Project Situations Research Articles

Experiencing the stress of abandonment and helplessness in adolescence3

The results of comparing the experience of different types of stressful situations, including situations of abandonment and helplessness, and ways of coping with them in adolescence are presented. The study involved schoolchildren aged 12–14 years (x = 12.5; med = 12; sd = 0.7). Participants were 80 adolescents (39 girls and 41 boys). Methods: Color test of relationships; Adolescent Coping Scale E. Frydenberg, R. Lewis; Perceived Stress Scale for Children. The most difficult for adolescents is stressful situation of abandonment as a situation of experiencing emotional, informational and social deprivation. It was found that in terms of the level of perceived stress, the group indicated the abandonment as a more stressful situation for them is closest to the group indicated the extreme stressful situation (U = 69.0; p = 0.44) and differs from the groups indicated assessment situation (U = 51.5; p = 0.02) and helplessness (U = 82.5; p = 0.019). It was revealed that in the assessments of the projective situation, in which parents leave child alone at home for a period of time, the groups “Abandonment” and “Extremity” also turn out to be similar (mostly negative assessments on the situation were found). It was determined that the “Helplessness” group is characterized by coping strategies that indicate the relevance of applying to the social support, and for the “Abandonment” group, unlike all other groups, the ignoring strategy is more typical (p 0.05).

Drivers of innovation in infrastructure development projects: A configurational analysis of boundary spanning roles

Innovation can provide new opportunities to improve project efficiency. However, enabling innovation is challenging, especially in public infrastructure development projects. Several impeding factors, such as limited contractual incentives and complexity, are prevalent in contract-based collaborative environments. Literature suggests that boundary spanners play an important role in driving innovation by seizing opportunities. This study aims to identify configurations of boundary spanning roles in typical project situations— varying in contract type and complexity— to facilitate innovation. The empirical data is from 58 projects and analyzed using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Results show that depending on the project conditions in terms of contract type and complexity, different combinations of boundary spanning roles can be taken up by project managers or other team members to facilitate innovation. This study highlights that in high-complexity situations, boundary spanning roles play a critical role in maintaining good relationships with collaborators, which is instrumental in developing innovation.

The future of project management simulation exercises

In recent times project management has become among the most popular post graduate courses at UK Universities particularly for international students. Students consider the skill set useful for employability and transferable for a wide range of future avenues helpful in an uncertain world. However, many start this course with no workplace experience and many of the project management concepts are difficult to grasp or cannot be fully tested except within a realistic project situation. Hence project management simulations or games have become increasingly popular to help resolve this issue. This research study focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of a project management simulation exercise used by a leading UK University within their project management teaching programme at post-graduate level. A review of the literature included recent studies of simulation, the development of project management education thinking, experiential learning theory and the skill set required from modern project managers from the perspective of professional bodies, industry groups and academics. This produced a list of 17 skills or competences or knowledge areas including both hard skills such as schedule management and risk management and soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and innovation. Students from the 2021-22 academic year produced quantitative data via a survey relating to their self-perception of their skill level before and after the simulation. Tutors were interviewed to obtain a deeper insight into the mechanisms of learning, the conditions required and their thoughts on future simulation design development. This qualitative data was used to develop a conceptual model for future project management simulation design. The results show that from the student perspective this learning approach is highly effective with in almost all cases the level of competence started at below average and ended at above average after the simulation. Students consider this approach memorable and enjoyable, were fully engaged and would recommend to their peers. The problem of self-assessment was discussed but a link between student confidence and employability proposed. The conceptual model developed from the qualitative data includes not only simulation design but also game management and tutor skill development. Collaboration between industry partners, game developers and educationalists is proposed to develop the next generation of project management simulation exercises.

