Improving Project Resource Management in Project-Based Organisations : Improving project resource management in project-based organisations through a case study. A case study of a project-based organisation.

Sammanfattning: In the current market situation today which is changing rapidly, many companies have decided to adopt the project-based organisational structure. However, the literature on this area has been lacking, particularly in the multi-project environment. This is an important subject to explore since it has a substantial impact on a company’s productivity. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to expand the knowledge on project resource management in multi-project organisations. The methodological approach of this work was a case study, where interviews and observations were conducted at a large PBO running multiple new product development projects. The unit of analysis in the case was the way of working in projects and PRM techniques used in the context of two new product development projects. Waterfall Method and APM was identified as two fundamental ways of running a project. Additionally, RBS and RBV, Kitting, CONWIP and Project Freezing and finally CCPM were identified as techniques that can be used in project management. Several similarities and differences were identified when comparing the case study with previously conducted studies. Particularly, similarities regarding the experienced pressure and how resource conflicts caused by this were managed. Lastly, improvement proposals to current PRM techniques were identified. By using both Waterfall Method and APM together, their strengths could be combined. Moreover, HRM has become an increasingly more important task for the line managers, which should be taken into consideration when stating the work description. The results of this study will contribute both theoretically and practically. This work supports the evolution of the PRM techniques by evaluating them in a practical context. Finally, the conclusions of this work provide recommendations which are more practically applicable for PBOs.