Life Cycle Canvas (LCC): análise de um modelo de gestão visual para o planejamento de projetos

Abstract

The organizations generally face several changes, especially in its structures, based on a scenario of increased competition and a need for organizational modernization. Within this context, the project management practices receive more attention and are adopted by these organizations. Planning is one of the most relevant stages of project management, because it defines the baseline for it´s execution, in addition to resolving the procedures for monitoring and control of the activities involved. However, in the absence of a project-oriented culture and of greater complexity inherent in the organizational context, the traditional practices of planning, such as the PMBOK Guide, present difficulties of adherence to this new scenario, while canvas-based models and visual tools gain space, by proposing a simple and flexible way to plan projects. Such models have your origin in Lean approach, linked to the operational management, and assumed a new concept, from the model Business Model Canvas (BMC), proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2011). Since then, several models and visual tools have been developed for planning, especially in the project management area. One of the recently created models is the Life Cycle Canvas (LCC), developed by Veras (2016), in which it proposes the project lifecycle management within a visual management logic, contemplating the practices suggested by the PMBOK guide. However, there is still a dearth of studies that prove that canvas-based visual models can be useful for project planning, and that at the same time contemplating the good practices suggested by traditional management approaches. In order to prove such a relationship, this research seeks to analyze the extent to which the Life Cycle Canvas (LCC) model, through visual management, facilitates project planning. For this, it was used a quantitative methodology deductive approach, by means of a survey conducted with 104 professionals who used the LCC model to plan projects, where the descriptive analysis, the Mann-Whitney U-test and the technique of Multiple linear regression analysis to analyze the data. The results showed that the LCC model adhered to the practices suggested by the PMBOK Guide. In relation to the use of tools to support project planning, the survey showed that the group of respondents who used these tools had a higher perception in relation to the LCC model, when compared to the group that did not utilize. The study also observed that the more the LCC model makes the information visible and transparent, it promotes communication between stakeholders and promotes coordination of work in designing the project, plus it facilitates project planning. These results reinforce the importance of using visual planning structures in project management, provided they contemplate the aspects related to practices already recognised in this field of expertise and that project managers can stimulate these benefits proposed by visual management.