Managerial Complexity in Process Industrial R&D Projects: A Swedish Study

Process industries often have features that differ from other businesses, such as round-the-clock production and costly and specialized production processesfeatures that have not been dealt with in the project management literature. We highlight and identify the complexity of R&D projects in the Swedish process industry and its interrelated process development and product development activities based on results from interviews and a case study. The different competence areas in which a project manager must integrate and manage R&D projects is illustrated. We conclude that a project manager needs both production and product-related competence, including customers' processes.