Agroecological Pathways of Family Farmers in Northern Uruguay

In Uruguay, to address the socio-environmental problems generated by the production model resulting from the Green Revolution, several civil society organizations promoted the creation of a National Agroecology Plan (NAP) in 2015. The enactment of Law No.19.717, declaring a general interest and establishing a National Honorary Commission and a National Plan for the Promotion of Production with Agroecological Bases, along with recent calls from the “Senda Agroecológica” initiative, provide a favorable scenario to envision new production systems with agroecological foundations and pose a challenge for agronomic research. Despite this law defining family farmers as its main beneficiaries and the majority being livestock producers, there are few studies on the role of their technical and organizational practices in agroecological transition and the definition of agroecology. To contribute to filling this gap, the research aimed to identify the role of these practices, both individually and collectively, in defining agroecology and its trajectory. A theoretical framework and methodology were developed to analyze the practices and strategies of family livestock farmers and their relationships with technicians. Situations of change were identified, such as tick biological control and natural field management, through interviews and group work with farmers and technicians. Agroecological transition trajectories were analyzed, considering the role of territories in coordinating actions among diverse actors and establishing new identities and action devices, such as public policies and institutional projects. Results at both individual and collective levels indicate multiple transition paths, dependent on the specific situation of farms and projects. The analyzed cases reveal diversity in transitions without any prevailing. The challenge lies in turning these transformations into drivers of processes towards a strong agroecology, requiring support, assistance and guidance actions in the implementation of public policies.

User experiences of situational awareness systems in infrastructure construction

Infrastructure construction (IC) projects are dynamic, complex, and difficult to control and manage. Situational awareness (SA) systems have attracted growing interest in construction literature as an aid for human decision-making in order to forecast changes in project and operations situations. While technological advancements have been achieved in SA systems, very little empirical evidence exists on the actual experiences of IC professionals in relation to SA system usage. We interviewed 23 IC professionals to obtain data, which data we then analyzed by utilizing open coding. Based on our analysis, IC professionals adopt and integrate SA systems individually. On the other hand, often their SA exhibits a bias in favor of the subjective viewpoint of whoever is the dominant or responsible individual in their unit or team, and concealing facts by one or more people appears common. We thus conclude that SA systems can raise IC professionals’ awareness of a situation in ways that are objectively and easily visible and accessible to every individual. SA systems can also be used to conceal SA. This study contributes to earlier technology-focused research by revealing how the behavior of dominant individuals affects the user experience of SA systems.

La situation projective du modelage comme instrument clinique dans une recherche sur un dispositif de médiation sensorielle

ObjectivesThis article examines the use of clay modeling as an instrument for clinical analysis of the relation to one's own body and to the object. While modeling is a widely-used medium in therapeutic work, we present here the use of the modeled self-portrait as a projective method in a research situation involving sensorial mediation using touch. The aim is to understand how the subject invests and engages a relation with this object, based on the way s/he invests and represents her/his body and sensations. MethodThe modeling situation was proposed individually to 19 participants at the first of six meetings. The choice of the modeled self-portrait in this research project is inspired by a psychoanalytical epistemology that enables us to understand the unconscious psychic dimensions of body image and the relation to the object, as well as the concepts of mediation, the projective situation, and transference. In the absence of a pre-existing reference to a systematized methodology for analyzing the self-portrait with modeling clay, we referred to psychoanalytic work on projective tests to construct a qualitative analysis grid based on the material collected. ResultsThe modeled self-portrait enabled us to take into consideration, from an economic, dynamic, and topical point of view, on the one hand, the content that emerged in the modeling and in the verbalizations that accompanied it, and, on the other hand, the characteristics of the modeling process itself. The modeling situation gave rise to regressive and projective movements, leading the participants to express key elements of their personal history, their sensory situation, and the areas of the body invested or disinvested, as well as their psychic behaviors in relation to the object in the present of this research encounter. We identified four ways in which participants related to modeling, depending on their subjectivity and their position in the research process. The form given to the modeling, its structure, and the parts represented or not provided us with indications of certain features of the participants’ body image and the way in which they were able to express it in the space-time of this encounter. We hypothesize that through its connections with the subject's body image, the three-dimensional self-portrait expresses the way in which participants invest their bodies, and sometimes body zones linked to the senses, such as touch, through the modeling activity itself, but also other senses through the elements represented or not, verbalized or not, about the created-modeled object. DiscussionWe present some considerations on the complex connections between the relationship to modeling, to the object of sensory mediation through touch, and to autobiographical speech in the interview situation, considering the participants’ verbal and non-verbal productions during the process of this research. Finally, we present the limits of the collection and analysis of results in the context of this research and the present article. ConclusionThe use of the modeled self-portrait has brought out elements that enable us to better understand the psychological underpinnings of the different relations to the mediating object that the participants expressed in this research. Insofar as self-portrait calls upon unconscious elements of both body image and relation to the object, it encounters resistance and defensive modalities in the subject's own psychic functioning.

