Role of the Project Management Office in University Research Centres

University Research Centres (URCs) have become a primary organisational structure in universities for bringing together a critical mass of multidisciplinary research interests that can compete for large, funded research projects and create breakthrough research results. Some of the more successful URCs are now developing specialised project management offices (PMOs) that can coordinate key activities, from proposal development to project execution, and ensure that research results are disseminated. A key challenge for URCs is to define what roles, functions, and competencies such a PMO should have. This research identifies a number of key attributes of PMOs that meet the unique challenges of URCs. This paper presents an initial conceptualisation of roles and functions developed from a literature review and that are later tested via a detailed survey among 370 URC participants involved in collaborative R&D projects worldwide. The study suggests that there are three PMO maturity stages: ‘basic’, ‘intermediate’, and ‘advanced’. The resulting conceptualisation highlights six functions for a ‘basic’ PMO stage, an additional ten functions for an ‘intermediate’ PMO stage, and a further ten functions for ‘advanced’ PMO. The research presented provides guidance and decision support to URCs when selecting the role that a PMO should play for achieving tangible and intangible project benefits. Although the study suggests a lengthy list of functions, none of these should be considered in isolation. Most of the functions interact with each other and affect the PMOs’ impact within the URC in various ways. The paper contributes to the transformative and evolutionary nature of PMOs, and illustrates that universities are receptive and even demanding of the need to create an effective PMO to improve the operation of major R&D projects and programs and create greater societal impact by URCs.

A importância de um escritório de gerenciamento de projetos em uma organização

As empresas encontram-se em constante transformação e necessitam a todo momento de inovação para conseguirem atender, de forma eficaz e eficiente, as demandas que surgem nas rotinas do seu dia a dia. Assim, a forma básica de controle para qualquer mudança que irá ocorrer dentro de uma organização, inicia-se através de um projeto. Entretanto, para que um projeto alcance o objetivo proposto é necessário que exista um gerenciamento para cada uma das fases que o compõe: iniciação, planejamento, execução, controle e monitoramento e encerramento. Desta forma, este artigo irá apresentar como um escritório de gerenciamento de projetos (Project Management Office – PMO) unificado pode ser importante para uma organização. Será realizado um levantamento bibliográfico sobre o tema abordado e em seguida, um estudo em uma mineradora para verificar como é o gerenciamento de projetos e o funcionamento dos escritórios de gerenciamento de projetos nesta organização. Após a realização do estudo foi possível concluir que o escritório de projetos é uma forma não só de unificar a gestão, mas também de aprimorar os resultados e melhorar de forma continuada os processos envolvidos.

Alignment strategic in project-based businesses: a review of the literature

Objective: This literature review sought to understand the theoretical-empirical connections of strategic alignment in project-based businessesMethodology: We carried out a systematic review with searches in scientific databases (Web of Science and Scopus) and application of technical snowballing with the intention of finding the most relevant works on the topic. The strings adopted were based on the keywords: project-based businesses and strategy. Filters related to the research area, the document types and the language were applied. The selected articles were analyzed following the steps: removal of duplicates, reading of titles, abstracts and quality assessment. After these steps, 20 papers were analyzed in a descriptive and exploratory way using VOSviewer, Biblioshiny and MS Excel software.Originality: The paper filled a gap concerning strategic alignment in the context of project-based business, which is an emerging concept that is little debated in the literature.Main results: The results showed a mutual influence between strategy alignment and project management. It was found that the first helps organizations to focus on correct projects, while project management helps achieves their strategic objectives. Four research focuses related to the strategic alignment in the PBB were also published in the literature: project management and organizational strategy; interaction between actors in the formation of strategies; program, portfolio and governance management; project management office and organizational design.Contributions: The contribution consists of presenting a set of propositions that systematize the findings of the papers and elucidate ways for the formation of a research agenda.

Development and research of a model for optimizing the composition of a project-oriented forwarding company’ suppliers

