Proposing a Framework for Managing Technology Development Projects in Iran Oil and Gas Industry

Technology development projects, unlike many other kinds of projects don’t have pre-defined goals or clear implementation methods at the beginning of the project. Among other uncertainties that any project could have, technology development projects have a high degree of uncertainty in the definition of project. For this reason, conventional project management methods such as those provided in the PMBoK has little use in these projects. This paper describes the characteristics of a technology development project and processes that have been proposed in the literature to manage such projects, also two technology development projects of Iranian oil and gas industry have been studied in-depth and their management challenges are identified and analyzed. In order to solve the problems found in field studies and using the strengths of models like the new stage/gate, spiral development model and DoD extension to the PMBoK, a management model for technology development projects was designed presented after the validation process. Considering the iterative management cycles rather than linear management, using program management principals rather than project management, determining flexible time and budget within an acceptable threshold rather than determine the exact time and cost of the project, etc. are examples of features of the proposed model.