ERKOL_3u5cu

FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND ADMINISTRATION
The use of PRINCE2 project

management methodology
Master’s Thesis
SALPI ERKOL
Supervisor: Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D.
Faculty of Economics and Administration
Programme Business Management

Brno 2023
Bibliographic record
Author: Salpi Erkol

Faculty of Economics and Administration
Masaryk University
Department of Economics
Title of Thesis: The use of PRINCE2 project management methodology
Field of Study: Business Management
Supervisor: Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D.
Year: 2023
Number of Pages: 70
Keywords: PRINCE2, project management, client loyalty, customer loyalty, tailoring,
information technology, case study
Abstract
This master's thesis is a case study with the goal of investigating how changes in project
management can help client loyalty in a particular company.
The diploma thesis has two main parts. The theoretical part critically reviews the current state of
knowledge in the area of project knowledge management and client loyalty. The second part of
the work is the case study. This includes a description of the managerial problem of maintaining
client loyalty and analysis in the subject area in the case company. The analysis techniques
include but are not limited to a questionnaire and interviews. It is discovered for the particular
company that client loyalty has the biggest relation to timely delivery. The analysis shows a strong
correlation between delivery time and client loyalty.
Based on the results, appropriate recommendations following the PRINCE2 methodology are
formulated with the aim of decreasing delivery time and improving client loyalty.
Declaration
I certify that I have written the Master’s Thesis The use of PRINCE2 project management
methodology by myself under the supervision of Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D. and I have listed all the
literature and other sources in accordance with legal regulations, Masaryk University internal
regulations, and the internal procedural deeds of Masaryk University and the Faculty of Economics
and Administration.
Brno, Salpi Erkol

Table of Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1
2. Theoretical Overview .............................................................................................................. 2
2.1. What is client loyalty? ...................................................................................................... 2
2.2. Satisfaction leads to loyalty ............................................................................................. 3
2.3. Project success and client loyalty ..................................................................................... 4
2.4. Scholars' perception of project management .................................................................... 5
2.5. Loyalty and Pricing ........................................................................................................ 11
2.6. Loyalty and Quality........................................................................................................ 12
2.7. Loyalty and Time ........................................................................................................... 13
2.8. PRINCE2 Project Management Methodology ............................................................... 14
2.8.1. Principles of the PRINCE2 Methodology............................................................... 16
2.8.2. Themes of the PRINCE2 Methodology .................................................................. 19
2.8.3. Processes of the PRINCE2 Methodology ............................................................... 21
2.8.4. Environment ............................................................................................................ 21
3. Methodology.......................................................................................................................... 22
3.1. Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 22
3.2. Research Map ................................................................................................................. 23
3.3. Data Collection and Analysis Methods .......................................................................... 24
3.3.1. Questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 24
3.3.2. In-Depth Interview .................................................................................................. 26
3.3.3. Document Analysis ................................................................................................. 27
3.3.4. Observation ............................................................................................................. 27
3.3.5. Gap Analysis ........................................................................................................... 28
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4. Case Study ............................................................................................................................. 29
4.1. Industry and Company Overview .................................................................................. 29
4.2. Team and Project Overview ........................................................................................... 30
4.3. Internal Questionnaire Analysis ..................................................................................... 31
4.4. Interview Analysis.......................................................................................................... 35
4.5. Combining the Questionnaire and Interview Results ..................................................... 43
4.6. Suggestions..................................................................................................................... 45
4.6.1 Suggestions by principles ....................................................................................... 46
4.6.2 Suggestions by themes ............................................................................................ 53
4.6.3 Suggestions Adapted to PRINCE2 Process Model ................................................. 58
4.7. Cost Analysis.................................................................................................................. 61
4.7.1. Project Scenario ...................................................................................................... 62
4.7.2. Process Flow Diagram ............................................................................................ 62
4.7.3. PRINCE2 Trainings ................................................................................................ 63
4.7.4. Total cost and breakeven point ............................................................................... 67
5. Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 69
6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 70
7. Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 71
8. Glossary ................................................................................................................................. 75
9. List of Figures and Tables ..................................................................................................... 76
10. List of Appendices ................................................................................................................. 79
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1. Introduction
The company is facing client loyalty problems after the consolidation in 2019 with the main
corporation of its managed infrastructure services. The managers communicated the decrease in
client loyalty, and the company is now looking for ways to keep existing clients and improve
client loyalty. The management requested to conduct a thorough research on the client loyalty
issue and to provide recommendations on how to retain the existing clients.
This paper reviews the company’s current project management methods, techniques, and
procedures. Throughout this thesis, the underlying causes of the client loyalty problem are
examined in respect of main project objectives like quality, cost, and time. With the
improvement suggestions of current project management practices in the company, this paper
aims to improve the specific problems of client loyalty and satisfaction.
Researchers follow the same general stages in the design of each research project (Chrysochou,
2017). These steps, from the initial to the last, are research objectives, research design, sampling
plan, data collection, data analysis, and reporting. This research is also designed to follow the
steps mentioned in figure 1.
Figure 1: Research Steps
Source: Chrysochou, 2017
The goal of this thesis is to help the company overcome the problem of client loyalty, with
changes in the existing project management environment. The paper is divided into two parts.
Firstly, the theoretical part discloses a critical review of current knowledge in the field of project
management. The second section of the project is the case study. It contains a description of the
managerial problem as well as an analysis of the subject area in the case company. Appropriate
recommendations are made based on the findings of the research.
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2. Theoretical Overview
2.1. What is client loyalty?
The client is frequently considered a single individual or a buyer group of the product or service.
On the other hand, project clients must be identified, and the project managers must manage their
expectations. The customer in a project is the person or group who made the request and who
will profit from the finished product (AXELOS, 2017).
Cambridge business dictionary defines customer loyalty as the fact of a customer buying
products or services from the same company over a long period of time (Cambridge University
Press, n.d.). Oliver (1999) defines customer loyalty as coming back for future purchases.
According to these definitions, client loyalty can be perceived as continuously purchasing
products or services within business-to-business transactions.
According to Srinivasan, client loyalty can be measured by the repeated purchasing activity by
the client (Srinivasan et al., 2002). Kotler and Keller (2019) greatly emphasize the importance of
client loyalty. They say, “the only value your company will ever create is the value that comes
from customers- the ones you have now and the ones you will have in the future.”
Figure 2: Organizational Chart
Source: (Kotler and Keller, 2019)

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Successful companies have inverted the organization chart, giving more importance to the client.
As shown in figure above, at the highest level are clients; second are employees who satisfy the
clients and meet their needs. Then comes middle management, whose duty is to support employees
to ensure they will serve clients. Lastly comes top managers, who should employ successful middle
managers. It is also shown in the modern client-oriented organization chart, that the client is added
alongside the triangle. This addition denotes that every employee, from entry-level to top
management, should be closely involved with the clients.
Client loyalty is a crucial component of a company’s corporate strategy and its eventual success. It
has been studied extensively throughout the years. It is well-acknowledged that loyal clients are
extremely valuable and that having a loyal client base is critical for any organization.
2.2. Satisfaction leads to loyalty
Customer satisfaction occurs when a customer’s positive contacts or experiences with a company
outnumber their negative interactions or experiences with the organization. (Meyer & Schwager,
2007). Singh (2006) also discovered a positive link between customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Many academicians believe that customer satisfaction is a primary driver of customer loyalty.
Figure 3: Steps to loyalty
Source: (Kotler and Keller, 2019)
Kotler and Keller (2019) discuss that client loyalty is achievable only after client satisfaction, as
seen in figure 3 above. Clients who already have good experience with the purchased services are
most likely to renew their contracts. Positive client experience is achievable when the projects or
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products meet their expectations. Hence, meeting the client’s needs, reoccurring positive client
experiences, and long-term client satisfaction leads to client loyalty.
2.3. Project success and client loyalty
Rubin and Seelig (1967) studied project managers' impact on projects and were among the first
to present success and failure variables in project management. Years later, the success criteria of
quality, price, and time were introduced by Atkinson (1999). From the perspective of project
managers, success is defined at the beginning of the project with stakeholders. According to
Turner (1999), a successful project is completed on time and within budget, benefits the owner,
meets their goals, and accommodates the stakeholders’ interests.
A PRINCE2 project has three primary stakeholder categories, according to the PRINCE2
principle of defined roles and responsibilities. Those are business, user, and supplier. The needs
of all three must be fulfilled for the project to succeed. In PRINCE2, a project must specify and
build on the customer’s presence to deliver the desired product (AXELOS, 2017).
The most used and crucial measuring method for the project's success derives from Atkinson's
“iron triangle” success criteria, as shown in figure 4 (1999).
Figure 4: The iron triangle
Source: (Atkinson, 1999)
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The project manager’s role in ensuring client satisfaction is crucial. The success of a project is
closely related to the project manager’s ability to handle the clients’ expectations and
requirements. Client expectations that are clearly specified will make the project manager’s job
easier and raise the chances of satisfying all of the clients’ criteria.
Previous concepts and experiences suggest that it is possible to understand how to form client
connections to improve project success. Concepts are the foundation for creating and
maintaining interactions with a unique group of customers for a project to obtain the best
results. Lessons learned from previous experiences can assist in identifying circumstances to
avoid or reduce the negative impact of such encounters.
2.4. Scholars' perception of project management
Ireland and project management
Ireland (1992) brings a broad understanding of the relationship between client satisfaction with
project management techniques. He analyses the function of the project manager in assuring
client satisfaction, defines a project’s many customer groups, and discusses the necessity of
achieving their expectations. Ireland (1992) argues that there are several pointers for having an
effective customer encounter. Finally, he emphasizes the importance of client happiness in
determining quality and project success. Several project managers were studied over 11 years
in his research, focusing on consumer loyalty. These connections were recognized, as well as
failures to maintain client satisfaction.
The buyer is the first individual who is considered a project’s customer, who pays the project
company to hire their services to complete the project. Although the buyer is critical in deciding
a product’s or service’s requirements and quality, there are various additional persons who
should be considered customers. These people are not customers in the conventional sense, but
they are customers in the sense that they have expectations and requirements that influence the
project’s final output. People who are involved in a project but are not direct clients or buyers
but still have a stake in the project should also be considered customers. Table 1 below defines
and summarizes the potential project customers according to Ireland (1992).
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Table 1: Customers according to Ireland
Project Customers
Buyer of the The buyer is the person or group of people who purchases a product or
deliverable service from a seller or provider.
Co- The co-contractors or partners in a project expect to share equally in the

contractor/partner project’s choices and profits. These individuals have a strong interest,
which is frequently stated in a formal agreement or contract that
establishes the legal expectations, but not necessarily all of them, such as
participation in management decisions.
Senior management The senior management expects the project manager to advance the
work effectively and efficiently while keeping everyone updated on its
progress. The project manager is supposed to inform the senior
management of any potential issues that might jeopardize the project’s
success or customer relationships.
Project team Members of the project team expect the project manager to provide
members professional leadership, a safe work environment, clear job instructions,
training for new tasks, and fair rewards for exceptional performance.
Furthermore, team members anticipate the project manager’s allegiance
to protect them from outside interference with their job.
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Functional The functional organization expects the project to utilize the staff
organization assigned to it correctly and within the scope of their abilities.
Furthermore, the functional organization expects the project manager to
demand resources only when needed.
Contractors/sub- Contractors and sub-contractors are project designers with great

contractors expectations for revenue that will help them expand their businesses and
improve their professional reputations. They are also looking for solid
guidelines for future jobs.
Vendors/suppliers Vendors and suppliers, as contractors, have a direct interest in ensuring

that the project’s parts, components, and materials fulfill the quality
standards. These customers expect project team members to follow
appropriate specification processes and to pay promptly after delivery.
End users Users of the products and services anticipate ease of use, safe operation,
reliable products, long-lasting goods, and items that are simple to
maintain. The products and services must also value the business by
outperforming competitors in terms of functional performance or
convenience of use.
Society Society is defined by special interest groups and is the caretaker of such
general areas as the environment and public safety. Some examples of
the issues addressed by society may include environmental pollution
maintenance of natural habitats. Society, in general, seeks a non-hostile
environment in which to live.
Source: (Ireland, 1992)
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Establishing each customer’s interests and expectations for the project is crucial, as this will
serve as the foundation for building a cooperative environment for managing those expectations.
The expectations can be as broad or narrow as the client's. If such expectations are satisfied or
disagreements are overcome, the project’s effort toward developing a high-quality product or
service will continue. However, if no agreement is reached, this will result in the project failing
to meet its customer’s needs and establishing a lack of trust between the two parties. A project’s
success is contingent on its ability to accurately assess customer expectations and adequately
manage them throughout the course of its life cycle. On the other hand, failure to satisfy the
customers’ expectations may negatively impact many areas of the project’s aim of creating a
high-quality product or service that satisfies the buyer.
Geographical restrictions no longer constrain clients, and they may choose from organizations
worldwide to compare services’ prices and quality. Thus, clients increasingly hold firms
accountable for delivering a product or service that meets or exceeds their expectations. When
expectations are not being met, this can have a negative impact on the customer’s relationship
with the organization and client loyalty.
Client loyalty is a significant source of long-term profit and growth for companies (Anderson &
Mittal, 2000). Academicians recognize that preserving consumers is less expensive than
competing for new ones (Rosenberg and Czepiel, 1984). The basic premise is that the longer a
business can maintain a client, the more profit it will generate (Wieseke, Alavi & Habel, 2014).
Thus, companies must do everything necessary to retain clients for as long as feasible.
Commonly belief is that customer loyalty is mainly to the price, but more than 800 factors
trigger clients to switch companies (Kotler & Keller, 2019). Client satisfaction, experience,
quality of service, company commitment, present value, and customer trust are some of the most
critical factors influencing loyalty (Araceli et al., 2016).
Wang et al. and project management
In his research, Wang et al. (2020) investigate the impact of the PRINCE2 methodology on client
satisfaction in conjunction with vendor relationship management competence. This paper further
examines the mentioned underlying process by examining the mediating role of deliverable
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quality. A questionnaire of 260 project managers in seven different firms was conducted, and
their models and hypotheses were empirically tested with the partial least squares method.
According to the PRINCE2 methodology, by separating projects into manageable and controlled
standardized stages and imposing discipline on knowledge integration of each of the project
stages, this measurement may give a more organized project management strategy.
The study looks into two components of IT project management from the vendor’s perspective
to address this issue of client satisfaction; the vendor’s implementation of an external project
management standard, which stresses technical aspects, and the vendor’s relationship
management capabilities emphasize relational aspects.
The main idea Wang et al. suggest is that the effective implementation of the PRINCE2
methodology in the IT setting can positively impact project success by lowering transaction
costs and improving deliverable quality, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.
Their findings imply that enterprises with a greater degree of complementary investment in a
standard external gain more in terms of IT cost reduction, mainly through an interaction
effect between the external standard and the internal relational element. Companies can make
corporate processes more outsourcing-friendly and allow vendor performance monitoring and
effective vendor collaboration. More intriguingly, they discover that this interaction impact is
entirely mediated by deliverable quality, directly improving customer satisfaction.
Usher & Whitty and project management
The study of Usher & Whitty (2017) uses paradox theory as a project management concept to
assist academia in better understanding the conflicts that might arise between project success
and customer satisfaction. They establish a concept of yin-yang in the project management
perspective which argues that it occurs when project success and client satisfaction are closely
linked inside the project management framework. Because part of one lies within the other,
project management yin-yang emphasizes that these two phenomena cannot be treated as
independent aspects. Hence, to genuinely attain one, the other must also be fulfilled.
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Table 2: Project Management Yin-Yang
Phenomenon Satisfaction Success
Epistemology Interpretivist Positivist
Perspective Subjective Objective
Assessment criteria Perceived value Quantifiable metrics
Functional System Economic Scientific
Represented by Yin Yang
Source: (Usher & Whitty, 2017)
They have used grounded theory methodology and case studies with semi-structured interviews.
The findings suggest that project managers must acknowledge the complementarity,
interdependency, and structural connection between the positivist and interpretive perspectives
within the project management framework. Even though success and satisfaction are two
separate concepts, they are interdependent inside the project management framework.
Park et al. and project management

In their study, Park et al. (2018) investigate the impacts of quality in project management on
project performance and client satisfaction. The information from various project-based
companies was gathered using a survey questionnaire. The quality was assessed on three levels,
system quality, information quality, and service quality. The effectiveness was assessed among
nine characteristics. Time reduction, task accuracy, and cost management had the most
significant impact on client satisfaction. Their findings suggest that quality substantially
influences project management performance and client satisfaction.
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2.5. Loyalty and Pricing
With the rise of internet technologies, clients have access to information to seek better
alternatives easier than ever. For the companies, this means a more significant competition.
An example of a low-price-driven company is Dell, an IT company based in the US that

produces, sells, repairs computers, and supports clients with after-sales services of computer-
related products. The reason behind Dell’s success lies mainly in its low prices and after-sales
support. Dell’s most significant focus is on low costs, which is the key to success (Burke, 2006).
Price reasonability is one of the most significant factors influencing client satisfaction and
loyalty. Clients become more satisfied when they receive a product or service at competitive
prices and are likely to be loyal clients. Kotler & Keller (2019) stress the significance of the
pricing strategy multiple times. Pricing strategy alone is not always enough for business-to-
business companies to achieve client loyalty.
Previous studies have found that there is a strong relationship between client loyalty and cost.
Loyal clients are less price sensitive. Although high prices do not prevent loyal clients from
renewing their contracts, Wieseke (2014) brings a new perception in this area by focusing on a
neglected topic by researchers.
According to Wieseke (2014), client loyalty and the cost of products or services are closely
related. Loyal clients who have engaged in multiple contracts and spent a more extended time
with the company wish to be rewarded for their loyalty with more favorable prices. He addresses
a void in the previously conducted research by scholars. Hence he examines the role of customer
loyalty in price negotiations. In other words, it is safe to assume he focuses on the effect of costs
on client loyalty and bargaining power. He conducted an empirical study in a model of
experimental design, where the participants were given a scenario, and after, they were observed
in a simulation room.
His findings suggest that lower prices are in favor of client loyalty. Competitively low prices
play a significant role in client satisfaction and loyalty, but also clients demand to be rewarded
with low prices for their Loyalty. The critical point to take from Wieseke’s (2014) findings is
that loyal clients can pay more. In the long run, not addressing the clients’ demand for discounts
may lead to dissatisfaction and a lack of loyalty. To break this cycle, we need to examine the
other factors of triple constraints in project management.
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On the contrary, Allard and Griffin (2017) suggest that pricing does not have the most significant
effect on clients’ decision-making and loyalty, when a correctly communicated price is one of
the factors at the end of the clients’ preference list.
Allard and Griffin (2017) present a model which is backed up by a series of six studies that links
a product’s or service’s comparative pricing to the construal level of its related communications,
and they demonstrate how clients’ responses to the phrasing of communications are influenced
by perceived expensiveness. Their hypotheses were tested on the participants with the help of a
two-way mixed design, and the results were analyzed by factorial variance. The participants
were presented to choose between two identical products. The distinctions were how the product
was communicated and the ten times difference in the price of both products. The six conducted
experiments with various prices suggest that a match between comparative pricing and the
construal level of communication leads to more favourable client responses.
2.6. Loyalty and Quality
Quality is focused on ensuring that the project’s outputs fulfill business expectations and allow
for the realization of the targeted benefits. The concept of quality covered by PRINCE2 is
derived from the ISO 9000 standards and is also shaped precisely to target the project
environment (AXELOS, 2017). Quality expectations are set by the customer, and project
managers should follow those expectations to achieve the project’s needs.
Client loyalty also is achieved by providing the best quality services. Quality implies more than
just defect elimination or improvement activities. Quality is correctly fulfilling the clients’
requirements, which is defined by the client and not by the company.
Theoretical and empirical evidence shows that quality directly relates to client satisfaction
(Völckner & Hofmann, 2007; Clauss, Herengel, & Hock, 2018; Cristobal-Fransi, Hernández-
Soriano, Ferrer-Rosell, & Daries, 2019). Strong client connections are built when the client’s
expectation is consistently met. Akhmedova et al. (2020) investigate in their research,
particularly client loyalty, from two different perspectives. Most importantly, they argue that
client loyalty is achieved by perceived quality, and they prove their point with 208
questionnaires conducted.
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2.7. Loyalty and Time
Timely delivery of products or services is another constraint that affects client satisfaction.
Various scholars have researched this topic (Dholakia and Zhao, 2010; Lee and Joshi, 2017).
Dundar and Ozturk (2020) examined the relationship between customer satisfaction and client
loyalty through on-time delivery and suggested the following model in figure 5.
Figure 5: Model of loyalty
Source: (Dundar and Ozturk, 2020)
However, in their study, one particular hypothesis catches attention, which argues that on-time
delivery has a positive effect on customer satisfaction which is statistically significant. A total of
436 consumers were surveyed online by simple random sampling to prove this hypothesis. In
this qualitative study, the relationships between the variables were analyzed with multiple
regression analysis. According to their findings, on-time delivery had a statistically significant
moderately positive influence on customer satisfaction.
In their study, Williams et al. (2015) measured customer satisfaction between the projects which
are on time and which were late. Their findings demonstrate that late project completion has a
significant negative impact on customer perceptions of project management performance. Late
delivery reduced the scores for all project areas, not just project performance linked to time. By
way of explanation, late project delivery leads to a more significant negative perception of the
client for the company’s overall performance. Their study suggests that late project delivery has
not only negatively affected the clients’ perception of the performance levels but also affected
the way how the client assessed what was essential in a project.
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2.8. PRINCE2 Project Management Methodology
PRINCE2 is a well-known project management methodology that has been widely used in
various industries. This methodology can be applied to any type of project, big or small.
PRINCE2 was created to be broadly applicable to all projects, regardless of their size, type,
industry, location, or culture (AXELOS, 2017). Being flexible and easy to use is one of the
reasons why it continues to be popular today.
Another primary reason for its popularity is that it is easy to implement within existing company
structures without causing much disruption. Another unique feature of PRINCE2 is being able to
tailor the methodology depending on the specifications of each and every project. Tailoring
allows organizations to adapt PRINCE2 to their specific business needs rather than trying to
adopt a one-size-fits-all approach.
The company is currently struggling with a problem of client loyalty, which is discussed
throughout the research. In order to solve this problem, the PRINCE2 methodology was
suggested to implement across the existing project management environment of the organization.
The reason for choosing specifically the PRINCE2 methodology is my personal interest and my
existing knowledge of the methodology, as well as my firm belief that this methodology would
be best suited to the existing problem of the organization. Another reason for choosing the
PRINCE2 methodology is due to the fact that the company is planning in the future to implement
and follow a full PRINCE2 structure in their projects.
In future chapters and throughout the research, it is suggested to implement some elements of
PRINCE2 methodology into the organizations existing project management environment.
However, due to the limitations and restrictions of the project and the limited timeframe for this
research, only the essential core elements are suggested first, the elements which I consider to be
the most essential to improve the existing problem of client loyalty.
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Figure 6: Project environment of PRINCE2
Source: (AXELOS, 2017)
Figure 6 above demonstrates the PRINCE2 project management methodology environment,

