Preparing Project based Organizations for Change

Research and practice frequently demonstrates that project based organizations should be prepared for innovative environments where change is a constant necessity. These organizations need to be flexible and capable of adapting their processes and structures to the evolving context. Being prepared for change allows them to take advantage of change events as opportunities, to evolve and to improve process maturity and supporting infrastructures. The speed and effectiveness by which project based organizations are able to seize changes is critical to their success. This paper highlights the relevance to be attentive to change triggering events and to be prepared to implement change. We suggest a structured change methodology for project based organizations that integrates change from a practical perspective. Our methodology is a mixed result of our own experience, knowledge of the state of the art in this field and the experimentation of the change methodology through an action-research case. Drawing on the action research case reflections it then suggests a general framework inspired on the concept of enterprise architecture for managing change in project based organizations.