Project Implementation Teams Research Articles

Critical success factors for international development projects in Maldives

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of local project teams on critical success factors and project success in the context of international development projects in Maldives. It identifies the critical success factors of international development projects, examines how the success of international development projects in Maldives is perceived by local project team members, and analyzes the relationship between critical success factors and project success from the project teams’ perspective.Design/methodology/approach– A survey questionnaire was used and 41 project team members participated in the study. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed to understand the relationship with project success and critical success factors.Findings– The study found out that the levels of success of projects were perceived high among the project teams. The results indicated that monitoring CSF, coordination CSF, design CSF, training CSF, and institutional environment CSF had a significant relationship with project success. However, results of the regression analysis indicated that only monitoring CSF was significant in influencing project success.Research limitations/implications– The limited sample size and optimism bias of respondents were a constraint. Furthermore, further analysis of data may be required to advance analysis.Originality/value– The study looks through the lens of project implementation teams in order to provide insights from their vantage point. The study provides insights based on the Maldivian context which will benefit similar island nation communities implementing similar projects.

Rwanda Electronic Single Window Supports Trade Facilitation

This paper provides an overview of the implementation of the Rwanda Electronic Single Window (ReSW) and its impact on trade facilitation since its introduction in 2012. In an effort to improve trading across borders, Rwanda’s Doing Business Committee planned to implement the ReSW in the shortest possible time and appointed the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) as the lead agency. An ReSW Steering Committee and project implementation team were established which included all stakeholders to ensure that the project addressed the broadest needs to achieve its goals. The use of the ReSW has resulted in reduced clearance times, and direct and indirect costs associated with international trade. Suggestions are offered in this paper about ways to further reduce time delays, for example, by critically reviewing the need to physically inspect a large part of cargo presently being inspected.

Big questions, big science: meeting the challenges of global ecology.

Ecologists are increasingly tackling questions that require significant infrastucture, large experiments, networks of observations, and complex data and computation. Key hypotheses in ecology increasingly require more investment, and larger data sets to be tested than can be collected by a single investigator's or s group of investigator's labs, sustained for longer than a typical grant. Large-scale projects are expensive, so their scientific return on the investment has to justify the opportunity cost-the science foregone because resources were expended on a large project rather than supporting a number of individual projects. In addition, their management must be accountable and efficient in the use of significant resources, requiring the use of formal systems engineering and project management to mitigate risk of failure. Mapping the scientific method into formal project management requires both scientists able to work in the context, and a project implementation team sensitive to the unique requirements of ecology. Sponsoring agencies, under pressure from external and internal forces, experience many pressures that push them towards counterproductive project management but a scientific community aware and experienced in large project science can mitigate these tendencies. For big ecology to result in great science, ecologists must become informed, aware and engaged in the advocacy and governance of large ecological projects.

English

E-government project implementation in Africa is commonly associated with low levels of success. This review aimed at drawing lessons for successful E-government project implementation in Africa by analysing one of the successfully implemented E-government projects in South Africa namely the South African Revenue Services (SARS) e-filing program. The findings reported in the paper are mainly based analysis of secondary sources of information relating to the service and direct observation. The review showed that some of the critical factors that can help ensure e-government project success include project support and commitment from top management, having in place a project implementation team with clear deliverables, reliable technical infrastructure, ensuring that users views and situation are taken into consideration in project implementation and having  strong project and monitoring system in place. The findings of this study have wide managerial implications for the success of E-government projects particularly in the African context and these have been highlighted in the paper.   Key words: E-government, Africa, project success, e-tax.

The focused ethnographic study ‘assessing the behavioral and local market environment for improving the diets of infants and young children 6 to 23 months old’ and its use in three countries

The concept of a focused ethnographic study (FES) emerged as a new methodology to answer specific sets of questions that are required by agencies, policymakers, programme planners or by project implementation teams in order to make decisions about future actions with respect to social, public health or nutrition interventions, and for public-private partnership activities. This paper describes the FES on complementary feeding that was commissioned by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and highlights findings from studies conducted in three very different country contexts (Ghana, South Africa and Afghanistan) burdened by high levels of malnutrition in older infants and young children (IYC). The findings are analysed from the perspective of decision-making for future interventions. In Ghana, a primary finding was that in urban areas the fortified, but not instant cereal, which was being proposed, would not be an appropriate intervention, given the complex balancing of time, costs and health concerns of caregivers. In both urban and rural South Africa, home fortification products such as micronutrient powders and small quantity, lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) are potentially feasible interventions, and would require thoughtful behaviour change communication programmes to support their adoption. Among the important results for future decision-making for interventions in Afghanistan are the findings that there is little cultural recognition of the concept of special foods for infants, and that within households food procurement for IYC are in the hands of men, whereas food preparation and feeding are women's responsibilities.

User and developer common knowledge: Effect on the success of information system development projects

Since Information Systems Development (ISD) project success is difficult to achieve and the literature has shown the relationship between IS developer skills and system success is mixed, this paper isolates and studies the knowledge shared by users and developers and its interaction with group solving practices that may lead to ISD project success. We evaluate developer’s knowledge of application domains and user knowledge of IS development along with the level of group problem solving among users and developers as related to the ultimate success of the project. A survey of 168 ISD professionals indicates that a combination of both user knowledge of IS development and IS developer knowledge of application domains had significant impact on successful project outcomes. The magnitude of this success is moderated by the level of group problem solving activities held by the project implementation teams. Up to a certain point, the more group problem solving interaction the more successful the project outcome. However, if knowledge redundancy is very high then exchange of knowledge is not so essential.

Process mapping in successful ERP implementations

This paper discusses the six core business processes and supporting technology that are impacted by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation. It begins with a brief history of the evolution of ERP and the information systems technology that enabled its development. A discussion of project implementation team preparations is followed by a description of process mapping and its significance to the success of an ERP implementation. Highlights of “As‐Is” and “To‐Be” process mapping and change management conclude the paper.

Learning and teaching

Learning and teaching

Effective Contract Administration in Construction Management

In applying contract administration to any particular engagement, the task is that of identifying the needed function, establishing the level of effort appropriate to each function, determining what organizational entity should provide services required for each function, and developing contractual relationships between the participating organizations so that the total project implementation team will function effectively and efficiently. Through a requisite series of administrative procedures with attendant responsibility, the contract administration group pursues project administration matters to include complete communication between the requisite management personnel at all responsible levels. Included topics are the development of relationships and responsibilities of the construction management team, tasks of the contract administrator, construction contract handling, and change order administration.