which addresses project management through four integrated elements. These are principles,
themes, processes, and the project environment (AXELOS, 2017). The PRINCE2 principles,
which were created using lessons learned from both successful and unsuccessful projects, offer a
foundation for best practices for anyone involved in a project. The principles assure clarity and
provide focus in the project (AXELOS, 2017).
In PRINCE2 methodology, quality criteria are requirements that the product must fulfill and the
quality measurements that will be assessed on the finished product. The quality criteria are
defined under the product description. Project product description defines the product’s purpose,
composition, derivation, and quality criteria. It is prepared in the Starting Up a Project process
and forms part of the project brief- (AXELOS, 2017).
PRINCE2 methodology is also highly focused on products as one of the main principles. This
principle assures that the project only focuses on the work that contributes directly to the
delivery of the product and communicates and agrees with the stakeholders for all the required
changes throughout the project, reducing the risk of dissatisfaction.
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2.8.1. Principles of the PRINCE2 Methodology
There are seven core principles of the PRINCE2 methodology those are; continued business
justification, learn from experience, defined roles and responsibilities, manage by stages, manage
by exception, focus on products, tailor to suit the project (AXELOS, 2017).
Every PRINCE2 project must follow the seven principles; if any one of them is absent, the
project cannot be called a PRINCE2 Project. Learn from experience, defined roles and
responsibilities, manage by exception, and tailoring are focused on more according to the
company needs in the suggestions chapter and the appendix. The principles are discussed briefly
in the following sections.
Continued business justification

The business justification ensures that the project stays on track with the benefits and the
business objectives. Organizations that lack the justification may find that projects move
forward even when there may be no more benefits or when a project has only links to corporate,
program management, or customer strategies (AXELOS, 2017).
The business justification may change during the course of a project, but the company needs to
be sure that it should remain valid at all times. As a result, it is crucial that the project and its
evolving justification both remain aligned with the organization's goals and objectives. When a
project can no longer be justified, it should be terminated (AXELOS, 2017).
Learn from experience
The learn from experience principle suggests that the project team must gain knowledge from
past experiences (AXELOS, 2017). This means that the team should be able to learn from its
successes and failures and use that information to help shape future projects. Not only does this
ensure that the team is not repeating the same mistakes, but it can also help make sure that the
team continues to improve in its area of expertise and develop new skills along the way.
Throughout the project, lessons must be sorted out, noted in the lessons log, and put into
practice. During the closing a project process, the lessons should be ready to hand over. This will
ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated in future similar projects (AXELOS, 2017).
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Defined roles and responsibilities
The defined roles and responsibilities principle ensures the organizational structure that includes
the interests of the business, user, and supplier stakeholders (AXELOS,2017). This principle is
one of the crucial principles of the PRINCE2 methodology. Even if the scheduling and controls
are crucial to achieve a successful project, with weakly described roles and responsibilities, the
project will be delayed and difficult to complete.
It is fundamental that all stakeholders and team members have a clear understanding of the
responsibilities each of them has in the project and the different levels of authority that they will
have in different aspects of the project.
Manage by stages
PRINCE2 requires that the projects are planned, monitored, and controlled by stages (AXELOS,
2017). Each management stage has a specific purpose and must be completed before the next can
begin. The proper amount of the management stages for a project will be determined by the
project's size and complexity, as well as the control points required throughout the project, in
addition to organizational policies.
To follow the PRINCE2 methodology, a project must have at least two management stages.
Those are the initiation stage and at least one additional management stage (AXELOS, 2017).
The managing by stages principle guarantees that the project is correctly initiated before the
delivering activities begin. It provides the project with review and decision points and allows the
board to assess its viability at defined intervals to make key decisions. (AXELOS, 2017).
Manage by exception
This principle makes very efficient use of senior management time by reducing time burden
without removing their control by ensuring decisions are made at the appropriate level in the
organization (AXELOS, 2017). This principle uses tolerances, the variance above and below a
plan's aim. Tolerances are used to measure if the project is on track to meet its requirements.
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The PRINCE2 methodology manages the projects by exception divided into six categories of
tolerances which are; time, cost, quality, scope, benefits, and risks, and project-level tolerances
are set by corporate, programme management, or the customer, the stage-level tolerances are set
by the project board, the work package tolerances are set by the project manager (AXELOS,
2017). The above management level is only informed when the tolerance is exceeded, which
allows very effective use of senior management's time since it lessens their workload without
taking away their authority by assuring decisions are taken.
Focus on products
According to the focus on product principle, the PRINCE2 methodology mandates projects to be
output-oriented instead of work-oriented (AXELOS, 2017). In other words, the product should
be the focus of every decision and effort, as the end goal is to deliver the required product to the
client. This principle implies that the project only performs work that ultimately relates to the
delivery of the product, and no more work than it is required, and it also helps to manage
uncontrolled changes and reduces the risk of user dissatisfaction (AXELOS, 2017).
Tailor to suit the project
The PRINCE2 methodology allows and encourages the projects to be tailored to suit the project
environment, size, complexity, importance, team capability, and risk (AXELOS, 2017). The
project manager should tailor the process and methods to meet the specific needs of the project.
This is critical to the overall success of the project and the project management team.
Tailoring allows the project to be adapted to different circumstances and situations as required
and ensures the project remains focused and on track throughout its life cycle. If a PRINCE2
project is not tailored, the project management effort and methodology are unlikely to be
appropriate for the project's needs. Therefore, it is vital that the tailoring approach be used
throughout the project's life so that it becomes a natural part of the project. When tailoring a
project, the project manager has to ensure that the PRINCE2 principles are followed, the
minimum requirements in each theme are fulfilled, and the purpose of each theme is met.
18
2.8.2. Themes of the PRINCE2 Methodology
The PRINCE2 themes outline elements of the project that need to be continuously addressed as
the project moves forward in its lifecycle. The PRINCE2 methodology has seven themes:
business case, organization, quality, plans, risk, change, and progress (AXELOS, 2017). In the
following section, the themes are introduced briefly, and the progress and risk themes are
focused more on according to the company's needs in the suggestions chapter and the appendix.
Business Case
The Business Case theme establishes a framework for determining if the project is and continues
to be desired and viable. The minimum requirements for the business case theme are to create a
business case and to review and update it in response to the decisions and events that occur
during the course of a project, to define the management actions that will be carried out to
confirm that the project's outcomes are met and that the project's benefits are realized, and also to
define and document the roles and responsibilities (AXELOS, 2017).
Organization
The goal of the organization theme is to define and construct a framework for the project to
ensure that responsibilities and accountability are identified from the beginning. The minimum
requirements for the organization theme are defining the organizational structure with roles and
responsibilities, establishing the procedures for delegating tasks, and designing a communication
management approach with the stakeholders (AXELOS, 2017).
Quality
The main goal of the quality theme is to establish and implement how the project will ensure that
products meet the client's expectations. The minimum requirements for this theme are defining
the quality management approach, documenting the quality criteria for the products in the
product descriptions, maintaining a quality register to check that the intended quality activities
are conducted, including an acceptance criteria in the project product description, and applying
lessons learned (AXELOS, 2017).
19
Plans
In the plans theme, the main goal is to promote communication and control within the project by
establishing the means for delivering the project products in a way that is simple and easy to
comprehend. The minimum requirements for following the plans theme are to make sure that the
plans allow the business case to be accomplished, to have at least two management stages, to
create a project plan for the entire project and stage plans for each management stage
separately, to follow a product-based planning strategy, to create precise plans for exceptions, to
define the roles and responsibilities, and to use lessons learned (AXELOS, 2017).
Risk
The goal of the risk theme is to identify, assess, and control uncertainty in order to increase the
chances of success of the project (AXELOS, 2017). This includes understanding the nature and
causes of uncertainty, identifying potential risks, and making decisions based on risk assessment.
The minimum requirements for the risk theme are as follows; defining the risk management
approach, keeping track of recognized risks and decisions related to their investigation,
management, and evaluation in a risk register, identifying, assessing, and managing risks
continuously, and using lessons learned (AXELOS, 2017).
Change
Similar to the risks theme, the goal of the change theme is to identify, assess, and control
potential and approved changes to the project baselines (AXELOS, 2017). The minimum
requirements for the change theme are to create a change control approach, to establish the
process for creating, maintaining, and controlling product baselines, to sustain an issue register
for recording the identified issues and actions about their analysis, management, and review, to
ensure that project issues are captured and managed, and to use lessons (AXELOS, 2017).
20
Progress
The goal of the progress theme is measuring and comparing actual accomplishments to those
anticipated, predicting the project's goals and ongoing viability, and controlling any unacceptable
deviations (AXELOS, 2017). The progress can be monitored by work packages, at the end of
every management stage or at the project level (AXELOS, 2017). The minimum requirements
for the progress theme are as follows; defining the approach to control the progress in the project
initiation document to be managed by stages, setting tolerances and handling exceptions in
relation to these tolerances, reviewing the business justification when exceptions arise, and
learning from lessons (AXELOS, 2017).
2.8.3. Processes of the PRINCE2 Methodology
There are also seven processes in PRINCE2, which define the list of actions necessary to direct,
manage, and deliver a project successfully. The seven processes are starting up a project,
directing a project, initiating a project, managing a stage boundary, controlling a stage, managing
product delivery, and closing a project (AXELOS, 2017).
2.8.4. Environment
The project environment is the last integrated element of the PRINCE2 project management
methodology. This ultimately refers to the tailoring. The project environment is what describes
the environment in which the project is being implemented.
In this study, the fundamental principles and themes have been identified which are missing or
not fully implemented in the current project management environment of the company, and it is
necessary to implement those in order to improve the existing problem of client loyalty. The
steps to be taken to improve the current situation are broken down into individual tasks and
supported by templates, documents, and other deliverables required for each task which are
tailored to the company's specific needs. Each individual task is then described by whom and in
which process it will be delivered.
21
3. Methodology
A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods are used during this research. The primary
means of data collection for the case study are interviews, observations, questionnaires, and
documents. The questionnaire is used to see the company’s perspective and determine where
client loyalty lies in cost, quality, and scope. The results will be analyzed statistically. The
interviews are used to determine the key missing factors of the PRINCE2 methodology, which
should be implemented to improve client loyalty. Observations and documents are also used in
this case study, which aids this research to be more company oriented.
3.1. Research Questions

• What are the effects of project quality, cost, and time on client loyalty?
To answer this question literature review will be used. The answer to this question will provide
us with a broad view of the project management problem, which may be the underlying cause for
the company, causing the client loyalty issue.
• Which constraint has the most significant importance in the company?
To answer this question a questionnaire will be used. The questionnaire will target project
managers and subject matter experts, and the results will be statistically analyzed. The answer
will aid us in understanding which one of the project management constraints is the most
significant effect on client loyalty.
• Which project management methods, tools, techniques, and procedures are used currently
in the company?
For this question, ongoing project documents will be observed, and interviews with project
managers will be conducted. The answer to this question will lead us to identify the gaps in the
company’s project management techniques and to seek room for improvement.
• How can the weaknesses of project management techniques used in the company be
developed to improve client loyalty?
22
Information gathered from the previous two questions will be combined to help answer this
question. The answer will guide us in creating a strategic plan and suggestions for future
projects. According to the company’s needs, the weaknesses of ongoing projects will be
determined, and current project management techniques will be suggested for implementation.
3.2. Research Map
The research map in figure 7 below shows the relationships formed among the concepts in the
conceptual framework based on the research objectives and research questions. It shows how
they relate to each other and provides the overall structure of the paper. Figure 7 below shows
the research map for this thesis.
Figure 7: Research map
Source: Own
The main constraints for client loyalty are investigated through the literature review. The
organizational focus is analyzed with the help of the questionnaire and the interviews. Finally,
the suggestions are developed using the analysis of findings to build a strategy for improving
client loyalty by implementing PRINCE2 techniques.
23
3.3. Data Collection and Analysis Methods
3.3.1. Questionnaire
Check & Schutt (2012) defines survey research as “the collection of information from a sample
of individuals through their responses to questions.” Survey research has a target group, and it
aims to understand the target group’s perspective on a situation that the researcher is interested
in. According to Chrysochou (2017), survey research follows these three main steps: sampling,
designing questions, and data collection. This means, who will participate in the survey, how
they will be reached, and what method will be adopted to collect data from respondents.
During sampling, the participants of the study are determined. In this survey, the project
managers and other related roles within the organization are the target audience.
Designing questions is the step to determine which questions will be included in the
questionnaire. In this part, it is crucial to make sure the wording is adapted to avoid confusion,
the order of the questions is suitable to the target group, and the data obtained can be evaluated
using appropriate statistical procedures (Chrysochou, 2017). The questions in this survey aim to
understand the general perception of employees regarding client loyalty. The questions are
worded suitably to the target audience and follow the company’s internal guidelines.
During data collection, it is determined how the required information will be gathered. For this
survey, the most suitable method is the computer-assisted personal questionnaire. Accordingly,
an online questionnaire will be sent out to the target audience to collect the general perception of
employees regarding client loyalty.
In this research, the questionnaire is expected to find out which one of the project management
constraints is the weakest component within the company. The questionnaire also aims to
enlighten how the projects are managed in the company and identify which techniques or aspects
of project management are weakest.
The questionnaire is divided into four chapters to keep an understandable and easy-to-follow
format for the target audience. This chapter will also help during the data analysis.
24
The questionnaire has two kinds of questions: numerical input and Likert-scale. All of the results
are exported from Limesurvey to MS Excel. Liker-scale and numerical input are analyzed using
statistical tools. The internal survey is sent to the target audience depending on the agreement
with my manager. The minimum required number of answers for achieving healthy results is 30
respondents. Before sending out the questionnaire, a pre-test was conducted with a few
colleagues to find potential issues with wording and formatting.
Table 3: Regular and reverse scaling
Regular Reverse
Scale Scale
Strongly agree 5 1
Agree 4 2
Neither agree nor disagree 3 3
Disagree 2 4
Strongly disagree 1 5
Source: Own
During the analysis, two different scaling of Likert were used. The regular scale of Likert has the
highest point for strongly agree, and the lowest for strongly disagree 1. Whereas the reverse scale
has it in reverse order for negative statements, as shown in table 3 above.
Table 4: Example of regular Likert scale
We deliver high-quality services compared to (9𝑥5) + (18𝑥4) + (5𝑋3)

= 4.13
our competitors. 9 + 18 + 5
Source: Own
Table 5: Example of reverse Likert scale
I believe we should increase our quality of (3𝑥2) + (11𝑥3) + (14𝑋4) + (4𝑥5)

= 3.59
services to preserve our existing clients. 3 + 11 + 14 + 4
Source: Own
25
3.3.2. In-Depth Interview
An in-depth interview is a qualitative research approach that requires performing a detailed

individual interview with one or a limited number of participants to examine their opinion on the
topic the researcher is interested in (Boyce and Neale 2006). This approach enables the
researcher to obtain clear and highly detailed responses, whereas other qualitative and
quantitative methodologies might not be sufficient. An in-depth interview also allows the
researcher to be more flexible and ask follow-up questions.
Kvale (1996) identifies seven stages of conducting in-depth interviews:
1. Thematizing is the initial stage where the interview is planned following research goals
and purpose. The topic which will be investigated is selected in this stage.
2. Designing is the part before the interview takes place. In this stage, the suitable
participant is selected, questions are prepared, and the data analysis method is chosen.
3. Interviewing is the crucial stage where the data is collected. Researchers should keep in
mind that the results also may be affected by many factors, such as personality or fatigue.
4. Transcribing is the process of preparing the finished interview for analysis. The
interviews are transcribed verbatim, along with extra notes made by the researcher.
5. Analyzing is required after transcribing, allowing the researcher to understand the

significance of the material obtained during the interview.
6. Verifying ensures the obtained data is reliable and in line with the initial research aim.
7. Reporting informs the findings confidentially and fulfilling the scientific requirements.
According to this, an in-depth interview is conducted after the questionnaire to obtain more specific
information. The interview is separated into sections, and the questions are shown in the appendix.
26
3.3.3. Document Analysis
According to Fischer (2006), document analysis is a systematic technique for assessing or

evaluating printed or electronic documents. The reason document analysis was included in this
research is that documents provide background information as well as perception (Stake, 1995).
During this research, document analysis is used on the existing internal documents of the
company to better understand the methodologies and guidelines the organization follows in the
aspect of project management. These documents also enable us to identify improvement
opportunities and design interview questions according to the obtained information from the
documents (Silverman, 2011).
3.3.4. Observation
Marshall & Rossman (2016) defines observation as “the systematic description of the events,
behaviors, and artifacts of a social setting.”
Gold (1958) characterizes observers using one of the following role categories: complete
participant, participant as observer, observer as participant, and complete observer. For this
research, the suitable role is observer as participant, where the researcher is known and
recognized by the participants, and the participants are aware of the observer’s intentions.
Kawulich (2005) divides the observation into descriptive observation, focused observation, and
selective observation. Focused observation is the most suitable method for this research as it
involves gathering extra information with the help of interviews. Additionally, the participants’
insights lead the researcher on what to observe. Observation is more effective when paired with
other approaches, such as interviews (McKechnie, 2008).
Observation is used as a method to allow us to examine the individuals in their usual setting,
followed up with an interview. This allows us to get a snapshot of how the individuals currently
function within the company. With the help of observation, it is aimed to gather insight into
project management tools and techniques as well as the corporate culture. The observation
provides a better understanding of the overall company structure and prepares a better foundation
for the tailoring of the suggestions.
27
3.3.5. Gap Analysis
Even though the gap analysis method was first introduced in biology by Scott et al. (1993), it has
been widely implemented and used in many other disciplines.
In businesses, Panwar et al. (2012) explain the different types of gap analyses in the following
diagram of figure 8. In this research, the conformance gap is used. The conformance gap defines
a gap between “is” and “ought to be” based on an organization’s point of view of its business
activities and performance. This can be considered for the organization the desired status to
achieve. Data gathered from the previous methods will be combined to identify the conformance
gap within the organization of project management methods and room for improvement.
Figure 8: Gap between the society’s and industry’s perception
Source: (Panwar et al., 2012)
In this research, under the industry’s perception, the “is state” is presented by the company’s
current state and project management processes, and the “ought to be state” will be presented by
the new project management processes.
28
4. Case Study
4.1. Industry and Company Overview
The company in which the case study is taking place is an IT company based in the Nordic
countries. Although the company’s history is longer than a half-century, the merger occurred in
2019. Since then, those two Nordic companies have been operating under one name with over
24000 employees and 90 locations. The company serves over 10000 customers worldwide and
has an approximate revenue of 3 billion euros. The company operates in six different industries,
which are all IT-related.
The connectivity division where I am currently employed offers advisory, transformational, and
managed services for the following areas; multi-cloud services, edge computing and connected
devices, infrastructure services, user experience services, cybersecurity, and more. The division
supports over 1500 customers in the Nordics with cloud-based operations and is the leader in the
industry in private cloud hosting, managed public cloud, managed digital workplace services,
artificial intelligence for IT operations, and intelligent business automation.
Figure 9: Company strategy
Source: Company internal

