<p>This thesis has its origin in empirical evidence. Some Swedish companies claimed that despite having plenty of proposals for developing new products, they experienced problems when choosing from all those alternatives. Their problem was how to select among new ideas the ones for being developed and the ones to be rejected, how many projects to run according to their capacity, when to start a development project and when to stop one, and how to decide among ongoing projects which the most important ones were. The companies’ problem was decision making in the context of innovation.</p><p> According to literature, a deeper understanding is needed of the decision making process in innovation, taking into account its organizational and procedural complexities. The purpose of this thesis is to achieve an understanding of the decision making process in innovation.  The thesis is based on an explorative study, with interviews carried out in three companies that have new product development as a core competitive factor. The empirical study focuses on the decisions made for selection and prioritization of different innovative alternatives. </p><p>As a result of the analysis of the empirical data a conceptualization of the decision making process was developed. Furthermore, it was described the relevant problems that decision makers experience, the main characteristics of the decision making process and the role that decision making plays in innovation. The implications of these findings for designing work procedures to support decision making in innovation were discussed; and general descriptions of two practical methods suggested. </p><p>The main findings indicate that for making decisions in the context of innovation, organizations must be able to face uncertain and ambiguous situations, and achieve a collective understanding about what is to be done. To do this, different approaches for making decisions and understanding innovation are needed. However, regardless of the appropriateness of these approaches, they receive different levels of acceptance within organizations; and decision makers must deal with the different grades of organizational acceptance of the different approaches. As a consequence, an organization displays certain dynamic using different approaches for making decisions and for understanding innovation. Such dynamic influences the companies’ innovative potential and the output of the innovation process.</p>

In the contemporary business environment multiple projects are a common way of organising work and they are usually implemented and managed as a portfolio of projects. It is widely recognised that effective project portfolio management delivers a range of strategic benefits and significantly contributes to overall organisational success. However, project portfolio management is acknowledged by both theory and practice to be a highly challenging task which is even amplified by the presence of project interdependencies. Managing project interdependencies is found to be an area of weakness for contemporary portfolio management, which so far remains under investigated but emergent field within general portfolio management theory. Therefore this study presents an empirical investigation that aims to uncover why and how organisations from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry manage project interdependencies. In order to answer why organisations manage project interdependencies the study examines the benefits of project interdependency management, the negative effects of failed project interdependency management and the related challenges. In order to investigate how project interdependencies are managed this study focuses on the hard and soft practices that portfolio practitioners use. The study is based on cross-case analysis of two case organisations operating within the ICT industry in Italy. The ICT is chosen as an excellent ground for studying project interdependency management since it is of significant importance for the contemporary world’s economy where project and portfolio management is practiced intensively. Qualitative data is collected via semi-structure interviews. The key findings apply to both case organisations demonstrating their similar reasons and manner of managing project interdependencies. The research findings show that there are various types of project interdependencies in the project portfolios that practitioners need to account for and that effective management of these interdependencies delivers significant benefits contributing to the portfolio success, while failed interdependency management distorts the portfolio success. The study indicates potential challenges that project interdependency management may encounter and confirms that comprehensive consideration of project interdependencies is a rather complex task within a project portfolio management. In order to manage issues arising from interdependent projects and leverage related benefits, organisations implement the following hard practices: web application platforms and tracking tools; and soft practices: formal and informal PM meetings, creation of a cooperative culture, leadership, negotiation and convincing and sacred cow. These practices are examined along with their benefits, limitations and context of their application. Although both hard and soft practices are found to be important in the case organisations, the preference is given to soft ones, mainly because of the benefits that soft practices offer over hard ones and the fact that the indicated hard practices allow only identification of project interdependencies, but do not provide managerial solutions per se. Therefore similar organisations operating within ICT industry may find it useful to devote attention to soft practices as they are found to be a prevailing mechanism for managing project interdependencies. The combination of hard and soft practices can also be seen beneficial for realisation of effective project interdependency management.

