ABOUT
Engineer, researcher, practitioner.
I have spent eighteen years leading projects, programs and portfolios in industrial engineering — in OEM and Tier-1 automotive environments where resources are finite and the sponsor is usually in the room — and a doctorate finding out why projects lose the business value they promise.
This site is where the two meet: methods with research behind them, written for people who have to choose which projects get funded and defend the choice.
PhD · PMP · PMI-ACP · Six Sigma Black Belt
Why I do this
For eighteen years I have helped OEMs such as BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, their Tier-1 suppliers, and small and medium-sized enterprises increase the business value of what they build — by applying science to projects.
I do it because I kept seeing the same pattern: projects rarely deliver the benefits promised in their business case, and portfolios seldom implement the strategy they were meant to execute. The gap is not a lack of effort. It is a lack of method at the point where projects are chosen.
01
Research
The organizational determinants of business-value decline in projects — and the application of those findings in companies from the Fortune 500 list.
02
Method
Design and implementation of project portfolio management processes, project management organization structures, and value-focused tools and techniques — including a methodology for short, dynamic automotive projects.
03
Delivery
Complex research and development projects and programs in the automotive industry, agile high-dynamic projects for leading car producers, operational projects, and a research project with the Cambridge Welding Institute.
The research behind the methods
My doctoral research examined eight industrial enterprises in automotive component manufacturing to identify what determines the decline of business value in projects. Four findings shape everything published on this site.
Maturity mattered most of the three
Of the three determinants tested, project maturity had by far the largest single effect on value decline.
Planning carried the largest losses
Value erosion concentrated in planning processes. Initiating and closing produced the smallest losses.
One thing done properly may beat three done partly
Interactions between the determinants mattered less than the determinants individually.
More process was not automatically better
The enterprises with the least value erosion used roughly three quarters of the PMBOK process set. Process quantity and quality were not studied directly, so this is an exploratory observation, not an optimum.
Dissertation: Wrocław University of Economics, Ph.D. in Management Science, specialization Management by Projects. Available on request.
Education
Wrocław University of Economics
Ph.D. in Management Science
Specialization: Management by Projects
Wrocław University of Science and Technology
Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and Machine Building
Specialization: Machine Design and Operation
Certificates
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute
Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute
Six Sigma Black Belt
Six Sigma Green Belt
Want to talk about your portfolio?
A question about a method, a prioritization problem in your organization, or a talk you would like me to give — I read every message myself.