Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems

Funder

Organizational Unit

Publications

Overcoming the ‘use misfit’ of project management practices in collaborative research, development and innovation

Publication . Fernandes, Gabriela; Tassari, Guilherme; Rocha, Lucas; Santos, José M.R.C.A.; Ferreira, Luís Miguel D.F.; Ribeiro, Pedro; O'Sullivan, David

This paper aims to enhance our understanding of project management (PM) in collaborative Research & Development & Innovation (R&D&I) projects by analysing the fit between the use and usefulness of 35 PM practices. Research results include quantitative data analysis of 465 responses to an online survey questionnaire, complemented by a qualitative data analysis of 12 semi-structured interviews. The study identifies the top-10 ‘most used’ and ‘most useful’ PM practices in collaborative R&D&I, covering the complete PM lifecycle while emphasising the importance of the project ‘Initiation' phase. Furthermore, it identifies a set of ‘must have’ PM practices that exhibit a perfect fit, suggesting that consistent implementation impacts successful project outcomes. The remaining 26 PM practices surveyed present a ‘use misfit’, meaning they are deemed useful but are not frequently used. The paper delves into the causes behind this and explores potential strategies to address it, with leadership emerging as a significant strategy to overcome practice misfits.

2024Journal article

Open access

Sustainability in Project Management Practices

Publication . Soares, Inês; Fernandes, Gabriela; Santos, José M.R.C.A.

The intersection between sustainability and project management has received significant attention as organizations recognize the criticality of incorporating sustainability practices into their projects. However, incorporating sustainability considerations presents some challenges, requiring the development and adoption of methods, tools and techniques tailored to address sustainability at the project level. Against this backdrop, this study endeavors to develop an understanding of the effective incorporation of sustainability within projects through the micro-level perspective of practices. An online survey was developed based on a comprehensive literature review of which a total of 107 valid responses were collected and analyzed. The results show the most useful sustainable project management practices perceived by experienced project professionals, including ‘Sustainability team management’, ‘Lessons learned towards sustainability’ and ‘Sustainability risk register’, among others. However, a data analysis reveals a prevailing trend marked by the limited perceived usefulness of sustainability practices in the context of project management. Furthermore, through exploratory factor analysis, a clear classification of sustainable project management practices was identified, according to the specific phases of the common project management lifecycle: ‘Initiation and planning’, ‘Execution, monitoring, controlling and replanning’ and ‘Closure’. By providing a set of sustainable project management practices and identifying the underlying factors that elucidate the incorporation of sustainable project management practices across the project management lifecycle, this study extends a guiding hand to practitioners in pursuing successful sustainability integration in their projects. It vividly illustrates that sustainability can be readily incorporated into project-management processes, delivering sustainable products and/or services in a sustainable way, combining both the ‘sustainability of the project’ and ‘sustainability by the project’ perspectives.

2024Journal article

Open access

Key Project Management Practices in Collaborative R&D&I Projects Across Activity Sectors

Publication . Santos, José M.R.C.A.; Fernandes, Gabriela; Ribeiro, Pedro; Ferreira, Luís Miguel D.F.; Barroso, Daniela; Pinto, Eduardo B.

Collaborative Research and Development and Innovation (R&D&I) projects provide special challenges in understanding and expressing the value of project management (PM) practices to deliver stakeholders’ expected benefits. This study aimed to contribute to understanding the relevance of PM practices on collaborative R&D&I projects’ success from the perspective of firms, higher education institutions, and other research-performing organizations. It used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to categorize the surveyed key PM practices initially grouped according to the typical project lifecycle (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/controlling & replanning, and closure). EFA resulted in the identification of four underlying factors, designated by ‘must have’ practices that cover the whole PM lifecycle: ‘initiation’ practices; ‘planning’ practices; and ‘execution, monitoring/controlling & replanning’ practices. Significant variance in using key PM practices by respondents from different activity sectors is observed. For example, respondents from Interface Centers use more ‘must have’ practices than those from firms and use more ‘planning’ practices than those from firms and higher education institutions. This might be influenced by the reported existence of project management offices, beyond their administrative roles, in the vast majority of Interface Centers, as opposed to other activity sectors. The results suggest that this specific type of project would benefit from team capacity-building programs in PM practices tailored to the identified sector-specific needs of firms and research-performing organizations.

2024Conference paper

Open access

Useful Project Management Practices in Collaborative R&D&I Projects

Publication . Fernandes, Gabriela; Tassari, Guilherme; Rocha, Lucas; Ferreira, Luís Miguel D.F.; Santos, José M.R.C.A.; Ribeiro, Pedro; Barroso, Daniela; Pinto, Eduardo B.

Collaborative Research and Development and Innovation (R&D&I) projects make an essential contribution to the development of knowledge-based, innovative products, processes, and services. The main objective of this paper is to gain a comprehensive understanding of project management (PM) in collaborative R&D&I projects, examining the usefulness of PM practices. The results are based on 465 valid responses from an online questionnaire survey on the perceptions of collaborative R&D&I project practitioners. The Relative Importance Index was used to classify the usefulness of the 35 key PM practices surveyed. The top 10 rank of the most useful PM practices cover the entire PM lifecycle and include well-known practices, such as ‘kick-off meeting’, ‘progress meetings’, ‘Gantt chart’, ‘project closure report’, ‘project closure meeting’, ‘milestone list’, ‘requirement analysis’ and ‘project scope plan’. Although, there are also less emphasised PM practices such as ‘alignment workshops’ and ‘project idea paper’. The paper contributes to supporting practitioners to decide which PM practices should be prioritised and implemented.

2024Conference paper

Open access

Sustainability in project management practice: a literature review

Publication . Soares, Inês N.; Fernandes, Gabriela; Santos, José M.R.C.A.

The intersection between sustainability and project management has received significant attention in literature. Organizations have come to acknowledge the importance of incorporating sustainable practices in their business operations, particularly through their projects. However, integrating sustainability concerns poses challenges, that require the development of methods, tools, and techniques to assess sustainability at the project level. To assist project managers in this endeavor, a comprehensive literature review was conducted. The review aims to answer two main questions: (1) What motivates project managers and their teams to incorporate sustainability in project management practice? (2) Which key project management practices and frameworks/models can be used to ensure sustainability in projects? The findings of this review provide valuable insights for project managers seeking to integrate sustainability practices throughout the entire project management life cycle.

2023Conference paper

Open access