Nowadays, in different institutions of higher education there is a tendency towards quality, and even more so with the publication of the New University Law 30220, which reformed education to promote formative research. Managing the research and formative quality processes require tools, model and methods of management to achieve the academic management goals. This paper presents the process of selecting a project management model to restructure the academic environment. PMBOK was selected as the proposed method. This framework was adapted to manage the research process at two universities.