Software Process Improvement by Managing Situational Method Engineering Knowledge

Organizational processes have been recognized as valuable knowledge assets. Situational Method Engineering (SME) processes are particularly valuable as they are used for engineering other processes: SME processes help construct bespoke Software Development Methodologies (SDMs) for specific software-engineering project situations. Every SDM has a Software Development Process (SDP) at its heart, which specifies the activities that should be performed throughout the project, the products that should be produced, and the people that should be involved. Existing SME methods suffer from certain weaknesses that are rooted in loss of knowledge within their processes; for instance, the method engineers' experience, which is a kind of tacit knowledge, is not properly captured and utilized in these processes. Managing SME process knowledge helps alleviate these weaknesses through reusing the software developers' experience and maintaining the method engineers' knowledge. We propose an evaluation framework that can be used for assessing an SME method's ability to manage process knowledge. We also provide a model that guides the improvement of existing SME methods in their support for Knowledge Management (KM), and also helps engineer new SME methods that provide adequate KM support. We have assessed the applicability of the proposed evaluation framework and improvement model by using them to enhance eight prominent SME methods, and also by applying them to four industrial case studies.

Risk Management Strategies for Waste-to-Energy Projects Utilizing BOT Models

Since the 1990s, with the implementation of the reform and opening up policy, the rapid development of China's economy, the progress of urbanization is getting faster and faster, and as one of the urban wastes, the treatment of domestic waste has also attracted more and more attention. The municipal solid waste incineration treatment, and the heat generated after combustion is used to generate electricity, referred to as "garbage incineration power generation", because this way can make the waste to reduce, harmless, and can be converted into part of the electricity, because it is widely used in the treatment of municipal solid waste by local governments. Due to the shortage of government funds, most domestic waste incineration projects are implemented in BOT mode. Waste incineration power generation projects are often a large investment, for investors, the recovery period is long, the technical requirements are high, the investment agreement signed with the government is also very complex, coupled with the imperfect supporting laws and policies in China, so that the process of waste incineration power generation projects have many problems and risks, through the operation, construction, investment and other links. Based on the theoretical content of risk management in project management and combined with practical cases, this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for important risks in the project, so as to analyze and discuss the risks of garbage incineration BOT project. Firstly, this paper investigates and collates the research situation of relevant projects at home and abroad, and systematically summarizes the project research results from three aspects, namely, BOT risk management of waste incineration power generation projects, BOT model of projects and BOT project risk research. Secondly, the multi-case study method was used to analyze the risks of 3 typical waste-to-power generation BOT projects, collect risk factors, construct risk aggregation, and summarize 5 types of key risks and 14 kinds of risks. Then, according to the BOT agreement signed with the government side, the specific risk management method is proposed. The goal of this study is the LF waste incineration power generation project. The author participated in the project and identified and evaluated the project risks through risk list and hierarchical analysis, so as to find out the main risks in the project such as government risk, public opinion risk, completion risk and operational risk. In addition, in combination with the project risk, specific risk coping strategies are proposed according to the risk coping strategies proposed in the paper and the actual situation of the project, so as to reduce the degree of project risk and reduce risk losses. For other similar projects in China, there is reference and reference significance and value.

Status and Development of Agricultural Public-Private Partnership Program Implementation in China

<p>As the initiator of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese Government’s goal in agriculture is to promote the sustainable development of agriculture throughout China and the world. One of the feasible ways to realize this goal is to adopt the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. This study aims to analyze the current status of agricultural PPP projects in China and their impacts. This study utilized the Ministry of Finance database to collect 2014 to 2022 data on agricultural PPP projects in China. The collected data were organized and analyzed to analyze the current situation and return mechanism of Chinese agricultural PPP projects. The results show that China’s agricultural PPP projects are less attractive than other sectors, government and social-private sector cooperation is less sustainable, and laws and regulations and risk assessment are not well developed. Therefore, this study proposes to promote the development of agricultural PPP projects by standardizing the law, improving the return mechanism, and strengthening the risk assessment. Thus, it further promotes the sustainable development of agriculture and plays a certain positive role.</p>

