Different Types Of Projects Research Articles

Towards an Evaluation-Based Framework of Collaborative Archaeology

AbstractCollaborative archaeology is a growing field within the discipline, albeit one that is rarely analyzed. Although collaborative approaches are varied and diverse, we argue that they can all share a single methodological framework. Moreover, we suggest that collaborative archaeology projects can be evaluated to determine the variety among projects and to identify the elements of engaged research. We provide two case studies emphasizing project evaluation: (1) inter-project evaluation of community-engagement in British Columbia archaeology and (2) intra-project evaluation of co-management archaeology projects in Western Australia. The two case studies highlight that project evaluation is possible and that a single framework can be applied to many different types of projects. Collaborative archaeology requires analysis and evaluation to determine what facilitates engagement to further the discipline and to create better connections between archaeologists and community members. The discussed case studies illustrate two shared methods for accomplishing this. The paper argues that collaborative approaches are necessary for advancing archaeological practice.

The Role of Project and Organizational Context in Managing High‐tech R&D Projects

High‐tech organizations often struggle to manage different types of R&D projects. Evidence from research and practice suggests that managers frequently categorize and manage projects based on the extent of change triggered in product, process, technology, and market dimensions. However, this can create challenges in high‐tech organizations. This study investigates how high‐tech organizations manage R&D projects based on their learning goals. First, we argue for the benefits of categorizing R&D projects based on the degree of exploration and exploitation learning goals. A qualitative case study from four high‐tech business units involving 10 R&D projects helps understand the different types of projects based on their learning goals. The case study shows that R&D projects in high‐tech organizations typically fall into three categories based on their learning goals: Radical innovation projects, Incremental innovation projects, and Hybrid projects. Second, we iterate between literature and evidence from our qualitative data to theorize how project context and organizational context affect project performance depending on the type of project. The data for the empirical analysis come from a multilevel survey of 110 R&D projects across 34 high‐tech business units. Results show the importance of designing project and organizational context differently for the three types of R&D projects. Collectively, this study offers a new perspective on how to manage high‐tech R&D projects.

Developing a Framework for Financial Achievability of Department of Transportation Research and Development Projects

A financial analysis framework was developed to allow departments of transportation to assess research projects better. The framework recognizes that the research process contains multiple stages of decision making, and the framework details the information needed at each stage. The framework is described as it applies to each step in the research process: identifying potential research projects, evaluating research proposals, monitoring ongoing research projects, and evaluating final research reports. The framework also considers the decision to implement the research and its potential effects on employees. The application of the framework is illustrated with several Florida Department of Transportation research projects that involve the development of a multipurpose survey vehicle for evaluation of Florida roadways. This illustration allows for an explanation of each step in the framework with actual data from research reports and other internal or external sources. Although the framework is flexible and can be adapted for use in evaluating different types of projects, some judgment will be required when the specific inputs to the model are considered. Successful implementation of the framework will require focused data collection with emphasis on identifying the potential net benefits of research projects.

Using a Kansei-driven Approach for New Concept Development Activities: What It Implies for Industrial Projects

In this article, twenty-seven experience-centered industrial design projects leading to kansei representations were analyzed. Information was gathered from interviews with former project team members and from an analysis of the projects' final reports. All of the projects involved at least the Toyota Motor Europe - Kansei Design (TME-KD) division. Three types of projects were identified: exploratory concept, product lining strategy, and pre-development direction. For each project groups, the analysis detailed specificities in terms of context (purpose, design team members), design activities (information, generation, evaluation & decision, communication), and regarding the nature of their outputs (kansei representation) and the type of design information they conveyed. This led to a comparison of the different types of projects and a discussion about the kansei-related design information exchange in early design stages. A model of kansei-related design information based on these discussions is finally presented.

Managerial Style Profiles of Successful Project Managers: A Survey

Abstract This study examines the managerial style profiles of successful project managers in different types of projects. The research is carried out by means of a survey addressed to project management practitioners of different countries. This questionnaire includes thirteen questions about managerial preferences, and each question inquiries two opposite options (e.g., preference for making decisions based more on logic or on emotions). This questionnaire was developed based on Jung's personality theory. The answer to each question is gathered by means of a 5-point Likert scale. Seventy eight responses were collected from project managers with a minimum experience of 3 or more years in different fields or industries. Out of these data, it was concluded that most successful project managers have common core traits as extroversion, rational judging and structured behaviors. Differences by project field and years of experience were also accounted for further categorization and research.

