Project management in Portugal: results of the 2022 pilot study by the Portuguese Project Management Observatory

Abstract

The Portuguese Project Management Observatory (PPMO), an initiative of the Portuguese Association of Project Management (APOGEP), is being developed by the University of Minho in partnership with other Higher Education institutions. The main objective of this research was to study the status of project management in Portugal, namely which tools and techniques are most and least used by organizations, the profile of Portuguese project managers, the methodologies used, accomplishment of project indicators and sustainability practices. It was also an objective to compare the results found with a similar study done a year before. The method selected for this study was a survey applied through an online questionnaire directed to Portuguese organizations. The results show that the most used tools and techniques are Activity List, Kick-off Meeting and Gantt Chart; and the least used are Decision Tree, Value Chain and Cost Life Cycle Analysis. As expected, significant differences were found in the income of project managers, when considering variables such as gender, age, current position, education level, and activity sector. Hybrid methodologies are used in a large part of the respondents' organizations. Although some changes were verified between 2021 and 2022, there are no significant changes reported.