The use of adaptive project management practices and methodologies in the development of a professional doctoral program

Abstract

Purpose – Higher education institutions have used more and more project management tools to run development projects to create new professional postgraduate programs. The purpose of this research was to propose an adaptive project management model for creating a professional doctoral course in Business Administration, in order to fulfill the goals established by CAPES. Design/methodology/approach – For such, the qualitative approach was favored with the adoption of the single case study method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with academic coordinators who are experts in the field in addition to the gathering of documents, thus using data triangulation to explore the phenomenon. The analysis of primary data and the analysis of documents from the Coordinating Agency for Advanced Training of Graduate Personnel (CAPES) served as inputs for analyzing and interpreting the results. Findings – As a result, we developed an adaptive project management model with the following characteristics: a) constant planning of activities, occurring in every cycle of interactions; b) iteration using short activities, allowing for more control of the project; c) validations performed continuously to ensure the goals proposed by CAPES are reached; and d) adaptable to change of scope during the execution phase of the project life cycle. Research limitations/implications – Among the limitations of the study is the lack of other studies related to the use of adaptive project management methodologies for developing postgraduate programs. And for future researches, we point out the need for applying the proposed model, to verify its efficacy and adherence to the development of a professional doctoral course. Originality/value – This study contributes to the academy by highlighting the need for project management as a tool and technique for the development of stricto sensu professional graduate programs. In this way, HEIs will be able to use a model of adaptive project management practices to achieve the objectives proposed by the CAPES evaluation process. As a result, HEIs are strengthened in the management, control and monitoring of the progress of their programs.