Importance of Projects for Public Health Institutes in Transitional Countries: Case of the Public Health Institute of Republika Srpska

Like many public healthcare facilities in South-Eastern Europe, the Public Health Institute of Republika Srpska (PHI RS) has recently faced the problem of irregular inflow of funds from the state budget and health insurance fund and had to seek for additional sources of funding. The objective of this paper is to assess the importance of projects for operation of the public health institutes in transitional countries where multiple donors are active, based on the PHI RS’s case. The RS PHI has recently assumed five different roles during projects. In the role of the final project beneficiary, the RS PHI was one of the target organizations who were to benefit from premises renovation, equipment delivery, strengthening of staff capacities, exchange of experience and practices through study visits, improvement of legal environment or advancing its position in the health system. As the project partner, the PHI RS has used its unique position in the health system to attract project funding. The PHI RS has as contractor provided its services under different projects. Occasionally, the PHI RS has been the resource center that provided experts needed for implementation of the projects. It promoted the PHI RS’s expertise and helped the PHI RS to retain and reward its most qualified staff. Potentially the most beneficial role for the PHI RS is the one of the main applicant for projects. All other roles have supported building of the PHI RS’s capacity to take the role of the lead applicant in different types of projects. In transitional countries where donors do not pool their funds, the public health institutes have a chance to exploit availability of multiple sources of financing and to benefit from parallel participation in different projects.

A multivariate statistical framework for the analysis of software effort phase distribution

ContextIn software project management, the distribution of resources to various project activities is one of the most challenging problems since it affects team productivity, product quality and project constraints related to budget and scheduling. ObjectiveThe study aims to (a) reveal the high complexity of modelling the effort usage proportion in different phases as well as the divergence from various rules-of-thumb in related literature, and (b) present a systematic data analysis framework, able to offer better interpretations and visualisation of the effort distributed in specific phases. MethodThe basis for the proposed multivariate statistical framework is Compositional Data Analysis, a methodology appropriate for proportions, along with other methods like the deviation from rules-of-thumb, the cluster analysis and the analysis of variance. The effort allocations to phases, as reported in around 1500 software projects of the ISBSG R11 repository, were transformed to vectors of proportions of the total effort and were analysed with respect to prime project attributes. ResultsThe proposed statistical framework was able to detect high dispersion among data, distribution inequality and various interesting correlations and trends, groupings and outliers, especially with respect to other categorical and continuous project attributes. Only a very small number of projects were found close to the rules-of-thumb from the related literature. Significant differences in the proportion of effort spent in different phrases for different types of projects were found. ConclusionThere is no simple model for the effort allocated to phases of software projects. The data from previous projects can provide valuable information regarding the distribution of the effort for various types of projects, through analysis with multivariate statistical methodologies. The proposed statistical framework is generic and can be easily applied in a similar sense to any dataset containing effort allocation to phases.

A study of the impact of project classification on project risk indicators

Project risk management is essential for ensuring project success. Current risk management tools lack predictive ability to indicate potential risks before the start of a project. This study was conducted to determine whether or not project classification, which is known at the outset of a project, can be used by project managers to proactively identify likely risk events in engineering design projects. This study compared the types of risk events experienced during the project, using risk indicators, when undertaking three different types of projects: compliance, operational, and strategic projects. Risk indicators were developed to capture circumstances (risk events) with potential predictive power about the likelihood of a risk occurring during a given project. Interviews were conducted with employees involved in eleven engineering design projects, within a single organization. Interview notes were transcribed, and risk events were identified and coded using a set of risk indicator codes. Codes were summarized at the project level and compared based on the project classification. The results indicate that the type of risk events occurring in projects does vary based on project classification. Both the type and frequency of risk indicators were found to vary based on project classification. These results suggest that risk management plans can be customized, at the outset of the project based on project classification, which may increase the likelihood of project success.

Challenges of Cost Management in Complex Projects

Contingency approaches for understanding complexity in projects are intended to help academics and practitioners make distinctions between different types of projects to better understand the relationship between practices and outcomes when applying different project management processes. In this paper, we build on existing research on complex products and systems (CoPS) to address the challenges of managing costs in projects of varying complexity. Based on a qualitative case study, we identify several challenges in performing various cost management functions related to cost estimation, cost control and monitoring, revenue recognition, profitability analysis and margin calculation. The cost management functions are impacted by the large size, complexity, uncertainty and uniqueness of those projects.

