The research aims to understand the nature of ICT diffusion at the intra-organisational level. It uses both quantitative and qualitative research approaches to identify factors and processes influencing ICT diffusion at the actual implementation phase. The result indicates that management, individual and technology group factors are essential to ICT diffusion at the initial adoption stage. In addition, the integration of change management and knowledge sharing and learning theory to diffusion of innovation theory can help to better explain ICT diffusion at the actual implementation stage.

The word 'mentor' is derived from the character Mentor who, according to Greek mythology, was the trusted counsellor ofOdysseus, under whose disguise Athena became the guardian and teacher of Telemachus (Great Illustrated Dictionary. 1984). In today's world changes are taking place at a rapid rate. In addition, the increasing complexity of the working environment has made it necessary that employees have a role model, teacher, coach and trusted counsellor to assist them in coping with these changes. Mentoring has become essential to the development of new and experienced staff and the enhancement of their performance in a challenging environment. This study evaluates the skills needed for a mentor, mentee and organisation to be successful in a mentoring program. In the first section of this document, problems regarding the shortages of power supply currently experienced in South Africa will be clarified. These problems are aggravated by a shortage of skills in the project environment. Mentoring may be a possible solution in the management of this problem. In the second section, a literature study which was conducted to determine which skills are necessary for a successful mentee-mentor relationship, will be discussed. Mentoring can only succeed if a good relationship exists between the mentor and mentee. The two developmental areas upon which mentoring can have the greatest impact on employees in organisations are the career development- and skills development areas. In the third section a case study initiative will be described which involves the implementation of a mentor-mentee relationship in a Project environment. This case study pays specific attention to the effect which certain skills have on the success of a mentor-mentee relationship. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

This master thesis deals with the issue of managing a group of projects from the perspective of an outsourcing provider. The goals of this master thesis are to define the area of multi-project environment in outsourcing, describe features of a real example of such environment, identify characteristic features in them and design a set of recommendations for its efficient management. In the first part, the area and conditions of multi-project environment in outsourcing are defined. Subsequently, the theoretical knowledge in literature is analyzed. The second part focuses on practical research in a real organization dealing with this kind of project management. First, the methodology of the research is defined, then the results are described in detail. Using the previously collected knowledge the third part identifies features which are typical for multi-project environment in outsourcing. This means those areas which require attention and can be generalized in this field of project management. Based on the previous knowledge, the fourth part sets recommendations for efficient management of multi-project environment in outsourcing within identified characteristics. The original contribution of this master thesis is the definition of multi-project environment in outsourcing, identification of its characteristic features and set of recommendations for its efficient management.

<p>This licentiate thesis discusses management and control ofan industrial business that implements several projects at thesame time, a so-called multi-project business. The questionthat will be answered is: What distinguish the management of amulti-project business and what is crucial for the managementto focus on? The thesis is based on a case study at a companycalled Adtranz Signal in Sweden. Adtranz Signal develops,designs and delivers signal and safety systems for the railway.They are a perfect example of a modern company that operatesthe main part of their business with projects.</p><p>The discussion will take us beyond the single project andabove the project manager. This is necessary because projectmanagement literature, by tradition, emphasizes on theindividual project, and the complexity of problems when aproject is executed isolated from the ordinary business. Todaythere are only a few empirical and theoretical studies ofmulti-project businesses, especially those that focuses on howindustrial companies use projects and lead project work.</p><p>The scientific contribution in this thesis consists of twoparts. The first part is a profound empirical description ofhow management, control and realization of a multi-projectbusiness work. The second part is a further development of theliterature considering management problems in a multi-projectbusiness. Finally there are three important conclusions pointedout:</p><p>•It exists dependencies and connections between theprojects in the companys multi-project business•Thedifferent dependencies can be categorized•Thedependencies and connections are important and must be handledsince they effect the management of the multi-projectbusiness</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Management and control of a project business,industrial projects, multi-project business, multi-projectenvironment, project-based company, project management</p>

