Project Methodology Research Articles

Analyzing interconnected processes: using object-centric process mining to analyze procurement processes

AbstractThe purchase-to-pay (P2P) process is one of the core business processes in any organization. It ensures the correct and efficient provisioning of materials and services. An efficient P2P process reduces operational costs by ensuring discounts, avoiding late payments, and choosing the optimal supplier for the goods. Process mining techniques help practitioners optimize the execution of P2P processes by analyzing the execution data and providing useful insights. However, existing techniques may result in misleading insights due to many-to-many relationships between business objects, e.g., between orders and invoices in the P2P process. Recently, object-centric process mining techniques have been proposed to avoid the limitations of traditional process mining techniques. In this paper, we present a case study on a real-life P2P process using object-centric process mining techniques. To that end, we adopt the well-known PM$$^{2}$$ 2 process mining project methodology to the object-centric setting and analyze the performance and compliance.

Preliminary evaluation methodology for payback infrastructure projects in private-public partnership

The authors of the article present the results of scientific and practical research on the development of methods of primary assessment of the efficiency of payback infrastructure projects public-private partnerships achieved through the monitoring and analysis of the state company’s investment activities and project portfolio management. The purpose of this study is to develop methodology for preliminary evaluation of payback infrastructure projects, that is able to be used to evaluate efficiency of capital investment at the stage of initial project appraisal and planning and to range perspective projects in accordance with their efficiency. The subject of the article: efficiency of payback investment projects in the infrastructure industry. The relevance of the study is determined by absence of a generally accepted methodology for initial evaluation of investment projects, that allows for into consideration the legal and economic specifics of federal projects approval and implementation in the regions of Russia. The methodology formed on the basis of an interdisciplinary approach implemented in the course of approval and evaluation practice of investment projects appraisal within the framework of the activities of a state-owned company. The instrumentation reviewed in this paper is based on data from financial modeling of infrastructure projects, with preliminary geographical modeling of traffic flow intensity. It includes the following modified indicators based on discounted cash flows: consolidated coverage ratio, ratio of operating income to capital investment, share of extrabudgetary funding in the life cycle of a project, internal rate of return. These indicators are unified into a single integral indicator, which allows to rank and manage future projects in a company’s portfolio. The applicability of the proposed methodology has been verified by the results of implementation of the public-private partnership projects. Based on the results of the study a financial model for initial assessment of project efficiency has been prepared, which can be used as the initial stage of project justification.

Quality Tools and Their Applications in Industry

Almost all quality improvement methods require data collection and analysis to solve quality problems. The combination of six sigma and agile creates a six sigma agile methodology that aims to reach quality levels according to the Six Sigma requirements of 3.4 defects per million measurements. In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to know the industry well and implicitly the product or the analysed process. Thus, the correctness of these analyses depends on the collection of the data that will be analysed. The use of data analysis methods at each stage, especially in the measurement and analysis stages, is critically important for making strong decisions. The purpose of this article is to present the added value of the integration of six sigma and agile methodologies for IT projects. Thus, the integration of the two methodologies will lead to faster decision-making without the risk of an increase in the number of failures.

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ASHAPURNA DEVI’S NOVELS PRATHAM PRATISHRUTI AND SUBARNALATA: AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST STUDY

This study's goal was to analyze and explain how women are portrayed from a feminist standpoint in the novels Pratham Pratishruti and Subarnalata written by Ashapurna Devi. This study was conducted from December 2022 to March 2023. One of the best-known social reformers and feminist women authors of Indian fiction in English is Ashapurna Devi. In her writings, Devi depicts the inner thoughts and feelings of women who are constrained by the constraints of intersecting clasess. In this study, women's portrayals in the novels Pratham Pratishruti and Subarnalata by Ashapurna Devi was explored, examined, and analyzed from an intersectional feminist viewpoint. The major materials for this research project were the actual writings of Ashapurna Devi, which were read, examined, and critically interpreted. By gathering information from the chosen text, it used the descriptive method to interpret how Ashapurna Devi has portrayed women in her writings. For the current study project, analytical, interpretive, and comparative methodologies were applied. In addition, information has been updated using the internet. As a result, this work has explored, examined, and evaluated the process by which the female protagonists of her chosen novels, Pratham Pratishruti and Subarnalata by Ashapurna Devi, come to be represented as such.