Multi-objective planning for time-cost trade-offs in multi-project parallel environment

PurposeProject managers bear the responsibility of selecting and developing resource scheduling methods that align with project requirements and organizational circumstances. This study focuses on resource-constrained project scheduling in multi-project environments. The research simplifies the problem by adopting a single-project perspective using gain coefficients.Design/methodology/approachIt employs uncertainty theory and multi-objective programming to construct a model. The optimal solution is identified using Matlab, while LINGO determines satisfactory alternatives. By combining these methods and considering actual construction project situations, a compromise solution closely approximating the optimal one is derived.FindingsThe study provides fresh insights into modeling and resolving resource-constrained project scheduling issues, supported by real-world examples that effectively illustrate its practical significance.Originality/valueThe research highlights three main contributions: effective resource utilization, project prioritization and conflict management, and addressing uncertainty. It offers decision support for project managers to balance resource allocation, resolve conflicts, and adapt to changing project demands.

Building assertiveness and listening skills using dysfunctional peer project scenarios

Purpose This paper aims to provide an experiential learning exercise that develops student skills in assertive communication and listening in the context of dysfunctional group projects. It offers iterative planning, roleplays and reflection. Variations incorporate additional practice, interim debriefing or multiple partners. Design/methodology/approach A scaffolded approach introduces assertiveness and listening. Students prepare and discuss feedback scripts for two scenarios about problematic team members, articulate perceptions of blame (to call attention to bias) and identify listening tactics. They receive additional scenarios with complementary roles to analyze individually and then practice with new partners. In one, they are assertive, and in the other, they are the dysfunctional group member. Findings The challenges represented by the scenarios resonate with students. Many are shocked by the difficulty of speaking assertively with “problem” group members and find the iterative practice helpful. Practical implications Students avoid directly addressing problems caused by peers or request instructor intervention. This iterative activity helps them close the knowing-doing gap by practicing assertive communication, feedback and listening within the context of realistic group project situations. Social implications This activity develops learner confidence and capacity to handle similar situations. It incorporates valuable soft skills that are transferable to the workplace. Originality/value This activity draws on common problems caused by group members in college project teams. Learners develop scripts and listening approaches and practice assertive communication to achieve better group outcomes.

Application of Level 3 Probabilistic Safety Analysis in UK HPR1000

Abstract A Level 3 probabilistic safety assessment (L3 PSA) is required in United Kingdom (UK) generic design assessment (GDA) to demonstrate that a new nuclear power plant is suitable to be built in UK. L3 PSA is used to assess the individual and societal risk and compare the results against the offsite radiation protection targets (RPTs) for fault and accident conditions. Its results can be used for risk evaluation and environmental impact assessment and provide useful information for alternative design features, rulemaking, and regulatory procedures. It takes into account atmospheric dispersion, demography, dosimetry, pathways to man, and plant/site characteristics. The radioactive source terms and their frequencies often are passed on from Level 1/2 PSA analyses. The framework for demonstrating the acceptability of the new plant design at GDA is presented for the assessments against RPTs 7, 8, and 9. There is little relevant good practice and mature standard for L3 PSAs that have recently been implemented worldwide. In this study, a pilot L3 PSA is performed for UK Hua-long Pressurized Water Reactor (UK HPR1000) to reflect the UK context and relevant good practices. It introduces the methodology and the processes to be followed to perform conditional consequence calculations for the faults and accident scenarios. All radiation sources are considered and analyzed. The radiological risks to a potential UK site are analyzed and compared against RPTs. A widely used code - PC COSYMA, is selected as a primary tool for the accident consequence calculations. The strengths and limitations of the code are identified based on the project situation, and either qualitative arguments or supplementary analyses are subsequently proposed to overcome the limitations. The final L3 PSA results are derived to support the demonstration that the offsite radiological risks for UK HPR1000 have been achieved as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) and have met the UK regulatory expectation.

