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Construction firms keep minimal resources to maintain productive working capital. Hence, resources are constrained and have to be shared among multiple projects in an organization. Optimal allocation of resources is a key challenge in such situations. Several approaches and heuristics have been proposed for this task. The purpose of this paper is to compare two approaches for multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling in a multi-project environment. These are the single-project approach (portfolio optimization) and the multi-project approach (each project is optimized individually, and then heuristic rules are used to satisfy the portfolio constraint).

A direct search algorithm called Probabilistic Global Search Lausanne is used for schedule optimization. Multiple solutions are generated that achieve different trade-offs among the three criteria, namely, time, cost and quality. Good compromise solutions among these are identified using a multi-criteria decision making method, Relaxed Restricted Pareto Version 4. The solutions obtained using the single-project and multi-project approaches are compared in order to evaluate their advantages and disadvantages. Data from two sources are used for the evaluation: modified multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem data sets from the project scheduling problem library (PSPLIB) and three real case study projects in India.

Computational results prove the superiority of the single-project approach over heuristic priority rules (multi-project approach). The single-project approach identifies better solutions compared to the multi-project approach. However, the multi-project approach involves fewer optimization variables and is faster in execution.

It is feasible to adopt the single-project approach in practice; realistic resource constraints can be incorporated in a multi-objective optimization formulation; and good compromise solutions that achieve acceptable trade-offs among the conflicting objectives can be identified.

An integer programming model was developed in this research to optimize the multiple objectives in a multi-project environment considering explicit resource constraints and maximum daily costs constraints. This model was used to compare the performance of the two multi-project environment approaches. Unlike existing work in this area, the model used to predict the quality of activity execution modes is based on data collected from real construction projects.

With the purpose of enhancing the understanding of multi‐project management, this paper is based on the findings of a doctoral thesis that focuses on the management and organisation of project‐based companies.

The research presented here is based on an inductive and qualitative case study approach, characterised by an exploratory purpose and based on an in depth analysis of two individual cases.

The study sheds light on several important aspects for managing and organising the special dynamics that characterise project‐based organisations. The thesis discusses how the balance between structuring mechanisms and the ability to handle the ever‐present uncertainty in project‐based organisations (PBOs) can be understood. This balance is necessary in order to handle the amount of changing requirements – both operational and contextual – during a certain period of time, thereby, being given the opportunity to encourage the organisation's dynamic capability.

This research proposes that the traditional theoretical focus of “How to … ” in project portfolio management is neither adequately efficient, nor sufficient. This view must be complemented with active individual and situated management actions, and the findings encapsulate the importance of the multi‐project management to focus on the balance between creativity, flexibility, and structure.

The profound theoretical ambition with this work is to complement the literature on project‐based organisations with an empirically‐based understanding inspired by organising theory, for both the research and practical execution of multi‐project management from a project‐as‐practice perspective. This research expands the conceptual view on the balance between structuring mechanisms and the ability to handle the ever‐present uncertainty in PBOs.

Resource allocation is challenged by dynamic environments where changes are frequent. The purpose of this paper is to identify resource allocation challenges and practices in service units that perform both project and non-project activities in dynamic environments. Its goal is to show that top-down mechanisms of project resource allocation need to be replaced by or supplemented with mechanisms that are more flexible.

A qualitative comparative case study was conducted in two service units of two project-based firms. The main source of data consisted of semi-structured interviews with 17 service managers and staff members.

This study shows that resource allocation is not necessarily a top-down process at all, and the practices are context-dependent. Two more flexible approaches are revealed – hybrid resource allocation and bottom-up resource allocation – as examples of managing resource allocation in service units that engage in projects under uncertain conditions. The results of the analysis highlight prioritisation and adapting to change and delay as the main issues that managers face in allocating resources to different types of projects and service activities in dynamic environments.

The two target companies chosen for the qualitative research design limit the analysis to project-based firms in a business-to-business context. Further, the viewpoint of the service unit is central to the study. Studying project resource allocation in different organisational contexts and uncovering the perspectives of product development and delivery units would offer promising directions for future research.

