledge management and Knowledge Alignment on the attainment of project management targets and of business value in IT-enabled projects.