Project Management Practices at Portuguese Startups

Abstract

Nowadays, due to the continuous changes in technology and markets, companies need to use the best project management practices to effectively manage their projects. The use of these practices however will not have the same results in different types of projects and in different organizations. The practices used by larger companies may have different results if used by smaller companies. With this in mind and focused on project management practices used by Portuguese startups, this study explores the value that project management represents for this type of companies. The study also focused on scale-ups, which are startups that have already undergone an initial phase of maturation and have more complex structures and processes, thus allowing us to see how the project management practices change with the evolution of the organization. This way, it was possible to observe that project management is seen as an essential factor within this type of organizations. These organizations seem to opt for a more agile approach to project management, thus taking advantage of the flexibility typically offered by such approaches. This type of approach seems to continue as startups mature, where there is only an increase in the formalization and complexity of project management practices and tools.