Social Impact Assessment in Urban Security Management Projects: A Case Study from Pakistan

Public safety and security management projects are devised to reduce crime, fear and calamities by prevailing law and order to reduce the harm in society. In a certain context, social impact assessment is a novel way to reveal the extent of effectiveness for these projects. This case study presents an Expert System based methodology regarding social impact assessment for two urban security management projects in Pakistan. An Expert System, DoctuS is employed as a tool to build a rule-based model tool using social impact attributes (as variables) from literature and expert knowledge (Author’s own insight as being involved in projects). Case-based reasoning (CBR) method is employed for the measurement of the impact of urban security management KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in the two case projects. The empirical findings in this case study approaches the impact assessment by quantitative analysis of crime rates in JMP statistical package and Qualitative Expert knowledge-based model in DoctuS. Thereby, the study evaluates the pre and post ante project situations in order to assess the project’s effectiveness and impact on improved urban safety and security. In the first step, the projects are briefly described, followed by the crime rate analysis under the project jurisdictions and rules between attributes are defined. The second step defines the qualitative rule-based model along with the two cases described, and validated in DoctuS tool. Some attributes and rules have changed, and a new concise model is presented. The Expert System compares the project cases and evaluates the social impact assessment based on the defined KPIs. The Expert system validation presents a novel model for social impact assessment of subject urban security management projects. We propose this methodology and model as useful in investigating social impact assessment of projects specifically dealing with urban safety and security management. However, the generalizability of the findings of this case-study based articles need more sophisticated tests as recommendation for the extension to this study.
 
 Received: 31 May 2023 / Accepted: 19 November 2023 / Published: 5 January 2024

Identifying Significant Policy Barriers for Highway Development in Indonesia

The development of the Sumatera Toll Road has encountered numerous challenges, including insufficient government intervention, legal issues, ineffective decision-making processes, and other related concerns. The objective of this research is to identify significant policy barriers affecting the performance of the Trans-Sumatra toll road development project. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to a group of seven experts who possessed a minimum of ten years of professional experience and had completed undergraduate education. The responses obtained from the experts were subsequently analyzed using the proposed rough Delphi method. Results: 11 indicators become significant policy barriers during the development process of the Sumatra toll road project. There are delays in project permits and approvals, government intervention, domestic political situations, corruption, SPV breaks policy, contract conflicts, policy and regulation changes, a lack of supporting policies for investors, land status, a lack of standard contract agreements, and a lack of regulatory supervisory and legal systems. Conclusion: The results presented in this paper are important to be considered by the Indonesian government’s government to understand the implementation situation of transportation projects, especially the construction of the Trans-Sumatra toll road.

Study on mechanism of blocked water transport of the navigation and hydropower projects of Guizhou Province

On the basis of comprehensive investigations of reasons to result in different efficiency not only in civil but also in abroad countries, combined with specific situation of navigation and hydropower projects of Guizhou Province, the mechanism corresponding to the organization is established roughly via the following measures: to follow the thinking and requirements of CMM and ISO system and to apply them to daily management; the factors to cause problem of blocked water transport of the navigation and hydropower projects to be explored, the reasons were studied to find out the methods which can finally overcome these difficulties; to analysis the measures which can improve the management efficiency and to study the reasons which hind behind them. On the conditions to start the whole equipment and scientific method possessed by the navigation and hydropower projects of Guizhou Province, the scheme of mechanism system suitable to navigation and hydropower projects of Guizhou Province is roughly developed, which has the quantitative, traceable, and continuous improvement properties. The studied results may be valuable to other similar mountain river cases in other places.

Mechanical Properties and Micromechanism of Calcium Sand–Cement Mortar Modified With Zirconium Dioxide and Basalt Fiber

In this paper, the modification effect of basalt fiber (BF) and nano‐zirconium dioxide on calcareous sand–cement mortar was studied according to the actual situation of the island construction project. Mechanical tests were carried out on specimens of calcareous sand–cement mortar doped with different dosages of BFs and nano‐zirconium dioxide, and the effects of BFs and nano‐zirconium dioxide on the compressive properties of calcareous sand–cement mortar were analyzed by using the unconfined compression test study and the modification mechanism was elaborated by using: (1) the stress–strain curves of calcium sand–cement mortar are all softened hump‐like convex curves, and the residual stresses tend to a stable constant value. (2) BF at 0.6 wt% was the optimum dosing and increased the compressive strength by 66%–94%, 55%–65%, and 44%–63%, respectively, compared to that of calcareous sand–cement mortar as the age of maintenance increased. The compressive strength of nano‐zirconium dioxide–cement was increased by 49.2%, 79.1%, 101.1%, and 95.4% at the dosage of 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%, respectively, and the optimum dosage was 8% compared to that of calcareous sand–cement mortar. (3) BFs are interspersed in the cement mortar, forming a dense mesh structure, wrapping and binding the cement mortar, and playing the role of anchoring reinforcement under external load. Nano‐zirconium dioxide due to its filling and induced catalytic role in the formation of a certain plate‐like structure, so that it and the calcium sand–cement mortar between the overall more compact, improving the compactness of the specimen.

