Abstract
Companies have undergone a process of transformation, organizing themselves to be able to make effective and agile responses to environmental problems and, especially, those having to do with competition and positioning in the market. These responses constitute a set of actions or activities that reflect the company’s competence in taking advantage of opportunities, and their capacity for rapid action, respecting time and cost limits and specifications (Rabechini & Carvalho, 2003). To do so, constructing project-oriented organizations and investing in management design tools and techniques is fundamental, and this has become a growing concern of companies. Handy (1995) points out that organizations in the postindustrial era will be configured like “condominiums”, with groups of projects housed together, since what adds the most value to products and services are intelligent, rather than routine, activities (Fleury & Fleury, 2000). According to Frame (1999), project management practices have consolidated since the 1990s, and several researchers cite this as an obligatory subject matter for companies that seek to develop and maintain competitive advantages. A good indicator of this growth is the presence of the PMI (Project Management Institute) in over 100 countries; it has certified around 25,000 project managers since the beginning of 2002 (Rabechini and Carvalho, 2003). However, studies based in Brazilian companies show that few have formalized development of a management model for the process of innovation and projects (Rabechini et al., 2002). The main concepts related to project management and the ways that a company can structure itself to reach maturity in its projects will be discussed in this chapter. The alignment between strategy and project management structure is also addressed.