Agile Project Management Framework Research Articles

The Impact of Cognitive Distortions on Decision Making in Agile Project Management Frameworks: Current Positions and Perspectives in the Academic Community

The purpose of the study is to review the current positions and views of the scientific community regarding the influence of cognitive distortions (both individual and group) on decision-making within such an approach to project management as agile framework. The article defines the concepts of “project”, “project management”, “agile project management framework”, “heuristics”, “cognitive distortions”; it describes what kind of decisions (according to the hierarchical structure) can be made when using agile project management frameworks. On the basis of analysis of a number of scientific works, the existence of the problem of success (efficiency) of implemented (including IT) projects even if modern flexible frameworks of project management are used is fixed. The author of the study considers the concept of heuristics and cognitive distortions (both individual and group), describes the manifestation of individual and group cognitive biases, gives examples of individual and group cognitive biases’ impact to decisions taken in Agile project management. As a result, the author proposes a classification of likely to manifest individual and group cognitive biases at each of the three levels of decision-making in Agile (according to the hierarchical structure): operational decisions, tactical decisions, strategic decisions. The author also provides an overview of the development of decision-making theory and describes three main approaches to the consideration of the empirical decision-making process: according to D. Kahneman and A. Tversky (heuristic approach; behavioral economics), according to G. Gigerenzer (ecological rationality approach), according to G. Klein (naturalistic approach). The author also identifies a possible further vector for the development of research in this direction. The result of the work was the classification of probable individual and group cognitive distortions at each of the three levels of decision-making in flexible project management frameworks (according to the hierarchical structure): operational, tactical, and strategic.

The nexus between success factors and adoption of Agile project management framework: A moderated perceived compatibility paradox from the Omani oil and gas industry

Recently, Agile project management has received significant academic and industry attention from due to its advantages, such as decreased costs and time, increased effectiveness, and adaptiveness towards challenging business environments. This study primarily aims to investigate the relationship between the success factors and Agile project management methodology adoption and examine the moderating effect of perceived compatibility. The technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and technology acceptance theories (UTAUT, IDT, and TAM) were applied as the theoretical foundation of the current study. A survey questionnaire method was employed to achieve the study objectives, while quantitative primary data were gathered using a carefully designed methodological approach focusing on Omani oil and gas industry. The PLS-SEM technique and SmartPLS software were used for hypotheses testing and data analysis. Resultantly, readiness, technology utilization, organizational factors, and perceived compatibility were the significant factors that promoted Agile methodology adoption in the oil and gas industry. Perceived compatibility moderated the relationship between success factors and Agile methodology. The findings suggested that people, technology, and organizational factors facilitate the Agile methodology under the technology acceptance theories and frameworks. Relevant stakeholders should adopt the study outcomes to improve Agile methodology adoption.

A descriptive report of the rapid implementation of automated MRC-ICU calculations in the EMR of an academic medical center.

Numerous clinical scoring tools exist for a variety of patient populations and disease states, but few tools provide information specifically designed for use by critical care pharmacists. The medication regimen complexity-intensive care unit (MRC-ICU) score was designed to provide high-level information about the complexity of critically ill patients' medication regimens for use by critical care pharmacists. To date, implementation of this score in the electronic medical record (EMR) has not been reported. Using an agile project management framework, the MRC-ICU score was rapidly implemented into an academic medical center's EMR. The score is automatically calculated for all critically ill patients and is available for critical care pharmacists to triage patient review in their individual workflow. Reporting capabilities of the score also allow for granular complexity trending over time and between units, supplementing other objective measures of pharmacist workload. The MRC-ICU score can be quickly implemented into the EMR for pharmacist use in real time. Future investigations into how pharmacists utilize this information and how to harness reporting capabilities for pharmacist workload assessment are warranted.

Development of Agile Project Management Framework in Oil and Gas Companies in Kuwait

The Petroleum industry requires construction and renovation of 'upstream' and 'downstream' facilities. Kuwait Oil Company is dealing with the exploration and manufacturing of crude oil & natural gas. EPC projects perform an essential role in the technology of new physical amenities to keep or decorate production. Project administration has developed incredibly over time due to several strategies to deal with building activities. Schedule and Budget are the two most important concerns required to be optimised all through execution. Therefore, a very excellent & efficient challenge management system is wished and has to be framed to deal with the fundamental capital construction projects. In effect, help the organisation makes have an impact on the country's economy.

