Improving Project Management Performance – a case study at Tetra Pak R&D

Abstract: Summary: Purpose: The aim of this Master’s Thesis is to create a procedure for internal project audits. This involves the creation of an instrument for measurement and a prescription for how to transfer learnings to other projects. The end goal is to enhance organisational learning and through that create Total Quality in the management of projects. Methodology: Deductive, qualitative case study with literature review and collection of empirical findings through in-depth interviews and a survey. Main results: R&D have come far with its development into a mature project organisation, but still have some weak areas. The organisation is at level 2 and in order to reach level 3 R&D must carry through some improvement actions. The most significant of these are insufficient usage of WBS, lacking Quality Plans, no Earned Value analysis and an unclear Risk Response Process. Using the audit instrument continually, improvement efforts can be measured, analysed and evaluated. The work methodology I have recommended involves developing lessons-learned from the project. By focusing on the specific areas that needs to be improved (provided by the audit) and pulled together the lessons learned from each project a common understanding of the problem is gained. The result of such a meeting is proposed actions and in the end results that can be analysed and evaluated. The results from this evaluation can then be used to develop the audit instrument further.