Search results

Earned Value Management (EVM) is widely used as a project performance measurement and forecasting technique. Nonetheless, it has not been fully explored in Pakistani construction industry; where conventional progress reporting methodology (CPRM) is being followed having certain confines. It reports only the financial progress of a project, expresses feeble association between the duration and cost of activities, and forecasts flawed schedule and completion cost. This research implements EVM on under-construction building projects in Pakistan, and compares its upshots with the projects' actual records and with the outcomes of CPRM.

To assess the implementation of EVM on building projects, a set of specific criteria was established. Work Breakdown Structure, Organization Breakdown Structure and Control Points were established. The study has compared the EVM metrics with CPRM outcomes on three under-study building projects, and has deliberated on their mutual differences as well as their relationship with actual cost and schedule performance. Monthly figures of actual spending and completed activities were periodically recorded and compared with planned values for status indication. The graphs were generated to observe the correlation between the results of EVM and CPRM. The data was then extrapolated to forecast the schedule and cost values at completion.

The study discovered that trends of EVM in quantifying the project's cost and schedule performance were strongly correlated and were closer to the actual progress. It has also verified the EVM's soundness in forecasting the cost and schedule, required for project's completion. Contrarily, CPRM metrics could not precisely visualize the current and future, cost and schedule performance.

The case study concludes that EVM's incorporation in progress reporting regime can revolutionize the assessment procedures in Pakistan by rightly indicating the project's current status as well as visualizing the future performance. The study's methodology can also be extrapolated in other countries having similar work environment and economic conditions.

The authors analyze surveys completed by 181 members of 59 project teams from 57 hospitals. Results indicate that members of high‐cooperation teams were more likely to communicate informally; spend time brainstorming, exchanging project‐related information, and receiving performance feedback; positively evaluate the status of their project; and have positive feelings about their participation on the project team. Cooperation levels were highest when team leaders clearly explained project objectives and team member responsibilities; team leaders confronted conflicts among team members and worked to resolve those conflicts; team members clearly understood project objectives, responsibilities, and rewards; and team members did not have reservations about the project and its outcomes. Results also suggested that, in some groups, active involvement by senior managers negatively affected cooperation levels. This result may reflect a deference in some groups to the authority of senior management.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the project-space model as positively influencing sensemaking in the project context. There is currently minimal discussion of the tools used by project managers, teams and stakeholders to build their map of the project terrain or to make sense of a project’s status. However, such sensemaking is critical to ongoing decision making and aligning action in any project.

This paper uses framework analysis to examine the results of a completed action research case study that utilised a tool: the project-space model. Three frameworks are then utilised as an investigative lens to examine how the project-space model influenced sensemaking.

The project-space model is found to enhance sensemaking within the case study. Specifically, its visual nature, the focus it brings to the plurality of experience and the need for plausibility rather than precision in understanding.

The findings are based on a single case study. Further studies could be undertaken to confirm extensibility.

The project-space model is identified as having a favourable impact on sensemaking in the case study project. There is a need to consider what other tools are currently used or could be used by project teams to enhance sensemaking.

Empirical, contextualised case study research highlighting the value of the project-space model as a sensemaking tool. Contribution to evidence on the efficacy of the project-space model as a useful tool for project managers.

In this paper, we explore the effects of emerging digital technologies on professionalization within organizations. Specifically, we examine how the emergence of data analytics as a new cross-functional profession rooted in new digital technologies is challenging human resources (HR) as an established organizational profession. Our qualitative study reveals how rhetorical work and material work have established a symbiosis between data science and HR. Rather than leading to de-professionalization, new technologies are enabling HR practices to be augmented and new actors to be integrated into the professionalization project, thereby elevating the status of HR. These findings contribute to the literature on the role of technology in institutional theory and its influences on the professionalization.

The French higher education system has experienced reforms since the 2000s that gradually emphasized the executive power of universities and the centralization of decision-making. This culminated with the excellence initiatives (Idex) that concentrated 7.7 billion euros on only nine institutions to create “world-class” universities and made their leaders responsible for the local allocation of this substantial endowment. The universities’ executives had four years to complete changes in governance in order to see their institution permanently awarded the title and the funding of Idex. The hiring process is one of the elements that this policy impacted the most within these universities, enabling leaders to create new kinds of positions and control the hiring process. However, by looking at the hiring practices within three different Idex, we will show that collegiality did not disappear but rather it evolved: in the three cases, the closest colleagues have been marginalized but decision-making remained collective and in the hands of academics chosen by the university executives. Variations in the intensity of this evolution could be observed according to two dimensions. First, the scientific reputation of the university: the higher it is, the less collegiality is transformed. Second, the level of external pressures: the less collegial universities have relaxed their hiring practices after the evaluation that permanently granted them the label of Idex.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the implementation status of performance measurement and benchmarking in the Singapore construction industry and to provide some suggestions to increase the scale of implementation in these two areas.

