Experienced Project Managers Research Articles

Impacts of EU Grant-Assisted Projects on Institutional Capacity Building and Regional Development in Turkey: The Case of NUTS-2 Region TR82

Benefiting from European Union financial aid since 1963, Turkey has been receiving financial support as part of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II) (2014–2020) available to candidate and potential candidate countries. There were 3 687 EU grant-assisted projects implemented in Turkey under the responsibility of the Central Finance and Contracts Unit (CFCU) until 2016. The total amount of grants for these projects was 452 million € and 381 million € of this amount was EU grant contribution. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of the EU’s financial aid rendered through these projects on the institutional capacity building and regional development. The research area covered by the study is one particular region of the country, namely NUTS-2 region TR82. Primary data was collected through a questionnaire sent to subjects sampled from institutions/organizations, which are located in the region and carried out projects received through the CFCU before 2016. The chi-square (χ2) test was used to test the relationship between the legal status, location (city), project management experience of the institutions/organizations surveyed and the effects related to institutional capacity building and regional development. The results of the analyses are presented and interpreted. Together these analyses show that EU grant-assisted projects implemented through the CFCU contribute to institutional capacity building and regional development.

Creating and implementing a COVID-19 recruitment Data Mart

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented strain on every aspect of the healthcare system, and clinical research is no exception. Researchers are working against the clock to ramp up research studies addressing every angle of COVID-19 – gaining a better understanding of person-to-person transmission, improving methods for diagnosis, and developing therapies to treat infection and vaccines to prevent it. The impact of the virus on research efforts is not limited to investigators and their teams. Potential participants also face unparalleled opportunities and requests to participate in research, which can result in a significant amount of participant fatigue. The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research recognized early in the pandemic that a solution to assist researchers in the rapid identification of potential participants was critical, and thus developed the COVID-19 Recruitment Data Mart. This solution does not rest solely on technology; the addition of experienced project managers to support researchers and facilitate collaboration was essential. Since the platform and study support tools were launched on July 20, 2020, four studies have been onboarded and a total of 1693 potential participant matches have been shared. Each of these patients had agreed in advance to direct contact for COVID-19 research and had been matched to study-specific inclusion/exclusion criteria. Our innovative Data Mart system is scalable and looks promising as a generalizable solution for simultaneously recommending individuals from a pool of patients against a pool of time-sensitive trial opportunities.

European experience in project management for social entrepreneurship: case of Italian social cooperatives

European experience in project management for social entrepreneurship: case of Italian social cooperatives

The role and meaning of lessons learned in project knowledge management in organizations in Poland

The aim of this article is to establish the role and meaning of lessons learned collection and application practices in project knowledge management based on an empirical research in organizations running operations in Poland. The analysis conducted for the purpose of this article included hypothesis verification by means of statistical testing performed on data gathered from an online survey distributed among project management professionals in Poland. The testing results revealed that Polish project managers and project team members present positive attitude towards lessons learned practices and that there is a statistically significant correlation between lessons learned collection and application practices and benefits realization in terms of scope, time and budget in projects in the surveyed organizations differentiated by means of sector of operations, project maturity level and organizational culture. Also, specific barriers and obstacles in learning lessons from past experience in project management have been found and correlated with lessons learned collection and application practice.

Usvajanje agilne metodologije za poboljšanje performansi IT projekta

Most of the IT organizations are facing various challenges such as technological advancement, new customer requirements, merger & acquisition, and changing market demands, which should be addressed to survive in the industry. For enhancing more value to the customer in the project, the best option is to choose Agile Methodology for managing the project, which helps to accommodate the ad-hoc business requirement than pre-planned. Though, most of the organization, especially in the IT industry is shifting to Agile methodology practice, which helps to enjoy the benefit of better collaboration and customer experience. The study was conducted among 404 IT professionals from the IT corridors of India to understand the influence of Agile methodology on IT project performance. Most responses received from people who have sound experience in IT project management which assures the quality of results obtained. From study, it has been found that Agile methodology (b= 0.630, p<0.00) has a significant and positive impact on the project performance. Also, the study proves that people who are working in Scrum framework (Agile methodology) improves the project quality as well as business value. Based on Stepwise regression results, Product ownership has higher degree of importance than other independent variable for the individual work performance which solidifies the requirement for software development. Multicollinearity Assessment shows Product Ownership and Development Practice have more impact on project performance than Team considered for the study. Previous studies didn't cover the aspect as well as areas proposed in this study to arrive the conclusion of Scrum framework for project performance, and it opens the pathway for future research work.