29
The company announced its current strategy as customer-centric, which will also benefit from
the outcomes of this thesis. Figure 9 above shows the focus points of the company to ensure a
customer-centric approach and establish long-lasting customer relations. The company aims to
address customer needs according to their interests and specific preferences and create
accordingly in collaboration, provide consultative and content-rich engagement, and offer
flexible solutions through standardized platforms and techniques. The customer segment is also
broad. The customers operate in the finance industry, healthcare, retail, government, and more.
17% of their customers are large enterprises that are also leaders in their area. This paper focuses
solely on the company’s cybersecurity department, which is located in the Czech Republic. The
interview with the project manager, questionnaire, document analyses, and observations occur in
the cybersecurity department.
4.2. Team and Project Overview
The study is focused on the security operations team of the company. This group is responsible
for managing and implementing various security-related projects for the company. The team
consists of seven members, one project manager, one team manager, and five technicians. The
members do not have previous experience with PRINCE2. However, most of them have previous
experience with similar methodologies like waterfall and agile methods. The figure below shows
the project management steps within the organization.
Figure 10: Hybrid strategy
Source: Company internal
All members are involved in delivering the service to the client daily. The project time varies
between two to eight months approximately.
30
4.3. Internal Questionnaire Analysis
The questionnaire was sent out thru email to employees who work as project managers, service
delivery managers, or subject matter experts. The response rate for the internal questionnaire was
46%, and 43 results were gathered. Two reminders had to be sent out due to the low response
rate. During the analysis, 11 responses had to be discarded because of missing values, leaving 34
responses. Participants were informed that their answers were anonymized, and a report on the
collected data would be sent to those interested after the survey was closed.
The questionnaire consists of 4 chapters: about you, about client loyalty, main constraints on
client loyalty, and project management techniques. The questions were asked using numerical
input and a Likert scale with 5-point Likert’s ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
The data were analyzed using MS Excel by the frequency of each response.
Chapter one (about you), which collects insight into participants' demographics, consisted of
questions to determine how long the participant has been working in the company and the given
position. Almost half (43%) of the participants are seniors in their field and indicated that they
have worked in the relevant position for more than eight years. More than half (66%) of the
participants have worked in the company for more than eight years, which means we can safely
assume they are very well informed about client relations and the technical side of things.
Table 6: Loyalty section
Loyalty
I plan my projects or client I believe our company
I highly value interactions in a way to should focus more on
client loyalty preserve client loyalty. client loyalty.
Strongly agree 53% 59% 53%
Agree 47% 41% 16%
Neither agree nor disagree 31%
Disagree
Strongly disagree
weighted average 4.53 4.59 4.22
section average 4.45
Source: Own
31
Chapter two (about client loyalty) gathers insight into participants' perceptions of client loyalty.
The results show that, on the whole, participants value client loyalty. Table 6 above shows that
all the participants stated that they value client loyalty and plan their projects and client
interactions considering client loyalty (100%). The majority of the participants believe that the
company should focus more on client loyalty (69%). However, some participants indicated that
they were indifferent to this (31%). Altogether, the results show that the majority of the
participants do believe that client loyalty is important, with an average calculated score of 4.45/5.
Table 7: Quality section
Quality
The main cause for I believe we should I think our clients
We deliver high- our clients to choose increase our quality are ending
quality services us is our quality of of services to business with us
compared to our service compared to preserve our because of lack of
competitors. our competitors. existing clients. quality.
Strongly agree 28% 31%
Agree 56% 34% 9% 16%
Neither agree nor disagree 16% 31% 34% 19%
Disagree 3% 44% 50%
Strongly disagree 13% 16%
weighted average 4.13 3.94 3.59 3.66
Source: Own
Chapter three (main constraints on client loyalty) obtains insight from the participants'
perspective on which one of the three constraints (time, quality, price) has the biggest effect on
client loyalty. Each constraint was measured by four statements where the first two were
calculated with the regular Likert scoring, and the last two were reverse scored because of their
negative connotation. The lower the score for a constraint, the higher the need for improvement
in the company according to the participant's perception of client loyalty.
32
Table 8: Price section
Price
Our services are The leading cause I believe we should I think our clients
more affordable to for our clients to decrease our are ending
the clients choose our prices of services business with us
compared to our company is our to preserve our because we are
competitors. low-prices. existing clients. expensive.
Agree 34% 25% 19% 22%
Disagree 13% 19% 34% 22%
Strongly disagree 9% 25%
Source: Own
Table 9: Time section
Time
The leading I believe we I think our clients
cause for our should decrease are ending
We deliver our clients to choose our delivery time business with us
services faster our company is of services to because the
compared to our that we finish preserve our projects exceed
competitors. projects in time. existing clients. the deadlines.
Agree 31% 31% 47% 50%
Disagree 28% 19% 3% 16%
Strongly disagree 13%
Source: Own
The results show that the time constraint plays the biggest role in affecting client loyalty, with
the lowest average score of 2.56/5. The second lowest score was for quality constraint, with an
average of 3.83/5. The highest score was given to the price constraint with an average of 3.41/5,
suggesting that participants consider the project price as the least important factor when
33
determining client loyalty. Based on the results of this chapter, it can be concluded that there is a
need to improve the delivery time of the projects to increase client loyalty.
Table 10: Methodology section
Methodology
We always Our I believe the lack I can check the
start our projects are The roles and of communication databases of previous
projects with mostly responsibilities between project projects, if I need to
a defined following a in the projects members is compare or to learn
business traditional are well causing us to miss from previous
case. method. defined. deadlines. experiences.
Strongly agree 25% 25% 3% 22% 3%
Agree 28% 47% 41% 47% 22%
Neither agree nor
disagree 19% 28% 25% 13% 25%
Disagree 16% 19% 13% 31%
Strongly disagree 13% 13% 6% 19%
weighted average 3.38 3.97 3.03 3.66 2.59
Source: Own
Chapter four (project management techniques) measures the usage of some of the key methods in
project management. A variation of responses was gathered on whether the projects start with a
defined business case, with a score of 3.38/5, which indicates that some projects are starting
without a clear business case in place. Participants also believe that the projects follow a
traditional method rather than room for tailoring the methods to specific needs with a rating of
3.97/5. The majority of the participants think that they have defined roles and responsibilities in
place, but also a non-negligible amount of participants strongly disagree with this (13%). The
lack of communication is also an important factor that affects project delivery time and success,
which scored 3.66/5. Also, a noticeably low result was obtained in the last statement that there
are not enough sources to learn from previous experiences 2.59/5 as shown in table 11 below.
Table 11: Section Average
Quality Price Time

section average 3.83 3.41 2.56
Source: Own
34
This study chapter refers back to the research question "Which constraint has the most significant
importance in the company?" from the three major constraints; Quality, Time, and Price.
As we can see from the average score, the maximum possible score being five, the lowest score
belongs to time constraint with an average of 2.56/5. The second lowest score was for price
constraint, with an average of 3.41/5. The highest score was given to the quality constraint with
an average of 3.83/5, which suggests that participants consider the quality of the project as the
least urgent factor when it comes to determining client loyalty. The quality here refers to the
quality of the final deliverable product and not the quality of the project.
The participants have aligned themselves on the side of time as the main constraint in their
company against client loyalty, followed by price and then quality. The results of this chapter
answer the research question of choosing from the three constraints of project management,
Quality, Time, and Price. The results show, which one of the constraints has the most significant
effect on client loyalty, according to the participants. According to the findings of this chapter,
time is the most important factor in the aspect of client loyalty. These results highlight the fact
that there is a need for improvement when it comes to ensuring the timely delivery of projects
without increasing the price too much.
4.4. Interview Analysis

A semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted with 7 individuals in total. The experience of
the participants in the company varies from 2 to 17 years. Two of the participants were project
managers and the remaining were technical specialists working on the projects. The participants
were selected on the basis that they were involved in the delivery of the project and were able to
provide valuable insights into the project. The interviews were carried out online in a Microsoft
Teams meeting room for around half an hour per participant. An interview guide was developed,
based on the literature consulted in preparation for the study and the project team’s experience.
A multilevel analysis was used which is suited to the study as it allowed the data to be analyzed
at various levels of analysis, including the management level and delivery level. According to
PRINCE2 (AXELOS,2017), the project organization has four levels, as shown in the figure. It is
35
also important to remember that Corporate or Programme Management is outside of the project
organization but forms part of the overall management of the company (AXELOS, 2017).
Table 12: PRINCE2 project structure
Corporate Level Corporate or Programme Management
Directing Level Project Board
Managing Level Project Manager
Delivering Level Team Manager
In this interview, the data was gathered from the management and delivery level of the project
team as shown in the figure. Project Manager A corresponds to the managing level and Project
Manager B corresponds to the delivery level. According to Project Manager B's responses, his
role and responsibilities were more similar in nature to that of a team manager rather than that of
a project manager. He is responsible for the delivery of the technology solution within the
prescribed budget and timescale. He has not used formal project management methodologies to
manage the delivery process.
Figure 11: Company’s project structure
36
Source: Own
The participants were asked open-ended questions to understand their experience. The interviews
were recorded during the meeting and then transcribed for analysis. The transcribed data was
transferred into MAXQDA software and coded at the sentence level for thematic analysis. Seven
interviews were conducted in total, and 134 memos were obtained. The contribution count per
interviewee respectively is shown in the figure below. The themes were then identified from the
data and presented as a hierarchical structure, as shown below.
Table 13: Coding according to participant
Document System Memo #

Documents 134
interview_PMA 24
interview_PMB 22
interview_TA 19
interview_TB 12
interview_TC 25
interview_TD 20
interview_TE 12
Source: Own
The themes were then identified from the data and presented as a hierarchical structure. Five
themes were extracted from the data, and these were labelled as follows: Constraints, Loyalty,
Suggestions, PM methods and tools, and Duration in the company. Several sub-themes were also
identified, and these are presented in the table below. The frequencies are mentioned in the table
below separately, and they are not cumulatively shown, because for example, the 7 codes from
the time constraint are related only to time but were not able to categorize under either
communication or tools. The remaining codes are also following the same logic, and the final
amounts are based on the actual amounts of each category instead of combining the counts.
37
Table 14: Coding according to themes
1 Constraints 0
1.1 Time constraint 7
1.1.1 communication 13
1.1.2 tools 5
1.2 quality constraint 5
1.3 scope constraint 2
2 Loyalty 4
2.1 renewing contracts 4
2.2 merger effect on loyalty 4
3 Suggestions 7
4 PM methods and tools 5
4.1 operational and maintenance acceptance 1
4.2 event driven controls 1

4.3 checkpoint/highlight 1
4.4 methodology 4
4.5 progress monitoring 11
4.6 roles and responsibilities 10
4.7 defined business case 8
4.8 risks and changes 8
4.9 previous experiences 8
4.10 business justification 1
4.11 focus on product 1
4.12 acceptance criteria 5
4.13 PM tools 3
4.14 PM method and tailoring 9
5 Duration in the company 7
Source: Own
38
The code-matrix browser illustrates the most frequently mentioned codes by the participants.
These codes are represented by icons and are color-coded according to the frequency of mention
during the interviews (red is most frequent, and blue is least frequent). The figure below shows
that time was the most mentioned code and especially by the participant Technician C
(interview_TC). Technician A (interview_TA) and Technician D (interview_TD) also mentioned
the time code frequently. Project management tools and methods were mostly mentioned by
Project Manager A (interview_PMA) and Project Manager B (interview_PMB), where they gave
some specific examples of what tools are used during the project and how they manage the work.
The technicians did not have much to say about the project management tools and methods.
Figure 12: Code-matrix browser general
Source: Own
The figure below shows that the most frequently mentioned code from the constraints is time
(25), with the subcodes being communication and tools. After that comes quality and scope
constraints. The price constraint which was measured in the questionnaire was not included in
this model as it was not mentioned by any of the participants during the interviews.
Figure 13: Code-matrix browser constraints
Source: Own
39
The most important codes for this study are constraints and project management tools and
methods. The constraints code works as an interpreter matching the results of the questionnaire
and the comments of the participants throughout the interviews. The most mentioned constraint
is related to the delivery time of the project, which is the crucial element for client loyalty which
was proven in the questionnaire. Overall, the analysis highlights the importance of timing and
communication in the project execution success from the point of view of the client and the
organization as a whole.
Secondly, the project management tools and methods code is important as it reveals the usage or
non-usage of specific methodologies and tools during the execution of the project, which is
affecting the delivery times, communication, and eventually, client loyalty. The code-subcodes-
segments model below shows the most frequently mentioned methods which are missing or not
effectively used during the projects. The thicker the grey line, the higher the frequency. It is to be
seen that progress monitoring, roles and responsibilities, tailoring, previous experiences, risks
and changes, and defined business case are the most mentioned codes which need improvement
for the organization.
It would appear then that time is one of the weakest points in the projects, and improvements
should be made in this regard. As for the talking points, we noticed that communication appears
in most of them, especially in the talking point on the time constraint. Communication is seen as
the most important constraint in the project delivery process as most of the issues highlighted are
in relation to communication problems. The participants feel that more effort should be put into
effective communication in order to ensure that team members understand their responsibilities
clearly. In terms of the communication tools used by project managers, Microsoft Teams is the
most commonly used tool, followed by email. The company needs to improve its communication
in order to manage the expectations of clients better and manage scope creep better to ensure that
there are no delays in the delivery time.
The findings of constraints code analysis is consistent with the results from the questionnaires
which showed that most of the participants have mentioned the time is the biggest constraint
for them during the project execution. This chapter not only shows us that both constraints
from the questionnaire and the interview align but also provides us a better insight of the
40
barriers that are faced during the project. This helps us better understand the problem at hand
and provide recommendations to overcome it. The company needs to improve its delivery time
to improve client loyalty.
This chapter of the study refers back to the research question, "Which project management
methods, tools, techniques, and procedures are used currently in the company?". The
following figure 13 shows us the most mentioned codes under the PM methods and tools
theme. The most mentioned code is progress monitoring (11). The project's progress is being
monitored by the status meetings to discuss the project progress and review the work
completed since the previous meeting. The meeting was mentioned to be varying from weekly
to monthly. Some technicians have mentioned that they are often overlooked and not included
in these meetings, which shows a lack of communication.
Figure 14: Code-subcodes-segments model for PM methods and tools
Source: Own
41
The project manager also has mentioned that he cannot see the whole picture of the project and
which often leads to problems. A lack of an effective progress monitoring system leads to late
delivery of projects which could negatively affect the client's trust in the organization and could
lead to the loss of future contracts. However, milestones are present, but they are not effectively
monitored, which leads to a delay in the delivery of the projects. Therefore, there is a need to
improve the current progress monitoring system. The project team should use effective methods
for tracking the progress of each project as well as ensuring that all stakeholders are updated on
the status of the project on a regular basis.
The second most mentioned code is roles and responsibilities (10). In the interviews conducted
with the participants, it was revealed that there is inadequate communication between all the
stakeholders leading to conflicts and misunderstandings with regard to their roles and
responsibilities. It is mentioned by the project manager that roles and responsibilities are not
documented. The responsibility for completing a specific task is not clearly defined, which leads
to confusion amongst the team members as well as conflict due to the lack of agreement on who
was responsible for completing the tasks assigned to them, which leads to slowing down the
delivery time. This is an issue that needs to be addressed to ensure that there is a consistent
process in place and that the roles and responsibilities of each member are clearly defined to
avoid delays in the timely delivery of the projects.
The third most mentioned code is the project management method and tailoring (9). Most of the
technicians mentioned that they had no idea about this topic. However, the useful information we
can extract from this part is a steering model is used for the bigger projects, and the smaller parts
are handled by a hybrid of waterfall and agile, also using Kanban boards.
After those, the codes defined business case, risks and changes, and previous experiences have
all been mentioned equally (8). It is not clear to the project managers by whom is the business
case prepared as they are not always told about the specifics of it. Similarly, it is not clear for
the risks and changes documents as these are not documented but only discussed during the
weekly or biweekly meetings. Risk impact is also not assessed. Previous experiences are
recorded in the team but are rarely shared amongst the team members. There is an obvious
42
lack of communication in this part. Most of the technicians are not aware that this information
is available to them. This causes a massive delay in the projects because technicians are trying
to rediscover the information which is actually available in the database in their organization.
This led to rework, which could have been avoided if the information had been communicated
to the technicians on time. The team needs to clarify these processes to avoid delays in the
delivery of their projects.
The findings of PM methods and tools code analysis are to address the gap in the project
management methods and the tools that are being used in the project. This chapter shows us
which methods and tools need to be implemented or improved to overcome the initial problem
of time that has been mentioned in the previous chapters, which will result in improving client
loyalty. The current project management methods used in the company are not sufficient for
the effective delivery of the project in a timely manner, so the proper tools and methodologies
need to be developed and implemented. Also, the usage of the current methods needs to be
improved and better communicated for better in improved delivery time and, eventually, client
loyalty. While implementing these, it is also important to remember that the second important
constraint is the price, and it should not be increased too much in order not to lose clients.
4.5. Combining the Questionnaire and Interview Results
This chapter of the study refers back to the research question “How can the weaknesses of
project management techniques used in the company be developed to improve client loyalty?”.
The diagram demonstrates the logic for achieving the weak points in the organization.
According to the questionnaire result, the problem of client loyalty is connected to the long
delivery times. According to the interview results, the slow delivery time is mostly caused by
the lack of communication (13) and also partially by the inadequate usage of the tools (5).
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Figure 15: Weak points
Source: Own
Finally, the communication code corresponds to the operational-level causes, like the behavior of
the team members, the existing database for templates but not using it, and missing information
caused by miscommunication, lack of motivation, and education of the people. Whereas the tools
code corresponds to system-level causes, like inconsistent tools and methods , which lead to
delays, lack of development tools and templates, etcetera. Note that the operational-level causes
have been mentioned more than the system-level causes.
Table 15: Operational and System-level Suggestions
Operational-level Suggestions System-level Suggestions

