The scope of this project is to identify challenges experienced by three project managers from different Danish service companies and based upon these challenges design and develop a semi-functional prototype that solves the primary challenge on a conceptual level. The project deals with both a theoretical and a practical focus as we discuss a variety of underlying aspects of system development and furthermore design the actual prototype.
Our theory of science approach for this project is inspired by phenomenology and activity theory. By in- troducing various terms in the field of human resources we frame the project activity as a complex and compli- cated process. Furthermore we describe people as one of the primary success factors of a project. We conduct a two-folded preliminary study in order to explore the issues related to project management. Firstly, the prelimi- nary study consists of a presentation of the activity based upon a theoretical focus. Secondly it consists of quali- tative interviews with three project managers and three experts in the field of developing solutions for project managers. This preliminary study shows that project managers in Cyklistforbundet, DSB, and Falck find it diffi- cult to match project needs with expertise in-house. Especially finding the right person, with the right amount of information, for an assignment. This issue has been confirmed through three additional interviews with various experts.

Results from the preliminary study have been used to develop an idea for a web-based tool that solves the problem stated above. As a link between the first and the second part of this project a list of requirements has been presented. This list of requirements has been translated into a high-fidelity prototype, which has been de- veloped through an iterative process. Questions related to design such as data collection, expertise, matching algorithms, and ethics have been discussed. Additionally, a personality testing method, Enneagrammet, has been presented as a way of specifying information about a person’s soft skills. Tagging has also been used to specify a person’s expertise. Our answer to such questions has been presented through the development of Dilectus – the name of our prototype.

Dilectus is a semi-functional prototype that specifies information about personnel personality and exper- tise and lets project-managers search the database and thus potentially form better progect teams. We argue that a system that facilitates this process has to be modular as it can be complicated to reach a common understand- ing of how to define and evaluate personality and expertise. By making it modular it is possible to adjust Dilectus in terms of making it applicable to a variety of activities and across a variety of domains.

We conclude that it is possible to create a solution that concretizes information about employees and make it applicable by introducing Enneagrammet and expertise tagging. Dilectus is a system that makes it easier for project managers in companies like Cyklistforbundet, DSB, and Falck to find the right people for a specific task – matching people with project needs. Furthermore, we suggest that further research should be carried out in order to improve the way Dilectus as a modular framework specifies personnel expertise and personality. We suggest that Dilectus, as it continues its development, should be tested with different modules implemented in order to understand how Dilectus present it self to the user and how the activity unfolds. Which is in continua- tion of our theory of science approach.