Post-evaluation analysis on urban coal, oil and gas resources comprehensive utilization governance project: A case study in Fuxian, China

China's energy and chemical enterprises in the resource-based urban cities face challenges of climate change targets. Coal, Oil and Gas Resources Comprehensive Utilization (COGRCU) project can address the carbon and hydrogen imbalance between conventional methanol from coal and natural gas. Moreover, it can improve energy conversion rates and carbon resource recovery. Therefore, it is a better way for energy and chemical enterprises to transition to sustainable development and advocated by enterprises in resource-based cities. In practice, the actual benefits of the COGRCU project are often different from those expected from prior assessments, and the main factors contributing to the differences need to be identified. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a post-evaluation methodology for the COGRCU project to assist energy and chemical enterprises in identifying these constraints and optimize project management. This study considers energy and monetary flows, combines emergy-based energy return on investment (EmEROI) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and proposes a post-evaluation methodology of the COGRCU project based on the case study of YC Group's Fuxian COGRCU project in Fuxian County. In addition, the emergy per unit money, emergy per unit labor, and bio-resources emergy per unit area of Yan'an City are measured. Results showed that indirect energy and labor input emergy are the primary contributors to improving the projects' energy efficiency. Operating costs reduction are the key factors for improving economic benefits. The indirect energy has the highest impact on the project's EmEROI, followed by labor, direct energy, and environmental governance. Several policy recommendations are raised, including strengthening policy support, such as advancing the formulation and revision of fiscal and tax policies, improving project assets and human resource management, and increasing environmental governance efforts.

ON THE PROBLEM OF IMPROVING THE PROCEDURAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE MARKET APPROACH TO DETERMINING THE COST OF DESIGN AND SCIENTIFIC DESIGN WORK

In many cases, construction objects differ in size, total area, number of floors, and materials used to manufacture structural elements, which leads to certain peculiarities in the pricing mechanism in construction, in particular in design and scientific design works. Construction objects according to a typical project will not have the same value depending on the location and local conditions of the construction site. In recent years, significant transformations have taken place in Ukraine in the field of pricing and assessment of the value of investment projects and programs. The development of market relations in Ukraine made it necessary to develop a modern methodology of pricing and cost management in construction, in particular, in determining the cost of design and scientific-project works, taking into account the best world experience and international standards. The efforts of many scientists and practitioners of Ukraine and abroad are aimed at solving this problem. The need to estimate the cost, design and scientific design works, as well as the construction of the object in general, arises in the early stages. However, at this stage, only approximate costs are determined, and as investigations are carried out and information is accumulated, new opportunities appear for calculating a more accurate estimate of the cost of the objects being designed. Therefore, the calculation of the cost of project works is mainly carried out individually according to the estimate, which specifies the scope of work, estimates, construction equipment and methods for specific types of work. Emphasizing the problems of the pricing system of project and scientific project works in our country, the organizational and economic problems of reducing the cost of investment and construction projects are considered. Including, by improving the efficiency of competitive selection of Investors, Contractors (construction agencies) and Suppliers of project products. An important issue is the issue of a comparative (market) approach to pricing in construction, in particular for design and research and design services. The market price is the prevailing price paid for project services in the project market for the relevant period in the sales process, regardless of the Manufacturer's individual costs. In the macroeconomic plan, prices are considered as the most important strategic criterion characterizing the market situation. Price changes are influenced by a number of price-forming factors. The basis of calculation procedures is the introduction of corrections for discrepancies between the object being evaluated and similar objects, the value of which is known. The same adjustments are permissible for a certain average market value. A significant problem remains the low level of practical use of project methodology. If the pricing policy is not properly formed, the project enterprise will not be able to achieve the intended goals; therefore, special attention should be paid to this issue.

THE ROLE OF PROJECT METHODS IN REVEALING CREATIVITY OF ENGLISH TEACHER

This research paper gives information about the basics of project methodology’s provisions, and various prospects of applying project methods in English language classes in universities, especially as one of the means of establishing cross-cultural competence. Nowadays, traditional methods and approaches are opposed to project activities, in the project method, the central figures are the students, only the teacher assists and he/she is a correspondent in the procedure. Project methods encourage learners to deal with real-life problems and improve the advancement of learner autonomy. The applicable establishment of project methods in the English classroom environment is available only via a complicated analysis of the curriculum of the training field, the material design of the educational content in consideration of the age, the foreign communicational skills, level of the learners, professional establishment of cognitive tasks of the learners while teaching and individual work, applying of ICT in the educational procedure.

An evaluation of New York state livestock carbon offset projects under California’s cap and trade program

Carbon offsets allow greenhouse gas emitters in a cap and trade system to purchase the right to emit by paying others who are not subject to the cap to reduce their emissions. California has implemented a state-wide cap and trade system and developed a compliance offset program that defines protocols for offset project eligibility and methodology for calculating emissions reductions. One such protocol allows livestock methane digester projects to generate offset credits, including in other jurisdictions outside of California. Here, we assess incentives and barriers to participation in the livestock offset compliance program among dairy farmers in New York state and evaluate who is participating in this program and why. Our research presents a novel assessment of this carbon offset protocol and contributes to our understanding of the factors that shape effective cross-boundary climate mitigation policy implementation.