Involve technicians in review meetings Create a communication management approach
Increase progress monitoring Create a review meeting plan
Use milestones in the progress review Create highlight reports
Communicate risks in the team Create checkpoint reports
Educate about lessons learned Document roles and responsibilities
Create a risk register
Create lessons log and lessons report
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Source: Own
4.6. Suggestions
At the beginning of the study, the company mentioned that they wanted to improve their client
loyalty. Through literature review, it was determined that client loyalty is derived from client
satisfaction and the satisfaction mainly depends on the quality of the product, delivery time, and
price. Therefore, to improve the client loyalty of the company, those three constraints were
investigated in the questionnaire section, which showed that the weakest constraint was delivery
on time, followed by the price. The interviews give insight into which particular aspects of
project management can be improved in order to achieve the main goal.
The goal of this study is to improve client loyalty by implementing the PRINCE2 methodology
into the organizations existing project management environment. The figure below shows the
logical steps followed to reach the goal of this study. After implementing the PRINCE2
methodology to the company, it is expected to decrease delays and delivery time, which is
expected to increase client satisfaction and hence improve client loyalty.
Figure 16: Logical steps
Source: Own
Based on the information gathered through interviews, the questionnaire, and their analysis, it is
visible that the company is missing several key elements to follow the PRINCE2 methodology
effectively. In the interview analysis, the time constraint was the most mentioned code by the
participants (25). It was mentioned that there are deadlines set for the projects and deliverables
but no tolerances defined. The code roles and responsibilities which was mentioned very
frequently in the interview, we understand the accountabilities between the roles are not clearly
defined for the project participants (10). According to this, it is interpretable that the company is
failing to follow the manage by exception principle. Moreover, in the interview analysis, it was
found that under constraint PM methods and tools, the mentioned codes roles and responsibilities
45
(10), and previous experiences (8), also refer respectively to the PRINCE2 principles defined
roles and responsibilities and learn from experience.
Failing to follow these basic elements of PRINCE2 methodology results in late delivery times,
which is the main cause of the declining client loyalty in the organization. In the following
chapters, the suggestions are discussed by principles, and themes. When applying those
suggestions, the company culture, and the project size has been taken into consideration, and the
suggestions have been tailored to fit the company's needs.
4.6.1 Suggestions by principles
The suggestions in this study are written to follow the PRINCE2 principles to help the company
overcome the current problem of client loyalty and ease the implementation of a full PRINCE2
structure in the future.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the most overlooked principles in the company are
manage by exception, defined roles and responsibilities, and learn from experience. These
principles are being neglected, which is causing a delay in the projects' completion and
eventually declining client loyalty. Therefore the suggestions mentioned in the following
sections are aligned with the principles, and cover the progress and risk themes. The tools and
techniques to improve progress and risk themes are embedded in the processes. By following the
three aforementioned principles, and implementing tools and techniques which are part of
progress and risk themes, it will help enhance the delivery time and clients' satisfaction in the
business to result in client loyalty.
Manage by exception
As it was found out in the interview analysis, the unclear accountabilities and the lack of
tolerances allow us to determine that manage by exceptions principle is not being used in the
organization. Especially the lack of time tolerance creates a significant problem in the
organization as it creates delayed projects, which results in low customer loyalty. To successfully
follow this principle, the company needs to establish tolerances.
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Figure 17: Limitation and focus area for organization
This study is only focused on time tolerance and the suggestions are tailored in respect of this, as
found out one of the root causes of declining client loyalty. In this study, we can influence only
creating the work-package-level tolerances and keeping the stage-level tolerances, as the upper
level is out of our reach. The focus area and the limitation are demonstrated in the diagram
above. We will focus on firstly project manager who needs to make sure the project is within the
stage-level tolerances and setting the work package tolerances. After we will focus on the team
manager and work package tolerances.
To implement the time tolerances on different levels, the table below shows that the project-level
tolerances should be set in the project plan, the stage-level tolerances should be set in the stage
plan and the work-package-level tolerances should be set in the work package.
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Table 16: Tolerance areas
After the stage-level tolerances are set, the project manager will be controlling regularly and
making sure the stage-level tolerances for time, which were set by the project board does not
exceed. Within the project board's established tolerance levels, the project manager has daily
control over the management stage. The project manager shall report any deviations to the
project board for a decision on corrective action if any forecasts show that the management stage
is likely to go above the agreed-upon management stage tolerances during the execution of a
stage plan. In a case of delay, the project manager will inform the project board by issuing and
exception report and sending this through email to the members of project board. This will aid
the board to take immediate action regarding the issue.
Table 17: Tolerances matrix
A work package is within the team manager's control, but only within the project manager and
work package tolerances that have been established. Forecasts that suggest it is possible that the
established tolerances will be exceeded during the execution of the work package should be
reported to the project manager by the team manager in order to receive a decision on the
appropriate course of action. For the work package tolerances the team manager is responsible to
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make sure that, the time tolerances do not exceed which were determined by the project
manager. In case of delay in the work packages the team leader should inform the project
manager of this issue so that the project manager can take the necessary actions. The team
manager should inform the project manager by raising an issue and this can be sent through
email or MS Teams.
Table 18: Products matrix
As shown in the figure above, the project manager creates the work package and stage exception
report when needed. Whereas, work package issue is created by the team manager. The
recommended and tailored template according to company’s needs, for the work package with
tolerances, and the exception report is in the appendix.
Roles and responsibilities
As mentioned in the questionnaire results and interview analysis, the roles and responsibilities
are informally discussed but not recorded. Also, some technicians reported they were unsure of
their responsibilities. The lack of not clearly defined roles and responsibilities in the organization
is leading to unnecessary delays resulting in declining client loyalty.
According to the PRINCE2 methodology, all projects must have defined the primary
stakeholders which are business, users, and suppliers (AXELOS, 2017). These primary
stakeholders are defined in the company. On the other hand, the role of the project manager,
project support, team manager, and technicians are only defined verbally and not documented.
This causes unclear roles, which results in clashes among the team members and also affects the
project delivery process, which leads to delays in the completion of the project. To solve this
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issue, the company needs to define roles and responsibilities for the missing project and team
members in the project. The roles and responsibilities will be communicated clearly to the
project and team members in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the project. Additionally,
all the team members and the technicians need to have a clear understanding of their roles and
responsibilities.
Figure 18: Limitation and focus area for roles
The figure 18 above shows the mandated roles according to the PRINCE2 methodology. In this
paper, only the roles and responsibilities in the focus area can be defined, which are project
manager, project support, and team manager.
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Table 19: Roles matrix
The figure above shows the roles which are the focus of this research and are suggested to be
improved by using the PRINCE2 methodology. The roles except the project manager are created,
defined and appointed during the starting up a project process by the project manager and
approved by the executive. (AXELOS, 2017). The project manager will be chosen during the
online board meeting and the decision will be communicated to the appointed project manager
by email. The executive appoints the project manager during starting up a project process. The
team manager and project support are appointed by the project manager and approved by the
executive. The project manager will decide alone for those roles, and can communicate to the
appointed people through MS Teams. It is suggested to have the role descriptions a part of the
project brief. Considering the size of the project and depending on the project needs, it is
suggested that the company to appoint the project support role to one of the team members. The
recommended and tailored roles and responsibilities according to company’s needs, for project
manager, team manager and project support are in the appendix.
Learn from experience
Learn from experience principle is often overlooked in the organization. This was mentioned
during the questionnaire and also the interviews. The lessons are not recorded systematically
also, as some technicians have mentioned they do not know where to find this information.
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Table 20: Lessons in stages
The table above demonstrates that, the project manager first produces the lesson log during the
starting up a project process. The lessons log will be created in a form of an MS Excel
spreadsheet constantly updated as the project progresses. The lessons log will be created
following the template in the appendix and this will be shared online in MS SharePoint for every
member of the team to access if needed.
According to the company needs it is suggested that, the lessons log will be stored at the
conclusion of the project, and the lessons report will be updated with the most valuable lessons
for upcoming projects. The lessons report will be also accessible in MS SharePoint for every
member of the project and delivery team. Both positive and negative lessons should be captured
and acknowledged in the lessons log as they can be valuable sources of information for future
improvement. Lessons that could be useful for upcoming initiatives are recorded in the lessons
report by the project manager.
Table 21: Lessons matrix
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The project manager creates and updates the lessons log and lessons report as shown on the table
above. Lessons report can be created anytime during the project, but considering the relatively
small size of the projects in the organization and the small size of the team, it is enough to
produce the lessons report as part of the Closing a Project process. The lessons log should be
updated throughout the progressing project. The recommended and tailored templates according
to company’s needs, for lessons log and lessons report are in the appendix.
4.6.2 Suggestions by themes
The other most mentioned codes from the PM methods and tools were progress monitoring (11)
and risks and changes (8). The outcome from these results suggests that the company is also
lacking the minimum requirements of the progress and risk themes, respectively.
So to address the weak points in the company's current situation, the findings suggest that the
weakest themes are progress and risk. These two categories need to be addressed first, as they
lead to delays in the delivery process.
Progress Theme
Given that the team in this case study is very small and the project manager's role description is
similar to the team manager, it is recommended to do progress reviews by work packages.
Reviewing the work packages will make it easy for the team to assess the status of each activity
and set priorities for upcoming stages. Involving all the members in the progress review
discussions will help in managing the limited resources more efficiently and encourage
teamwork and collaboration. Furthermore, discussing the future plans along with the current
situation will provide a clearer picture of where the project is heading and what measures need to
be taken to achieve the desired goals.
Review Meetings
Review meetings are conversations between the project manager, team manager and team
members where reviews of the project status and possible risks are discussed. Review meetings
53
are important for maintaining communications within the project team as it provides a means for
issues and concerns to be discussed in an informal environment.
Right now the review meetings in the organization are held irregularly, weekly or bi-weekly. As
mentioned by the participants in the interviews the review meetings are not held regularly and
they are also not well-attended by the team members. The meetings has to be standardized to
have every week online in MS Teams. The day and time will be determined according to the
participants schedule.
A checkpoint report has to be created and distributed to the concerned parties by e-mail before
the meeting takes place. Technicians need to be more engaged and included in those meetings, as
they mentioned they are sometimes not included which leads to delays in the delivery time. MS
Outlook has reminders set up for the meetings, but team manager is also responsible if a
technician will miss the meeting. In this case the team manager should document the reason. If a
required participant will miss the meeting, they are obliged to watch the recording after the
meeting takes place.
The attendance is quite low and therefore the results of the meeting are not meaningful. Another
issue raised by the interviewees is that the review meetings are not properly documented. As a
result, important information might not be shared among team members and some crucial
information might be missed as well. This leads to confusion and delays in responding to issues
or concerns in a timely manner.
After analyzing the results of the interviews, it is suggested to review the project/work package
status more frequently and to schedule more frequent review meetings in the schedule.
Considering the size of the team and projects the suggested interval for the review meeting is
weekly, but the frequency could be increased depending on the nature of the project. The review
meetings will take place online in MS Teams because the team members are residing in different
cities. The meetings will be also recorded and saved online for everyone to come back and watch
again if needed.
The review meeting is crucial to maintain active communication between team members. During
the review meeting, the checkpoint report needs to be presented to the project manager, and as an
54
end product of the meeting the highlight report should be created. The template for checkpoint
and highlight reports will follow the templates which are presented in the appendix and they will
be stored online in MS SharePoint for every team member to reach.
During the course of a project, PRINCE2 offers two different types of progress control which are
time-driven and event-driven controls (AXELOS, 2017). In the company, event-driven controls
are used widely. However, time-driven controls are not so commonly used as mentioned in the
interviews. Event-driven controls take place when an event occurs, unlike the time-driven
controls which are set to take place on predefined intervals.
Table 22: Checkpoint and highlight report matrix
The table above shows the time-driven reports respectively and by whom and when it is created,
to whom is presented. The project manager will regularly review the status of the work through
checkpoint reports as part of controlling a stage. The requirements of each work package will
determine the format and frequency of checkpoint reporting. Time-driven controls of checkpoint
and highlight reports have to be established. The checkpoint report is presented to the project
manager by the team manager by every work package, and the highlight report is presented by
the project manager to the project board regarding the management stage's progress. Highlight
and checkpoint reports are not mandatory to follow PRINCE2 methodology. However, they are
recommended to be used for the organization order to manage the project efficiently and
decrease delivery time.
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Risk Management Approach
As found out from the interview results, the risk theme is the second weakest theme in the
organization after the progress theme. Addressing the company's problem of client loyalty,
although improving the progress theme is crucial for the organization's success to enhance
delivery time, there are also some ways to strengthen the risk theme which will help the
organization address certain issues more effectively thus helping reduce delivery time and
enhancing the overall performance of the organization.
As it has been mentioned by the project manager during the interviews, right now the risks are
communicated to the client during informal meetings however they are not recorded or assessed.
This makes it difficult to communicate risks and deal with issues effectively as they arise. On the
other hand, the technicians are not fully aware of the risks, often they are not informed, which
leads to higher chances of miscommunication.
In order to improve the risk theme in the organization, the following activities are suggested.
Risks need to be identified, captured and described. These risks need then to be assessed
according to their probability, impact, and proximity. Based on the assessments, these risks can
then be prioritized accordingly. The project's cumulative risk exposure must be monitored.
Responses to each risk must be planned, assigned to specific individuals for action, and then
implemented, and managed. All these are in the template which is created according to the
company needs and to be found in the appendix.
As it was mentioned frequently in the interviews, communication is weak in the company and
the risks need therefore be communicated more frequently in order to stay on top of them and
deal with them effectively when they arise. The risks are communicated and managed only in an
informal manner, the organization has no formal way of tracking risks at the moment, and this
makes it difficult for the organization to stay on top of the risks they are facing on a regular basis
and deal with them effectively. Therefore a risk management approach and risk register needs to
be created, and managed.
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Table 23: Risk management approach
The table above shows the creator and approvers for the risk management approach. Project
manager creates the risk management approach during the initiating a project process, and it is
approved by the executive, senior user or the senior supplier. According to the project size the
recommended risk management approach should include, introduction, risk management
procedure, roles and responsibilities, identification, assessment and estimation, evaluation, early
warning indicators, reporting and communication, risk budget. It is suggested for the company to
have the risk management approach as a part of the project initiation document. The risk register
should be recorded and available online for all the team members in MS SharePoint. The
recommended and tailored template according to company’s needs, for the risk management
approach is in the appendix.
Communication Management Approach
It was mentioned by the participants in the interviews that they consider the existing poor
communication as one of the key reasons why projects fail to meet their objectives on time. This
was mentioned by several participants during the interviews. The participants believe that
inadequate communication and failure to plan the communication approach results in delays in
overall project progress within the organization. In order to overcome this challenge and enhance
the overall effectiveness of the organization, it is essential for the organization to have a reliable
communication approach for managing the overall communication effectively. Besides
improving the informal communication between teams within the organization, it is suggested to
introduce a proper communication management approach.
The means and frequency of communication to internal and external stakeholders are described
in the communication management approach. The communication management approach
describes how and when to communicate with all stakeholders involved in the project.
57
Table 24: Communication management approach
The table above shows the creator and approvers for the communication management approach.
Project manager creates the communication management approach during the initiating a project
process, and it is approved by the executive, senior user or the senior supplier. It is suggested for
the company to have the communication management approach as a part of the project initiation
document. The communication management approach needs to be also reviewed and updated if
needed to make sure all the stakeholders that need to be informed are included. The review and
update is done by the project manager throughout the project in stage boundaries. The
communication management strategy also needs to be followed to make sure that it informs all
the stakeholders when the project is closing.
For all internal communication MS Teams, MS SharePoint, Kanban boards and e-mail will be
used. For external communication only e-mail will be used. Detailed information and the
recommended template for the communication management approach is to be found in the
appendix.
4.6.3 Suggestions Adapted to PRINCE2 Process Model
The project management methodology PRINCE2 is built on processes to ensure effective

management of projects within an organization. A process is a planned sequence of steps used to
achieve a specified goal. The PRINCE2 processes are tailored according to organizational needs
in order to be implemented easily within the organisation. The PRINCE2 process model helps us
better understand the four management levels in the methodology and also the seven processes of
the PRINCE2 methodology. It also explains the inputs and outputs of each of the processes and
how the process relate to each other to achieve the required outcome.
58
In this chapter of study, we will focus on how the suggestions mentioned in the previous chapters
to be adapted into the PRINCE2 process model, in which stage of the project and by whom, to
achieve the desired outcome of improving the client loyalty.
The PRINCE2 process model has four levels of management, corporate level, directing level,
managing level, delivering level. The corporate level is outside of the project management team,
hence also as mentioned outside of the scope of this study. Therefore we will focus on the
directing, managing and delivering levels, as these are the levels which are in the influence are of
this study. Additionally after the tailoring only six of the seven processes are to be seen in the
figure. This is because of the limited scope of the study is only for highlighting some of the
weaknesses of the project management techniques implemented in the company in order to
improve the client loyalty and not looking into the full depth of each one of the processes. As the
study is looking into a single point of concern to improve the client loyalty by ensuring timely
delivery, therefore only certain number of processes and suggestions of products are needed to
be included for the time being, the company may implement the full structure in the future.
Figure 19: Suggestions illustration in stages
Source: Own
59
The above diagram is derived from the full PRINCE2 model, and it is tailored to fit the company
requirements and specific needs to improve client loyalty. The figure is a simplified version of
the full PRINCE2 model, which only includes the suggestions mention in the previous chapters
that only focus on fixing the problem of delivery time, and hence client loyalty. The figure shows
the breakdown of each of the processes with how they relate to each other to achieve their
desired outcome. The timeline is divided by four sections as pre-project, initiation stage, delivery
stages and closing. However, the project lifecycle is only consisting of the initiation stage,
delivery stages and closing. Pre-project is outside of the project lifecycle as it deals with setting
up the environment for the project to commence.
The recommended action to be taken by the project board during the starting up a project process
are to define the project manager’s responsibilities and appoint the project manager, this decision
is to be made during the board meeting in MS Teams, and the final decision will be
communicated to the appointed project manager by email. On the other hand, during starting up
a project process, the project manager is suggested to create the lessons log in a form of an MS
Excel spreadsheet and also look for earlier projects to see if any lessons can be adapted to the
current project, the file will be stored in MS SharePoint. Furthermore, the project manager needs
to create and define the roles and responsibilities of the team manager and project support roles.
The project manager needs to appoint the team manager for the current project and delegate the
project support role to one of the technicians. After this, the project board needs to set the stage
level tolerance for the time constraint during the directing a project process. The two suggested
approaches, the risk management approach and the communication management approach, are
created by the project manager in initiating a project process. Both these approaches have the
advantage of decreasing the delivery time. During controlling a stage process, the project
manager needs to update the lessons log regularly throughout the project lifecycle, also produce
the highlight report during the controlling a stage process, and report to the project board. The
project board reviews the highlight report during the directing a project process. The project
manager sets the work package level tolerances concerning the time constraint for the team
manager during the controlling a stage process. When a work package level tolerance is
exceeded, the team manager raises an issue to inform the project manager during the managing a
product delivery process. The team manager also creates the checkpoint report during the
60
managing a product delivery process for the project manager to review. At the closing a project
process, the project manager creates a lessons report to be archived and used for the future
projects. The timeline of the suggestions concerning this study should be followed.
The PRINCE2 process model is very large and thus hard to cover every step here, but for the
purpose of this research a concise version of this model was created, in hope of helping to
understand the reader better and to be easier implemented. This condensed version of PRINCE2
will help us to better understand each step of the process which can be taken under consideration
in order to apply the concepts into the organization.
4.7. Cost Analysis

This section of the research is devoted to the cost analysis of the suggested implementations in
the organization. This section will focus on estimating the costs of implementing the proposed
solutions into the current structure of the organization.
The average hourly rates for the professionals within the organization will be taken as a basis for
the analysis. The rates were collected through collaboration sessions with the colleagues within the
organization. For the purpose of this study we will focus on to four participants who take part
within different levels of the project. We will look at the cost per hour for each role. This will
provide a more realistic estimate on the implementation costs. The following table provides an
average hourly rate for the roles of project board, project manager, team manager and technician.
For a more accurate estimation the hourly costs can be further adjusted for the specific individuals.
Table 25: Cost per role
Title Cost
Project Board €23.12/h
Project Manager €20.62/h
Team Manager €16.26/h
Technician €12.81/h
Source: Own
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4.7.1. Project Scenario
The purpose of the scenario is to give the reader a better understanding of what will be discussed
in the next section of the research report. For the estimation of the total cost of implementing the
suggestions mentioned in the project, a hypothetical project scenario is used. The information in
this scenario is based on the interviews conducted with the participants, personal observation,
and also based on the information available from the organizational documents. The project
scenario presented below provides a basic overview of the proposed solution to be implemented
in the organization.
According to the information gathered previously, it is decided to analyze the cost of a project
with a duration of two months. This will be calculated based on the total hours needed to
complete the project task within the given time. The project team in the organization usually
consists of executives, one project manager, one team manager, and five technicians that are
required during the course of the project. However, in the cost analysis, there are four main
participants in the project who have the suggestions implemented in their tasks. These are the
project board, project manager, team manager, and technician.
Before the beginning of the project, it is identified that the participants had no prior PRINCE2
knowledge. Therefore they will need to get trained for the appropriate use of the method before
the project begins. The training costs are also included in the cost analysis as a one-time cost.
4.7.2. Process Flow Diagram
The process flow diagram includes an overview of the project from initiation to completion. This
helps to identify the various processes within the project that need to be executed in order to
complete the project successfully.
The figure below illustrates the parent steps involved in the project that are presented through
different boxes from the initiation until the closing of the project. The figure also includes a
training step before the project starts because in the organization, the participants of the project
are required to undergo the proper training of PRINCE2 in order to be familiar with the process
before starting to work on the project. Even though the trainings are not a part of the project plan,
62
this step is also included in the planning because it determines a one-time cost needed for the
training of all the participants that will be involved in the project. By identifying the training
needs beforehand, the organization can prepare the required budget that will be used to pay for
this training.
Figure 20: Process flow diagram
Source: Own
4.7.3. PRINCE2 Trainings