Este estudo se propõe analisar como as organizações utilizam a gestão de portfólio de projetos para gerir a inovação. Para tanto, busca explorar como as organizações identificam, categorizam, classificam, selecionam e priorizam os projetos, e como controlam e medem os resultados de seu portfólio de inovação, em um contexto contendo projetos de diferentes naturezas de inovação. Para atingir este objetivo foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, através de seis entrevistas em profundidade. O roteiro de entrevista foi criado a partir do estudo do modelo de gestão de portfólio proposto pelo PMI (2013) e revisado por três especialistas. Para esta pesquisa foram entrevistadas três empresas, sendo dois profissionais por empresa, um de cargo gerencial e outro de cargo executivo, ligados à gestão de portfólio de inovação. As entrevistas foram analisadas quanto ao seu conteúdo através da análise temática. A análise das entrevistas é apresentada a partir de quatro grandes temas: o contexto da gestão de portfólio de inovação na organização, o processo de avaliação e seleção de projetos para o portfólio, o processo de monitoramento do portfólio e os desafios da gestão de portfólios de inovação. Como resultados, a pesquisa identificou que as empresas pesquisadas têm como base de influência principal o modelo de gestão de portfólio proposto pelo PMI (2013), além de outros métodos como Stage-gate, Corrente Crítica, Lean, OKR e PDCA. Que as organizações buscam adaptar o processo de gestão de portfólio à sua realidade e são feitas adaptações de acordo com a complexidade do portfólio de projetos de inovação da organização, conforme a natureza das inovações presente nos projetos do portfólio, sua ambição de inovação e os desafios encontrados na implementação da gestão de seu portfólio de inovação; que são utilizadas diferentes técnicas de avaliação de viabilidade de projetos, com o uso do modelo Stage-gate, facilitando a seleção de projetos para o portfólio, de acordo com o grau de incerteza dos projetos; que são utilizadas técnicas como a Corrente Crítica para priorizar o portfólio e reduzir o lead time de projetos, reduzindo o tempo para iniciar a captura de valor advindo destes; que a qualidade do processo de monitoramento do portfólio está ligada diretamente à qualidade do processo de categorização dos projetos e de seus descritores-chave; que a resistência gerencial em reportar desempenho dos projetos é um desafio para as organizações; e, por fim, que todas as organizações reforçam seus processos de gestão de portfólio de inovação de acordo com suas ambições de inovação e de acordo com sua maturidade quanto a importância da inovação para a empresa, de onde se pode sugerir que as organizações com gestão de portfólio mais rígida e formalizada são também as organizações menos inovadoras. / This study aims to analyze how organizations use project portfolio management to manage innovation. To do so, it seeks to explore how organizations identify, categorize, classify, select and prioritize their projects, and control and measure the results of their innovation portfolio, in a context containing projects of different natures of innovation. To achieve this goal, a qualitative research was conducted through in-depth interviews. The interview script was created based on the study of the portfolio management model proposed by PMI (2013) and reviewed by three specialists. For this research, three companies were interviewed, two professionals per company, one managerial and one executive, both linked to innovation portfolio management at their organizations. The interviews were analyzed for their content through thematic analysis. The analysis of the interviews is presented based on four main themes: the context of portfolio management innovation in the organization; the project evaluation and selection processes for the portfolio; the portfolio monitoring process; and the innovation portfolio management challenges. As a result, it was identified that the companies surveyed are influenced by PMI's (2013) portfolio management model, as well as other complementary methods such as Stage-gate, Critical Current, Lean, OKR and PDCA; that the organizations seek to adapt the portfolio management process to their reality, and that adaptations are made according to the complexity of the organization's innovation portfolio, according to the nature of innovations present in the portfolio projects, according to its innovation ambition and according to the challenges encountered in implementing the management of its innovation portfolio; that different project feasibility evaluation techniques are used, with the use of the Stage- Gate model, facilitating the selection of projects for the portfolio, according to the degree of uncertainty of the projects; that techniques such as the Critical Chain are used to prioritize the portfolio and reduce the lead time of projects, reducing the time to start capturing value from them; that the quality of the portfolio monitoring process is directly linked to the quality of the project categorization process and its key descriptors; that the managerial resistance to reporting project performance is a challenge; and lastly, that all organizations reinforce their innovation portfolio management processes according to their innovation ambitions and according to their maturity about the importance of innovation for the company, suggesting that organizations with more rigid and formalized portfolio management are also less innovative organizations.

