The suitability of PRINCE2 for engineering infrastructure

The view that PRINCE2 was not suitable for application to infrastructure was identified in a study done for a separate purpose, namely, to examine project governance and methodology, which is not reported in this paper. It was asserted by several participants in interviews conducted with a sample of experienced practitioners across a range of industries and disciplines. This paper follows up on those comments by conducting an examination of PRINCE2 from an engineering infrastructure perspective to investigate the validity of this assertion. It takes a deductive, definitional approach to determine if there are any features in it that would cause difficulty for engineering infrastructure use. Seventeen features were examined, and 15 were found to have difficulty in application to the project management of engineering infrastructure. The remaining two found inconsistencies that were unlikely to cause too much difficulty. The features causing difficulty include non-generic terminology for the terms project, lifecycle and stage, using a product rather than a project-based process, use of an iterative product delivery process unsuited to predictive projects, use of a delivery process for all project phases, assumption of a board governance model with inappropriate accountabilities, lack of clarity around the use of the project plan, and absence of a lifecycle appropriate for engineering infrastructure, with PRINCE2 effectively self-declaring its need for a higher-level project lifecycle/ methodology from somewhere else. The paper concludes that PRINCE2 is quite poorly suited to managing engineering infrastructure projects and identifies that some of the reasons for this are likely to also cause difficulty for many ICT projects as well

The suitability of MSP for engineering infrastructure

This paper arose from empirical investigations of practitioner views of both governance and program definitions together with investigations of practitioner reference documents. These investigations indicated that some confusion had arisen in infrastructure project management as a result of approaches used in IT. This paper contributes to the literature evaluating project standards and methodologies by conducting an examination of the suitability of one such source (MSP) for use in engineering infrastructure program management. A deductive definitional approach is taken to identify features that could cause difficulty. Eight features were examined, and six were found to have difficulty in application to engineering infrastructure. The remaining two were found to be terminology differences that are unlikely to cause too much difficulty. The features causing difficulty include an inappropriate definition of a program, use of a non-generic process flow unsuitable for rolling programs, confusion of transformation projects with programs, the presumption of a board governance model, and confusion of large projects with programs. The paper concludes that MSP is quite poorly suited to managing rolling programs, whether they are in engineering infrastructure or IT. Various changes to MSP and PMI publications are recommended

Complexity in the Context of Information Systems Project Management

Complexity is an inherent attribute of any project. The purpose of defining and documenting complexity is to enable a project team to foresee resulting challenges in a timely manner, and take steps to alleviate them.The main contribution of this article is to present a systematic view of complexity in project management by identifying its key attributes and classifying complexity by these attributes. A “complexity taxonomy” is developed and discussed within three levels: the product, the project and the external environment.Complexity types are described through simple real-life examples. Then a framework (tool) is developed for applying the notion of complexity as an early warning tool.The article is intended for researchers in complexity, project management, information systems, technology solutions and business management, and also for information specialists, project managers, program managers, financial staff and technology directors

Reforming project management: the role of lean construction

Project management as taught by professional societies and applied in current practice must be reformed because it is inadequate today and its performance will continue to decline as projects become more uncertain, complex and pressed for speed. Project management is failing because of flawed assumptions and idealized theory: it rests on a faulty understanding of the nature or work in projects, and a deficient definition of control. It is argued that a reform of project management will be driven by theories from production management that add the management of workflow and the creation and delivery of value to the current emphasis on activities. Of all the approaches to production management, the theory and principles drawn from Lean Production seem to be best suited for project management. Promising results in this regard have been reached already in one project management area, namely in Lean Construction

Is project management the new management 2.0?

This paper considers the evolving nature of project management (PM) and offers a comparison with the evolving nature of management generally. Specifically, we identify a number of management trends that are drawn from a paper that documents a proposed ‘Management 2.0’ model, and we compare those trends to the way in which PM is maturing to embrace the challenges of modern organizational progress.Some theoretical frameworks are offered that assist in explaining the shift from the historically accepted ‘tools and techniques’ model to a more nuanced and behaviorally driven paradigm that is arguably more appropriate to manage change in today’s flexible and progressive organizations, and which provide a more coherent response, both in PM and traditional management, to McDonald’s forces. In addition, we offer a number of examples to robustly support our assertions, based around the development of innovative products from Apple Inc. In using this metaphor to demonstrate the evolution of project-based work, we link PM with innovation and new product development.

Outsourcing and acquisition models comparison related to IT supplier selection decision analysis

This paper presents a comparison of acquisition models related to decision analysis of IT supplier selection. The main standards are: Capability Maturity Model Integration for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ), ISO / IEC 12207 Information Technology / Software Life Cycle Processes, IEEE 1062 Recommended Practice for Software Acquisition, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide. The objective of this paper is to compare the previous models to find the advantages and disadvantages of them for the future development of a decision model for IT supplier selection

Reforming Project Management: The Role of Lean Construction

Project management as taught by professional societies and applied in current practice must be reformed because it is inadequate today and its performance will continue to decline as projects become more uncertain, complex and pressed for speed. Project management is failing because of flawed assumptions and idealized theory: it rests on a faulty understanding of the nature or work in projects, and a deficient definition of control. It is argued that a reform of project management will be driven by theories from production management that add the management of workflow and the creation and delivery of value to the current emphasis on activities. Of all the approaches to production management, the theory and principles drawn from Lean Production seem to be best suited for project management. Promising results in this regard have been reached already in one project management area, namely in Lean Construction