PRINCE2 trainings followed by a foundation certification is available in the company education
portal in the form of a two-day session and a fixed cost of €890.00. For the time being, it is
sufficient for one member of the project board and the project manager to complete the trainings
and pass the exams to be certified. The team manager and the technician will self-study. Besides
the cost of the exam and training, it is also included the time spent by each participant, and their
hourly rate is added accordingly.
63
Table 26: Cost and duration for trainings
Source: Own
The table above illustrates the cost for each task and each individual. The total cost for the
trainings and the self-studies are estimated to be €2,944.80 for all the participants with a duration
of two days. Later on demand, the trainings and certifications may be extended to the rest of the
team who will be involved in the project in the future as well. The cost of the additional
certifications will be added to the overall project costs according to the time spent by the team
members on these activities.
Pre-Project
After the trainings are completed, the team can move on to the next step, which is the pre-
project. Please note the project breakdown structure is not showing the whole PRINCE2
methodology for each and every step to be taken to complete the project, but rather it shows only
the implementation suggestions which were mentioned in the previous chapters. During this
phase, the roles and responsibilities are defined, appointed, and delegated to the participants of
the project team.
Table 27: Cost and duration for pre-project
Source: Own
64
The table above illustrates each task that is suggested to be implemented and needs to be
completed in order to move to the next stage, including the predecessors within the stage. The
cost, resources, and duration of the tasks are also included in the table. The total estimated added
cost for the pre-project stage is €47.02, with an estimated duration of 3.09 days.
Initiation, Delivery stages & Closing
As the pre-project stage is completed, the team can move to the next step, which is the initiation
stage of the project. The suggested implementations for this stage are setting the stage level
tolerances and creating risk and communication management approaches which are described in
the previous chapters.
Table 28: Cost and duration for initiation
Source: Own
The table above illustrates each task and the resource and costs involved for these tasks to be
accomplished. The total estimated added cost for the initiation stage is €64.36, with an estimated
duration of 6.13 days. Once the initiation stage is completed, the team can move on to the
delivery stages of the project.
The delivery stages are the longest stage in the project as a lot of activities need to be carried out
to complete the tasks successfully. Some of those activities are recurring on a weekly basis as a
result of the suggested weekly review meetings. Those tasks are mentioned in the information
column with a symbol of a repeat arrow circle on it, which means that those tasks need to be
done each week till the completion of the project.
65
Table 29: Cost and duration for delivery stages
Source: Own
In the table above, the recurring tasks are not shown one by one, but they are summarised in one
line. However, the complete breakdown structure is included in the appendix. The predecessors
are also very important in this delivery stages, and for example, the task review checkpoint
report cannot start before ending produce checkpoint report. The estimated duration for this stage
is 37.06 days, and the estimated added cost is €338.22.
Table 30: Cost and duration for closing
Source: Own
After the delivery stages are completed, the project enters the closing stage. The only task which
was suggested to be implemented in this stage is to create the lessons report for the project
manager. As shown above, the total estimated duration of the closing stage is 9.94 days with a
total added cost of €10.31.
66
4.7.4. Total cost and breakeven point
The total estimated cost for the project, including the one-time cost for the trainings and the
actual project is €3,404.71, with an estimated duration of 60 days, as shown below in the table. A
Gant chart that demonstrates the number of days required to complete the project and the
allocated resources is provided in the appendix.
Table 31: Cost and duration for training + project
Source: Own
The information had been transferred to a spreadsheet to calculate the breakeven point. Please
note that due to the limitations of the information available for this analysis, benefits are not
included. Instead, the breakeven chart is based on two scenarios. In both scenarios, there is a 4%
increase in prices considering the inflation rate in the country. The total costs are calculated for a
team of three project board members, one project manager, one team manager, and five
technicians. It is assumed that the team is working on ten projects total in a year and four
projects simultaneously.
The table below demonstrates the mentioned scenarios. The first scenario is that the suggestions
mentioned in the previous chapters are implemented, and the yearly estimated total cost will be
trainings with suggestions for a total of €7543.90. Then the yearly cost is cumulatively
transferred to the following year. For the second scenario, none of the suggestions have been
implemented, nor the trainings have taken place, and it is assumed that 30% of the projects are
delayed by one week because of this. For the second scenario, the cost of delays is calculated in
the form of FTEs. The breakeven point is between the years 2027 and 2028.
67
Table 32: Breakeven calculation
Source: Own
It has been mentioned by the project manager that the company pays for some customers'
penalties if the project is delayed. However, this was not included in the cost-benefit analysis
because this amount was not shared. Even without the penalties, we can see that the break-even
point lies between the years 2027 and 2028, and the implementation starts to be cost-beneficial.
Considering the penalties and the FTSs spent on delaying the projects, the suggestions can be
implemented without increasing the price of the project to the client. This was one of the main
objectives to implement the suggestions, which will ultimately decrease or stop delays in the
projects without increasing the cost to the client.
Figure 21: Breakeven chart
Source: Own
68
5. Limitations
This study has several potential limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results.
The limitations should especially be addressed when planning similar research or implementing the
suggestions in the organization. This will ensure that the suggestions are implemented effectively.
The potential limitations of this study are listed in the following paragraphs.
The first limitation of this research is that the questionnaire was conducted using a small sample size
of 43 participants, where after eliminating the non-relevant data, 34 were represented and evaluated
in the data analysis. This potentially may result in a sample bias, as it might have a limited
representation of the organization. For the future researcher, it is suggested to have a larger sample
size for a more representative analysis.
The second limitation is that the interviews were conducted online, therefore may limit the amount
of information that could be obtained from the respondents compared to an in-person interview.
Also, when arranging the interviews, the participants responded very late due to their other
responsibilities, which eliminated the possibility of a follow-up interview. For further analysis, a
follow-up interview might have been more effective in gathering information from the respondents.
The third limitation is that the questionnaire and interview were only allowed internally, so there
were no other potential sources of information that might be relevant to the study. Especially when
researching client loyalty, collecting data from the client's perspective is highly recommended,
which could provide valuable information. For future research, it is recommended to collect
information from the client to gather more relevant information for the study.
The fourth limitation is that financial information was not shared for confidentiality reasons.
Especially the penalties paid when not meeting the deadlines was crucial information for the
research. This information should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results. This
information should be considered if future implementation takes place to validate the results.
The last limitation is that when suggesting solutions to improve client loyalty with implementations
of the PRINCE2 methodology, there was no contact possibility with the project board members or
the corporate level. Therefore the suggestions are focused more on the first two levels of the
hierarchy. If the implementation takes place, it is recommended to include the higher management in
the decision-making to have a more realistic approach to achieving the desired results.
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6. Conclusion
The primary goal of this thesis was to improve the specific problem of client loyalty which was
requested by management. This was done by identifying the main cause of the problem and then
analyzing it in terms of project management, specifically the PRINCE2 methodology. To accomplish
the above-stated goal, four research questions were raised and answered throughout the thesis.
The first research question asked was "What are the effects of project quality, cost, and time on
client loyalty?". This was answered by the theoretical overview thoroughly to find the most
influential factors affecting client satisfaction and loyalty.
The second research question was "Which constraint has the most significant importance in the
company?". This question was investigated in the case study section with the online questionnaire.
The participants' answers helped us identify the most important factor for client loyalty in their
organization. The findings of the questionnaire showed that the most significant impact on client
loyalty was the time constraint followed by price. These results highlighted the fact that there was a
need for improvement of the timely delivery of projects without increasing the price too much.
The third research question was "Which project management methods, tools, techniques, and
procedures are used currently in the company?" This question was studied by interviews, documents
and observations. The information gained from these sources led us to conclude that the company
used a mixed method of Waterfall, Agile and a simple part of the PRINCE2 methodology.
The last research question was "How can the weaknesses of project management techniques used
in the company be developed to improve client loyalty?". This question was analyzed with the
results of the case study and the analysis of the findings. Operational and system-level suggestions
were made following the PRINCE2 methodology and tailored to the company's needs. The
suggestions focused on only improving the weak links in the existing system to decrease project
time and increase client loyalty. The total cost of implementing the suggestions is estimated to be
€3,505.71 with the breakeven point being achieved between the years 2027 and 2028.
To conclude, the thesis showed that the company needed to improve its project delivery time
with the help of the PRINCE2 methodology in order to increase client loyalty. Applying those
suggestions not only overcomes the problem of client loyalty but also prepares a base for the
implementation of a full PRINCE2 methodology in the future.
70
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8. Glossary
FTE Full-time equivalent
MS Microsoft
ISO International Organization for Standardization
IT Information Technology
US United States
PM Project Manager
PMA Project Manager A
PMB Project Manager B
TA Technician A
TB Technician B
TC Technician C
TD Technician D
TE Technician E
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9. List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1: Research Steps..................................................................................................................1
Figure 2: OrganizationalChart..........................................................................................................2
Figure 3: Steps to loyalty..................................................................................................................3
Figure 4: The iron triangle................................................................................................................4
Figure 5: Model of loyalty..............................................................................................................13
Figure 6: Project environment of PRINCE2...................................................................................15
Figure 7: Research map..................................................................................................................23
Figure 8: Gap between the society’s and industry’s perception......................................................28
Figure 9: Company strategy...........................................................................................................29
Figure 10: Hybrid strategy..............................................................................................................30
Figure 11: Company’s project structure.........................................................................................36
Figure 12: Code-matrix browser general........................................................................................39
Figure 13: Code-matrix browser constraints...................................................................................39
Figure 14: Code-subcodes-segments model for PM methods and tools…......................................41
Figure 15: Weak points...................................................................................................................44
Figure 16: Logical steps.................................................................................................................45
Figure 17: Limitation and focus area for organization....................................................................47
Figure 18: Limitation and focus area for roles................................................................................50
Figure 19: Suggestions illustration in stages..................................................................................59

76
Figure 20: Process flow diagram....................................................................................................63
Figure 21: Breakeven chart.............................................................................................................68
Table 1: Customers according to Ireland..........................................................................................6
Table 2: Project Management Yin-Yang........................................................................................10
Table 3: Regular and reverse scaling..............................................................................................25
Table 4: Example of regular Likert scale........................................................................................25
Table 5: Example of reverse Likert scale........................................................................................25
Table 6: Loyalty section.................................................................................................................31
Table 7: Quality section..................................................................................................................32
Table 8: Price section.....................................................................................................................33
Table 9: Time section.....................................................................................................................33
Table 10: Methodology section......................................................................................................34
Table 11: Section Average.............................................................................................................34
Table 12: PRINCE2 project structure............................................................................................36
Table 13: Coding according to participant......................................................................................37
Table 14: Coding according to themes...........................................................................................38
Table 15: Operational and System-level Suggestions….................................................................44
Table 16: Tolerance areas...............................................................................................................48
Table 17: Tolerances matrix...........................................................................................................48

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Table 18: Products matrix...............................................................................................................49
Table 19: Roles matrix...................................................................................................................51
Table 20: Lessons in stages.............................................................................................................52
Table 21: Lessons matrix................................................................................................................52
Table 22: Checkpoint and highlight report matrix..........................................................................55
Table 23: Risk management approach...........................................................................................57
Table 24: Communication management approach.........................................................................58
Table 25: Cost per role....................................................................................................................61
Table 26: Cost and duration for trainings........................................................................................64
Table 27: Cost and duration for pre-project....................................................................................64
Table 28: Cost and duration for initiation.......................................................................................65
Table 29: Cost and duration for delivery stages..............................................................................66
Table 30: Cost and duration for closing..........................................................................................66
Table 31: Cost and duration for training + project..........................................................................67
Table 32: Breakeven calculation....................................................................................................68
78
10. List of Appendices
Questionnaire
Introduction
We are researching ways to improve client loyalty in accordance to project management. For this
reason, we highly value the customer’s perspective on this topic. This survey will be open until
XXX XXth, 2022. Please take 5 minutes to provide your feedback before that time.
Welcome to our survey!
Kindly note that participation in this survey is anonymous and voluntary. The information
provided will be used solely for the purpose of this research project, and only aggregated results
will be reported.
Demographical Questions
For how many years have you been working in the company?
numerical input
For how many years in total have you been working as a project manager, service delivery
manager, subject matter expert, or on a similar role?
numerical input
Perception of Client Loyalty
I highly value client loyalty.

1- Strongly disagree; 2- Disagree; 3- Neither agree nor disagree; 4- Agree; 5- Strongly agree
I plan my projects or client interactions in a way to preserve client loyalty.

79
I believe our company should focus more on client loyalty.
Project Management’s Relation to Client Loyalty
Quality
We deliver high-quality services compared to our competitors.

The main cause for our clients to choose us is our quality of service compared to our
competitors.
I believe we should increase our quality of services to preserve our existing clients.
I think our clients are ending business with us because of lack of quality.
Price
Our services are more affordable to the clients compared to our competitors.
The leading cause for our clients to choose our company is our low-prices.
I believe we should decrease our prices of services to preserve our existing clients.
I think our clients are ending business with us because we are expensive.
i
Time
We deliver our services faster compared to our competitors.

The leading cause for our clients to choose our company is that we finish projects in time.
I believe we should decrease our delivery time of services to preserve our existing clients.
I think our clients are ending business with us because the projects exceed the deadlines.
Project Management techniques
We always start our projects with a defined business case.

Our projects are mostly following a traditional method.

The roles and responsibilities in the projects are well defined.

I believe the lack of communication between project members is causing us to miss deadlines.
I can check the databases of previous projects, if I need to compare or to learn from previous
experiences.
ii
iii
iv
v
Interview Questions
Introduction Section
• For how long have you been working in this company and in this role?
• Which project management methods, tools, techniques, and procedures are used currently in
the company?
• Do you think the planning is more systematic or traditional?
• What do you think of client loyalty in the organization, for how long are the contracts and are
they renewing?
• Do you always start with a defined business case for the project?
• Which one of the project management triangle constraints has the weakest part within your
organization, quality, cost, or time?
• Did the merge of the companies affected you in a way?
Middle Section
• How was the communication rearranged between two newly joined companies? Did this
cause to slow down project delivery time?
• How is the organization defined? How were the roles and responsibilities changed after
consolidation?
• Is there a method or database for project managers/technicians to go back and learn from
previous experiences and mistakes?
• How is the quality measured? Do you make sure to focus on the product?
• How is the project progress monitored in the company?
• Do you review business justification after these?
• How are risks and changes monitored and implemented? What actions are being taken?
Concluding Section
• Is there a fixed project management method, or is it being tailored for project?

• Do you have any planned steps or stages to improve your already existing project
management techniques (or from the technician’s perspective to improve
quality/cost/delivery time)? What are they, and what is the expected time frame?
vi
Interview with Project Manager A
Interviewer: Salpi Erkol

Interviewee: Project Manager A
Date of interview: 13.09.2022
Location of Interview: Online meeting
List of Acronyms: SE= Salpi Erkol, PMA = Project Manager A, ISM= Information Systems
Management, CM= Configuration Management
SE: Please tell me for how long you have been working in this company and in this role.
PMA: I have been working in this company for more than three years. I started before the merger
of the two companies.
SE: Do you think this merger affected client loyalty in any way?
PMA: Oh, good question. I can say that, in some cases, this merger improved client loyalty. But
in other cases, maybe not. Because now we are still struggling after the merger how to support
some particular clients on a daily basis.
SE: Do you mean because of the increasing amount of clients?
PMA: Not only this but also regarding different tools these clients use. Yeah, companies had
before and still have a good say. For example, we have different ISM tools for different clients.
SE: I see. I’m using only one tool in my daily tasks. OK. Next question: What current project
management methods, tools, and techniques are used?
PMA: To be honest, I think I'm using the hybrid. From the high level, I'm using more or less the
waterfall approach. But on a daily or weekly basis, I'm using the agile approach, so maybe for
smaller tasks, I manage in agile, well. But the whole project has a waterfall schedule.
SE: So it's a hybrid of agile and waterfall. I understand. And do you think the planning is more
traditional or systematic? Do you follow similar planning for every project, or is it flexible?
PMA: It depends. We have maybe a few different patterns because we have different
environments. In general, I'm trying to use perhaps the same or similar approach. Still, it depends
on the client environment and the relationship between the client, company, and even third
parties—the same approach with customization.
SE: OK. And how many clients do you have right now that you are working with?
vii
PMA: I am the project manager responsible for onboarding customers to service, so that is now
not the entire life cycle of our services covered by my work. My work is from the initial
onboarding phase to the handover to continuous operations. So currently, around eight projects
are still open. Different phases, of course.
SE: Does onboarding mean new clients, or does it include renewing contracts with existing
clients?
PMA: Sometimes, the clients that exist and they request enhancement of the services. For
example, a client we had for a long time decided to move to the cloud. Sometimes it can be new
clients.
SE: OK, who is defining the business case for the project?
PMA: Customer, I think. That’s such a difficult question because I'm not. I'm not aware of who
is creating business cases.
SE: So it's created before you, and you receive it.
PMA: Yes.
SE: What do you think is the weakest part of the projects?
PMA: So, it's time. The time and delays, etcetera.
SE: I see. Do you have defined roles and responsibilities for the technicians or the other
colleagues, or is it changing with every project?
PMA: Uh. More or less defined, maybe not documented.
SE: And do you think this affects the quality or delivery time?
PMA: I have to be honest, now we are a small group of people. So maybe it's not mandatory to
have a highly structured one. The architecture of our team, mainly that we know each other and
what we can do, our competencies, etcetera.
SE: Can you tell me about the team structure a little bit?
PMA: We have a quite flat structure, three teams. We have a CM team, a security analyst team,
and a cloud team. Around three or four people are actively taking part in the project, a maximum
of five.
SE: It's a small team, yes. Is there a database or methods for you or your team to go back and see
from previous projects or experiences?
viii
PMA: Yes. It’s in Microsoft Teams as a confluence. The document management system. We
collect schedules, we collect documentation regarding onboarding, and we collect the daily
report. Maybe not always daily, but status reports.
SE: What do you mean by status report?
PMA: That means the notes that we prepared after the status meeting. It is a meeting with the
customer about the project's status.
SE: And are these meetings scheduled or after some event?
PMA: Usually, we propose to the customer to have meetings on a weekly basis.
SE: Thank you. And, how is the quality measured for the projects?
PMA: Good question. Probably we don't have any quality measurements. Of course, the
acceptance criteria for the project. Each project has defined acceptance criteria that should be
met. So probably that's all.
SE: Can you tell me more of an example of acceptance criteria? How much in detail do you go
into for this?
PMA: It relates to configurations. For example, our team has access to the customer
environment. The infrastructure of the customer environment is connected with the CM platform
and our source platform. The list of security alarms is defined, discussed, and agreed upon with
the client regarding consumers and the rules of engagement. The documentation is prepared.
Like, runbooks and approved by the client.
SE: Do you think the most significant focus is on the product, from the delivery aspect?
PMA: Yeah, I think yes.
SE: How do you monitor the progress of the project?
PMA: Through the status meetings.
SE: Do you have meetings for progress without the customer?
PMA: On demand. And, of course, the waterfalls schedule to monitor the progress, and we use a
Kanban board regarding the smaller tasks.
SE: How long, in general, are these projects going on?
ix
PMA: It depends on the solution we should include in the scope. So probably, the fastest few
months, up to six and nine, even one year.
SE: Do you need to review the business justification after the status meeting, or does it mostly
stay unchanged?
PMA: Usually, no, we don’t change. It happened one time that I needed to change based on the
client’s business needs.
SE: How are the risks and changes monitored?
PMA: Very rarely have a list of risks. Usually, we discuss the risks on a weekly basis with the
client during the status meeting.
SE: Do you have an assessment method for the risks? For example, big impact or small impact?
PMA: No.
SE: Do you think this should be improved in your projects? Or does it affect you?
PMA: I think it's not mandatory to have a more enhanced method for collecting and analyzing
risks because it's usually, as you can see, that we have a small group. And almost every time, we
know where the risk is if it’s smaller or higher. So, we don't need to write down this
information.
SE: Do you have any planned steps for your projects to improve?
PMA: Uh, yes. Of course, a better approach with documentation about the security alerts.
Regarding the documents like runbook, which collects almost everything regarding the project
and delivery, contact names, etcetera. Also, collaboration with internal groups. Also, when we
have several projects open at the same time, we have a small number of people that could help
me.
SE: That's all from my side. Do you want to ask or add anything?
PMA: Probably nothing. Hmm, is it possible to see the final document from you?
SE: Of course, I will share it with you when it’s ready.
PMA: Great.
SE: Thank you. Bye bye.
x
Interview with Project Manager B