Project management in large-scale construction: development of approaches in the conditions of digitalization

The economic situation of 2020 showed that the sustainability of the implementation of large-scale construction projects is determined by a substantiated project life cycle strategy and the effectiveness of technologies and project management methods. The article presents an analysis of the current domestic and foreign experience of project management. Practice shows that the organizational and technological features of large-scale projects in construction are so individual and complex that it is rather difficult to apply general management principles in the process of their implementation. Therefore, in large-scale construction, it is necessary to highlight separate management principles for local projects (with internal funding) and object projects implemented by several participants - general contractor and subcontractors under contracts concluded. The methods of management that are applicable within the framework of management processes at successive stages of the life cycle of a construction object are systematized. A number of specific IT methods and management models are considered, the most promising from the point of view of use in the organization and management of large-scale construction. The systematization of processes and methods of management by phases of the life cycle of a construction object is proposed. Systematization can be recommended to design and construction organizations, municipal and state customers, and other participants to effectively solve applied problems of large-scale construction management in the context of digitalization.

Using the principles and approaches of flexible methodology (agile) in the planning and implementation of the educational process

The educatonal program development process is challenging with many stakeholders: students, teachers, parents, administrators, employers, and the government. Each stakeholder has compettve priorites; Quality, risk, resources and costs limitaton. Large complex projects require the management of a skilled and experienced project manager. It is the preparaton of curricula for joint internatonal educatonal programs with the use of Agile tools and technologies. The main "customer" in this program is a student, and the ultmate goal of each project within the program-the competence of the student in the labor market afer receiving the diploma. Therefore, this program can be considered difcult, and it is constantly evolves, because the demands of the labor market of China is constantly changing and developing.

Kazanılmış Değer Yönetimi Uygulamaları ve Geleceği: Türkiye Örneği

This paper examines the Earned Value Management (EVM) practices in Turkey. The authors identify the factors affecting the awareness and implementation of the methodology and derive implications for its future use. A comprehensive questionnaire was designed and semi structured interviews were conducted with experienced managers from several industries. This study is original in the sense that it brings an in depth analysis on the factors affecting the acceptance and frequency of use of EVM in Turkey. The authors report that the industry, project management experience, role in projects and the use of project management software are the factors that affect EVM awareness. Regarding the implementation, the authors observe that respondents who work in defense and production sectors are more likely to use EVM. Companies that are using lump-sum and unit price projects are more likely to use EVM while companies that are using in-house projects are less likely.

Investigation of Cost-Influencing Factors Potentially Controllable by Main Contractors in Construction Projects in Iraq

Cost overrun in construction projects is a common phenomenon in Iraq. This might occur due to diversity of factors. This study aims to identify the factors influencing construction projects cost that are potentially controllable by main contractors. A field study through a questionnaire survey was directed to a sample of related Iraqi professional engineers from general contracting companies at both public and private sectors. Their opinions on the impact and frequency of each factor were investigated. The questionnaire offered (59) factors classified in (8) categories namely; legislations, financial and economic, design, contractual, site management, material, labor and equipment. The factors were ranked according to the highest Relative Importance Index (RII). The study revealed (10) major factors that are potentially controllable by main contractors namely; labor productivity, sub-contractors and suppliers performance, equipment productivity, site organization and distribution of equipment, experience and training of project managers, scheduling and control techniques, planning for materials supply, planning for equipment supply, materials delivery and planning for skilled labor recruitment. Recommendations to aid contractors and owners in early identification of these factors are also included in this study.

PRODUCTIVITY IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Since the late 1990s, the construction industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has lagged behind the rest of the world in actual levels of productivity and productivity growth. This is despite the KSA Government’s tremendous support for the construction industry and the expectation that, in the coming decades, the KSA construction industry will continue to develop and grow to achieve the targets of Saudi Vision 2030. This paper explores in depth the concept of productivity to gain insights through answering two questions contextualized within the KSA construction industry: 1) How do managers perceive productivity? and 2) How is productivity measured? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 senior managers with 10-27 years’ experience in project management in the KSA construction industry. Qualitative analysis of interview results found that around 40% of interviewees had little or an incorrect understanding of the concept of productivity and its relevance to production processes. This poor understanding of productivity and its measures extends to the lack of clear specific procedures for regular measurement of productivity.