Este estudo se propõe analisar como as organizações utilizam a gestão de portfólio de projetos para gerir a inovação. Para tanto, busca explorar como as organizações identificam, categorizam, classificam, selecionam e priorizam os projetos, e como controlam e medem os resultados de seu portfólio de inovação, em um contexto contendo projetos de diferentes naturezas de inovação. Para atingir este objetivo foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, através de seis entrevistas em profundidade. O roteiro de entrevista foi criado a partir do estudo do modelo de gestão de portfólio proposto pelo PMI (2013) e revisado por três especialistas. Para esta pesquisa foram entrevistadas três empresas, sendo dois profissionais por empresa, um de cargo gerencial e outro de cargo executivo, ligados à gestão de portfólio de inovação. As entrevistas foram analisadas quanto ao seu conteúdo através da análise temática. A análise das entrevistas é apresentada a partir de quatro grandes temas: o contexto da gestão de portfólio de inovação na organização, o processo de avaliação e seleção de projetos para o portfólio, o processo de monitoramento do portfólio e os desafios da gestão de portfólios de inovação. Como resultados, a pesquisa identificou que as empresas pesquisadas têm como base de influência principal o modelo de gestão de portfólio proposto pelo PMI (2013), além de outros métodos como Stage-gate, Corrente Crítica, Lean, OKR e PDCA. Que as organizações buscam adaptar o processo de gestão de portfólio à sua realidade e são feitas adaptações de acordo com a complexidade do portfólio de projetos de inovação da organização, conforme a natureza das inovações presente nos projetos do portfólio, sua ambição de inovação e os desafios encontrados na implementação da gestão de seu portfólio de inovação; que são utilizadas diferentes técnicas de avaliação de viabilidade de projetos, com o uso do modelo Stage-gate, facilitando a seleção de projetos para o portfólio, de acordo com o grau de incerteza dos projetos; que são utilizadas técnicas como a Corrente Crítica para priorizar o portfólio e reduzir o lead time de projetos, reduzindo o tempo para iniciar a captura de valor advindo destes; que a qualidade do processo de monitoramento do portfólio está ligada diretamente à qualidade do processo de categorização dos projetos e de seus descritores-chave; que a resistência gerencial em reportar desempenho dos projetos é um desafio para as organizações; e, por fim, que todas as organizações reforçam seus processos de gestão de portfólio de inovação de acordo com suas ambições de inovação e de acordo com sua maturidade quanto a importância da inovação para a empresa, de onde se pode sugerir que as organizações com gestão de portfólio mais rígida e formalizada são também as organizações menos inovadoras. / This study aims to analyze how organizations use project portfolio management to manage innovation. To do so, it seeks to explore how organizations identify, categorize, classify, select and prioritize their projects, and control and measure the results of their innovation portfolio, in a context containing projects of different natures of innovation. To achieve this goal, a qualitative research was conducted through in-depth interviews. The interview script was created based on the study of the portfolio management model proposed by PMI (2013) and reviewed by three specialists. For this research, three companies were interviewed, two professionals per company, one managerial and one executive, both linked to innovation portfolio management at their organizations. The interviews were analyzed for their content through thematic analysis. The analysis of the interviews is presented based on four main themes: the context of portfolio management innovation in the organization; the project evaluation and selection processes for the portfolio; the portfolio monitoring process; and the innovation portfolio management challenges. As a result, it was identified that the companies surveyed are influenced by PMI's (2013) portfolio management model, as well as other complementary methods such as Stage-gate, Critical Current, Lean, OKR and PDCA; that the organizations seek to adapt the portfolio management process to their reality, and that adaptations are made according to the complexity of the organization's innovation portfolio, according to the nature of innovations present in the portfolio projects, according to its innovation ambition and according to the challenges encountered in implementing the management of its innovation portfolio; that different project feasibility evaluation techniques are used, with the use of the Stage- Gate model, facilitating the selection of projects for the portfolio, according to the degree of uncertainty of the projects; that techniques such as the Critical Chain are used to prioritize the portfolio and reduce the lead time of projects, reducing the time to start capturing value from them; that the quality of the portfolio monitoring process is directly linked to the quality of the project categorization process and its key descriptors; that the managerial resistance to reporting project performance is a challenge; and lastly, that all organizations reinforce their innovation portfolio management processes according to their innovation ambitions and according to their maturity about the importance of innovation for the company, suggesting that organizations with more rigid and formalized portfolio management are also less innovative organizations.