Interviewee: Project Manager B
List of Acronyms: SE= Salpi Erkol, PMA = Project Manager A, PMB = Project Manager B,
PPS= Practical Project Steering
SE: Hello, welcome. Could you tell me about yourself and your team?
PMB: Before this position, two years ago, I worked in another part of the company. There is a
huge project management organization. So the main project managers within the company are
not residing in our team. I mean we are a small unit which is delivering some technology. So
when my colleague and I are doing onboarding projects, we are sometimes running them
ourselves. Still, very often, we are running in as a part of a larger project, where you have a
project manager who is doing a lot of the administrative part as project manager. So we are not
maybe doing all the things you do when you do a large project in our onboarding projects. It's a
difference there. I think it's important to understand that. But I try to follow even though I could
say for smaller projects. When we do this onboarding, they can be quite large, but I try to follow
this PPS model but maybe not use all the templates and documents and things you do there.
SE: You mentioned using a method called the PPS model. Can you elaborate on this?
PMB: I can actually show you here. So if you go to our internal pages, you can go to tools up
and see project management. This is not famous, but it's a well-known project steering model. So
it's a project steering model that was invented, I think, by our organization a long time ago. And
many courses, training, and certifications are made on this PPS. I myself had gone to that type of
training when I started here because, at the time, that was the main task, I would say. Now I'm
not only working as a project manager but also engagement manager.
Here you can find much stuff, nearly everything. You can see how to run projects if you follow
this decision model and how to build a project. You have a preparation phase to take different
decision points, etcetera. I mean, there is a huge number of templates and tools that can be used.
So you have a risk list and schedules. Huge amount of stuff you can find here, but you can also
drown in this because it takes time and costs money. If you're going to run the project
accordingly to this and have all the full scale you usually need, I don't have that type of project
size. But in my head, I try to use this type of thinking. Of course, you have a preface and need to
define the deliverables and acceptance criteria then. You need to plan the project, and you go
ahead and start it up. And then, when you are ready, you have an anchoring with the customer
who wants to have delivered a handshake, and then you close it. Well, I tried to run it like this.
xi
For example, this is quite a large customer, and we are onboarding them. Do you know a little
about the services we provide to the team?
SE: A little bit.
PMB: OK. So yes, I can give you some technical insight just to understand. Some kind of
principle here in a generic way. [Confidential information]. I have some kind of project planning
regarding this with milestones.
SE: Do you receive this, or are you planning this?
PMB: Yeah, this is my plan. So I'm trying to use this. I mean very different start-up phases,
establishing platforms. We had some testing here, customer proof of concept testing. And then,
when the platform is established, now are going to onboard in Phase B. All the log fits. That is
actually where we are now. [Confidential information].
SE: Can we say that you are managing more the technical stage than the managerial stage of the
project?
PMB: Uh, you know. Yeah, you could say so. It's a technical onboarding that I'm managing. Yes.
So that's correct. So I mean, there are in this project. This isn't quite a huge project. So I mean,
just to describe this, it's not a product; it’s a program.
So they have a new big agreement, which is the project. So this is really a steering group. But
there's program management, and there’s a product owner, etcetera. Then you have all these
types of different subprojects here. I mean, if you look here, there is a subproject manager, and
my onboarding project is under his hat.
SE: I see, so you are running subprojects of the big project. Now it's more precise.
PMB: I mean, I'm running my project by having some kind of agenda for the status of this
planning, and then I go through this type of dashboard. This is what has been done and what will
happen in the next coming weeks.
SE: I'm mainly focusing on client loyalty. What do you think can be improved in your team or in
your environment to make it better?
PMB: I don't know. I mean, from a project perspective, it is to deliver what you have promised.
Regarding delivering, we are keeping those promises and maybe even exceeding them a little bit.
But of course, we should not overdeliver.
I would say that it's the most important part. After this, when we are up and running, we have
these engagement manager meetings, and so then it's also important to continuously give them
information on the status and help them keep protecting in the future.
SE: Is this after the project is closed?
xii
PMB: Yeah. It’s important that we have if they have bought this service. Not all clients have
bought that type of service, but for those who have bought, we have monthly meetings where we
have to follow up on the status and also give improvement suggestions to the client. I think it is
to have a close dialogue with the client, listen, and try to understand their needs.
SE: Do you have anything else you would like to improve in the team?
PMB: If you talk about these onboarding projects, of course, I should have maybe more
interaction and discussion about both ongoing and upcoming onboarding projects. We are very
few who are working with it; it’s me and PMA.
Uh, maybe the organization around delivering and onboarding new clients and the delivery
process internally is maybe not so clear for me, so that could improve. I think we don't have any
delivery organization in that sense. So often, some sales guy calls me and says, " Well, we have a
client who needs to be onboarded.
Sometimes maybe I’m busy, or I don't have time at all. I mean the process of bringing in these
clients. Sometimes I feel I can get the call, and if I'm sick, nothing will happen with that client.
So maybe should be some kind of line organization that gets all new clients that should be
onboarded, should be handled in some sort of streamlined way. So we have good and complete
control over the status of those and boardings. We have created, me and PMA this page. So we
have a page where we have onboarding projects and their status. We can see the different types
of clients there. It's like me and PMA when we have meetings, we have heard about that client,
but we don't have a formal way of bringing those in, I think. That could be improved.
SE: Do you mean a formal way to start the project from the sales, and you have the information?
PMB: Yeah, I mean, it can be like that. For example, two years ago, someone offered a security
service to a client. Then nothing happened, nothing heard, nothing there. Then suddenly, I get the
call to join a meeting, and then I hear that. Now they have been calling us, and they want to have
it implemented in two months.
The question is, should I be the one receiving that call? Or shouldn't it be brought into some kind
of delivery queue for which we have someone responsible, and then we take it to the discussion?
OK, this client is coming now, and how should we handle that? And then, discuss it together
with PMA and me, and maybe someone should be who is responsible for the deliverables. So
that could be formalized, I think. That is not formalized. There is room for improvement there, as
I see it.
SE: So your team should be included in the meetings when it starts with the client, but not at the
last minute to deliver.
PMB: No, but it depends. We don't need to be involved when you have client meetings. That's
another face. We have a salesperson or technical sales support when you sell something.
xiii
Actually, some of us are involved when the sales may need help defining a service, so there are
people involved in that. But then, we don't know if the client acts on this offering or takes it, so I
don't need any information until it's time for us to onboard it and start a project. But when it’s
time, I think it should be more formalized. How sales are coming to us and saying, well, now the
client accepted that. We need to formalize.
SE: Formalize. Do you mean the business case?
PMB: No. Yeah, no, no, I just mean that a mail should come in to maybe something like a
delivery organization in our team or a responsible person saying that. Well, now with this client
needs to be delivered, how to do it and when and then put it in the queue for delivery and then
point individuals that you do the delivery with. So we have 100% control of what type of
deliverables are in a queue, what is ongoing, and what is closed. And so we can plan and discuss
so that we don't get delays in this.
SE: How do you get this information from sales usually?
PMB: Yeah, it sometimes happens that it is like the salesperson who has been involved when the
creation of the quote was done, and then he gets a response from the client team saying, well,
now they have taken the offer. Please start planning, and then he might contact me.
Uh, it might. It might be fine, but I feel that as a project manager, I'm not the one who is
responsible for all the deliverables. I don't have the whole picture. I can get one mail. My
colleague can get another; some other manager can get the third. Yeah, someone should have a
total grip on this. And I don't. I mean, when we are up and running, we are up and running. But
then, before that, how to prioritize resources? Which client to go first and so and that is a little
bit… Yeah, I don't know. We are not having that type of sync right now, as I say it.
SE: Do you use a business case, stage plan, and documentation in the projects? Documentation
step-by-step plan of how the project will run.
PMB: No.
SE: OK, so mostly the Gantt chart and the acceptance criteria.
PMB: Yeah, of course, I also work with some kind of cost. I mean cost things, so that is
something I can give you some kind of example on that. [Confidential information].
SE: Is the business case prepared before you? Are you receiving it because it's under a group?
PMB: Yeah, I mean the business case for the whole activity is not done by me. That is a business
case done by sales guys, which is probably possible for the whole business and the onboarding.
So what I'm doing is more like, OK, the cost for my onboarding will be this.
xiv
PMB: So I'm mostly following up on my time spent there and maybe cost, for example. So what
I'm having here is like an Excel sheet, you can see. Uh, you can see the weeks here. And I have
made a prognosis here, and these are my resources for the project you will learn.
Uh. And then, on the left, I have a reported time coming from my members in the project
management follow-up. We have a tool in our company where you time writing and can also
invoice if you want. So I get the updates on the reported time on the project.
SE: OK. I don't need to invoice. I'm not going to focus on the financial part.
PMB: Yeah. So this, and I mean actually, even follow up on this. So sending or this is the status
on. So this is the much we have done according to plan.
SE: Umm, could you give me an example of acceptance criteria?
PMB: I was actually looking for that earlier today. I started looking and wanted to because I did
some good things. But let's see if I can search for that. So this is a little bit like, OK, we have
some kind of requirements on sale, but we should deliver. We visualize that in a demo. It is
actually some kind of acceptance criteria that you're visualizing that we are delivering, and we
are proving it in a test. I would say.
SE: OK. And can you send me maybe some files of the already closed project? Can you exclude
the client information?
PMB: Yes. This is a project closure meeting. So this is that they should accept that deliverable.
OK, I did a final report there, also. So there is a final report in that case, which is sent to the
customer when you close the project. In this case, we presented what we had delivered. And it
was not present with the headline acceptance criteria.
We are sitting in a project right now where we are in this phase, trying to create these acceptance
criteria. I have been reacting to those acceptance test criteria because they are also insufficient. I
have been responding to that. Unclear description of promised deliverables. I lifted this in the
risk list.
SE: Did you receive those criteria from sales?
PMB: Yeah, I think it's coming from where it's coming from. No, you could say that this is a part
of the main project manager’s project plan, which is taken from the quote. So, this needs to be
clarified. So it's very generic writing here; actually, this writing is made on every service here.
SE: I think this is enough information for me to start. Thank you for your time. If I have more
questions, I will let you know.
xv
Interview with Technician A

Interviewee: Technician A
List of Acronyms: SE= Salpi Erkol, TA = Technician A
SE: Hello, the project manager told me you have very little time, so I will do this for you as
quickly as possible.
TA: Thank you, I will try to answer best as I can because usually, as I explained, we are more
into the technical stuff.
SE: How long have you been working in this company and in this role?
TA: Well, in total, in the company for six years already. And for the current rule as an incident
responder for two and a half years.
SE: Which project management methods, tools, techniques, and procedures are currently used in
the company? Do you think the planning is more systematic or traditional?
TA: Umm, well. To be more specific, we are not involved in the project directly. Usually, when
project managers need some assistance related to some project or onboarding, they contact us.
Because usually, if you are doing relatively different work for the deeper analysis of the data so.
SE: Do you think the planning or the projects are systematic or traditional?
TA: I would say systematic if it can be like that. Just a short answer.
SE: Okay, it can be. And what do you think about client loyalty in the company with your
clients?
TA: Hmm. Oh, I would say it's on a reasonable level. So far, I have been involved in some client
meetings or even the projects I anchored. Good feedback, almost back to us, to the security team.
SE: Do you know if the project starts with the defined business case?
TA: Uh, yeah, yeah, usually, yes. We have a defined task or the case or what is needed.
SE: Which of the following do you think needs improvement, quality, cost, or time?
TA: Okay. That's probably a complex question, but I'll say time at the moment.
xvi
SE: Yeah, everyone's telling this. So I think it's like it's accurate. Did the merger of the two
companies affect you in any way?
TA: Yes, I would say it's more work, but it's a too broad term. You need to understand not just
the technology but also the environment, more specifically, especially for the security team,
where we need to analyze specific events also coming from the environment. So yes, this
affected us.
SE: And how was the communication arranged between two newly joined companies?
TA: To be honest with this question, I am not really into it. Usually, it's up to the managers. And
then we are involved. Mostly when there is already some agreement with the onboarding and
when the actual contract or project is set.
SE: How are the roles and responsibilities defined in your team? Or is it defined?
TA: Hmm. Oh well, we need to be a reprise and carefully analyze the data we are observing. Do
not just be precise, but also have a quick response, focusing on the projects or the data we are
currently observing. Also, trying to answer if there is some kind of incidental case, trying to
answer the questions as best we can to our clients. Uh, and availability should also be one of the
key features of our team.
SE: Okay. Do you have a method or knowledge base to go back and learn from previous events
or experiences?
TA: We have a designated space for that. And usually, when this is done, we are doing short
lessons learned sometime after that. What to improve, and what was done if it was done in a
good way? Or can something be improved?
SE: Is this a meeting where you check the lessons learned with other technicians?
TA: Umm yeah, it could be a meeting. Yeah, exactly. Lessons learned meeting, and then it is
recorded in the space I was mentioning. Also could be in the next phase after the lessons learned.
It could also be extended through some shared knowledge as well to other specialists.
SE: Do you know how the quality is measured?
TA: I'm unsure if I can answer that correctly. It should be up to managers.
SE: Okay, and how is the progress monitored during the projects?
TA: Uh, yeah, usually it's, and the project is assigned to us. The project manager is
communicating or setting certain task that needs to be done. And since we are progressing, it's up
xvii
to us to inform him or he will. I mean project manager will ask. Okay, they can see directly what
is done or what needs to be done, and then when there is a deadline, we can summarize what was
done and proceed next.
SE: Is it like some tool for collaboration?
TA: I would say from the most basic view usually, Teams having integration using the task, it's
available to everyone in our team. It can also be limited just to a variety of people. So I would
say it's good from that point.
SE: Do you hold some meetings to report progress?
TA: I've encountered some projects where the meetings were not like really involved. I also
experienced that there were based on weekly or biweekly meetings, just again summarizing the
work.
SE: Do you know how risks and chains are monitored?
TA: Surely I think again, like through the manager, I guess so.
SE: Do you know if a specific method is used during the projects?
TA: I'm not aware there is a strict method. Usually, it's up to the project manager how it's held.
SE: Okay. Last question, do you have any advice to improve the delivery time during these
projects?
TA: Let's say, uh, I think. Communication is really the key. This is the key for the project in
general.
SE: Between whom do you mean, between you and the project manager, technicians? How is it?
TA: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And if there are also specialist technicians involved. So the more
number of technicians are in, of course, the time can be improved as well. It's really hard
sometimes to involve more specialists, but if there are, usually. Communication needs to be
specified not just between the project manager and technicians but also between the specialist
themselves. And keep the progress so.
SE: Thank you very much for your time. I tried to do this quickly as possible.
TA: No problem. Sorry if I did not answer some questions. I'm not really used to it. Yeah.
SE: It's fine. Thank you again.

xviii
Interview with Technician B

Interviewee: Technician B
List of Acronyms: SE= Salpi Erkol, TB = Technician B
SE: For how long have you been working in this company and in this role?
TB: Since September 2019, both for the company and the role of SOC analyst.
TB: I have no idea. Regarding projects I have worked on, I’ve always been asked to do specific
tasks with deadlines. Deadlines were moved to later dates when circumstances/previous
unfinished tasks were preventing me from finishing mine.
SE: What do you think about client loyalty in the company? How long are the contracts, and are
they renewed?
TB: I’m afraid I don’t know.
SE: Do you always start with a defined business case for the project?
TB: Maybe. I’ve never asked project managers about that.
SE: Which one of the project management triangle constraints has the weakest part within your
TB: I’ve rarely experienced the first set deadline being met. Usually, it’s moved to a later date.
Also, as an analyst, I always think the scope of projects is too big for our work, but that’s more
due to our team being constantly understaffed.
SE: Did the merger of two companies affect you in a way?
TB: Not really, apart from having a few extra things to monitor.
SE: How was the communication rearranged between two newly joined companies? Did this
cause to slow down in project delivery time?
TB: I don’t know how it was rearranged, and I don’t think it did slow down any projects I’ve
worked on.
xix
SE: How is the organization defined? How were the roles and responsibilities changed after
consolidation?
TB: I think it’s still the same for our team.
SE: Is there a method or database for project managers/technicians to go back and learn from
TB: I don’t know about any. We have a page for each customer with things that were
contractually agreed upon that we could go to if we are unsure what is in our scope or what our
reaction to alerts should be.
SE: How is the quality measured? Do you make sure to focus on the product?
TB: I’m usually asked to create playbooks/alert templates, the stuff used only for us analysts. So
I’ll ask a few of my colleagues if they think it’s enough and if yes, that’s it usually.
SE: How is the project progress monitored in the company? Do you review the business
justification after these?
TB: Usually, weekly meetings with the project manager keep track of what’s been done and what
needs to be done.
SE: How are risks and changes monitored and implemented? What actions are being taken?
TB: Any changes to projects are communicated in weekly meetings. I don’t remember any list of
risks being shown to us, however.
SE: Is there a fixed project management method, or is it being tailored depending on each
project?
TB: The projects I’ve participated in were more or less the same.
SE: Do you have any planned steps or stages to improve your already existing project
management techniques?
TB: I haven’t thought about any improvements.
SE: Okay, thank you for your time.
TB: Thank you too. Have a nice day.
xx
Interview with Technician C

Interviewee: Technician C
List of Acronyms: SE= Salpi Erkol, TC = Technician C
SE: Hello, and thank you for making time for this meeting. So, briefly, I'm doing a case study
related to our team. I'm trying to find what part can be improved in the aspect of project
management. I have already done meetings with project managers, but I also need input from the
specialists. If you don’t have any questions, I will just start with mine.
TC: OK.
SE: For how long have you been working in the company?
TC: Yeah, good question. I need to count it. Umm, I’ve been working for almost 17 years.
SE: Even before the merger of two companies.
TC: Yes, yes, definitely, yeah.
SE: Do you think this merger affected client loyalty in any way?
TC: I don't think that my work has been somehow affected. It's just, you know, that we have got
new colleagues to work with. We have got new opportunities to meet other clients. So to say. But
you know, it's nothing, nothing wrong, I think.
From my point of view, I think it's great to meet new colleagues and new clients, to have new
kinds of perspectives, and so on. And also how to deal with these challenges because it is always
a challenging and demanding task to have. Or just trying to understand even other colleagues and
what they have done, how they can see the world of ideas, and so on.
SE: Yes, of course. So it was a positive experience for you mostly.
TC: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yes.
SE: Okay then, do you know if some project management methods or tools are used during the
projects?
xxi
TC: Oh, mainly we are using, and I don't know if I say it right, I think tasks. Yeah, something
like that Microsoft Tasks is being used. So by achieving for kind of orchestration of the tasks, so
this one has been used and, of course, other technical tools, but it is more or less that. I don't
know if you are even asking about the technical tools we are using in the team.
SE: No, I'm asking just in the management aspect.
TC: Yeah, yeah. So, as far as I know, Microsoft Tasks is just that. The project manager can
create, and he can discuss with me, for example, what kind of task and achievement needs to be
done. We can, of course, have some sessions even with the client and so on. And after that, these
task needs to be executed, needs to be written to the tasks, and execute it. Yeah.
SE: From your observation, what do you think about the clients renewing their contracts? How
long are they staying in the company?
TC: It's a hard question, but I think that they are renewing these contracts quite frequently. Even
though I believe more clients are renewing, it is my impression. I don't have anything in my
hand, written or having the statistics. Yeah, that's what I don't have, but I think those contracts
are for two or three years, and after these, they are renewing it. Yeah, but of course, there are
some clients which we are losing. But, uh, there are more clients, as far as I know, that are
staying even within our services for more than one payroll period.
SE: Do you always start with a defined business case?
Yes, it's better if I understand your question correctly. Do you mean if we are going even with
something that we can and only promise to the customer without any offers? For example, which
has been prepared for this one? Yeah. So that is what I don't like personally because it is not so
easy to give great results without already having some experience.
So it is much better to avoid that we need to have some research capability. And those people are
researching new services or at least new aspects of the services. If it is better or not, and if yes, it
has already been delivered, for example, to some testing.
So it's good that we have some experience and can deliver it even to clients where we know there
is a higher expectation. It is because clients want to see that we know what we are doing and not
just experiencing with the data assets. And so long. Of course, we can call it a proof of concept.
Yeah. Always. If there is such a client demand or they would like to be done in this state, we can.
It would be even better to inform clients that it is proof of concept, even for our services. It is
something new, and the delivery cannot be entirely successful, for example, and so on. And it is,
of course, better to communicate before the project starts to avoid some conflicts.
xxii
SE: Thank you. Which one of the constraints do you think is the weakest part of the project,
quality, cost, or time?
TC: I think people.
SE: Umm.
TC: Or it was, you know, regarding our team. Uh, in my kind of onboarding and being able to
deliver something. And right now, I think, of course, people are slightly behind, slightly behind.
SE: Behind what?
TC: Behind the tools. People are falling behind. It wasn't before, because if you would like to
deliver something. So it would help if you had, from a high-level perspective. It is divided into
tools, processes, and people. And right now, I think that it truly depends. But I'm just seeing that
we hadn't such great tools from the maturity perspective. And right now, I can see that we have a
better tool to work with. So the maturity level has been increased over the years and has been
invested by our vendors, of course. So right now, it's better tools, and of course, those processes
and people are slightly behind, but it is, you know, it is just as from my perspective as well.
SE: What do you mean by people are behind?
TC: Uh, because there is so much to do and new tools that people need to play with and better
understand to master. So as I said, we struggled with tools for many years. So the tools are quite
mature enough nowadays.
Yeah, so I still can see some issues within the people within services, but I think that in the
future, it will be better because it takes some time just to adapt that people and processes need to
adapt to these new tools. I'm even referring, and that is quite important, to the great transition of
services. [Confidential information]. And it's quite complex to understand everything, so that's
my explanation.
SE: And how is the training done when there is a new tool?
TC: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had some kind of, and it is still ongoing so if we are going to deliver
something new, some new functionality, for example, or a new tool. Whatever, some kind of
new way of working. So we need to talk to people and perform the training outside our service.
So it means that even other people involved, for example, are involved in a process. So we need
to provide even training to them. So well as one example is that if we are going to. [Confidential
information]. But process delivery, and we need to talk to them about what they expect.
xxiii
SE: Thank you. And what do you think about the communication between your team and the
teams you are working with?
TC: Between teams, yeah.
SE: Between teams or between project managers and technicians.
TC: Yeah, it's a hard one. It is tough, and it depends on the people solely. And it depends on the
quality of that kind of delivery. As I said, it truly depends if there are mature enough people, so it
is a great one because the delivery can go very well. But if there are people who have just
started, it depends, of course, on their curiosity. So if they are curious enough and they can learn
quickly, we can still deliver. But in the end, if a person is resistant enough, the complex delivery
can be very difficult.
SE: How do you think the communication can be improved? Any suggestions?
TC: Ohh, I don't know how to explain. I need to slightly think about this one. It is like you need
to have people in your teams, which will be prepared to deploy, how to call it, I don't know, who
are ready to even help some people from other teams.
And for example, I have the understanding, even from other teams, of what needs to be done for
all, not on the total detail level. Still, I need to have some understanding even how to configure
something, how to deliver something, what we can expect, what we don’t expect, and so on. But
I needed to learn almost everything just to help others understand where we are going, why it is
required, and so on. And it is even helping to understand clients, and other services, which are
responsible for helping us to deliberate them. So I know slightly complicated, but I hope I have
finished explaining it.
SE: Thank you. Umm, do you have defined roles and responsibilities before starting a project for
you and your colleagues? Do you know what exactly it's expected?
TC: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. I think yes, yes, definitely.
SE: Do you have a database or a tool to go back and learn from previous experiences?
TC: Umm. Yes, I'm using these tasks again for now, at least because it is the tool where I'm
learning from the current status of these deliveries. And definitely, once I can see that something
can be improved or even missing, we need it, and so on. So it is the tool that I'm using just to
rotate and explain it. Yeah, and go and ask other colleagues here around and so.
SE: OK. How is the quality measured?

xxiv
TC: It's not. Yeah, it's done by the project manager mainly. So it depends on all of his
understanding and so on. And if there is some kind of complaint to people for something and so
on. But yeah, I don't know if we are doing it. We are always asking if we can have multiple
meetings with clients. And, of course, we can ask if they are satisfied or not. Yeah, that's it.
SE: Umm, I see on top is the progress monitored. You mentioned Microsoft Tasks. Anything
else you want to add for the progress monitoring?
TC: No, probably. I don't have anything. Nothing else from my side, at least.
SE: OK. Do you know if risks and changes are monitored or discussed?
TC: Ah, it's a hard one, but there's definitely, yeah, it is. This must be, you know, to review a
task, and so on. So definitely, all the changes must be communicated to, for example, architects.
Yeah, and there is something or some kind of unexpected change, for example. And they need to
review it. If there are some kind of other dependencies and so on.
SE: Do you have any additional ideas to improve? Mostly I heard from other people about
communication and delivery time. Maybe you can comment on this.
TC: How to improve, definitely? Local communication is one of the issues. But still, I think that
we need to have an even better understanding regarding cooperation with other people. So you
know, we need to have full of teams with people who are able and willing to help each other.
Yeah. So that’s the only medicine how we can overcome even some issues.
SE: OK. I will think about this. That's it from my side.
TC: OK, that's good.
SE: Thank you for your time.
TC: Yeah, no problem. I hope that I have helped a little bit.
SE: Have a nice day. Bye.
TC: You too. Bye.
xxv
Interview with Technician D