Проектное управление в структуре профессиональных компетенций государственных и муниципальных служащих

The paper reveals the essence of project management as one of the important competencies of civil and municipal servants. The projects as a management subject are characterized by: impossibility of achieving results during current activities, innovation, sufficient complexity of implementation, high level of risks, limited resources, obtaining an additional effect. The management of regional and municipal projects is one of the types of goal-oriented management, along with program-oriented and strategic. Their implementation in a single link “project – program – strategy” is an important “component” of the Belgorod experience of project management, which has received recognition at the federal level. The results of a sociological survey are presented, which indicate not only the achievements in managing regional and municipal projects (the number of projects, the number of projects involved in their development and implementation), but also the unresolved problems associated with the implementation of project activities in the job regulations for state and municipal servants, tendencies of its shift to daily (functional) activities, insufficient staff awareness of project tasks and the activities ensuring their fulfillment, insufficient resource provision. Project management is most corresponding with a democratic leadership style. The main requirements for project managers are professionalism, management experience, broad education, and organizational skills.

Causes of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects of Northern China: A Review and Empirical Study

Building energy renovations can effectively improve the environmental performance and energy sustainability of existing buildings. From 2007 onwards, the Chinese government has promoted energy-saving renovations of existing urban residential buildings. Nevertheless, various quality failures happen during the construction period in energy-saving renovation projects of residential buildings. Yet, the causes and their characters remain largely unknown. Through a literature review, this paper investigates the causes of quality failures. Validated through experts’ interviews, a total of 18 causes were identified in building energy renovation projects. These causes were analyzed from two main aspects: the importance of a cause (related to impact and frequency), and the level of effort required to address a cause (related to origin and scale), using both a questionnaire survey and a focus group. The results indicate that the critical causes of quality failures are working under high-cost and high-time pressure, adverse natural conditions, fraud of construction companies, incomplete construction site survey, poor checking procedures of supervisors, poor operational skilled workers, inadequate equipment performance, lack of experienced project managers, and incomplete building information in projects. The causes were classified as external and internal causes of building energy renovation projects. The outcome of this paper should aid policy makers and project coordinators to focus on critical causes of quality failures, and to develop effective actions and policy interventions to achieve successful renovation projects with high-quality performance.

Modelling labour productivity using SVM and RF: a comparative study on classifiers performance

The purpose of this paper is to propose a data-driven approach for preparation of Construction Labour Productivity (CLP) models from influencing labour factors. Two state-of-art machine learning-based classifiers, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) were used for modelling CLP. First, a preliminary review of previous literature was carried out to extract all CLP related factors. Subsequently, the list of CLP factors were ranked in terms of most influential in Malaysian Residential standpoint by experienced Project Managers through a pilot survey. The most influential factors identified were labour’s lack of work experience, job category, education/training, nationality, skills, age and marital status. Data was collected based on these influencing factors from all construction workers in Malaysian Residential Projects. The data collected were used to develop CLP models using SVM and RF. The performance of the models was assessed using several statistical indices including Percentage of Correct (PC), Heidke Skill Score (HSS), the Probability of Detection (POD), the False Alarm Ratio (FAR) and the Peirce skill score (PSS). The SVM and RF simulated the CLP with high accuracy. The POD for both models was found above 90% in predicting different categories of productivity. The reliability plots showed a high efficiency of the models. The results indicate that the advanced machine learning methods can be used to achieve high accuracy in prediction of CLP. The present study can also be helpful for researchers and industry practitioners to understand how machine learning methods can be employed to learn more about productivity in construction and eventually improve the standards of construction labour productivity in Malaysia.

Vietnam Construction Industry Performance Issues and Potential Solutions

This paper provides a literature review assessing the performance and issues of delivering construction services in the Vietnam Construction Industry (VCI). The research also explores a potential solution that could improve the performance of the VCI. The results show multiple non-performance issues that the VCI has experienced in the past 15 years, and presents a comparison between these issues and issues from other countries. The results reveal that the top 5 non-performance issues in the VCI include poor design services, frequent design changes, lack of skilled contractors, a lack of experienced project managers, and financial difficulties of owners. The comparison identifies that 87% of VCI issues were also experienced in other countries. Since the VCI has similar issues as other countries, the author propose that the VCI can improve construction performance by implementing successful methodologies from other countries. This paper investigates the Best Value Performance Information Procurement System (BV PIPS) as a potential solution because of two key aspects: (1) sufficient documentation of on time, on budget, and high customer satisfaction from this model, and (2) sufficient testing from other regions and countries to show similar improvement in construction performance.

