| The project organisation of a project, at present, is based upon the externalisation of functions and/or subsystems of itself. Nowadays, the old problem of dividing the workload is how to distribute such workload among the different actors. Projects tend to develop on the basis of networks, and so, their planning and management is much more complex, because the activities and decisions are distributed. Nevertheless, it should operate as a completely or fully integrated system, oriented to the project objectives.; A complex reality, in which the classic paradigms of project organisation are insufficient and incomplete to describe it.; This doctoral thesis doesn't try to formulate a unique general model for the organizational design in projects, rather only to relocate the discussion of the factors and variables to the area of engineering and architecture projects.; For this, in the present investigation document three main studies are carried out: Firstly, the independent study for the ‘projectual organizations’ out of the ‘enterprise organisations’ is justified, presenting the ‘projectual view’ in opposition to the classic ‘enterprise view’.; Secondly, the influence factors (contingency and causes, or indirect and direct), and, the design variables (formal and result) of the projectual organization—which are based on a set of specific hypothesis for the project—are proposed.; Thirdly, an initial methodology for selecting the critical characteristics of the organization to be modelled—in the engineering and architecture projects—is proposed and constructed.; It is considered that the methodology of factors and variables, in this thesis contribution, is applicable by computational models, and that it is particularly advisable in large and extensive projects.; In this research project a contribution is made to organisation theory in the projects' area, by means of a model and a methodology that can be applied to the planning, design and evaluation of organisations. This allows flexible structures, with adaptability above contingencies, with the resulting improvement in the decision making process; it means, an advance in the planning and managing of project's organisational requirements. |