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka verktyg som används för att främja kunskapshantering inom ett företag som arbetar i projekt, då tidigare forskning indikerar att projektformen medförsvårigheter i arbetet med kunskapshantering. För att besvara syftet undersöker uppsatsen vilka förutsättningar som är avgörande för att kunskapsdelning ska komma till stånd samt vilka metoder som finns att tillgå för att dela och överföra kunskap inom och mellan projekt. En fallstudie med semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes för att besvara frågeställningarna. Resultatet visar att det finns en tro bland respondenterna att individen bär på kunskap och det framkommer en tilltro till de sociala aspekterna av kunskapsdelning. För att kunskapsdelning ska främjas krävs att medarbetarna har ett brett socialt nätverk samt att det existerar en företagskultur som uppmanar till kunskapsdelning. Det bör finnas systematiska processer föröverföring av såväl explicit och implicit kunskap då resultatet indikerar på att ett fungerande IT-verktyg för kunskapslagring tillsammans med verktyg och systematiska processer som lessons-learned, tillsammans bidrar till en effektiv kunskapshantering och säkerställer att kunskap överförs mellan projekt. / The purpose of this paper is to investigate which tools are used to promote Knowledge Management in project-based organizations, since previous research indicate that the project form experience difficulties regarding Knowledge Management. An empirical research was conducted in order to examine which conditions are crucial for knowledge sharing and which methods are available to share and transfer knowledge within and between projects. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The result of the study shows that there is a belief among the respondents that knowledge exists within the individual. The result also indicates that the preferred way to share knowledge is through personal communication and asocial network. Hence, in order for knowledge sharing to be promoted, employees must have abroad social network. Furthermore, there must exist an organizational culture that promotes knowledge sharing behavior among the employees. Nevertheless, a successful Knowledge Management process should ensure to include systematic processes for both sharing and transferring of explicit and implicit knowledge. The result indicates that tools for knowledge storage and tools like lessons-learned, together contribute to effective Knowledge Management processes that ensure knowledge being transferred between projects.

As most of the project management models were developed for larger projects, there is a lack of understanding of what project managers in short duration projects do. Short-duration projects are projects in multi-project environments lasting for a number of weeks rather than a number of months. Even if they are common today, short-duration projects have not yet attracted the interest of project researchers. The present study aims to analyze what the project managers in short duration projects do and to develop a method for studying the project managers at work. A theoretical framework is built on earlier studies of managers’ work, suggesting three areas having impact on the project manager’s work. The impacting areas are the project, the project manager’s experience, and the organizational context of the project. The project manager and the assisting project manager were studied while managing a sub-project in a greater telecom system project. The project managers were studied one week each using participant observation and interviews. The findings indicate that much of the time at work was spent in meetings of different kinds, to deal with change, and to guard the production teams from being disturbed by changes in the environment. It was also found that studying a multi-project environment from the sub-project’s perspective gives a different view on multi-project environments that have earlier been presented as the project managers in the short-duration project constantly have to adjust to changes, inputs and demands from the surrounding projects and functional organizations. In the end some proposals on directions for further studies of managers of short-duration projects are made.

This licentiate thesis discusses management and control ofan industrial business that implements several projects at thesame time, a so-called multi-project business. The questionthat will be answered is: What distinguish the management of amulti-project business and what is crucial for the managementto focus on? The thesis is based on a case study at a companycalled Adtranz Signal in Sweden. Adtranz Signal develops,designs and delivers signal and safety systems for the railway.They are a perfect example of a modern company that operatesthe main part of their business with projects. The discussion will take us beyond the single project andabove the project manager. This is necessary because projectmanagement literature, by tradition, emphasizes on theindividual project, and the complexity of problems when aproject is executed isolated from the ordinary business. Todaythere are only a few empirical and theoretical studies ofmulti-project businesses, especially those that focuses on howindustrial companies use projects and lead project work. The scientific contribution in this thesis consists of twoparts. The first part is a profound empirical description ofhow management, control and realization of a multi-projectbusiness work. The second part is a further development of theliterature considering management problems in a multi-projectbusiness. Finally there are three important conclusions pointedout: •It exists dependencies and connections between theprojects in the companys multi-project business•Thedifferent dependencies can be categorized•Thedependencies and connections are important and must be handledsince they effect the management of the multi-projectbusiness Keywords:Management and control of a project business,industrial projects, multi-project business, multi-projectenvironment, project-based company, project management / <p>NR 20140805</p>

