Title: Significance of time and cost dimensions in pharmaceutical projects and prioritisation of project phases

Authors: Nasina Jigeesh; Nallam Sai Nandeswara Rao

Addresses: Department of Operations and Information Technology, Faculty of Management, IBS Hyderabad, Icfai Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), Dontanapalli, Shankerpalli Road, Hyderabad, Telangana, India ' Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., IDA Bollarum, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Abstract: The success of any project depends upon different dimensions like time, cost, quality and customer satisfaction. Of all these, time and cost have been treated as the most common and major tangible measures from the perspective of both developer and user. Each project phase has a unique set of activities and its successful completion will be influenced by such factors. This paper aims to examine the emphasis attributed to time and cost in handling different phases of pharmaceutical projects. From a survey around four big Indian pharmaceutical companies, useful feedback was collected. After weighing the importance of both time and cost dimensions, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to prioritise different phases of pharmaceutical projects. Results top ranked 'execution' phase followed by 'monitoring and control' phase. The findings are helpful to pharmaceutical project people in successfully completing different phases of projects on the basis of time and cost dimensions.

Keywords: project management; analytic hierarchy process; AHP; project phases; project success factors; pharmaceutical industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPOM.2018.092086

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 2018 Vol.10 No.2, pp.175 - 189

Received: 01 Jun 2017
Accepted: 03 Dec 2017
Published online: 31 May 2018 *

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