Project specification: creativity and rhetoric in scientific research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify different types of project in relation to their degree of specification and the creative possibilities that more highly specified projects offer researchers. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the limitations of project management methods when managing research in relation to creativity. If projects are rigorously formulated and fulfill the requirements of project management, they may be compared to a mechanical task in which active decision making no longer applies. The conceptual framework develops the study of the spaces of creativity that research projects offer based on intentional action in which the notion of project is considered to be more flexible than that of more traditional approaches, and the notion of judgment is seen as a source of creativity. The empirical research presents the study of two scientific projects and compares their degree of the goal and task specification, the time required to specify them and how creativity emerges from routinized activities. Findings – The spaces of creative possibilities in projects are related in two ways: first, these spaces are related to a critical view of the concepts of repeated action and routines, and second, they are related to the ways researchers use projects and the methods of project management not only as a method but also as a form of rhetoric. Originality/value – Constituting a contribution to organizational change and innovation theory that enlarges the concept of project and brings understanding of how researchers define their projects, confront project specifications and are creative in a constrained framework.

Analytic Hierarchy Process Decision-Making Framework for Procurement Strategy Selection in Building Maintenance Work

AbstractThis paper presents a study of selection of procurement method in building maintenance management for public universities in Malaysia through the use of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM), particularly the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). There are many different types of procurement methods that have been developed to overcome the weaknesses of the existing procurement method and to meet the range of service requirement. The decision makers are faced with challenges when it comes to selecting the most appropriate procurement method for a specific building as different types of procurement methods suit different types of projects. This research seeks to investigate the current practices of the available procurement methods for building maintenance work in public universities and identify the procurement selection criteria to develop an effective decision-making framework. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 20 public universities in Malaysia with 85% response rate to identify and val...

Transaction-Cost Approach to the Comparative Analysis of User-Pay and Government-Pay Public-Private Partnership Systems

Government-pay and user-pay public-private partnership (P3) systems have been employed as the main conduits for channelling private capital to finance the provision of public services throughout the world. In efficiency terms, they are suited to different types of projects. This paper develops a model to illuminate the condition under which one route would perform better than the other. If both of them are instituted into law, governance alignment should emerge in the long run. However, in Taiwan government-pay P3 systems are not a lawful route, forcing the government to employ user-pay P3 systems regardless of project types. This gives researchers an unusual opportunity to examine what would happen as a result of an inappropriate choice of P3 models. This paper makes a theoretical innovation in the identification of a conflict of interest indicator as an attribute for differentiating the relative efficacy of two types of P3 systems. This result sheds light on the way value for money assessment should be conducted for user-pay P3 projects.

Diferentes objetivos, diferentes apropriações? O uso do Facebook por iniciativas civis de democracia digital no Brasil

This article analyzes how Brazilian bottom- up initiatives of digital democracy use Facebook in their activities. It aims to see how the tool is appropriated by the different types of projects, and if its use is consistent with its purpose of political action. Over six months, we analyzed the performance of Meu Rio, Cidade Democrática and Rede Nossa São Paulo. In total, 951 posts were categorized according to their thematic focus. At the end, it was found that there is a predominance of informative posts.Keywords: Facebook, social network sites, e-democracy.

Evaluation of public policy advocacy: challenges, principles and BEST-AC case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that both the processes and outcomes of advocacy can be evaluated in ways that can help with learning and accountability. The paper reviews the literature on evaluating advocacy, with a particular focus on development work, and describes an example of the systematic evaluation of the Business Environment Strengthening in Tanzania-Advocacy Component business advocacy programme in Tanzania. Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation uses a Scientific Realist methodology to give a disaggregated, contextual analysis of advocacy, asking the typically Scientific Realist question: “What works for whom in what circumstances?” Complementary methods are being applied longitudinally over a five-year period and include stakeholder interviews, business surveys, diagnostic tools and learning seminars. Findings – The paper argues that advocacy evaluation is no more complex or difficult than other aspects of development. Rigorous, cost-effective methods can be developed, so long as clear conceptualisation is carried out as an initial step. Systematic analysis of influencing tactics and capacity building demonstrates the relative skill of the advocacy organisations and allows the funder to see intermediate indicators of progress which are otherwise invisible. Practical implications – Consistent conceptualisation and measurement allow comparison over time, and between different types of projects and organisations. Integrating methods with the operation of campaigns or programmes allows the evaluator to give feedback in real time and minimise the burden on evaluands. Originality/value – The paper is based on original research/evaluation. The field is heavily concentrated on social change. The paper makes a contribution by providing an example of advocacy evaluation in the field of business advocacy and economic development. In addition, the example extends the field of advocacy evaluation by considering the systematic evaluation of a whole programme of individual advocacy projects.

