The Role of the Follow-up Process in Project Management : A multiple-case study

Sammanfattning: Follow-up is a natural component of both project management and projects which, curiously enough, the research community has not previously addressed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the follow-up process in project management. The follow-up process is defined as a process where execution and implementation is improved through the exertion of continuous control. The method used was a multiple-case study, building on data from four organizations actively implementing follow-up processes. The data comprised interviews with project managers from the case organizations, company documentation, annual reports, publicly available information and presentations. The sectors the case organizations operated in were IT services, manufacturing, event organization, and a governmental administrative authority. Five themes emerged from an analysis of the empirical data which were found to influence the follow-up process in projects. The five themes are Documentation, Standardization, Accountability, Learning and Risk Assessment. With insights from the five themes, the research community and project managers can gain a strong understanding of what the follow-up process looks like and its role in project management. The implications for project managers include a better appreciation of the follow-up process and knowledge of the aspects to consider when setting up a new project process. With this paper the authors hope to contribute to the improvement of project management research and practice through a heightened awareness and understanding of the follow-up process.