Na última década, o crescimento da aviação, aliado aos insuficientes investimentos em infraestrutura, resultou na necessidade de ampliação e modernização dos aeroportos, o que fez com que o Governo Federal desse início ao seu ao plano de concessão de seus principais aeroportos. Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os processos de seleção, priorização e acompanhamento da carteira de projetos de um aeroporto concessionado à luz da teoria de gestão de portfólio de projetos, a fim de contribuir com a melhoria de seus procedimentos internos, conferindo maior competitividade e produtividade à organização. O desenvolvimento da proposta é feito com base nas análises realizadas a partir da triangulação de fontes de evidência coletadas (observação, entrevistas e fundamentação teórica). A triangulação visou a obter subsídios para a elaboração de uma proposta para o processo de seleção, priorização e acompanhamento de projetos, capaz de promover o alinhamento com os objetivos de negócio da concessionária e contribuir com a governança e transparência do processo, adequada às particularidades da indústria. A proposta também buscou identificar critérios de avaliação e priorização de projetos adaptada às necessidades da empresa, bem como trabalhar a questão da manutenção e revisão da carteira de projetos. Este trabalho pretende contribuir para a construção do conhecimento a partir da ampliação de relatos sobre a seleção, priorização e manutenção de projetos em aeroportos brasileiros, além de colaborar para que empresas e profissionais em situações similares possam obter auxílio e realizar associações no entendimento de outros casos. / Over the past decade, the growth of the aviation sector, coupled with insufficient infrastructure investment, resulted in the need for expansion and modernization of airports, causing the Federal Government to initiate its concession plan for its main airports in Brazil. This paper aims to analyze the selection, prioritization and monitoring processes of the project portfolio of an airport concession in the light of the project portfolio management theory, in order to contribute to the improvement of its internal procedures, boosting the company\'s competitiveness and productivity. The development of the proposal is based on analyses of three sources of evidence: observation, interviews and literature. These analyses intended to support the development of a proposal for the processes of selection, prioritization and monitoring of projects, which should be suitable for the characteristics of the industry and in line with the concessionaire\'s business objectives, improving governance and transparency. The proposal also sought to identify criteria for the assessment and prioritization of projects tailored to the company\'s needs, as well as to work out the issue of maintenance and review of the project portfolio. This study seeks to help build knowledge from an increased number of reports on the selection, prioritization and maintenance of projects in Brazilian airports, and to collaborate with companies and professionals in similar situations, assisting them in applying this knowledge to better understand other cases

O gerenciamento de portfólios de projetos é adotado por organizações para garantir que sejam priorizados e realizados os melhores projetos para atingir os objetivos estratégicos da organização e para haver um melhor planejamento do uso dos diversos recursos da organização para a execução dos projetos. O setor público tem características que o distingue do setor privado, o que reflete em como as organizações dos dois setores são gerenciadas. O objetivo deste trabalho, além de realizar uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o gerenciamento de portfólio no setor público, é estudar as características e ferramentas utilizadas no gerenciamento de portfólio de projetos no setor público em comparação com o setor privado. Para a realização deste estudo foram realizados estudos de caso em quatro empresas privadas de diversos setores e em quatro organizações públicas de diversas esferas de governo e de atuação. Nos estudos de caso, além da análise de documentação, foram realizadas entrevistas com profissionais de todas as organizações as quais foram transcritas e analisadas com auxílio do NVivo, um programa de análise qualitativa de dados. A análise dos dados levantados frente às proposições de pesquisa permitiu constatar que em ambos os setores o gerenciamento de portfólio de projetos tem como um de seus objetivos principais gerar um alinhamento entre os projetos realizados e os objetivos estratégicos pretendidos pela organização; as organizações do setor público, ao contrário do sugerido pela análise da literatura, possuem uma maior formalização dos seus processos de gerenciamento de portfólio de projetos; existe um indicativo que as ferramentas utilizadas em ambos os setores são semelhantes, sendo que a ferramenta de pontuação e ordenamento é uma das mais utilizadas nas organizações pesquisadas; as classes de critérios mais utilizadas para a seleção e priorização do portfólio no setor público são diferentes das classes de critérios utilizadas no setor privado; a classe de critérios \"financeira\" é a que possui maior quantidade de critérios no setor privado e menor quantidade no setor público, situação que se inverte com a classe \"social e ambiental\" que tem maior quantidade de critérios no setor público e menor número no setor privado; o setor público tem menor atenção ao gerenciamento de riscos do que o setor privado. Não foi possível concluir se há diferença entre a influência das partes interessadas internas e externas à organização no gerenciamento de portfólio nos setores analisados. / Project portfolio management is used by organizations to ensure that they prioritize and execute the best projects available to achieve the organization\'s strategic objectives and to better plan the use of their resources. The public sector has some characteristics that distinguish it from the private sector that influences how organizations in both sectors are managed. This work aims to carry out a bibliographic review on portfolio management in the public sector and also to compare the characteristics and tools of project portfolio management processes used in the public and private sector. In order to carry out this study, eight case studies were carried out, four in private companies from different sectors and four in public organizations from different government´s responsibility and regions. During the case studies, in addition to documentation analysis, interviews were conducted with organizations´ professionals, that were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software. The analysis of the data collected in comparison to the research proposals showed that in both sectors the main goal of project portfolio management is to generate an alignment between the projects carried out and the strategic objectives pursued by the organization; on the contrary that were indicated by the literature review, public sector organizations have more formalized project portfolio management processes than private sector companies; there is an indication that organizations in both sectors use similar tools and the scoring and classification´s type is the most commonly used; the selection and prioritization criteria most used by public sector organizations are from different class than the most used by private sector organizations; the \"financial\" class of criteria is the one that has the biggest amount of criteria in the private sector and the smallest amount in the public sector, the opposite situation occurs in the \"social and environmental\" class that has the biggest amount of criteria in the public sector and the smallest amount in the private sector; public sector organizations are less concerned about risk management than private sector organizations. It wasn´t possible to infer if there is a difference in the influence\'s level between internal and external stakeholders in the project portfolio management\'s practices in the analyzed sectors.

