ME2018 Leading temporary
organizations and projects
Course introduction
Who am I?
• Johann Packendorff
• Associate professor of project management
and operations management at KTH since
2001
• Member of the Swedish Project Academy
• Research on project management,
entrepreneurship and leadership
Operations Management – Basic Principles
Materials
Information
Customers
Operations
management is
concerned with
producing and
delivering products
and services
Products and
services
All types of enterprise have an operations function, even if
it isn’t called ‘operations.
Most operations produce both products and services.
That is:
Operations are – if organized in the right
fashion – a source of competitiveness and
survival for the firm!
The strategic role of operations can be defined
by its aspirations (Hayes and Wheelwright)
Redefine the
industry’s
expectations
Give an
Operations
Advantage
Be clearly
the best
in the
industry
Link Strategy
With
Operations
Correct the
Worst
Problems
Internally
supportive
Be as good
as
competitors
Adopt best
Practice
Externally
neutral
Stop holding
the
organization
back
STAGE 1
Externally
supportive
Internally
neutral
STAGE 2
The
ability
to
Implement
STAGE 3
The ability
to
support
Strategy
STAGE 4
The
ability
to
Drive strategy
An operation contributes to business
strategy by achieving five "Performance
Objectives"
Doing things RIGHT
Gives
a QUALITY advantage
Doing things FAST
Gives
a SPEED advantage
Doing things ON TIME
Gives
a DEPENDABILITY advantage
CHANGING what you do
Gives
a FLEXIBILITY advantage
Gives
a COST advantage
Doing things CHEAPLY
Service process
types
High
High
Manufacturing process
types
Project
Professional
service
Service shop
Variety
Variety
Jobbing
Batch
Mass
Low
Volume
High
Mass service
Low
Low
Contin-uous
Low
Volume
High
Development trends
Management
Line-based
operations
Management
Management
Line-based
operations
Line-based
operations
Projects
Project-based
operations
1980
2000
Industrialized
Project operations
Projects
?
Towards project portfolio
management
Mass
manufacturing
Project portfolio management
Project management
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
2000
Project dependence in Swedish
industry
• Project-based exports (Svensson, 1996)
– The total of project-based operations amounted to 193
billion SEK, about 50% of total Swedish exports
• R&D intensity(SCB, 2002)
– Amounts to 5% of GNP, but in some firms about 20-30%
of total sales (development projects)
• The character of fast-growing industry segments
(SCB, 2002)
– IT, drugs, consultancy
• Big-firm depencence (ISA, 1999)
– A large share of our most important multinationals are
project-based firms (e.g. Ericsson, ABB and Skanska)
Types of projects
• Delivery projects
• Development projects
• Change projects
Jonas Söderlund
Delivery projects
Development projects
Change projects
Aim
Deliver and implement
complex
solutions/systems to
customers and/or end
users.
Develop new technologies,
products or services for
manufacturing and/or sale
to mass market or for use
in the firm’s delivery
projects.
Change organizational
routines in order to improve
everyday performance
and/or improve the firm’s
delivery or development
projects.
Guiding
parameter
Contracts
Technology
Organization
Competence
problem
Integration of knowledge Integration of knowledge
between customer and
between different technical
provider.
disciplines and
organizational parts.
Change of competence
structure and integration of
organizational knowledge.
Managerial
focus
Customer dialogue,
customer interaction,
negotiation.
Specifications, technical
solutions, integration of
technical solutions.
Change resistance, internal
marketing, managerial
hierarchies.
Success
criteria
Profitability
Customer satisfaction
Profitability
Risk spread
Strategic marketing
considerations
Realized improvement
potential
Management/sponsor
satisfaction
Project management as a core competence
• ABB
– Project Support, World Class Training
• Ericsson
– Project Office, EPMI, PROPS
• AstraZeneca
– PMSO, Global Project Directors/Managers
• Tetra Pak
– Core Values
• Volvo PV
– Project Director, Project Management
”The ability to successfully carry out projects.”
Project-level improvement:
THE “STAGE-GATE” PROCESS IN R&D
What is the “Stage-Gate” Process?
Launch
The basic idea is that each
“stage” has a set of
deliverables. If these are
not produced (or if the
findings are not favorable),
the project gets killed at the
following “gate”.
“Go/Kill”?
Testing
Development
“Go/Kill”?
“Go/Kill”?
Build a
Business
Case
Legend:
Preliminary
Analysis
Gate
“Go/Kill”?
Stage
“Ideation”
Company-level improvement:
OPM3
Remaining problem
• Focus on certification
- Individual (PMP, IPMA levels)
- Organizational (OPM3)
• Focus on procedures developed from traditional project
management thinking
• Neglecting inspiration from the dominating Operations
Management movement: Lean Manufacturing!
• Neglecting inspiration from current organizational research
• Calls for a philosophical re-orientation, not only more
rules, procedures and standardisation
…therefore, a course…
Course goals
The aim of the course is to develop advanced
in-depth knowledge on leading different
forms of temporary organizations, departing
from several contemporary perspectives in
operations management and project
management research.
Learning outcomes
The student shall be able to:
• Describe the connections, similarities and differences
between project management and general operations
management.
• Describe, analyse and solve managerial problems in
different forms of dispersed and/or network-based projects
• Use bibliographical databases for continuous learning and
development within the fields of project management and
operations management.
• Apply contemporary research perspectives for the practical
solving of managerial problems in project-based
operations.
ME2018
• Lectures
• Individual task (IJPM)
• Group (2-5 pers) tasks – five thematical
reports
• Seminar series – plenary discussion
seminars
• Tentamen
Reviewing a project management
research article
– individual term paper task
 Term paper 1:
 Each student shall indiviually select an article from a
leading project management journal and write a paper of
maximum 10 pages.
 The first half of the report is a summary of the article,
whereafter the second half is spent analysing and
criticizing its assumptions, contents and conclusions. The
analysis and critique should make use of the course
literature and own experiences. IJPM is electronically
available as an E-journal through the KTH library,
www.lib.kth.se. Preferably, issues from 1995 onwards
should be used. The report is submitted in paper format –
including a printout of the article – no later than April
15th, 2011.
Five themes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Lean project management
Project management across borders
Leadership in projects
Innovative and entrepreneurial projects
Critical project studies
For each theme
• Introductory lecture, ended by a set of discussion
questions
• Set of articles published at the course homepage or
handed out in paper format
• Hand-in of group report, containing (1) literature
review, (2) group’s opinions/answers to discussion
questions
• Plenary discussion seminar, all groups expected to
be able to make short presentations and participate
actively
Course literature
• ”Virtual” list of readings updated regularly
at course homepage
• Own literature searches
Exams
ME2018: Tentamen (50%), group reports
(25%), article review (25%)