Development of the ontological model of situation management of projects based on SCRUM under risky conditions

Projects in the field of information technology implemented on the basis of Scrum are quite often carried out under the influence of sharply changing circumstances both in the project itself and in the environment, which are characterized as risky. Therefore, the processes related to the situational project management, which is the object of this study, become important. For projects, it is necessary not only to identify the current situation but also to formally present it in order to evaluate and determine rational ways of achieving project goals under risky conditions, which is the task of this study. Crisis situations in projects that arise under risky conditions are quite difficult to predict and take appropriate preventive measures in time. In difficult cases of establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between factors, we have unstructured data of various types and nature. Therefore, to solve this task, it is necessary to apply a combined approach, based on a complex combination of situational management methods, formalized, intelligent methods and expert methods, as well as ontological engineering. This will make it possible to build an adequate decision-making model under risky conditions, taking into account the influence of external and internal environmental factors. An ontological model of situational project management based on Scrum is proposed, which will ensure the interconnection and consistency of decisions in accordance with the situation under risky conditions. The proposed model of the situation provides a formalized description and assessment of the situation under risky conditions in real time. The result of the application of this model is an increase in the efficiency of projects due to compliance with time limits, reduction of overspending of resources, as well as adaptation to rapidly changing circumstances and adequate response

Promotion and application of Convenient Photovoltaic Charging Car Sheds and Charging Piles


 The purpose of this study is to explore China's national strategy to cope with global climate change, with a special focus on solar photovoltaic power generation projects in renewable energy, as well as convenient photovoltaic carports and charging pile projects under the requirements of energy development in Shandong Province. The author analyzes the photovoltaic project of Shandong Energy Building through research, including project situation, environmental resources, project construction and other aspects. The use of the idle carport roof of Shandong Energy Building to build distributed photovoltaics, the use of "self-generation, surplus electricity grid" mode to provide power supply services for enterprises, and for employees to provide charging services for new energy vehicles. Under the climatic conditions of Jinan, the photovoltaic power generation project has good feasibility.

Investigation on the Current Situation of the National Fitness Activity Brand Project in Shanghai

Through the investigation of the current situation of the national fitness activity brand project in Shanghai, this paper finds the problems in the organization and management, project content, brand value, explores the reasons, and puts forward scientific feasible suggestions on how to inherit, innovate and develop the national fitness brand project with Shanghai characteristics. For the masses to develop and innovate more abundant, more scientific fitness programs, for the sustainable development of the existing brand projects to provide ideas. Moreover, the formation of brand projects to a certain extent also sets an example for the development of national fitness sports in areas with relatively backward economic development level.

Project Leadership Functions and the Associated Behaviour for Projects and Project Organisations

Individuals and their leadership competencies have been the sole focus of project leadership research, rather than the project leadership’s behaviour and functions in project and organisational settings. As a result, this study investigates the project leadership functions and behaviours required for various project and organisational situations in order to propose a project leadership model that will be effective in all project and organisational situations. The model that was developed and tested in this study theorised about the project leadership function that project leaders are expected to perform as a result of their positions. It also described how project leaders could tailor their leadership functions and behaviours to address issues related to positions, organisational situations, and project situations. Three hypotheses were developed and tested using structural equation modelling to validate the model. The model’s perceptive power demonstrates adequate validity. The model’s validity implies that there are appropriate project leadership functions for different leadership levels and circumstances. The model’s validity also implies that each project leadership behaviour has its own value, as conditions and necessities dictate. The study assumes that a project leader can embrace project leadership by combining a few different project leadership functions and behaviours.