The study reveals that in dynamic project settings such as service organisations, top-down mechanisms of resource allocation need to be accompanied by other, more flexible approaches to ensure the sufficient resourcing of projects and related services in dynamic environments. Companies need to establish practices for resource allocation changes that are caused by re-prioritising tasks and accommodating changes and delays in their project and service activities.

Compared to a top-down perspective taken in previous research, the study proposes a more flexible approach for resource allocation in constantly changing environments with different project and service activities. Previous studies have focussed on resource competition between projects, placing project managers in the central role for resource allocation. By contrast, this study discusses hybrid and bottom-up resource allocation, both of which involve broader personnel engagement in resource allocation tasks, drawing on the experience of all employees.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the major challenges to managing multiple project environments (MPE) in Australia.

The views from Australian project management practitioners drawn from various industrial sectors were collected via an e‐mailed questionnaire survey. The respondents were asked to rate a total of 22 challenges that affect the management of multiple project environments as identified from the literature review. The results of the questionnaire were analysed using ranking analysis.

The findings show that “commitment and responsibility”, “leading projects”, “planning”, and “conflict and communication” are perceived as the four challenges of most importance. Furthermore, the 22 challenges could be classified into 11 sub groupings: project management processes; competencies of project managers; project assignments; human resource allocation; resource availability; organisational culture; problem solving; competition among projects; information sharing; management of a single project; and project location.

The study forms the basis for further research. Replication of this study to other parts of the industries and world about how identification of major challenges in managing multiple projects could be used as a basis for developing appropriate strategies aimed at improving the competencies of project managers.

Based on the findings, the project management practitioners could develop a better understanding of the challenges needed to be overcome in order to perform effectively. Furthermore, the identification of these challenges could form the basis for the development of guidelines and provision of useful information for development of strategies aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of project managers operating within the multiple projects environments in Australia.

In this paper, major challenges to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of project managers in managing MPEs in Australia are identified and analysed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and analysis of the legacy of Christensen and Kreiner's (1991) literally classic Projektledning: att leda och lära i en ofullständig värld (Project Management: to manage and learn in an incomplete world).

The paper is based on a three‐step theoretical analysis deduced from the mentioned classic. The first step provides an overview of the content where the core ideas of the book are derived. This is followed by an analysis of the legacy and impact on theory, empirical approaches, and education. Finally, three main takeaways from the book are discussed.

In tracking the legacy, the paper analyses, discusses, and illustrates how the Scandinavian approach to projects has evolved. It pinpoints the two core insights of the book; the importance of understanding the impact of the institutional environment on operations, and embracing uncertainty as a natural part of everyday organizational reality. Based on these insights it is shown how the book has expanded the theoretical contributions towards a focus on temporary organisations and everyday practice, how it has helped to make situated empirical research matter, and how it has influenced education to deal with real‐life project challenges.

This paper investigates a book available only in the Scandinavian language and thus only available for a Scandinavian research community. As such the review is written from a Scandinavian perspective, with the limitations in terms of objectivity to the book that follow from that.

The main lessons discussed in relation to the heritage from the book are: an increased focus on the details of organizing, situated multi‐level case‐studies, and situation‐sensitive teaching methodologies. The paper argues that an increased understanding of projects should start with a detailed multi‐level analysis of temporary organizing to provide a sound foundation on which to base future research and teaching.

The paper provides an understanding of the origins and diffusion of underpinning ideas of the Scandinavian approach to project management.

The purpose of this editorial is to reflect on the growing interest of situated project research.

The editorial is conceptual and relies on published work and the articles included in the special issue.

With this special issue it is found that practice‐based studies, also called Projects‐as‐Practice studies, interested in the everyday activities of project practitioners, are multi‐faceted and rich. What may also be seen is that practice‐based studies are not yet a coherent area. However, it is more important that practice‐based studies allow researchers to understand the organization less as an entity and more as a socially‐accomplished task.

Several implications for research are offered, including the need for studies that emphasize the small details of organizing, and that practice‐based studies are not restricted to a certain methodology but depend on what a particular paper tries to accomplish.

With an ever‐growing stream of research focusing on projects the guest editors argue that it is about time to look into the details of organizing. This could be accomplished through a number of ways but in this special issue it is proposed that approaching traditional areas with a conscious naivety when asking the questions may do it. For the practitioner, the special issue offers important insights into how things are done in practice, which may be used as a mirror or reflection upon their own practice.