An Integrated Bayesian Risk Model for Coastal Flow Slides Using 3-D Hydrodynamic Transport and Monte Carlo Simulation

The literature suggests two forms of flow slides: breaching and liquefaction. Both forms of failure have comparable ultimate circumstances, but the progression and sand movement mechanisms of breaching failure diverge from those of liquefaction. The first type, breaching, occurs in densely packed sand and is characterized by slow sand grain discharge throughout the dilation of the failing soil particles and negative excess pore pressures. The latter form, known as liquefaction, is the process by which a mass of soil abruptly begins to behave like a flowing liquid, and as a result, it can flow out across overly mild slopes. The process begins in compacted sand and is linked to positive surplus pore water pressures that are caused by the compaction of the sand. Despite the available literature on flow slide failures, our understanding of the mechanisms involved remains limited. Since flow slides often begin below the water surface, they can go undetected until the collapse reaches the bank above ground. The complexity of flow slides requires the use of cutting-edge technological instruments, diving equipment, advanced risk assessment, and a variety of noteworthy probabilistic and sensitivity analyses. Hence, we developed a new sensitivity index to identify the risk of breach failure and vulnerable coastal areas to this risk. In addition, we developed a sophisticated hybrid model that allows for all possibilities of flow slides in sync with random variables used in this new sensitivity index. In this new hybrid model, three distinctive models exist. The 3D Hydrodynamic Model addresses waves, wind, current, climate change, and sediment transport. The Monte Carlo Simulation is responsible for sensitivity analysis, and the Bayesian Network focuses on joint probabilities of coastal flow slide parameters of this new index that incorporates all environmental parameters, including climate change. With the assistance of these three models, researchers aim to: (a) expand the application scope by presenting a method on coastal flow slides; (b) consider different particle diameters corresponding to critical angle slope failure; (c) analyze variables that can play a pivotal role in the flow slides; and (d) present a methodology for coupling coastal flow slide projections with reliable outcomes. The hybrid model incorporates random variables of retrogressive breach failures, and the new risk index considers their ranges to control the simulation. The use of such a hybrid model and risk index offers a robust and computationally efficient approach to evaluating coastal flow slides.

Multispecies design: 3D-printed biomimetic structures to enhance humidity levels

The paper changes the focus of the design debate from a human-centered design methodology to a posthuman design that takes both human and nonhuman agents into account. It examines how designers might use a multispecies perspective to produce projects with distinguished intelligence and performance. To illustrate this, we describe a project of structures for plants that started on a course in an academic setting. The project methodology begins with “Thing Ethnography”, investigating the movement of a water bottle inside a house and its interaction with other objects. The correlation between water and plants was decided to be further expanded, considering how water might enhance the environmental humidity and create a cooler microclimate for indoor plants. According to their effectiveness, 3D-printed biomimetic structures were designed and manufactured as water droplet supports considering different materials, and positioned in various configurations around a plant. Humidity levels and temperature of the structures were measured. As a result, this created a novel method for mass customization and working with plants. The paper discusses the resultant evidence-based design and the environmental values related to it.

Living through war: An oral history of civilians in Sudan

AbstractCivilians in Sudan have been devastated by wars for decades, including civil wars that occurred from 1956 to 1972 and from 1983 to 2005, and wars continuing to this day in certain regions. With this article, we offer the findings of an oral history project that showcases the testimony of 116 Sudanese from the following three regions: Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile state. We focused on their experiences of war and their vision of a just future for Sudan. After presenting summaries of the wars in these regions (Section 1), we identify the project's methodology (Section 2). The respondents' testimony is then analyzed thematically as follows: (a) life before war, (b) experiences of war, (c) becoming refugees, (d) war's impact, and (e) vision of justice in Sudan (Section 3). We then interpret the respondents' vision of justice as expressions of their agency in striving to overcome the systemic inequalities that have ravaged this war‐torn nation. Our analysis reveals the complexity of the respondents' notions of justice as inseparable from peace. Long‐term peace necessities the realization of justice that cannot be achieved without long‐term peace.