Use of evidence-based practice in an aid organisation

As part of its strategy Belgian Red Cross-Flanders underpins all its activities with evidence-based guidelines and systematic reviews. The aim of this publication is to describe in detail the methodology used to achieve this goal within an action-oriented organisation, in a timely and cost-effective way. To demonstrate transparency in our methods, we wrote a methodological charter describing the way in which we develop evidence-based materials to support our activities. Criteria were drawn up for deciding on project priority and the choice of different types of projects (scoping reviews, systematic reviews and evidence-based guidelines). While searching for rigorous and realistically attainable methodological standards, we encountered a wide variety in terminology and methodology used in the field of evidence-based practice. Terminologies currently being used by different organisations and institutions include systematic reviews, systematic literature searches, evidence-based guidelines, rapid reviews, pragmatic systematic reviews, and rapid response service. It is not always clear what the definition and methodology is behind these terms and whether they are used consistently. We therefore describe the terminology and methodology used by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders; criteria for making methodological choices and details on the methodology we use are given. In our search for an appropriate methodology, taking into account time and resource constraints, we encountered an enormous variety of methodological approaches and terminology used for evidence-based materials. In light of this, we recommend that authors of evidence-based guidelines and reviews are transparent and clear about the methodology used. To be transparent about our approach, we developed a methodological charter. This charter may inspire other organisations that want to use evidence-based methodology to support their activities.

An analysis of project selection and assignment criteria of Danish tenders in Europe

Public construction agencies are one of the largest developers within the Danish construction industry, where such agencies own and develop new public construction projects. Most of these projects are put out in European tender. This study analyses the selection and assignment criteria employed by these agencies in different types of public sector projects.Some of the objectives pursued by the study include the determination of 1/ the selection and assignment criteria mostly used in Danish public tenders 2/how different types of projects use selection and assignment criteria in the bidding process, and 3/any significant difference between the use of selection and assignment criteria in Danish public construction projects. The study uses a quantitative research approach where 157 Danish public tender cases were selected from the European Tenders Electronic Daily database between the period: January 2010 to March 2013. Fisher's Exact Test was conducted to determine if there was any significant use of some selection and assignment criteria. The findings of the study showed that invited tenders with pre-qualification and lowest pricein 69.8% of the tenders are the most used selection and assignment criteria, with little regard to project type.

Study on Technical Disclosure in Construction Based on BIM

The importance of technical disclosure in construction of project is described and the necessity of application of BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology used in technical disclosure is analyzed correspondingly. Many actual cases of technical disclosure in construction used BIM technology in our company with its application are discussed subsequently. The results show that the BIM technology can simplify the procedures of technical disclosure on the construction phase, and multi-software work together based on BIM provides a guidance for different types of projects. Many advantages of BIM such as construction simulation, 3D roaming can improve the quality of technical disclosure. Finally, recommendations and requirements for the specific implementation of BIM on the construction phase are proposed: the BIM model for technical disclosure is the most unique model in the entire life cycle; the locally refined extent is much more than the final completion model, which should be paid more attention to in the whole process of program development when BIM implemented.

Key attributes underpinning different markup decision between public and private projects: A China study

In the construction industry, contractors have to improve the efficiency of markup decision-making to survive from fierce business competition. The effect of client type on markup decision has been aware in previous studies and contractors are advocated to take account of decision factors properly when they are confronted with different types of projects. Nevertheless, the rationales behind the inclusion of different factors in markup decision-making for different projects are unknown. In this study, fifty-three factors were identified after extensive literature review and interviews with professionals. The identified factors were afterwards grouped under the headings of nine attributes and compiled in a questionnaire for survey in China. Using the Hotelling's T-square test, it is found that three attributes (i.e., project characteristic, client characteristic, and macro condition) can explain the effect of client type on contractors' markup decision. The research findings provide useful insights into the cognition of bid pricing as well as the improvement of bidding efficiency. While the research works were situated in China, contractors in other countries could benefit from the research findings in a similar vein.

A Model‐Based Approach to Unifying Disparate Project Management Tools for Project Classification and Customized Management

AbstractModern project managers are aware that different types of projects need different styles of project management. A construction project is very different from a high‐tech research program in several ways, including how each is managed. The NTCP “Diamond” framework (Novelty‐Technology‐Complexity‐Pace) suggests classifying complex projects according to four dimensions such that the values attributed to each of these dimensions indicate a recommended style of management for increasing the likelihood of the project's success. It may be difficult to attribute values to these four dimensions in a large and complex project, which calls for systematic analysis of the project as part of its planning phase. The object‐process methodology (OPM) caters to such systematic step‐by‐step analysis by decomposing a project into its fundamental building blocks – objects, possibly with states, and processes that transform the objects. This paper suggests that the confluence of OPM and NTCP can improve the project planning phase and improve the project's overall chances of success.

Corporate focus on projects

Recently we have published articles discussing various techniques for managing different types of projects. Most organizations do have projects to complete, if not on a regular basis, at least from time to time. Some organizations are completely project based, perhaps with some supporting infrastructure departments such as IT and HR. This is often the case for consulting organizations, construction companies, etc. where each new offering is created via a project.