This editorial and special issue offer insights for any academic interested in understanding projects differently.

Project managers bear the responsibility of selecting and developing resource scheduling methods that align with project requirements and organizational circumstances. This study focuses on resource-constrained project scheduling in multi-project environments. The research simplifies the problem by adopting a single-project perspective using gain coefficients.

It employs uncertainty theory and multi-objective programming to construct a model. The optimal solution is identified using Matlab, while LINGO determines satisfactory alternatives. By combining these methods and considering actual construction project situations, a compromise solution closely approximating the optimal one is derived.

The study provides fresh insights into modeling and resolving resource-constrained project scheduling issues, supported by real-world examples that effectively illustrate its practical significance.

The research highlights three main contributions: effective resource utilization, project prioritization and conflict management, and addressing uncertainty. It offers decision support for project managers to balance resource allocation, resolve conflicts, and adapt to changing project demands.

The activities using drum resources restrict the operation of multi-project systems. However, existing monitoring methods are not suitable for the characteristics of drum activities in the multi-project system. The authors therefore propose an adaptive capacity constraint buffer monitoring model based on the attributes of drum activities, aiming to build a high-efficiency progress control framework for multiple projects.

Considering the attributes and the interrelationship of drum activities, the monitoring reference points are determined on the basis of decentralized buffers. The authors next set action thresholds according to the relationship between the drum activities' interval margin and buffer consumption, and then the corresponding monitoring measures are taken.

The empirical results show that, compared to the classic methods, the proposed approach can effectively monitor the progress of the drum plan and realize the dual optimization of multi-project duration and cost.

The buffer consumption at the follow-up monitoring time point is neglected when determining the action thresholds. Prediction methods can be introduced to present more all-sided monitoring.

This paper fulfils the dual optimization of multi-project duration and cost. It provides a reference guide for project managers.

A capacity constraint buffer monitoring method suitable for a multi-project environment is produced.

The single project paradigm which dominates the literature of both project and construction management research does not accurately reflect the reality of many construction clients, who have large ongoing construction portfolios rather than one‐off construction projects. Although several concepts of multi‐project environments (MPEs) exist, an investigation of the form and dynamic interactions of components within MPEs of construction clients was lacking. This paper presents the factors identified as exerting greatest influence on project delivery within construction clients' MPEs.

Ready-mix concrete delivery problem (RMCDP), a specific version of the vehicle routing problem (VRP), is a relevant supply-chain engineering task for construction management with various formulations and solving methods. This problem can range from a simple scenario involving one source, one material and one destination to a more challenging and complex case involving multiple sources, multiple materials and multiple destinations. This paper presents an Internet of Things (IoT)-supported active building information modeling (BIM) system for optimized multi-project ready-mix concrete (RMC) delivery.

The presented system is BIM-based, IoT supported, dynamic and automatic input/output exchange to provide an optimal delivery program for multi-project ready-mix-concrete problem. The input parameters are extracted as real-time map-supported IoT data and transferred to the system via an application programming interface (API) into a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model developed to perform the optimization. The obtained optimization results are further integrated into BIM by conventional project management tools. To demonstrate the features of the suggested system, an RMCDP example was applied to solve that included four building sites, seven eligible concrete plants and three necessary RMC mixtures.

The system provides the optimum delivery schedule for multiple RMCs to multiple construction sites, as well as the optimum RMC quantities to be delivered, the quantities from each concrete plant that must be supplied, the best delivery routes, the optimum execution times for each construction site, and the total minimal costs, while also assuring the dynamic transfer of the optimized results back into the portfolio of multiple BIM projects. The system can generate as many solutions as needed by updating the real-time input parameters in terms of change of the routes, unit prices and availability of concrete plants.

The suggested system allows dynamic adjustments during the optimization process, andis adaptable to changes in input data also considering the real-time input data. The system is based on spreadsheets, which are widely used and common tool that most stakeholders already utilize daily, while also providing the possibility to apply a more specialized tool. Based on this, the RMCDP can be solved using both conventional and advanced optimization software, enabling the system to handle even large-scale tasks as necessary.