The overall aim of  this thesis is create awareness about the importance of linking projects to their historical, organizational and environmental context. This dissertation concerns the analysis of a project contract developed by a new urban transport company in Bogotá, Colombia, with large and complex settings. The project was studied during 4 months, using and ethnographic research approach and different qualitative data collection methods, such as formal interviews, archival research and informal meetings. The study involves an inductive process from which discussion is developed from the observation of empirical reality of this particular case study. The main outcome of the study was to illustrate that tough the impact of contextual variables is difficult to foresee and translate into project management concepts, the analysis of sources of complexity, dynamics and uncertainty in different aspects of the context environment, e.g. legal, political, economical, and cultural, gives a good understanding about the influence of the context dimension in projects. Contextual parameters are often outside the scope of project management, and for this reason, high quality of project planning cannot always compensate for the possible negative effects of these external variables. In addition, the boundaries inside and outside the project’s organization increase the complexity inside the project, and tensions between these boundaries can be of great impact during the project--‐planning phase. This dissertation shows through empirical reality that “o project is an island, they are open systems, with permeable boundaries”(Engwall, 2003).

Introduction: A trend for organisations to change from single to multiple project management has been observed over the last couple of decades. Organizations shifted their focus from single project management towards the simultaneous management of the whole set of projects as one entity – project portfolio. New multi-project settings require a new management approach and practices to successfully manage a portfolio. A common practice in organizations is to evaluate projects after they had been carried out. At that point not much can be done and it is impossible to improve performance and prevent failure. Hence, problems that occur in projects’ implementation phase remain unsolved and even unidentified. Constant control, review and monitoring of projects’ performance in the implementation phase could lead to the problematic portfolio areas being spotted and timely management decisions being made in order to improve the overall portfolio performance. Problem: How do organisations manage projects within a portfolio that perform poorly in the implementation phase? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is: to describe to what extent and in what ways organizations control, review and monitor project performances in the implementation phase; to identify if organisations use any methods, tools or techniques in order to spot projects that perform poorly according to their expectations; and to discover what happens to the poorly performing projects in the implementation phase after they were identified. Method: An electronic qualitative questionnaire had been constructed and sent out to the 46 sampled Swedish companies currently running project portfolios. 115 most suitable respondents had been chosen to answer the survey. Frame of Reference: Theoretical framework is built on the literature within project portfolio management field, mostly concerning control, review and monitoring of projects of projects’ performance within their implementation phase; practices used to manage poorly performing projects as well as the value of organizational learning. Conclusion: The research results show that even though majority of the studied organizations are aware and striving towards efficient project portfolio control, review and monitoring, a lot of space for improvement still remains. Results reveal that organizations are trying to keep track of projects’ performance within a portfolio, however, very few poorly performing are identified. Moreover, the management practices for underperforming projects are still very limited if not non-existent.

<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>A trend for organisations to change from single to multiple project management has been observed over the last couple of decades. Organizations shifted their focus from single project management towards the simultaneous management of the whole set of projects as one entity – project portfolio. New multi-project settings require a new management approach and practices to successfully manage a portfolio. A common practice in organizations is to evaluate projects after they had been carried out. At that point not much can be done and it is impossible to improve performance and prevent failure. Hence, problems that occur in projects’ implementation phase remain unsolved and even unidentified. Constant control, review and monitoring of projects’ performance in the implementation phase could lead to the problematic portfolio areas being spotted and timely management decisions being made in order to improve the overall portfolio performance.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Problem: </strong>How do organisations manage projects within a portfolio that perform poorly in the implementation phase?</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this thesis is: to describe to what extent and in what ways organizations control, review and monitor project performances in the implementation phase; to identify if organisations use any methods, tools or techniques in order to spot projects that perform poorly according to their expectations; and to discover what happens to the poorly performing projects in the implementation phase after they were identified.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>An electronic qualitative questionnaire had been constructed and sent out to the 46 sampled Swedish companies currently running project portfolios. 115 most suitable respondents had been chosen to answer the survey.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Frame of Reference: </strong>Theoretical framework is built on the literature within project portfolio management field, mostly concerning control, review and monitoring of projects of projects’ performance within their implementation phase; practices used to manage poorly performing projects as well as the value of organizational learning.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The research results show that even though majority of the studied organizations are aware and striving towards efficient project portfolio control, review and monitoring, a lot of space for improvement still remains. Results reveal that organizations are trying to keep track of projects’ performance within a portfolio, however, very few poorly performing are identified. Moreover, the management practices for underperforming projects are still very limited if not non-existent.</p>