Educational Potential of Influencer Publications in the Aspect of Social and Intercultural Competence Formation

The article presents the results of a study conducted with 240 students from two schools in Sofia (Bulgaria). The aim of the study is to trace the potential educational effect of influencer publications on children in terms of supporting the process of forming social and intercultural competence. Among the main objectives are to trace the impact of influencer publications on children’s attitudes, views, and opinions; to identify the presence or absence of educational potential in the content produced by influencers; as well as to outline recommendations for the beneficial integration of such content in the educational process. The research methods used are theoretical analysis, projective methodologies, and content analysis. The results indicate the presence of educational potential in the content presented by opinion leaders in the direction of facilitating the formation of social and intercultural competence in children.

INVESTMENT PROJECTS, DEVELOPMENT PHASES AND INVESTMENT ACTIVITY

The article discusses the volume of the investment project, the timing of implementation, types of investment project, development stages. After a complete review of the investment project, an optimal methodology for the investment project is drawn up, the efficiency of the investment project implemented for the energy facility is calculated.

Modular Homes as a New Form of Accommodation to Tackle Homelessness: A Case Study From Cambridge, England

In England, provision of temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness has often entailed using traditional construction approaches to deliver housing. However, recent experiments are using modular homes to provide temporary accommodation, accompanied by support services for people experiencing homelessness. Given the early nature of these trials, it is unclear what impacts these modular homes have on their occupants and how these projects in turn impact surrounding residents and businesses. We present a case study of the first modular homes for people experiencing homelessness in Cambridge, England, drawing on longitudinal interviews with the six residents occupying these homes. We found that the physical features of the homes, coupled with wrap-around support services, yielded positive short- and mid-term outcomes for occupants, including improved management of their substance use and money, skills development and readiness for employment, social relations, and a burgeoning sense of community, safety, and security. These positive outcomes have spurred wider interest, including the incorporation of modular homes as alternative temporary accommodation in the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy of Cambridge City Council, alongside a growing research interest in modular homes and other new schemes by the national government. We argue for further empirical studies of the impacts of different modular home projects, including those that admit more diverse resident cohorts and offer different accommodation types to establish a clear methodology for future modular homes projects in England and beyond.

Metodika razvitiya konkurentosposobnosti i praktikoorientirovannosti studentov vuza v processe osvoeniya gumanitarnyh disciplin

One of the priority directions of the development of modern education is the practice-oriented study of various disciplines aimed at forming a holistic picture of the world among students, understanding the interrelationships between various fields of knowledge, the development of professional competencies. This article discusses possible ways to increase the motivation of undergraduate students to study a particular discipline through pedagogical technologies and programs, including author's programs, including the use of an interactive learning component, the implementation of project methodology and special creative tasks.

Facilitating Nutrition and Physical Activity-Focused Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change in Rural Areas: A Methodological Approach Using Community Wellness Coalitions and Cooperative Extension.

Obesity prevalence is higher among rural populations than urban, which may be related to differences in environments. Rural counties face barriers to accessing healthy foods and physical activity opportunities including isolation, transportation distances, and lack of facilities. As part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity High Obesity Program, community-based wellness coalitions were established in six South Dakota counties with adult obesity prevalence >40%. The community coalitions were charged with improving access to healthy foods and safe and accessible places to participate in physical activity within their rural, underserved communities. Coalitions were created and members were recruited by Cooperative Extension staff who had existing relationships with key stakeholders within the community. Within these coalitions, champions were identified to provide leadership and ensure project implementation. Ongoing support and technical assistance were provided to the community coalitions by Cooperative Extension staff as they completed a community needs assessment, disseminated results of the needs assessment with the community, created action plans based on needs assessment data, implemented evidence-based interventions to support nutrition and physical activity policy, system and environmental changes, and assessed impact within their community. Overall, the purpose of this article is to share the project methodology, which capitalized on using Cooperative Extension, to build capacity to improve the nutrition and physical activity environment in rural, unserved communities. Sustainability of this work, along with lessons learned, is also discussed.

Relevance and Role of Contemporary Architecture Preservation—Assessing and Evaluating Architectural Heritage as a Contemporary Landscape: A Study Case in Southern Italy

Since WWII to the 2000s, numerous masters of contemporary architecture have contributed to the construction of new landscapes with their works; therefore, these places have become part of a changing landscape and of the multifaceted process of landscape generation. Nevertheless, during this fifty-year period, capitalism has led to the destruction of many existing landscapes, and the policies of protection and preservation have often entailed a process of musealization. In 2000, the European Landscape Convention adopted a new common-grounded definition of landscape, integrating a wide set of cultural approaches and disciplinary topics. Starting from the assumption that contemporary architecture and urban projects can generate high-quality landscapes, this paper investigates the link between the architecture and the landscape, taking the opportunity to catalogue the second half of twentieth-century architecture and urban projects in Sicily as part of the national cataloguing activity “Ereditare il Presente” promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture. Using the Ministry-proposed cataloguing procedure and adding a quality assessment methodology of buildings and urban projects, this study has produced a theoretical and applicative advancement on how architecture and urban projects of the second half of the twentieth century should be offered as a dynamic component of sustainable human settlement planning under SDG11 “sustainable cities and communities”.

