Improving Project Management Process
Salonen, Kimmo (2017)
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705158236
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705158236
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges in a project management process and to create an improved project management process for the Software Development
unit in the target company. The target company is a software company with about one hundred employees in Finland, working with companies in the Nordic Countries, in sectors like agriculture and food industry.
The research was conducted as a case study. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in the study, using the mixed methods research design. The qualitative research data consisted of twelve in-depth interviews with the key informants from the target organization. The quantitative data was collected from old project inquiries, sent to own personnel but also to others, customers and other project stakeholders who were a part of the project work.
The Current State Analysis provided up-to-date information about the status of the project management process in the target organization. The top three themes for further development were customer, communications and process and organization development. The two first mentioned were left out of the scope by the target organization. The researcher then fully concentrated on the process development, but also took into consideration the closely-related topics from organization development. The researcher found out that the organization was experiencing issues with the project management process and with the agile development process. In addition, the organizational development needed to be directed to support the new requirements, not to be a separate development path.
The author has created a list of recommendations for the target organization to be used in their process development work. The list of recommendations contains nearly twenty suggested actions, including prioritized order which was co-created in co-operation with the target company’s Project Managers. The author recommends that the target organization utilises agile development in their full ability and follows the development proposal presented in the thesis.
unit in the target company. The target company is a software company with about one hundred employees in Finland, working with companies in the Nordic Countries, in sectors like agriculture and food industry.
The research was conducted as a case study. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in the study, using the mixed methods research design. The qualitative research data consisted of twelve in-depth interviews with the key informants from the target organization. The quantitative data was collected from old project inquiries, sent to own personnel but also to others, customers and other project stakeholders who were a part of the project work.
The Current State Analysis provided up-to-date information about the status of the project management process in the target organization. The top three themes for further development were customer, communications and process and organization development. The two first mentioned were left out of the scope by the target organization. The researcher then fully concentrated on the process development, but also took into consideration the closely-related topics from organization development. The researcher found out that the organization was experiencing issues with the project management process and with the agile development process. In addition, the organizational development needed to be directed to support the new requirements, not to be a separate development path.
The author has created a list of recommendations for the target organization to be used in their process development work. The list of recommendations contains nearly twenty suggested actions, including prioritized order which was co-created in co-operation with the target company’s Project Managers. The author recommends that the target organization utilises agile development in their full ability and follows the development proposal presented in the thesis.