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A Quantitative Study to Assess a Program and Project Management Approach for Collaborative University-Industry R&D Funded Contracts

While the literature provides some advice on managing programs and projects, the specific context of university-industry collaboration, being scarcely reported, demands a strong research effort to produce effective guidelines. Pursuing this effort, a new program and project management (PPM) approach specifically devoted to support collaborative university-industry R&D funded contracts is incrementally being developed. The management of a program of projects requires also the management of all the constituent projects. Therefore, the PPM approach introduces two layers: one layer for supporting the management of the program at the strategic level and another layer for manageming the constituent projects in strait alignment with the program strategy. A common and consistent set of management phases is being established for both layers with several key program and project management activities/practices identified. This paper aims to present and discuss the results of a quantitative study of the implementation of the first version of the PPM approach in a real case, which embraced an investment of 19.2 M€ and involved around 300 people during two years (2013-2015). The questionnaire has elicited 170 responses. The participants in the quantitative study have perceived all activities/practices as having influence on improving program and project management performance, corroborating the general principles that are being adopted in the development of the PPM approach.