Framgångsfaktorer för ett verkningsfullt förbättringsarbete : En studie av kvalitetsutveckling inom Projektorganisationer

Sammanfattning: Project organizations are an increasingly common form of organization which are described to have advantages such as being flexible and adaptive, but nevertheless face challenges when it comes to work with quality improvement within such organizations. Studies reveal that there is a need for more knowledge about which barriers may occur towards quality improvement within project organizations and it is also viewed that there is a need to find out how to overcome these barriers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to discover success factors for effective quality improvement in project organizations. The aim of this study is thus to contribute with recommendations on how project organizations can develop their work with improvement regarding quality.  To achieve this, it has also been important to identify barriers within project organizations. A literature study, case study and document review have been conducted to perceive both barriers and opportunities. An in-depth case study has been carried out in a project organization, which includes semi-structured interviews and document analysis. In addition to the literature and to broaden the understanding of how project organizations can work with improvements, a small study with unstructured interviews has been conducted in a company. The result of this study shows that significant barriers to improvement in project organizations is an insufficient transfer of knowledge and learning. The lack of systematic and standardized working methods is also considered to be an obstacle to improvement. To evolve quality improvement within a project organization, six areas of opportunities have been detected. These are: systematic processes and routines, IT systems, transfer of knowledge and interaction, leadership, culture, and time. These can be described as success factors when it comes to evolve quality improvement in project organization. The success factors that have been detected all have an impact on quality improvements and are interconnected and can together contribute to efficient quality improvement within project organizations.  This study contributes to some aspects that previous research has not brought attention to, such as how the lack of systematic working methods can affect interaction in the projects. Furthermore, this study shows that to ensure the transfer of knowledge, it is important to make sure that the documentation from projects come to use for other projects within the organization. This study confirms previous research that shows that time is a success factor, but the result of this study indicate that it is a matter about priorities. Several improvement measures are presented in the study, and these should be considered in order to achieve quality improvements. Quality Improvement is a central part of ISO 9001. The study can therefore help to illustrate what project organizations should focus on when introducing ISO 9001 to achieve quality improvements.