Real World Scrum A Grounded Theory of Variations in Practice

Scrum, the most popular agile method and project management framework, is widely reported to be used, adapted, misused, and abused in practice. However, not much is known about how Scrum actually works in practice, and critically, where, when, how and why it diverges from Scrum by the book. Through a Grounded Theory study involving semi-structured interviews of 45 participants from 30 companies and observations of five teams, we present our findings on how Scrum works in practice as compared to how it is presented in its formative books. We identify significant variations in these practices such as work breakdown, estimation, prioritization, assignment, the associated roles and artefacts, and discuss the underlying rationales driving the variations. Critically, we claim that not all variations are process misuse/abuse and propose a nuanced classification approach to understanding variations as standard, necessary, contextual, and clear deviations for successful Scrum use and adaptation

Towards a hybrid project management framework: A systematic literature review on traditional, agile and hybrid techniques

It is the state of the practice in these turbulent times to combine different approaches and project management methods into hybrid and adaptive methods according to the specific needs of the project and the project team. The objective of the present work is to investigate this practice conducting a systematic literature review on project management methods, hybrid agile methods, method tailoring and innovative processes to tailor methodologies. We applied a systematic analysis of the existent research published during period 2000 – 2020 following similar approaches of several scholars. 1.121 articles published from 2000 until 2020 were collected after exhaustive literature search. However, 98 of them were selected for further investigation according to the criteria selection. Results provide key insights and background on agile project management frameworks as well as challenges and best practices implementing an inhouse hybrid agile project management framework. We anticipate the present work to constitute a useful source of information to PM scientists and practitioners. Results identify new dimensions emerging of the synthesis of project management aspects and provide key insights on traditional and agile project management frameworks as well as challenges and best practices implementing an inhouse tailored hybrid agile project management framework. This work contributes to the body of knowledge about the organization mainly of agile and hybrid approaches. We analyzed the found descriptions thoroughly regarding their characteristics and their organization.

Agile Project Management in University-Industry Collaboration Projects

Both disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge is needed in order for a student to succeed as a professional after graduation. Interdisciplinary knowledge, such as project management skills are important in working life regardless the competence area. In order for a student to gain competences relevant for working life, both traditional and agile project management frameworks should be a part of their studies – in theory and in practice. In this article, a case study is presented on the integration of an agile project management framework into university-industry collaboration projects. First, the methodologies used in theFIRMA are introduced. Thereafter, the activities and the roles of theFIRMA are described and an externally funded R&D project is presented. Finally, the experiences of past and current activities are discussed, and future development thoughts are presented.

Challenges of Applying Agile Principles and Values to IT Project Management

The theoretical part of this paper focuses on a macro-analysis of the Agile system philosophy, one of the most popular project management frameworks from the software industry. The second part of the paper consists of a case study analyzing the practices of the Agile framework within a corporation at the level of software production. As far as methodology is concerned, the qualitative research was conducted through a case study of a team in a distributed context (“cross-team”). Participant observation was used as a tool for collecting the data about the individuals and the processes within the teams. The purpose of the research was to analyze the current state of implementation, the benefits and challenges of using the Agile project management framework and also the needs of software development teams within a multinational company. At the same time, the paper analyzes the redefinition of roles by applying the Agile project management framework within the distributed teamwork organization. The research aims to identify the underlying reasons for the choice of the Agile type of management instead of Lean management within the software development industry, focusing on the level of implementation of the Agile/Scrum methodology and principles in distributed teams.

