DigiTransPro

The aim of the research focus "Digital Transformation Projects" is to research the specifics of digitalization projects and to develop new, suitable project management methods. The digital transformation is shaped to a large extent by projects that often do not proceed as desired. The current state of science is that methodological deficits are one reason for a lack of success. On the basis of comprehensive project management and digitalization expertise, the research focus will analyse the deficits, close existing research gaps and develop and evaluate new methods, which will then also be incorporated into teaching and transfer. To this end, interdisciplinary methods and approaches from (project) management and computer science will be combined. In particular, the research focus must address the following subject areas through appropriate skills and research work:

• Organizational and process transformations for digitalization projects that make digital change agile, iterative and participatory. The further development of agile methodology and change management and their embedding in more comprehensive management and organizational frameworks is relevant here.
• Management of skills and knowledge for digitalization projects that develops skills with a focus on people, supports the composition of successful project teams and promotes the transfer of implicit knowledge of project members into explicit organizational knowledge. Competence models and profiles play a major role here, as do studies on team processes, especially in virtual, agile projects.
• Improving the achievement of objectives in digitalization projects by including the outcome and impact level of projects in the planning, for example through impact-oriented methods. This also includes methods from sustainable and responsible project management.

The core of the research program is the establishment of a group of doctoral students in the three subject areas. The following parallel and accompanying measures are planned:

• Development of an open access/open data portal with case studies on digitization projects
• Intensification of international cooperation in the European Partnership for Project and Innovation Management (EuroPIM)
• Establishment of a "Project Management" teaching focus at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Ruhr Master School as a central offering for study programs and majors
• Development of a training, certificate and consulting offer on the topic of "Project management for digitalization projects" with the "International Project Management Association (IPMA)" and the "IEEE Technology & Engineering Management Society (TEMS)"
• Publication activities, including the expansion of the Dortmund International Research Conference (IRC), the IEEE E-TEMS conference series, the project management session in the IEEE IDAACS series