Comparing project management practices in new product development: a study in the automotive, aerospace and rail transport industry

Abstract

Project management standards and tools are prevalent measures for supporting project execution. As these standards are often industry specific, they do not facilitate cross-industry and cross-organisational collaboration. We pursue an action research approach to compare project management practices and standards in new product development and to identify potential synergies in process and project management. We choose the automotive, aerospace and rail transport industry as they have a high project orientation and their success is strongly dependent on innovation. Our findings reveal differences between the industries in terms of project management standards and methods, the maturity of project management, and the general orientation towards projects. On this basis, we identify best practices and areas for improvement in project management on inter-industry and intra-industry level.