Seeing the bigger picture: Conditions that influence effective engagement of project executives with visuals

This exploratory study provides an influence diagram that shows the network of conditions that influence the use of visuals to effectively engage executives. The diagram was developed from the experiences of project managers and executives elicited through twenty-four semi-structured interviews. Twenty-nine conditions are found to influence the use of visuals to effectively engage executives. These are grouped into four categories: the executive's disposition to the use of visuals; the organisational conditions to create visuals; the project manager's understanding of the executive's information needs; and the executive's and project manager's appreciation of the benefits of using visuals. The study's results highlight that while the interviewed executives had a predisposition to the use of visuals as they are generally time-poor, capability to create visuals to support executive engagement was not widespread. Practical contributions include disclosing the criticality of organisational support for creating visuals and the vulnerability of executives in making project decisions.

Project Execution: A Research Agenda to Explore the Phenomenon

It is observed in the literature that although project management is considered to be an execution-oriented discipline, the Project Management Body of Knowledge developed by the Project Management Institute provides relatively little detail in the Executing process group compared with other process groups such as the Planning and Monitoring and Controlling process groups. It is further observed that project elements considered essential to the success of the project including project Scope, Cost, Schedule, and Risk are not included within the Executing process group. Likewise, the coverage of project execution in the Project Manager Competency Development Framework authored by the Project Management Institute appears to provide limited insight regarding what actually takes place during project execution. This paper outlines a research agenda to better understand what actually occurs in projects when experienced project managers are carrying out activities within the Executing process group. It proposes a study consisting of a pilot study, project manager interviews, a focus group validation session, and data collected by a survey instrument in order to develop a more complete understanding of the phenomenon of project execution.

Improving Student Preparedness for Entering the Workforce: A Hands-On Experience in Project Management for a Graduate-Level Protein Engineering Class

A hands-on polypeptide engineering experience that focuses on project management was developed and incorporated in a graduate-level course. The goal was to have doctoral students in chemical engineering learn about project planning tools, and experience what it might be like to plan and execute a project in industry or business. The motivation behind this goal was to help students best-utilize their technical skills in the private sector, where 42% of doctoral recipients in science and engineering work.

Sustainability in Project Management Practice

The study focused on the application of sustainability in project management, with reference to attendant difficulties experienced, which affect the goal of achieving sustainability outcomes in project management. As such the study explored the nature and occurrence of challenges to the integration of sustainability principles with PM practice. A review of purposively sampled literature was complemented with fieldwork, which involved an online questionnaire with eighty-nine participants, to collect qualitative data, using South Africa as context. The major limitation was the purposive use of professional project managers as a sample population. The findings reveal that project managers experience significant challenges when implementing sustainability in their practice. While confirming deductions from the literature review, findings suggest that the most significant challenge may be the lack of information among participants and other stakeholders. One major implication is that other identified difficulties may be traceable to the same lack of knowledge in the subject area. Identified consequences include delayed projects and complete abandonment of the sustainability principles in projects. The integration of sustainability principles with project management practice is a growing niche area of project management knowledge. The study contributes a unique exploration of nature and occurrence, and dynamics of attendant challenges, through a comparison of experience and perception. The comparison has highlighted the differences between the experience and perception of project managers, with reference to the application of sustainability principles.

Stakeholder Participation in Project Initiation: A Foundation to Completion of Urban Road Transport Infrastructure Projects, Kenya

Cost overrun and delays are major impediments to project completion in road construction industry globally. Stakeholder participation in construction cycle could present a solution to these challenges. The purpose of this study was therefore, to examine the influence of stakeholder participation in project initiation on completion of urban road transport infrastructure projects in Kenya. The unit of analysis was the road construction projects implemented by Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA). Pragmatic research paradigm was chosen for this study to facilitate mixed research methods. The study adopted descriptive survey and correlational research designs. The target population was 1593 and the sample size was 309 respondents. Purposive and simple random sampling procedures were utilized. A five-point Likert type scale questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data while interview guides were used to collect qualitative data. The study then applied both descriptive and inferential statistics for the data analysis. The study found that participation in project initiation had a positive and significant influence on the completion of urban road transport infrastructure projects in Kenya (r=0. 859, R²=0. 737, F (1, 212)=594.869, p<0.001<0.05). The study established that there was a positive influence of participation in project initiation on completion of urban road transport infrastructure projects in Kenya. The study recommends formulation of a policy framework to sensitize stakeholders on their participation in project initiation, project design and project construction to enhance effective project implementation and completion. The study recommends hiring of competent and experienced project managers to ensure effective implementation of urban road transport infrastructure.

Tuberculosis Infection Control Project Management Experience and Its Application in COVID-19 Response.

Tuberculosis Infection Control Project Management Experience and Its Application in COVID-19 Response.