Interviewee: Technician D
List of Acronyms: SE= Salpi Erkol, TD = Technician D
SE: How long have you been working in this company and in this role?
TD: I have been working in the company for five years now, in my current position for a year
and a few months.
TD: This is totally out of my view. Planning seems to be more systematic.
SE: That’s okay. Some questions are not directed to technicians. What do you think of client
loyalty in the company? Are they renewing the contracts?
TD: I don’t see into every contract, but from what I know, some contracts are shorter than two
years, some longer. The loyalty of clients is high for some old, long-timers. Still, mostly it
depends on whether the company is constantly improving and delivering what was ordered or
promised to the customer.
SE: Do you always start with a defined business case for the project?
TD: That I don’t know. I am sorry. In my case, I will mostly get info on what needs to be
delivered. But only from the part of security, and often there is “some level of freedom,” and the
client is often open to the discussion and ideas from our side, so in the end, the contract can
change a little.
TD: Time, often delivery takes too long because the contract is unclear or the client is adding
some requirements.
xxvi
SE: Did the merger of two companies affect you in a way?
TD: Yes, but only in a small part. It could be much bigger in the future since a lot of high-level
management discussion is ongoing, and some projects are not fully transferred. An example is
that some contract for one company is not transferred to the merged organization, so
implementing these projects is my responsibility.
cause a slowdown in project delivery time?
TD: I think that communication was at the start established ok. But after some time, it seems we
have lost touch, which affected a few projects to slow down.
SE: How is the organization defined? How were the roles and responsibilities defined for your
team?
TD: Sorry, here I don’t have anything to add. In my position, I haven’t noticed anything new or a
change in structure.
SE: Okay. Is there a method or database for project managers or technicians to go back and learn
from previous experiences and mistakes?
TD: For technicians, no, or at least I haven’t heard about anything. We are always learning from
the previous project; every new project is improved a little bit, or we are wiser about a specific
technology.
SE: How is the quality measured? Do you make sure to focus on the product?
TD: In my case, since we are part of the security, it’s a simple quality measure: Early warning on
malicious activity, proper use cases, tuned alarms, and no false positives. Also, there are weekly
or monthly client meetings where clients can share some thoughts about the product or service.
SE: How is the project progress monitored in the company
TD: The project manager handles the project in 98% of cases. Client unit is often also some part
of the project. There are weekly meetings where info is shared on what was done and how the
project continues.
xxvii
SE: How are risks and changes monitored and implemented? What actions are being taken?
TD: Risks during a project are written at the start, and then we try to mitigate them; often will
happen that during the project, new risks will arise. These are acknowledged and monitored as
well. If will happen, the risk will go from medium to high/critical. There is often a mediate
action in the form of extra meetings/resources from the company, then closely monitored until
it’s mitigated. Risks and changes outside of the project are monitored by the ITIL change
management method.
SE: Is there a fixed project management method, or is it tailored depending on each project?
TD: Every project manager has their own method, which is often tailored depending on the
project. For example, in security deployment, there are two fixed parts of implementation:
[Confidential Information]. Then all the following parts of the project are taken from what was
decided in part one. Later in part two is most of the time a classic approach without changes.
management techniques or to improve quality/cost/delivery time?
TD: Yes, now we are trying to investigate a new infrastructure platform inside the company. If
this will be successful, we will be able to significantly speed up delivering process, which will be
due to the simplifying network connection. Now, this process is taking too long, and a lot of
other parties are involved.
SE: That’s all from my side. Thank you for your time.
TD: You are welcome. I hope this helps.
xxviii
Interview with Technician E

Interviewee: Technician E
List of Acronyms: SE= Salpi Erkol, TC = Technician E
SE: For how long have you been working in this company and in this role?
TE: I joined the company last summer, so since June 2021. I have joined quite recently so I
might not able to answer all your questions.
the company?
TE: I don’t have an idea on this. I think it depends on the project manager.
SE: What do you think of client loyalty in the company?
TE: This also depends on the agreement, but I can’t tell. Agreements are not my scope.
SE: Okay, I see. Do you always start with a defined business case for the project?
TE: Yes, we do. I’m getting information from the project managers.
TE: I have no idea about this.
cause a slowdown in project delivery time?
TE: No, it didn’t. I think communication was on a sufficient level.
SE: Is there a method or database for project managers and technicians to go back and learn from
xxix
TE: Yes, we are sharing our experiences in the team and in the confluence space.
SE: How is the quality measured during the projects?
TE: I don’t have much comment on this.
SE: How is the project progress monitored in the company?
TE: This is made by the follow-up calls and syncs.
SE: How are risks and changes monitored and implemented?
TE: I don’t know about this. Can’t answer.
SE: Do you know if there is a fixed project management method, or is it being tailored
depending on each project?
TE: This is the project manager’s responsibility. I don’t know.
management techniques or to improve quality, cost, and delivery time?
TE: Yes, there are ongoing improvements. I can say that almost every project brings some point
that can be improved in the future project.
xxx
Interactive Quote Matrix MAXQDA
interview_P interview_PMB interview_TA interview_TB interview_TC (N=1) interview_TD interview_TE (N=1)

MA (N=1) (N=1) (N=1) (N=1) (N=1)
constraints
time constraint SE: What do That's probably a Deadlines were Or it was, you know, Time, often
you think is complex question, moved to later dates regarding our team. Uh, in delivery takes
the weakest but I'll say time at when my kind of onboarding too long
the moment. circumstances/previ and being able to deliver because the
part of the
ous unfinished tasks something. And right now, contract is
projects? interview_TA: 16 - 16 were preventing me I think, of course, people unclear or the
(0) from finishing mine. are slightly behind, client is
PMA: So, slightly behind. adding some
it's time. interview_TB: 6 - 6 (0) requirements.
The time interview_TC: 28 - 28 (0)
and delays, interview_TD:
etcetera.
I’ve rarely 12 - 12 (0)
experienced the first
interview_P
MA: 21 - 22 set deadline being
(0) met. Usually, it’s Now, this
moved to a later process is
date. taking too
long, and a lot
interview_TB: 12 - 12 of other parties
(0) are involved.
interview_TD:
30 - 30 (0)
communication Usually, it's up to I think it did slow It's just, you know, that we adding some I think communication is
the managers down the projects have got new colleagues to requirements. not on a sufficient level.
I’ve worked on. work with.
interview_TA: 20 - 20 interview_TD: interview_TE: 14 - 14 (0)
(0) interview_TB: 16 - 16 interview_TC: 10 - 10 (0) 12 - 12 (0)
(0)
Communication is Or just trying to I think that

really the key. This understand even other communicatio
is the key for the colleagues and what they n was at the
project in general. have done, how they can start
xxxi
see the world of ideas, and established ok.
interview_TA: 40 - 40 so on. But after some
(0) time, it seems
interview_TC: 11 - 11 (0) we have lost
touch, which
Communication affected a few
needs to be specified And it is, of course, better projects to
not just between the to communicate before the slow down.
project manager and project starts to avoid
technicians but also some conflicts. interview_TD:
between the 16 - 16 (0)
specialist interview_TC: 24 - 24 (0)
themselves.
interview_TA: 42 - 42 It is tough, and it depends

(0) on the people solely. And
it depends on the quality
of that kind of delivery. As
I said, it truly depends if
there are mature enough
people, so it is a great one
because the delivery can
go very well. But if there
are people who have just
started, it depends, of
course, on their curiosity.
So if they are curious
enough and they can learn
quickly, we can still
deliver. But in the end, if a
person is resistant enough,
the complex delivery can
be very difficult.
interview_TC: 39 - 39 (0)
We are always asking if

we can have multiple
meetings with clients
xxxii
Local communication is
one of the issues. But still,
I think that we need to
have an even better
understanding regarding
cooperation with other
people. So you know, we
need to have full of teams
with people who are able
and willing to help each
other.
tools Not only I would say from the People are falling behind.
this but also most basic view It wasn't before, because if
regarding usually, Teams you would like to deliver
different having integration something. So it would
tools these using the task, it's help if you had, from a
clients use. available to high-level perspective. It
Yeah, everyone in our is divided into tools,
companies team. It can also be processes, and people.
had before limited just to a And right now, I think that
and still variety of people. it truly depends. But I'm
have a good just seeing that we hadn't
say. For interview_TA: 32 - 32 such great tools from the
example, we (0) maturity perspective. And
have right now, I can see that
different we have a better tool to
ISM tools work with. So the maturity
for different level has been increased
clients. over the years and has
been invested by our
interview_P vendors, of course. So
MA: 8 - 8 (0) right now, it's better tools,
and of course, those
processes and people are
slightly behind, but it is,
you know, it is just as
xxxiii
from my perspective as
well.
Uh, because there is so

much to do and new tools
that people need to play
with and better understand
to master. So as I said, we
struggled with tools for
many years. So the tools
are quite mature enough
nowadays.
We had some kind of, and

it is still ongoing so if we
are going to deliver
something new, some new
functionality, for example,
or a new tool. Whatever,
some kind of new way of
working. So we need to
talk to people and perform
the training outside our
service. So it means that
even other people
involved, for example, are
involved in a process. So
we need to provide even
training to them
quality constraint PMA: Good It should be up to It's not. Yeah, it's done by In my case, I don’t have much
question. managers. the project manager since we are comment on this.
Probably we mainly. So it depends on part of the
don't have all of his understanding security, it’s a
xxxiv
any quality interview_TA: 28 - 28 and so on. And if there is simple quality interview_TE: 18 - 18 (0)
measuremen (0) some kind of complaint to measure
ts. Of people for something and
course, the so on. But yeah, I don't interview_TD:
acceptance know if we are doing it 22 - 22 (0)
criteria for
the project. interview_TC: 48 - 48 (0)
Each project
has defined
acceptance
criteria that
should be
met. So
probably
that's all.
interview_P
MA: 36 - 36
(0)
scope constraint Also, as an analyst, I

always think the
scope of projects is
too big for our work,
but that’s more due
to our team being
constantly
understaffed.
interview_TB: 12 - 12
(0)
Not really, apart

from having a few
extra things to
monitor.
interview_TB: 14 - 14
(0)
xxxv
loyalty it is to deliver what I would say it's on a The loyalty of This also depends on the
you have promised. reasonable level. So clients is high agreement, but I can’t
far, I have been for some old, tell
interview_PMB: 19 - involved in some long-timers
19 (0) client meetings or interview_TE: 8 - 8 (0)
even the projects I interview_TD: 8
anchored. Good - 8 (0)
feedback, almost
back to us, to the
security team.
interview_TA: 12 - 12
(0)
renewing contracts Regarding I think that they are from what I

delivering, we are renewing these contracts know, some
keeping those quite frequently. Even contracts are
promises and maybe though I believe more shorter than
even exceeding them clients are renewing, it is two years,
a little bit. But of my impression some longer
course, we should
not overdeliver. interview_TC: 19 - 19 (0) interview_TD: 8
- 8 (0)
interview_PMB: 19 -
19 (0) I think those contracts are
for two or three years, and
after these, they are
renewing it. Yeah, but of
course, there are some
clients which we are
losing. But, uh, there are
more clients, as far as I
know, that are staying
even within our services
for more than one payroll
period.
merger effect on Oh, good I would say it's more TC: I don't think that my An example is
loyalty question. I work, but it's a too work has been somehow that some
can say that, broad term. You affected. It's just, you contract for
xxxvi
in some need to understand know, that we have got one company
cases, this not just the new colleagues to work is not
merger technology but also with. We have got new transferred to
improved the environment, opportunities to meet other the merged
client more specifically, clients. So to say. But you organization,
loyalty. But especially for the know, it's nothing, nothing so
in other security team, where wrong, I think. implementing
cases, we need to analyze these projects
maybe not. specific events also interview_TC: 10 - 10 (0) is my
Because coming from the responsibility.
now we are environment. So yes,
still this affected us. interview_TD:
struggling 14 - 14 (0)
after the interview_TA: 18 - 18
merger how (0)
to support
some
particular
clients on a
daily basis.
interview_P
MA: 6 - 6 (0)
suggestions PMA: Uh, Uh, maybe the It is like you need to haveYes, now we
yes. Of organization around people in your teams, are trying to
course, a delivering and which will be prepared to investigate a
better onboarding new deploy, how to call it, I new
approach clients and the don't know, who are ready infrastructure
with delivery process to even help some people platform
documentati internally is maybe from other teams. inside the
on about the not so clear for me, company. If
security so that could interview_TC: 41 - 41 (0) this will be
alerts. improve. I think we successful, we
Regarding don't have any will be able to
the delivery Still, I need to have some significantly
documents organization in that understanding even how to speed up
like sense. configure something, how delivering
runbook, to deliver something, what process, which
which interview_PMB: 25 - we can expect, what we will be due to
collects 25 (0) don’t expect, and so on. the
almost simplifying
xxxvii
everything interview_TC: 42 - 42 (0) network
regarding connection.
the project So maybe should be
and some kind of line interview_TD:
delivery, organization that 30 - 30 (0)
contact gets all new clients
names, that should be
etcetera. onboarded, should
Also, be handled in some
collaboratio sort of streamlined
n with way. So we have
internal good and complete
groups. control over the
Also, when status of those and
we have boardings. We have
several created, me and
projects PMA this page. So
open at the we have a page
same time, where we have
we have a onboarding projects
small and their status. We
number of can see the different
people that types of clients
could help there. It's like me
me. and PMA when we
have meetings, we
interview_P
have heard about
MA: 55 - 55 that client, but we
(0) don't have a formal
way of bringing
those in, I think.
That could be
improved.
SE: Do you mean a
formal way to start
the project from the
sales, and you have
the information?
PMB: Yeah, I mean,

it can be like that.
xxxviii
For example, two
years ago, someone
offered a security
service to a client.
Then nothing
happened, nothing
heard, nothing there.
Then suddenly, I get
the call to join a
meeting, and then I
hear that. Now they
have been calling us,
and they want to
have it implemented
in two months.
The question is,

should I be the one
receiving that call?
Or shouldn't it be
brought into some
kind of delivery
queue for which we
have someone
responsible, and
then we take it to the
discussion? OK, this
client is coming
now, and how
should we handle
that? And then,
discuss it together
with PMA and me,
and maybe someone
should be who is
responsible for the
deliverables. So that
could be formalized,
I think. That is not
formalized. There is
xxxix
room for
improvement there,
as I see it.
interview_PMB: 27 -
30 (0)
I just mean that a

mail should come in
to maybe something
like a delivery
organization in our
team or a
responsible person
saying that. Well,
now with this client
needs to be
delivered, how to do
it and when and then
put it in the queue
for delivery and then
point individuals
that you do the
delivery with. So we
have 100% control
of what type of
deliverables are in a
queue, what is
ongoing, and what is
closed. And so we
can plan and discuss
so that we don't get
delays in this.
interview_PMB: 34 -
34 (0)
PM methods and PMA: I am So the main project

tools the project managers within the
manager company are not
responsible residing in our team.
xl
for I mean we are a
onboarding small unit which is
customers to delivering some
service, so technology. So when
that is now my colleague and I
not the are doing
entire life onboarding projects,
cycle of our we are sometimes
services running them
covered by ourselves. Still, very
my work. often, we are
My work is running in as a part
from the of a larger project,
initial where you have a
onboarding project manager who
phase to the is doing a lot of the
handover to administrative part
continuous as project manager.
operations. So we are not maybe
So doing all the things
currently, you do when you do
around eight a large project in our
projects are onboarding projects.
still open.
Different interview_PMB: 4 - 4
phases, of (0)
course.
interview_P I don't have that type

MA: 14 - 14 of project size
(0)
interview_PMB: 7 - 7
(0)
PMA: It
depends on
the solution Can we say that you
we should are managing more
include in the technical stage
the scope. than the managerial
So probably, stage of the project?
the fastest
few months,
xli
up to six PMB: Uh, you
and nine, know. Yeah, you
even one could say so
year.
interview_PMB: 13 -
interview_P 14 (0)
MA: 46 - 46
(0)
PM method and So they have a new I would say The projects I’ve Planning I don’t have an idea on
tailoring big agreement, systematic participated in were seems to be this. I think it depends
which is the project. more or less the more on the project manager.
So this is really a interview_TA: 10 - 10 same. systematic.
steering group. But (0) interview_TE: 6 - 6 (0)
there's program interview_TB: 28 - 28 interview_TD: 6
management, and (0) - 6 (0)
there’s a product 'm not aware there is This is the project
owner, etcetera. a strict method. manager’s
Then you have all Usually, it's up to often there is responsibility. I don’t
these types of the project manager “some level of know.
different subprojects how it's held. freedom,”
here. I mean, if you interview_TE: 24 - 24 (0)
look here, there is a interview_TA: 38 - 38 interview_TD:
subproject manager, (0) 10 - 10 (0)
and my onboarding
project is under his
hat. Every project
manager has
interview_PMB: 15 - their own
15 (0) method, which
is often
tailored
depending on
the project
interview_TD:
28 - 28 (0)
PM tools PMB: So I'm mostly Oh, mainly we are using,

following up on my and I don't know if I say it
time spent there and right, I think tasks. Yeah,
maybe cost, for something like that
xlii
example. So what Microsoft Tasks is being
I'm having here is used. So by achieving for
like an Excel sheet, kind of orchestration of
you can see. Uh, you the tasks, so this one has
can see the weeks been used and, of course,
here. And I have other technical tools, but it
made a prognosis is more or less that
here, and these are
my resources for the interview_TC: 15 - 15 (0)
project you will
learn.
So, as far as I know,
interview_PMB: 44 - Microsoft Tasks is just
44 (0) that. The project manager
can create, and he can
discuss with me, for
example, what kind of task
and achievement needs to
be done. We can, of
course, have some
sessions even with the
client and so on. And after
that, these task needs to be
executed, needs to be
written to the tasks, and
execute it.
operational and I would say that it's

maintenance the most important
acceptance part. After this,
when we are up and
running, we have
these engagement
manager meetings,
and so then it's also
important to
continuously give
them information on
xliii
the status and help
them keep protecting
in the future.
SE: Is this after the

project is closed?
PMB: Yeah. It’s

important that we
have if they have
bought this service.
Not all clients have
bought that type of
service, but for those
who have bought,
we have monthly
meetings where we
have to follow up on
the status and also
give improvement
suggestions to the
client. I think it is to
have a close
dialogue with the
client, listen, and try
to understand their
needs.
interview_PMB: 20 -
22 (0)
event driven Do you have

controls meetings for
progress
without the
customer?
PMA: On
demand.
And, of
course, the
xliv
waterfalls
schedule to
monitor the
progress,
and we use
a Kanban
board
regarding
the smaller
tasks.
interview_P
MA: 43 - 44
(0)
checkpoint/highlight SE: And are

these
meetings
scheduled or
after some
event?
PMA:
Usually, we
propose to
the
customer to
have
meetings on
a weekly
basis.
interview_P
MA: 33 - 34
(0)
methodology To be but I try to follow

