Acknowledgements
This study was initiated by the Project Management Institute (PMI) as one of its activities to foster the advancement of project, program, and portfolio management. The authors are deeply indebted to PMI for their support and guidance throughout the study.
We should give particular mention to Dr. Harry Stefanou from the PMI Project Management Research Program and to Prof. Dragan Milosevic for their guidance, as well as Wanda Curlee and Shelley Gaddie from the Project Management Research Member Advisory Group (RMAG) for their valuable contributions. We are especially grateful to our Research Coordinator, Eva Goldman, for her continuous support during the entire life cycle of the study.
Further support was provided by the Research Institute of Umeå School of Business and Economics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. Through additional funding and provision of the school’s facilities and technology, we were able to finish the study in the timeframe set in the beginning and reach our quality objectives. Special thanks are extended to Prof. Anders Söderholm, Prof. Maria Bengtsson, Prof. Kurt Brännäs and Associate Prof. Nils Wåhlin from Umeå University for their support of the study.
During our presentation of the study results to the research community, we received a number of helpful recommendations and hints. We also thank attendees of the PMI Research Conference 2004 in London, UK, for their helpful comments on the subject.
An empirical study like this would not have been possible without the voluntary help of practitioners, who devote their time and knowledge to the advancement of the profession. We thank, in particular, the interviewees and questionnaire respondents for taking the time and effort to share their knowledge with us, as well as those who provided further comments and descriptions of their program and portfolio management practices.
Many more than we can mention here have helped us behind the scenes, including our families and friends. We could not have done this study without their help.