Examining and Comparing the Critical Success Factors Between Business Process Management and Business Process Automation

Organizations constantly seek for means of improving their business processes to remain competitive. Recently, much effort has been devoted to business process automation (BPA) projects. However, it has been unclear how these projects differ from traditional business process management (BPM) projects and which critical success factors (CSFs) play a crucial role. This study comparatively assesses how CSFs change for BPA with respect to BPM. Using a survey sample of 139 BPM and BPA experts, the study shows that top management support as a CSF warrants attention for BPM than BPA, while the importance of choosing project methodology significantly differs for BPM and BPA. The comparison between lightweight and heavyweight BPA types indicates that the top management support is relatively less critical for lightweight BPA. The explorative and fsQCA analyses provide insights about the patterns for industries with different IT strategic roles, expert perspectives, and among CSFs. Overall, the findings may help project managers assess the role of key CSFs better based on project focus.

A new teaching approach exploiting lab-scale models of manufacturing systems for simulation classes

ABSTRACT Teaching in higher education is often challenging for the lack of practical implementation and difficulties in student involvement. In engineering classes, students are often deeply involved in computer laboratories and projects in which they are challenged with decision-making problems. The lack of the real system that is being modelled may hinder the effectiveness of the teaching activities. In this paper, we propose a new teaching approach based on the student’s interaction with lab-scale models of manufacturing systems. Students have the possibility to make observations, collect data, and implement improvements to a system, all within a course duration. The flexibility of the proposed approach enables its application to a wide range of courses, for instance manufacturing system engineering, production management, Industry 4.0. As case study, we target a course on simulation of manufacturing systems for industrial and mechanical engineering, in which students are asked to build, validate, and use a discrete event simulation model of a production system. The application of this project methodology changed the way of teaching simulation in the course and significantly improved students’ evaluation and satisfaction.

Promoting Digital Proficiency and Health Literacy in Middle-aged and Older Adults Through Mobile Devices With the Workshops for Online Technological Inclusion (OITO) Project: Experimental Study.

Digital inclusion and literacy facilitate access to health information and can contribute to self-care behaviors and informed decision-making. However, digital literacy is not an innate skill, but rather requires knowledge acquisition. The present study aimed to develop, conduct, and measure the impact, on digital and health literacy, of a digital inclusion program aimed at community dwellers. The program targeted the recruitment of people aged 55 and older that owned mobile devices with an internet connection in 3 cities in northern Portugal (Paredes de Coura, Guimarães, and Barcelos). The program was titled the Workshops for Online Technological Inclusion (OITO) project and, in each city, was promoted by the coordinator of municipal projects and organized as an in-person 8-workshop program, using mobile devices, smartphones, or tablets. A quasi-experimental design was used with a nonrandomized allocation of participants in each set of 8 workshops. Sociodemographic, health status, and mobile use information were collected at baseline. Digital and health literacy were measured via the Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire and the Health Literacy Scale questionnaires, respectively, at baseline (T1), program completion (T2), and a 1-month follow-up (T3). A self-reported measure of autonomy was evaluated at T1 and T2 using a visual scale. Most participants were women with primary schooling (up to 4 years) aged between 65 and 74 years and retired. The intervention had an 81% (97/120) recruitment rate, 53% (43/81) adherence, and 94% (67/71) satisfaction rate, with 81 participants completing the entire 8-workshop program. Most participants had owned their mobile device for more than one year (64/81, 79%), were frequent daily users (70/81, 86%), and had received their mobile device from someone else (33/64, 52%). Over 80% (71/81) of the participants who completed the intervention used Android smartphones. At baseline, participants had low baseline scores in digital literacy, but medium-high baseline scores in health literacy. They showed significant improvement in digital literacy at T2 and T3 compared to T1, but without a significant difference between T2 and T3, regardless of sex, age, or schooling. A significant improvement in self-reported autonomy was observed at T3 compared with baseline. Regarding health literacy, no significant differences were found at T2 or T3 compared to the baseline. The feasibility indicators showed that the OITO project methodology had a substantial rate of recruitment and satisfaction. Program participants had significant improvement in digital literacy after 8 workshops and maintained their score 1 month after completing the intervention. There was no significant change in health literacy during the project period.