honest, I this PPS model but
think I'm maybe not use all
using the the templates and
hybrid. documents and
From the things you do there.
xlv
high level,
I'm using interview_PMB: 4 - 4
more or less (0)
the waterfall
approach.
But on a PMB: I mean, I'm
daily or running my project
weekly by having some kind
basis, I'm of agenda for the
using the status of this
agile planning, and then I
approach, so go through this type
maybe for of dashboard. This is
smaller what has been done
tasks, I and what will
manage in happen in the next
agile, well. coming weeks.
But the
whole interview_PMB: 17 -
project has a 17 (0)
waterfall
schedule.
interview_P
MA: 10 - 10
(0)
In general,
I'm trying to
use perhaps
the same or
similar
approach
interview_P
MA: 12 - 12
(0)
progress monitoring Through the I have some kind of The project manager Usually, weekly I don't have anything. Also, there are This is made by the
status project planning is communicating or meetings with the Nothing else from my weekly or follow-up calls and
meetings. setting certain task project manager side, at least. monthly client syncs.
xlvi
regarding this with that needs to be keep track of what’s meetings
interview_P milestones. done. And since we been done and what interview_TC: 50 - 50 (0) where clients interview_TE: 20 - 20 (0)
MA: 42 - 42 are progressing, it's needs to be done. can share
(0) interview_PMB: 10 - up to us to inform some thoughts
10 (0) him or he will. I interview_TB: 24 - 24 about the
mean project (0) product or
manager will ask. service.
Uh, it might. It
might be fine, but I interview_TA: 30 - 30 interview_TD:
feel that as a project (0) 22 - 22 (0)
manager, I'm not the
one who is
responsible for all Okay, they can see There are
the deliverables. I directly what is done weekly
don't have the whole or what needs to be meetings
picture. I can get one done, and then when where info is
mail. My colleague there is a deadline, shared on what
can get another; we can summarize was done and
some other manager what was done and how the
can get the third. proceed next. project
Yeah, someone continues.
should have a total interview_TA: 30 - 30
grip on this. And I (0) interview_TD:
don't. I mean, when 24 - 24 (0)
we are up and
running, we are up I've encountered
and running. But some projects where
then, before that, the meetings were
how to prioritize not like really
resources? Which involved. I also
client to go first and experienced that
so and that is a little there were based on
bit… Yeah, I don't weekly or biweekly
know. We are not meetings, just again
having that type of summarizing the
sync right now, as I work.
say it.
interview_TA: 34 - 34
interview_PMB: 37 - (0)
37 (0)
xlvii
roles and Uh. More or Oh well, we need to I think it’s still the I think yes, yes, definitely. I will mostly Yes, we do. I’m getting
responsibilities less defined, be a reprise and same for our team. get info on information from the
maybe not carefully analyze the interview_TC: 44 - 44 (0) what needs to project managers.
documented data we are interview_TB: 18 - 18 be delivered.
. observing. Do not (0) interview_TE: 10 - 10 (0)
just be precise, but interview_TD:
interview_P also have a quick 10 - 10 (0)
MA: 24 - 24 response, focusing We have a page for
(0) on the projects or the each customer with
data we are currently things that were Sorry, here I
observing contractually agreed don’t have
I have to be upon that we could anything to
honest, now interview_TA: 22 - 22 go to if we are add. In my
we are a (0) unsure what is in our position, I
small group scope or what our haven’t
of people. reaction to alerts noticed
So maybe should be. anything new
it's not or a change in
mandatory interview_TB: 20 - 20 structure.
to have a (0)
highly interview_TD:
structured 18 - 18 (0)
one. The
architecture
of our team,
mainly that
we know
each other
and what we
can do, our
competencie
s, etcetera.
interview_P
MA: 26 - 26
(0)
We have a
quite flat
structure,
three teams.
xlviii
We have a
CM team, a
security
analyst
team, and a
cloud team.
Around
three or four
people are
actively
taking part
in the
project, a
maximum
of five.
interview_P
MA: 28 - 28
(0)
defined business OK, who is SE: Do you use a usually, yes. We Yeah. So that is what I the client is Yes, we do. I’m getting
case defining the business case, stage have a defined task don't like personally often open to information from the
business plan, and or the case or what because it is not so easy to the discussion project managers.
is needed. give great results without and ideas from
case for the documentation in the
already having some our side, so in interview_TE: 10 - 10 (0)
project? projects? interview_TA: 14 - 14 experience. the end, the
Documentation step- (0) contract can
PMA: by-step plan of how interview_TC: 21 - 21 (0) change a little.
Customer, I the project will run.
think. That’s interview_TD:
such a 10 - 10 (0)
PMB: No So it's good that we have
difficult
some experience and can
question
interview_PMB: 38 - deliver it even to clients
because I'm 39 (0) where we know there is a
not. I'm not
higher expectation. It is
aware of
because clients want to see
who is
PMB: Yeah, I mean that we know what we are
creating
the business case for doing and not just
business
the whole activity is experiencing with the data
cases.
not done by me. assets
That is a business
case done by sales interview_TC: 23 - 23 (0)
xlix
interview_P guys, which is
MA: 17 - 18 probably possible
(0) for the whole
business and the
onboarding. So what
I'm doing is more
like, OK, the cost for
my onboarding will
be this.
interview_PMB: 43 -
43 (0)
risks and changes PMA: Very Surely I think again, Any changes to there's definitely, yeah, it Risks during a I don’t know about this
rarely have like through the projects are is. This must be, you project are
a list of manager, I guess so. communicated in know, to review a task, written at the interview_TE: 22 - 22 (0)
risks. weekly meetings. I and so on. So definitely, start, and then
Usually, we interview_TA: 36 - 36 don’t remember any all the changes must be we try to
discuss the (0) list of risks being communicated to, for mitigate them;
risks on a shown to us, example, architects. Yeah, often will
weekly however. and there is something or happen that
basis with some kind of unexpected during the
the client interview_TB: 26 - 26 change, for example. And project, new
during the (0) they need to review it. If risks will
status there are some kind of arise. These
meeting. other dependencies and so are
on. acknowledged
interview_P and monitored
MA: 49 - 49 interview_TC: 52 - 52 (0) as well. If will
(0) happen, the
risk will go
from medium
SE: Do you to
have an high/critical.
assessment There is often
method for a mediate
the risks? action in the
For form of extra
example, meetings/resou
big impact rces from the
or small company, then
impact? closely
l
PMA: No. monitored
until it’s
interview_P mitigated.
MA: 50 - 51 Risks and
(0) changes
outside of the
project are
PMA: I monitored by
think it's not the ITIL
mandatory change
to have a management
more method.
enhanced
method for interview_TD:
collecting 26 - 26 (0)
and
analyzing
risks
because it's
usually, as
you can see,
that we have
a small
group. And
almost
every time,
we know
where the
risk is if it’s
smaller or
higher. So,
we don't
need to
write down
this
information.
interview_P
MA: 53 - 53
(0)
li
previous experiences Yes. It’s in We have a I don’t know about Yes, I'm using these tasks For Yes, we are sharing our
Microsoft designated space for any. again for now, at least technicians, experiences in the team
Teams as a that. And usually, because it is the tool no, or at least I and in the confluence
confluence. when this is done, interview_TB: 20 - 20 where I'm learning from haven’t heard space.
The we are doing short (0) the current status of these about
document lessons learned deliveries. And definitely, anything. We interview_TE: 16 - 16 (0)
management sometime after that. once I can see that are always
system. We What to improve, something can be learning from
collect and what was done improved or even missing, the previous I can say that almost
schedules, if it was done in a we need it, and so on. So it project; every every project brings
we collect good way is the tool that I'm using new project is some point that can be
documentati just to rotate and explain improved a improved in the future
on regarding interview_TA: 24 - 24 it. Yeah, and go and ask little bit, or we project.
onboarding, (0) other colleagues here are wiser
and we around and so. about a interview_TE: 26 - 26 (0)
collect the specific
daily report. Yeah, exactly. interview_TC: 46 - 46 (0) technology.
Maybe not Lessons learned
always meeting interview_TD:
daily, but 20 - 20 (0)
status interview_TA: 26 - 26
reports. (0)
interview_P
MA: 30 - 30
(0)
business Usually, no,

justification we don’t
change. It
happened
one time
that I
needed to
change
based on the
client’s
business
needs.
lii
interview_P
MA: 48 - 48
(0)
focus on product SE: Do you

think the
most
significant
focus is on
the product,
from the
delivery
aspect?
PMA: Yeah,
I think yes.
interview_P
MA: 39 - 40
(0)
acceptance criteria PMA: It Of course, you have

relates to a preface and need
configuratio to define the
ns. For deliverables and
example, acceptance criteria
our team has then. You need to
access to the plan the project, and
customer you go ahead and
environment start it up. And then,
. The when you are ready,
infrastructur you have an
e of the anchoring with the
customer customer who wants
environment to have delivered a
is connected handshake, and then
with the CM you close it.
platform
and our interview_PMB: 7 - 7
source (0)
platform.
liii
The list of
security
alarms is SE: OK, so mostly
defined, the Gantt chart and
discussed, the acceptance
and agreed criteria.
upon with PMB: Yeah, of
the client course, I also work
regarding with some kind of
consumers cost
and the rules
of interview_PMB: 40 -
engagement. 41 (0)
The
documentati
on is We are sitting in a
prepared. project right now
Like, where we are in this
runbooks phase, trying to
and create these
approved by acceptance criteria. I
the client. have been reacting
to those acceptance
interview_P test criteria because
MA: 38 - 38 they are also
(0) insufficient. I have
been responding to
that. Unclear
description of
promised
deliverables. I lifted
this in the risk list.
interview_PMB: 52 -
52 (0)
SE: Did you receive

those criteria from
sales?
PMB: Yeah, I think
it's coming from
liv
where it's coming
from. No, you could
say that this is a part
of the main project
manager’s project
plan, which is taken
from the quote.
interview_PMB: 53 -
54 (0)
duration in the I have been Before this position, in total, in the Since September TC: Yeah, good question. I have been I joined the company
company working in two years ago, I company for six 2019, both for the I need to count it. Umm, working in the last summer, so since
this worked in another years already. And company and the I’ve been working for company for June 2021
company for part of the company. for the current rule role of SOC analyst. almost 17 years. five years
more than There is a huge as an incident now, in my interview_TE: 4 - 4 (0)
three years. project management responder for two interview_TB: 4 - 4 (0) interview_TC: 6 - 6 (0) current
I started organization and a half years. position for a
before the year and a few
merger of interview_PMB: 4 - 4 interview_TA: 6 - 6 (0) months.
the two (0)
companies. interview_TD: 4
- 4 (0)
interview_P
MA: 4 - 4 (0)
lv
MS Project Extracts
lvi
lvii
lviii
lix
lx
lxi
lxii
lxiii
Template: Risk Management Approach
RISK MANAGEMENT APPROACH
Document Information
Project name: (Name)
Date: (Last approved date)
Author: (Project Manager)
Approver: (Project Board)
Configuration item record: (Record number)
Document version: (version)
Approvals
Date Name Signature
Introduction
The risk management approach's goal is to evaluate the project board's approach as well as to
describe the methods that will be used to detect, analyze, and control risks consistently.
lxiv
Risk Management Procedure
The risk management procedure is a continuous cycle consisting of five steps, whereas the
following four are sequential; identify, assess, plan, and implement. The fifth step is
communication which is overseeing all the steps consistently. The project manager is responsible
of the risk management approach and keeping the related documentation up to date.
Roles and Responsibilities
The project manager and project support gathers the risk information for the project. The project
manager creates the risk management procedure. The executive communicates the risks to the
clients according to the communication management approach per email. The project board
informs the project team of existing risks during the initiation meeting.
Identification
The risk identification data derives from the business brief, business case, and daily log. The
following techniques will be used for risk identification, review of lessons log, risk checklists,
risk prompt lists, brainstorming, and risk breakdown structure. PESTLE categorization is not
needed because of the small project size.
Assessment and Estimation
Every risk needs to be documented in the risk register according to the template. Each risk must
be analyzed to determine its likelihood, effect, and proximity to help prioritization. The total risk
exposure, as well as the impact of risk on the overall business case for the project, must be
tracked and assessed.
Responses to each risk must be established, and individuals assigned to action and risk responses
must be monitored and controlled periodically. The probability impact grid will be used for risk
estimation. Risk tolerance needs to be set according to the project’s needs.
lxv
Evaluation
The overall effect of the risks must be recognized in order to assess if the project's total risk
exposure remains within the organization's risk tolerance. For risk evaluation, the risk response
register is to be used. The risk response outlines the measures to be taken to mitigate the risk.
Risk response categories determine whether the risk represents an opportunity or a threat. The
risk response categories are listed below.
Early Warning Indicators

Warning indicators to be defined according to milestones, review meetings, and scope changes.
Reporting and Communication

Reporting and communication guarantee that information about the project's risks is shared with
the stakeholders. Reporting and communication need to be according to standard internal
guidelines. Risk reporting is event and time-based. Every risk needs to be communicated to the
stakeholders when it arises as well in the management products such as checkpoint reports, and
highlight reports.
Risk Budget
The amount of money should be designated solely for dealing with specific responses to the
risks. The risk budget cannot be utilized for any other purpose.
lxvi
Template: Communication Management Approach
COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT APPROACH
Approver: (Project Board)
Approvals
Date Name Signature
lxvii
Introduction
The communication management approach's goal is to establish and maintain an effective and
regular communication flow with the key stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. It also
describes the communication method and frequency to be used for effective and timely
communication with the internal and external stakeholders.
Communication Procedure
The communication procedure is divided into two different sections as internal and external.
PRINCE2 documents and reports will be used.
Roles and Responsibilities
This section identifies the people who will be in charge of internal and external communication.
Unless otherwise stated the internal communication is project managers responsibility, and
external communication is managed by delivery managers. Project board informs the
management team. Senior user communicates with the client.
Tools and Techniques
For all internal communication MS Teams, MS SharePoint, Kanban boards and e-mail will be
used. For external communication only e-mail will be used.
Records
The following documents will be used for internal communication: Highlight reports,
Checkpoint reports, End Project Report, Issue Reports, Lessons Report.
Timing of communication activities
The project manager and project board will have bi-weekly meetings and end of each stage
presenting highlight reports. The project manager and team manager will meet every week
presenting checkpoint reports. The technicians are expected to be present in weekly meetings
with project manager and team leader, they are encouraged but not mandatory to contribute.
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder Current Desired Interfaces Key Communication

relationship relationship messages method
lxviii
Template: Highlight report
HIGHLIGHT REPORT
Covered period: (from which date to which date is reported)
Date: (when the report is issued)
Introduction
The highlight report is used to inform the project board with a summary of the management stage
status. The highlight report assists project manager for addressing potential problems or concern
where to project board might advise. Unless otherwise stated the reporting will take place
weekly. Kanban board will be used and also e-mail will be sent to project board.
Notes
Short summary or key information.
lxix
Products
Product or work package Current status Expected status

Name of product What is the product status What will happen in the next
during this period? period?
Project Objectives
Target Current state Tolerance Forecast

Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Stage Objectives

Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Issues and risks

Information on issues and risks related to the work package.
Lessons Learned
Information learned during the work package.
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Template: Checkpoint report
CHECKPOINT REPORT
Covered period: (from which date to which date is reported)
Date: (when the report is issued)
Author: (Team Manager)
Approver: (Project Manager)
Approvals
Date Name Signature
lxxi
Introduction
The checkpoint report is used to inform the project manager the status of the work package.
Unless otherwise stated the reporting will take place weekly.
Notes
Follow-ups
Action items and unresolved issues from the previous period.
Products
Product name Current status Expected status

Name of product What is the product status What will happen in the next
during this period? period?
Work Package Tolerance Status

Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Issues and risks

Information on issues and risks related to the work package.
Lessons Learned
Information learned during the period.
lxxii
Template: Lessons report
LESSONS REPORT
Introduction
The lessons report is used to bring action to the positive lessons to be integrated in the future
projects, and tries to avoid negative lessons. The lessons log will be updated regularly. Unless
otherwise stated the lessons reporting will take place during closing a project process.
Lessons Log
ID Lesson Type Detail Priority Date Logged by
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Template: Role descriptions
ROLE DESCRIPTION
Project name:
Date:
Role: Project Manager
General Responsibilities
The project manager is the person who needs to be focused on daily project management. In
accordance with the guidelines established by the project board, the project manager is
authorized to manage the project on behalf of the project board. The team manager receives
responsibilities from the project manager for overseeing the product delivery process. The
project manager is in charge of overseeing the team managers and project support, and is also in
charge of maintaining communication with project assurance and the project board.
The project manager’s responsibilities include the following but not limited to:
Prepare the following baseline management products, in conjunction with any project assurance
roles, and agree them with the project board: project brief, benefits management approach, PID
and its components, stage/exception plans and their product descriptions, work packages.
Prepare the following reports: highlight reports, issue reports, end stage reports, exception
reports, end project report, lessons report.
Maintain the following records: issue register, risk register, daily log, lessons log.
Tailor the PRINCE2 method to suit the project’s situation.
Manage the information flows between the directing and delivering levels of the project.
Establish and manage the project’s procedures: risk management approach, and communication
management approach.
Establish and manage the project controls: monitoring and reporting.
Authorize work packages.
Advise the project board of any deviations from the plan.
lxxiv
ROLE DESCRIPTION
Project name:
Date:
Role: Team Manager
The team manager's primary function is to see that the products specified by the project manager
are produced with the proper quality, according to schedule, and at a cost that the project board
can accept. The team manager reports to the project manager and receives instructions from
them.
The team manager’s responsibilities include the following but not limited to:
Prepare the team plan and agree it with the project manager.
Produce checkpoint reports as agreed with the project manager.
Plan, monitor and manage the team’s work.
Take responsibility for the progress of the team’s work and use of team resources, and initiate
corrective action, where necessary, within the constraints laid down by the project manager.
Identify, and advise the project manager of, any issues and risks associated with a work package.
Advise the project manager of any deviations from the plan, recommend corrective action and
help to prepare any appropriate exception plans.
Pass back to the project manager products that have been completed and approved in line with
the agreed work package requirements.
Manage specific issues and risks as directed by the project manager.
Assist the project manager in examining issues and risks.
lxxv
ROLE DESCRIPTION
Project name:
Date:
Role: Project Support
Project support is responsible to provide assistance to the project manager in order to manage the
workload and organize the team activities in order to have a smooth workflow for the team to
reach its goals. Project manager delegates project support to one of the team specialists
The project support’s responsibilities include the following but not limited to:
Set up and maintain project files.
Establish document control procedures.
Collect actuals data and forecasts.
Update plans.
Assist the quality review process.
Assist project board meetings.
Contribute expertise in specialist tools and techniques, including tailoring recommendations.
Maintain the registers/logs delegated by the project manager.
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Template: Work package
WORK PACKAGE
Owner: (Team Manager)
Approvals
Date Name Signature
lxxvii
Introduction
A work package is a collection of information related to one or more required products that the
project manager has put together to transfer ownership of deliverable to the team manager.
Notes
Work Package Description
Work package title: (Name)
Description: (What is this package about?)
Products: (What will be delivered?)
Interfaces: Senior user is responsible for addressing interfaces.
Reporting requirements: Work package reporting is once a month in review meetings.
Escalation: If tolerances exceed a checkpoint report is sent.
Constraints: (None)
Approval type: (Senior user)
Work Package Objectives
Target Tolerance
Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
lxxviii
Template: Exception report
EXCEPTION REPORT
Approver: (Executive)
Approvals
Date Name Signature
lxxix
Introduction
The exception report is created when it is anticipated that a stage plan will exceed the established
tolerance thresholds. It is prepared to update the project board of the current circumstances and
to provide ideas and suggestions for how to move forward.
Notes
Cause of the Exception

An explanation of the reason why the existing plan was deviated
Consequences of the deviation

The implications for the project if the deviation is not addressed.
Options
The choices which are available to resolve the deviance, and how will each choice affect the
business case, risks, and tolerances?
Recommendations
Recommendations from the available options.
Stage Objectives
Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Risks
Benefits
Lessons Learned
Information learned during the period.
lxxx

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FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND ADMINISTRATION

The use of PRINCE2 project

Supervisor: Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D.

Faculty of Economics and Administration

Programme Business Management

Author: Salpi Erkol

Brno, Salpi Erkol

2. Theoretical Overview .............................................................................................................. 2

2.1. What is client loyalty? ...................................................................................................... 2

2.2. Satisfaction leads to loyalty ............................................................................................. 3

2.3. Project success and client loyalty ..................................................................................... 4

2.4. Scholars' perception of project management .................................................................... 5

2.5. Loyalty and Pricing ........................................................................................................ 11

2.6. Loyalty and Quality........................................................................................................ 12

2.7. Loyalty and Time ........................................................................................................... 13

2.8. PRINCE2 Project Management Methodology ............................................................... 14

2.8.1. Principles of the PRINCE2 Methodology............................................................... 16

2.8.2. Themes of the PRINCE2 Methodology .................................................................. 19

2.8.3. Processes of the PRINCE2 Methodology ............................................................... 21

2.8.4. Environment ............................................................................................................ 21

3.1. Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 22

3.2. Research Map ................................................................................................................. 23

3.3. Data Collection and Analysis Methods .......................................................................... 24

3.3.1. Questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 24

3.3.2. In-Depth Interview .................................................................................................. 26

3.3.3. Document Analysis ................................................................................................. 27

3.3.4. Observation ............................................................................................................. 27

3.3.5. Gap Analysis ........................................................................................................... 28

4.1. Industry and Company Overview .................................................................................. 29

4.2. Team and Project Overview ........................................................................................... 30

4.3. Internal Questionnaire Analysis ..................................................................................... 31

4.4. Interview Analysis.......................................................................................................... 35

4.5. Combining the Questionnaire and Interview Results ..................................................... 43

4.6.1 Suggestions by principles ....................................................................................... 46

4.6.2 Suggestions by themes ............................................................................................ 53

4.6.3 Suggestions Adapted to PRINCE2 Process Model ................................................. 58

4.7. Cost Analysis.................................................................................................................. 61

4.7.1. Project Scenario ...................................................................................................... 62

4.7.2. Process Flow Diagram ............................................................................................ 62

4.7.3. PRINCE2 Trainings ................................................................................................ 63

4.7.4. Total cost and breakeven point ............................................................................... 67

9. List of Figures and Tables ..................................................................................................... 76

10. List of Appendices ................................................................................................................. 79

Figure 1: Research Steps

Source: Chrysochou, 2017

Figure 2: Organizational Chart

Source: (Kotler and Keller, 2019)

2.2. Satisfaction leads to loyalty

Figure 3: Steps to loyalty

Source: (Kotler and Keller, 2019)

2.3. Project success and client loyalty

Figure 4: The iron triangle

Source: (Atkinson, 1999)

2.4. Scholars' perception of project management

Ireland and project management

Co- The co-contractors or partners in a project expect to share equally in the

Contractors/sub- Contractors and sub-contractors are project designers with great

Vendors/suppliers Vendors and suppliers, as contractors, have a direct interest in ensuring

Source: (Ireland, 1992)

Wang et al. and project management