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This paper presents an organization based information architecture (OBIA) that defines a structure for information needed to address the strategic decision process of evaluating and selecting projects to pursue. The project evaluation process requires information that has not been well defined by project specific information structures developed in previous information modelling efforts. The information in the OBIA is separated into five main categories: organization, commitment, process, environment, and facility. The OBIA categories were identified through expert interviews. The model was then evaluated through a detailed analysis of 10 project case studies. Each case study focused on the evaluation of a particular project from one organization's perspective. A method of applying the model to analyse projects is presented. The structure is also believed to be applicable for other strategic decision types including strategic planning and market selection.

This paper presents a conceptual framework to store, manage and retrieve facility programming information called a Facility Programming Product Model (FPPM). The FPPM represents an ‘open’ information framework that members of the facility team (owner, planner, designer, constructor and operator) can utilize to satisfy their individual information needs as providers or users of the facility. The FPPM is a systematized approach to creating, organizing, and presenting facility programming information. The framework allows the owner's representative to review the programming product (the programme) for completeness by establishing a structure designed to access programming criteria at varying levels of abstraction, during any phase of the building life cycle. The result is a programme which can be used as a tool to assist decision making and to evaluate objectively performance criteria during the life of a project.

The purpose of this paper is to present a practical instrument for self-evaluation of maturity in the processes of procurement and supply management, applicable to small and medium-size companies, as well as to show how the use of this evaluation tool may help companies to decide what to improve in these processes.

Based on an empirical and theoretical framework, the instrument developed measures the maturity of procurement and supply management activities in four macro-processes: materials management, purchase process, supplier evaluation process and process of procurement planning. For testing the self-evaluation instrument, the authors evaluated the maturity of 48 hospitals and 37 metal-mechanic manufacturing companies located in the southern region of Brazil. To show how to use this tool to decide what to improve in procurement and supply processes, the authors conducted a comparative analysis of a hospital and a metal-mechanic company, in relation to the sample of the same segment.

The results show that the instrument is reliable for practical application. Metal-mechanic industries have a greater maturity in the purchase process than in the other three macro-processes. The management of materials is the most mature macro-process in hospitals. Comparing hospitals to metal-mechanic companies, the present research shows that, between 20 and 99 employees, hospitals tend to have a higher level of maturity in the purchase process than metal-mechanic companies. With 100 employees or more, metal-mechanic companies are more mature than hospitals in procurement planning and in selection/evaluation of suppliers.

Presenting a useful self-evaluation instrument, this work demonstrates that the measurement of the maturity level, and benchmarking it with other companies, may help a firm to decide what to improve in its processes of procurement and materials management, showing how an economic sector can understand itself better. Few scientific studies have practical application to the assessment of the degree of maturity of procurement and supply management processes. Besides that the authors did not find other papers presenting a comparison of different segments.