A comprehensive literature review was first carried out, then a questionnaire was developed and 32 contractor firms participated in the survey.

It was found that contractor firms in Singapore do not practice performance measurement on a regular basis and there is no uniformity in calculation of performance metrics, leading to low usage of benchmarking.

One of the limitations faced during this study was the low number of companies that responded. Another limitation is that the size of projects analyzed tended to be focused towards a relatively small and medium scale.

Development of a standardized performance measurement and benchmarking system in Singapore is required. Also, common definitions are vital to enable uniform data collection and the meaningful comparison of performance.

This study will help the Singapore construction industry to remain competitive internationally and to continue to attract foreign investors for its capital projects.

Cities lying within conflict zones have continually faced hardships of both war aftermath and long-term sustainable reconstruction. Challenges have surpassed the typical question of recovery from post-conflict trauma, preserving urban heritage and iconic elements of the built environment, to face issues of critical decision making, rebuilding effectiveness and funding mechanisms, leading to time-consuming processes that lack adequate consistent long-term management. Some approaches have explored methods of effective long-term city reconstruction management but have not fully developed comprehensive approaches that alleviate the management of such complex processes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors devise an approach for the smart management of post-conflict city reconstruction. The authors focus on evaluation, strategic planning, reconstruction projects and implementation. The authors integrate building information modeling and geographic/geospatial information systems in a platform that allows for real-time analysis, reporting, strategic planning and decision making for managing reconstruction operations and projects among involved stakeholders including government agencies, funding organizations, city managers and public participants.

The approach suggested a smart management system for the reconstruction process of post-conflict cities. Implementing this system was shown to provide a multi-objective solution for post-conflict city reconstruction based on its interlinked modules.

Results may lack generalizability and require testing on several cases to provide rigorous findings for different case studies.

Implications include developing smart management systems for use by city managers and government authorities in post-conflict zones, as well as bottom-up decision making by including participant citizens especially populations in the diaspora.

The approach offers an integrated platform that informs city reconstruction decision makers, allowing for strategic planning tools for efficient planning, monitoring tools for continuous management during and after reconstruction, and effective platforms for communication among all stakeholders.

Project management is of growing importance as bureaucratic organisations pass through transition to be more flexible “network organisations”. Work is increasingly undertaken by groups and teams, and the focus of assessment shifts from input to output. In certain sectors, companies are coming to resemble portfolios of projects. This article considers a survey of the role and status of project management undertaken by Adaptation Ltd, for the Association of Project Managers. It concludes that project management requires distinct skills and competencies and that these will need to be developed by an increasing number of managers.

Academic library work has often been project-based; however, the interest and adoption of formalized project management techniques has come late to these organizations. The desired outcomes of good project management systems include excellent communication, organized work in manageable tasks, clear expectations, and responsible management of resources.

With an aim to improve on these elements, a new focus on project management at the University of Minnesota Libraries provided a unique opportunity to showcase the development of an informal, in-house set of standard processes for a large, academic institution. Honoring the processes found within individual departments and divisions was key to the work of the Project Management Processes Task Force that created common language and standard processes for project development and implementation to support the growing focus on cross-divisional, cross-departmental projects.

The outcome of this work was to greatly streamline the ability of any staff member to successfully develop and move project proposals from idea to completion. Transparency of process led to stronger understanding of not only project status but also key stage gates and decision points to ensure projects stay on track in supporting the Libraries’ strategic planning. The clarity in scope and the outcomes of projects creates more potential for the Libraries to align their work with that of the University as a whole. Well-developed and implemented project management standard processes create stronger connections between all library units, through consistencies of practice and language, as well as shared expectations and outcomes, by both staff and administrators.

The University of Minnesota Libraries’ process for developing practical project management processes identifies the benefits of this approach for similar organizations as well as outlining specific methods for implementing a set of standards within academic libraries.

This paper aims to present a conceptual framework of how software teams can leverage the implicit information of implemented acceptance tests to cater to the needs of decision makers. The research questions on this framework were how business stakeholders can receive project status information in an intuitive way and how this framework can guarantee the traceability of tests to requirements.

The conceptual framework delineates the design of an acceptance test framework in three aspects: how the requirements model reflects the evolving states of requirement maturity over a project, how the acceptance test model becomes synchronized with the requirements model without a traceability matrix and how the acceptance test model communicates business value to the decision makers.

In an industrial case study, the presented framework yielded the positive effects of intuitive understanding by business stakeholders, high test coverage of requirements and distinctly reduced manual quality assurance (QA) work by automated testing for browsers and mobile devices.

The presented framework can help to convince business stakeholders to approve the budget for building a testing framework because it delivers them value as a status reporting tool.

This paper is the first to describe a step-by-step approach to solving a critical problem that IT departments frequently face. The solution consists in a new way of transforming the perception of a technical framework into a reporting tool for business information by intuitive design. The idea of mapping hierarchically corresponding abstraction layers can be transferred to other engineering domains.