Conclusions

Project management research and development have mainly focused on developing project management practices for single projects. Business management, and especially special requirements of the management of a project-based industry, needs more attention.

Due to the growth of the companies and the changes in their markets, project companies are struggling to find the appropriate ways of doing business. In this environment, there is a need for development and recurrence. The most important issue of development is to shift the managerial focus from the problems of one individual project, to the management layer above the projects, to the management of the project business as a whole.

This study is based on empirical investigations conducted in case study companies that delivered customized industrial investment goods to meet the requirements of each individual operating environment and customer. The case study companies included a telecommunications supplier, a paper machinery supplier, and an azimuthing thruster and deck machinery supplier. Results of the empirical study with case study companies demonstrate that companies should have a strong business management level above the project level in the organizational hierarchy. The study introduced a subdivision of company management into three different levels: business development, business management, and project management levels.

The business development level at the top of the management pyramid includes strategy development and definition of the vision to be communicated down to lower levels. The business management level in the middle acts as a link between the strategic business development and operative project management levels. Business management integrates projects and their management to the overall business context. It includes managerial processes that ensure organizational learning. The business management level also includes project portfolio management content with alignment of projects to business objectives. The project management level at the bottom of the management pyramid has responsibility to manage single projects. At the project level, important decisions and activities occur that finally ensure the achievement of business objectives.

The empirical study pointed out specific company level management areas that required improvements in the case study companies. These areas were sales management, structures and standard models for projects, and learning between projects.

The business management level must be organized to cover appropriate management for project sales and marketing. The management activities at the company level must cover the extended project process properly. An extended project process with pre-project (sales) and post-project (after sales) phases is a key to integrating project management into managing corporate business. This also emphasizes the importance of continuous customer care.

Project portfolio management covers the management of the multiproject environment with the strategic alignment of projects to business objectives and the management of complex interactions between projects and project portfolios. The managerial focus is on the projects' role in fulfilling the strategic business objectives and on the interrelation of projects with other projects, portfolios, and the line organization. The portfolio view becomes more complicated if multiple portfolios interact across different corporations and business networks. With project suppliers, for example, projects are significant vehicles for the management of customer relations and the management of customer-related information. Cooperation, networking, and learning from customers' businesses, as well as receiving customer feedback, are important issues.

The business management level also includes the responsibility for arranging processes and practices development and implementation, standard product structures and standard operating procedures, clear sales policies, and instructions for project-related activities. As far as standard product structures are concerned, the company has to have a clear sales policy, which determines the preferred product solutions and excludes the impossible solutions already in the sales phase. The project company must have predefined structures and models both for its products and processes. The first step toward better-managed projects is a modular project plan, which includes predefined project phases. The phases and their contents must be modular with several variations for different business cases. Many project companies have defined standard operating procedures that are used for implementing standardized and modularized product-related and process-related practices.

In the project-oriented corporation organizational and individual learning are significant success factors. Learning and adoption of innovative solutions must be fostered at all levels of activity (business and project levels). A real challenge for successful project business management, in any project company, is to define the relevant information content for decision-making purposes. Particularly it is important to pay attention to collaboration between the projects and the management levels, and to collaboration between the customer and suppliers in the whole business network. A management approach must be in place that focuses on decision-making, target setting, cross-project communication, and communication with the external environment. More research is needed to develop new tools and methods to support decision-making processes and information sharing.

In the organizational model of a project-oriented corporation, project structures must be linked to organizational structures by taking into account the ownership of projects and resources. It is important that clear responsibilities are in place in the overall management system. The management system must also involve clear priorities for clarity in business operations, successful project portfolio, and appropriate allocation of resources. A fundamental question and a relevant area for further project portfolio management research is the problem of how to organize the whole corporation's responsibilities, decision-making, and objective setting concerning projects. These issues relate also to the definition of relevant information content, information sharing, and organizational learning in the whole multiproject organization.