Program and project management in a fast-paced luxury e-commerce company - Master’s Dissertation

Sep 11, 2026

Globalization and the fast growth of luxury e-commerce have driven FARFETCH to face “growing pains” caused by multiple initiatives running in parallel, leading to non-standard project/program management, scarce documentation, and limited visibility into execution. The dissertation formulates recommendations to improve program and project management within Creative Operations Strategy (CROPS), while also outlining broader guidance for other departments. The work analyzes the FPS Enterprise Level program and proposes improvements across documentation, program and project life cycles, and the project management office.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages80

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Scope and problem context

CROPS Strategy recommendations

Study basis and improvement streams

Keywords

Program and project management in a fast-paced luxury e-commerce company Bruna Xavier Fonseca Master’s Dissertation Supervisor at FEUP: Prof. José Pedro Coelho Rodrigues Supervisor at FARFETCH: Cláudia Ferreirinha Master in Industrial Engineering and Management 2022-07-11 Abstract As a result of globalization and the growth of luxury e-commerce, FARFETCH (FF) has faced rapid growth and therefore growing pains. Some of these growing pains are related to the amount of different initiatives happening simultaneously. For that reason, FF is a company that has, for example, numerous projects being developed per semester. Regardless of this fact, there are different teams at FF which are responsible for project and program management, and even within each team, the way projects/ programs are managed is not standard, documentation is at times scarce, and overall visibility on projects’ execution is low. Thus, some problems inherently arise. This dissertation focuses on creating recommendations to improve program and project management in Creative Operations (CROPS) Strategy, which is a key support area to FF’s CROPS department, responsible for providing all the content to the platform. CROPS Strategy is responsible for evolving how CROPS discusses and decides the future, aligning how to achieve it, and coordinating its implementation. Notwithstanding, this work also considers wider recommendations that could be applied to other departments at FF, based on an in-depth literature review and best practices from both traditional and disruptive methodologies, such as agile and lean. The inherent challenge is in balancing the necessary standardization of the way to do program and project management and the flexibility required by the fast-changing culture at FF. The basis of study for this work was the FPS Enterprise Level program. This program was developed with a focus on internally improving the CROPS teams, processes, tools, and ways of working (WoW) to support the expected growth for the FARFETCH Platform Solutions (FPS) business unit based on this business unit growth vision. FPS is a business unit founded in 2015 in which FF sells its capabilities and technology expertise directly to brands to provide them with a world-leading platform and end-to-end commerce solutions. After four months of analysis of the project and program management operation in the CROPS Strategy team and doing an intensive literature review, a list of improvements was developed, which immediately began to be implemented. The output was grouped into four streams: 1) documentation, 2) program life cycle, 3) project life cycle, and finally, 4) project management office. The framework used allowed to understand the process’s main weaknesses, provide guidance to improve the process and plan the path for FF to achieve this huge improvement potential. Keywords: program management; project management; fast-paced context; agile. Resumo Como resultado da globalização e do crescimento do comércio eletrónico de luxo, a FARFETCH (FF) tem enfrentado um crescimento rápido e, portanto, dores de crescimento. Algumas destas dores de crescimento estão relacionadas com a quantidade de iniciativas diferentesque acontecem ao mesmo tempo e, por essa razão, a FF é uma empresa que tem, por exemplo, muitos projetos em desenvolvimento por semestre. Independentemente deste facto, existem diferentes equipas na FF que são responsáveis pela gestão de projetos e programas e mesmodentro de cada equipa a forma como os projetos/ programas são geridos não está padronizada, a documentação é por vezes escassa e a visibilidade geral sobre a execução dos projetos é baixa. Assim, alguns problemas surgem intrinsecamente. Esta dissertação centra-se na criação recomendações de melhoria para melhorar a gestão deprogramas e projetos na equipa Creative Operations (CROPS) Strategy, que é uma equipa chave deapoio ao departamento de CROPS, a área responsável por fornecer todo o

FAQs

What main issues does the dissertation identify in FARFETCH’s project and program management?

It finds that many projects run simultaneously without standardized management practices, documentation is sometimes scarce, and overall visibility on execution is low.

Which area and team does the dissertation focus on for its improvement recommendations?

The recommendations target program and project management in Creative Operations (CROPS) Strategy, a key support area that provides content to the FARFETCH platform.

How are the proposed improvements organized after the analysis?

The output is grouped into four streams: documentation, program life cycle, project life cycle, and the project management office.

Sep 11, 2026

Uploaded by Jordan Avery