Usefullness of project management practices in industrialization projects - A case study

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to identify the practitioners' perceptions of the most useful project management (PM) practices in industrialization projects, inside a first-tier automotive company, highlighting the PM differences inherent to the industrialization projects context. A questionnaire was distributed among all industrialization project managers of the company under study containing a list of current PM practices. These were derived from the literature analysis and from the field work previously conducted on the case study, comprising semi-structured interviews, focus groups, observation and document analysis. The results showed that the top twenty most useful tools and techniques is composed of very well-known and widely used tools. They cover the overall PM life cycle, from initiation to project closure, but special relevance is given to specific tools and techniques for planning, emphasizing the importance of the planning phase in industrialization projects.