The object of this research is the composition of the suppliers of a project-oriented transport and forwarding company. The work is aimed at determining the composition of the suppliers of a project-oriented transport and forwarding company, the purpose of which is to obtain a synergistic effect, which manifests itself in reducing the costs of performing individual operations of the transport process while meeting local requirements for each project. This study proposes an optimization model that allows to determine the composition of suppliers of a project-oriented organization in order to obtain the maximum systemic effect – a synergistic effect. The proposed approach is based on the creation of a virtual project management office, the work of which is based on the corresponding information system. The proposed model is a flexible tool that allows to quickly form the composition of suppliers of a project-oriented company. The model is developed for the service sector and, in particular, for the transport industry, where suppliers are not responsible for material objects, resources, but for services, the set of which forms the essence of the project. Thus, the product of the project and its parameters in such a situation are directly formed due to the specifics of suppliers and the parameters of their services. For the transport industry, this approach has not been used before and can serve as a theoretical basis for building a project-oriented management system in the transport sector. The synergistic effect taken as a basis in this model provides the greatest difference between the «declared» delivery costs and the «actual» ones, which are formed taking into account the amount of work for all projects. Since the freight forwarding company is the «holder» of the portfolio of all deliveries/projects, a certain part of the synergy effect can be used to reduce delivery costs for customers in order to increase competitiveness and attractiveness. Experimental studies have substantiated the reliability of the results of the developed model and confirmed its practical applicability. This model is quite universal and can be supplemented with restrictions that take into account the specifics of a project-oriented organization, its projects and requirements for suppliers.

IT project management office as the element supporting implementations in Logistics 4.0

Celem artykułu jest zbadanie procesu wdrożenia biura zarządzania projektami IT w dużych przedsiębiorstwach posiadających funkcje logistyczne, opisanie sytuacji przed wdrożeniem i po wdrożeniu, zidentyfikowanie dobrych praktyk dla menedżerów oraz wyznaczenie kierunków przyszłych badań. Badanie studium przypadku zostało przeprowadzone w dwóch przedsiębiorstwach funkcjonujących w Polsce centralnej. Procedura zbierania danych obejmowała: obserwację uczestniczącą, wywiad nieustrukturyzowany oraz analizę dokumentów. Pierwsze przedsiębiorstwo wdrożyło biuro zarządzania projektami IT jako narzędzie niezbędne do usprawnienia funkcjonowania istniejącego systemu ERP oraz w drugim etapie jako wsparcie migracji do nowego, bardziej zaawansowanego systemu ERP. Drugie przedsiębiorstwo rozpoczęło definiowanie oraz wdrażanie biura zarządzania projektami IT jako środka do zarządzania koegzystencją dwóch systemów zarządzania gospodarką magazynową. Dwa systemy magazynowe powinny zostać w dłuższym okresie porównane w zakresie elastyczności oraz czasu odpowiedzi na dynamiczne zmiany zachodzące w środowisku retail. Artykuł przedstawia wyniki pochodzące jedynie z badań przeprowadzonych w dwóch przedsiębiorstwach i prezentowane rezultaty nie powinny być traktowane jako reprezentatywne dla wszystkich dużych przedsiębiorstw realizujących procesy logistyczne. W celu dokonania uogólnienia rezultatów dla przedsiębiorstw w Polsce wymagane jest przeprowadzenie kolejnych badań. Artykuł wzmacnia połączenie między praktyką a literaturą naukową przez dostarczenie empirycznych dowodów funkcjonowania biura zarządzania projektami IT w przedsiębiorstwach deklarujących potrzebę rozwoju funkcji logistycznych, identyfikuje dobre praktyki dotyczące zarządzania zmianami funkcjonalności oraz projektami IT oraz wskazuje zagadnienia, które mogą stanowić podstawę do dalszych badań.

Razvoj kompetenčnega modela projektne pisarne Biotehniškega centra Naklo

The paper presents the process of setting up the competency model of the Project Management Office of the Naklo Biotechnical Centre where professional generic and professional specific competencies are identified and defined for individual work posts: project office manager, project manager, project coordinator and expert. The complexity of the competencies of the employees are of large range and highly dispersed. They often manage several roles at the same time and their work involves coordination of number interrelated fields and phases of project work in order to achieve the objectives and results of the project. The identification and description of individual competencies enables the set-up of the first competency model of the Project Management Office of the Naklo Biotechnical Centre, which is a database of competencies. Combinations of knowledge, skills, behaviour and personal characteristics are defined and expected to be mastered by the project office employees. For the organisation, the model represents the adequate tool for further development of different staff providing systems and management of the work of the project office employees.

Projectification in the South African mining industry

SYNOPSIS Projects or project-orientated approaches have become a common form of work in nearly all sectors of economies. This has led to concepts such as 'projectified' and 'project orientated' organizations. By defining projectification of a company, industry, or economy as the share of project work in total work, one can reasonably determine the impact that project management, and by default projectification, has had on that company, industry, or economy in terms of staff optimization and allocation. This paper presents the results for such a projectification study of the South African mining industry. This sector has long been a significant contributor to the country's economy from a gross value added (GVA) and employment point of view. Understanding the impact of projectification and the project management way of work on this industry may potentially add significant value to both the mining and project management knowledge areas. We show that although the mining industry is considered by some to operate in archaic ways, the level of projectification has increased over time, and now represents approximately one third of all work conducted. Keywords: rojectification, mining projects, project management, project management office.