Coupling system design and project planning: discussion on a bijective link between system and project structures

This article discuss the architecture of an integrated model able to support the coupling between a system design process and a project planning process. The project planning process is in charge of defining, planning and controlling the system design project. A benchmarking analysis carried out with fifteen companies belonging to the world competitiveness cluster, Aerospace Valley, has highlighted a lack of models, processes and tools for aiding the interactions between the two environments. We define the coupling as the establishment of links between entities of the two domains while preserving their original semantic, thus allowing information to be collected. The proposed coupling is recursive. It enables systems to be decomposed into subsystems when designers consider complexity to be too high, and can also decompose projects into sub-projects. The coupling enables systematically links to be drawn between project entities and system entities. In this paper, we discuss the different possibilities of linking system and project structures during the design and the planning processes. Firstly, after presenting the results of the industrial analysis, the different entities are defined and the various coupling modes are discussed

Virtual Enterprise integration management based on a Meta-enterprise - A PMBoK approach

A Virtual Enterprise (VE) can be viewed as a project, with a lifecycle corresponding to the period between its creation and integration of the constituting elements until its dissolution, comprehending its operation and including its reconfigurations. The authors propose that the VE lifecycle is aligned and can be managed using the frameworks provided by several bodies of knowledge, such as the PMBoK Guide. In this paper the authors propose an alignment referential between the Project Management phases defined by PMBoK and management processes during the VE lifecycle.This work has been supported by (1) COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 (2) FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Applying an adaptation of the Prado Project Management Maturity Model in an academic context

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de InformaçãoThe organization’s strategy of a company is determinant in its performance. Failing strategies compromise the achievement of its goals. Thus, the interest in the field of project management has been increasing and has generated several tools used by companies. The need to develop methodologies to evaluate the performance of projects in organizations has a strong contribution to the development of maturity models. Maturity models help organizations to define their organizational strategy. The lack of knowledge of these maturity models causes organizations to experience problems in the development and improvement of their project management processes. In this dissertation, it was developed an analysis of the most relevant models of project management maturity by comparing them. The main objective of this dissertation is to adapt and apply a maturity model to assess the evolution of the maturity of project management practices in development teams in the academic environment. Afterward the theoretical study of the different maturity models, it was applied the Prado Project Management Maturity Model. This simplified model assesses the performance and maturity to development teams in the IT area. The model is applied to the project teams of curricular subjects of Development of Computer Applications of the second academic year and Information Systems and Technologies Project of the fourth academic year of the Integrated Masters in Engineering and Management of Information Systems course at the University of Minho. To achieve this goal, the methodology used was the Case Study because its purpose is to gather information about the real context that allows a greater and more detailed knowledge about the topic. The Case Study was developed through questionnaires answered by the project managers of the different teams. Through the application of the model, it was possible to compare the maturity between the two curricular units and to verify the effectiveness of the learning methods and strategies, and results in project management competencies throughout the course. Observing that there is a significant evolution in maturity from the Information Systems and Technologies Project teams compared to Development of Computer Application teams.A estratégia organizacional de uma empresa é determinante no seu desempenho. Estratégias que falham põem em causa o alcance dos seus objetivos. Desta forma, o interesse na área de gestão de projetos tem vindo a aumentar e tem gerado várias ferramentas que podem ser utilizadas pelas empresas. A necessidade de metodologias de avaliação do desemprenho de projetos nas organizações contribui para o desenvolvimento de modelos de maturidade. Os modelos de maturidade auxiliam as empresas a definir a sua estratégia organizacional. A falta de conhecimento destes modelos de maturidade faz com que as organizações tenham problemas no desenvolvimento e melhoria dos seus processos de gestão de projetos. No presente trabalho foram analisados os mais relevantes modelos de maturidade de gestão de projetos, através da comparação dos mesmos. O principal objetivo desta dissertação consiste na adaptação e aplicação de um modelo de maturidade para avaliar a evolução da maturidade das práticas de gestão de projetos em equipas de desenvolvimento em ambiente académico. Após a análise teórica dos diferentes modelos de maturidade, aplicou-se o Modelo de Maturidade em Gestão de Projetos de Prado. Este modelo simplificado restringe a avaliação do desempenho e maturidade a equipas de desenvolvimento na área das TI. Este modelo foi aplicado nas equipas de projeto das unidades curriculares de Desenvolvimento de Aplicações Informáticas do segundo ano letivo e Projeto de Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação do quarto ano letivo do curso Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Informação da Universidade do Minho. Para concretizar o objetivo proposto, a metodologia utilizada foi o Estudo de Caso pois o seu propósito é a junção de informação sobre um contexto real que permite um maior e mais detalhado conhecimento sobre o mesmo. O Estudo de Caso foi desenvolvido através de questionários respondidos pelos gestores de projetos das diversas equipas. Através da aplicação do modelo, foi possível comparar a maturidade entre as equipas das duas unidades curriculares e verificar a eficácia dos métodos e estratégias de ensino em competências de gestão de projetos ao longo do curso. Observando-se, assim, que existe uma evolução significativa da maturidade de gestão de projetos das equipas de Projeto de Tecnologias de Sistemas de Informação em relação às equipas de Desenvolvimento de Aplicações Informáticas