An integrated model for an advanced production process - Agile Re-engineering Project Management

In recent years, the most common need for companies consists in an increasingly efficient business process management and its continuous improvement. Companies are achieving this goal by implementing innovative approaches targeted on the individual project requirements. In this scenario, the present research aims to investigate, through a real pilot project, the benefits of implementing the agile project management (APM) framework based on a multi tools approach in order to re-engineering a business process (BPR). A real case study concerning a manufacturing plant is analyzed, in order to assess and highlight the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Building Information Modelling in Agile Environments - an Example of Event Management at the Airport of Tempelhof

The concept of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is heavily promoted but rarely used in the Facility Management (FM) industry. Especially for event locations, where FM and Event Management organizations have to collaborate within a short period in a highly flexible manner with various external partners and public authorities. Hence, applying the method of BIM for Event Management is even more difficult compared to regular building operations. As a first attempt to dissolve this issue, the presented article emphasizes on the adoption of agile project management framework for BIM-based Event Management, where the focus lays on the creation of a suitable Building Information Model (BIM Model), at one hand for general FM, on the other hand for event management purposes. The paper shows results of a collaborative research project BIM4Events founded by KiraDIGI between the HTW Berlin, Berlin Airport of Tempelhof and Metropolia UAS Helsinki, as a Scrum-based BIM Model development at the case of a public event, ‘Sommerfest – Tag der offenen Tür’, organized in September 2018.

A MODEL FOR TEACHING SPEAKING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (INFORMATION SECURITY) USING BUSINESS GAME

While teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) at the university, it is important to find the ways to increase students’ intrinsic motivation, so that they understood why it is important for them to learn the foreign language and how they might use their communication skills at work. A model of teaching English using business game developed for students whose speciality is connected with information technologies (IT) and information security is analysed in the article. The model is based on task-based learning and interdisciplinary connections of different cycle disciplines: “English for specific purposes” and “Information security quality assurance technologies”, thus providing situations that might occur in students’ professional life. The business game, which includes simulation of eight business meetings adapted from Agile software development methodologies and project management framework Scrum, was implemented in teaching English for specific purposes to third year students of the institute of physics and technology, National t echnical u niversity of Ukraine “ Kyiv p olytechnic i nstitute ”. The article outlines the stages of the business game (preparation, business game itself and feedback) and its framework . Procedure of calculating time allotted to the business game is described and justified.

Agile Project Management for IT Projects in SMEs: A Framework and Success Factors

Project management methods have been developed from industry practices and international standards to ensure a higher rate of success for information technology projects. These have been widely used in large organisations effectively. However, when projects are implemented in a small or medium-sized enterprise environment, there is often a lack of an established method of project management or skilled project implementers who can use methods used in large organisations. As project workers find themselves pressured to become more responsive to business demands, it is becoming commonplace for smaller organisations to forgo formal project management practices. This is often due to the fact that small projects are viewed as simple to deploy, suffer from a lack of resources, or are given low prioritisation by the organisation. Additionally, the current project management standards are frequently perceived by SMEs as complicated and overly bureaucratic, something undesirable in regards to timeconstrained or low-budget projects. Agile development is one solution to the problem of overly complex methods that has recently been adopted in the field of software production, and has gained considerable popularity with smaller organisations. Through action research conducted in two closely-related SMEs in Austria, a final agile project management framework was produced in the end of the study. The developed framework consists of four phases of initiating phase (addressing objectives), planning phase (focusing on project backlog), executing and controlling phase (looking at iterative project cycles), and closing phase (working on project deliverables). Meanwhile some suggestions associated with the success of the developed agile project management framework are presented as well.

Agile methods for software practice transformation

In a large-scale distributed complex software engineering environment, the ability to rapidly evaluate and improve software engineering practices can be a key market differentiator. Practices that shorten the development cycle, cost-effectively improve quality, and align software with customer needs can have a direct impact on the business value delivered by the enterprise. The IBM Quality Software Engineering (QSE) organization motivates and enables teams across IBM business units and geographies to adopt recommended software engineering practices. QSE has historically established communities and used well-known organizational change management principles to help teams adopt and use recommended practices. In 2008 and 2009, QSE discovered that blending well-known organizational change management principles with agile software development principles enables communities to more consistently deliver significant value to their members. QSE Communities use Scrum, which is an agile project management framework, to prioritize their work on the basis of the communities' needs, plan their work every two weeks and then deliver value at the end of every two-week Sprint (iteration), demonstrate results, and obtain feedback and continuously improve by reflecting and identifying improvement actions at the end of each Sprint. Combining Scrum with proven steps to organizational change management has allowed QSE to rapidly motivate and enable software engineering improvements across IBM.