Esta dissertação relata o estudo sobre os fatores críticos de sucesso do gerenciamento de portfolio de projetos em empresas que atuam no Brasil e também verifica os impactos sobre os resultados organizacionais. A pesquisa foi realizada através de um levantamento junto a profissionais engajados no gerenciamento de projetos que responderam a questionário elaborado a partir de revisão da literatura pertinente ao tema. Os fatores críticos de sucesso validados são: o alinhamento com a estratégia e o processo de gerenciamento de portfolio. Quanto aos impactos sobre os resultados, foi confirmado que o gerenciamento de portfolio impacta positivamente o gerenciamento dos projetos, a satisfação das partes interessadas e a maturidade em projetos. Embora a literatura tenha sido pesquisada, a linha mestra para a pesquisa, principalmente quanto ao processo de gerenciamento de portfolio, ficou centrada nas publicações do Instituto de Gerenciamento de Projetos, mais conhecido por PMI - Project Management Institute. / This dissertation reports the study about success key factors of project portfolio management in companies which act in Brazil and it also analyses the impacts on organizational results. The research was made through a survey applied to people engaged in project management activities whose answered to questionnaire that was elaborated since a review of the literature related to this subject. The validated success key factors are the following: alignment with strategy and the portfolio management process. About the impacts on the results, it was confirmed that portfolio management impacts positively in project management, in project stakeholder satisfaction and in project management maturity. Although an extensive part of literature was consulted, the main approach mainly to the portfolio management process was focused in PMI issues.

The project portfolio management process is characterised by a series of stages and gates where a project needs to pass the set criteria at that given point in order to continue to the next phase of the process. In this paper it is postulated that project portfolio management, in a multi-project environment, suffers from a core problem referred to as the release-problem. The release-problem serves as the catalyst that causes seven undesirable effects to occur within the project portfolio management environment. These undesirable effects lead to delays that hamper the rate of work the system is able to complete, complicates managerial decision-making and jeopardises the four desired outcomes of project portfolio management. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / MSc / Unrestricted

Methods and ways of implementation of changes and innovations in companies through project management are in today's society very well established. There exists methodologies, techniques and tools for the management of individual projects. However in a role of project manager, I very often faced the fact that companies are performing the project portfolio management in very intuitive way. This in itself leads to failed and prematurely terminated projects, initiation of the wrong projects or realisation of correct projects, but at the wrong time. Very often I have also recognized, that there is lack of awareness of fact, that there are also Open Source applications that can help with the organization's portfolio. This thesis deals with the definition of requirements, search and selection of proper OSS application and subsequent implementation. In the first part of this thesis I prepare a theoretical framework about PPM, and on that basis then identify and verify a set of requirements for selection of right OSS PPM application. The next section of thesis describes searching for suitable applications from a variety of sources, assessment against the requirements and the final selection. In the last part the implementation project is drafted, which aims to serve other colleagues in project management as one of the possible implementation paths. The outputs are then continuously confronted with experts in matter of projects and project management in the field of IT in order to maximize symbiosis between theory and real life experiences. Virtually every project management methodology defines the collection of already-proven techniques, best practices or lessons learned from the previous similar implementations. The main contribution of this thesis I see in fact that it contains not only the design of the project implementation, but also describes a logical path, what leads to the result. Therefore this thesis could be used as a base or discussed best practice, when a project of implementation of PPM application in place.

The diploma thesis deals with the design and implementation of a transparent resource management system at the portfolio level. Its primary task is to present and implement this system, but also to describe the situations that occurred during its implementation at Garrett Motion. In order to better understand the issue, the theoretical foundations of project management and resource management are presented at the beginning of the thesis. These serve as the basis for the following analysis of the company's environment, design and subsequent implementation of the system.