Role Of Project Manager Research Articles

Systematic Literature Review of Identifying Issues in Software Cost Estimation Techniques

Software cost estimation plays a vital role in software project management. It is a process of predicting the effort and cost in terms of money and staff required for developing the software system. It is very much clear that software project will be successful if its estimated cost will be near to the real cost. When the project is at the acquisition stage the least details are available about a software project to be developed, due to which Problems arises in cost estimation. As the stages move on details increases for software development of software which is quite fruitful in cost estimating. However, it can be considered that estimating the software cost in the first phases will produce better results. In this research cost estimation techniques are discussed along with the issues in that particular technique and focus will be on understating the points or issues which cause hurdles or issues in estimating the cost of the software project.

Trust and control in project management

This study answers a call for more qualitative research on project management to unveil “what goes on in social construction of projects and project management”. More precisely, we focus on how trust and control are balanced in an inter-organizational project collaboration in the Norwegian petroleum industry. Our findings suggest that balancing trust and control is a significant part of the project manager role. We claim that this area is both neglected in education and training and under-researched. The aim of the paper is to provide more knowledge on the trust-control dilemma in project management. Our qualitative approach provides rich empirical examples of dilemma situations and how balancing trust and control take place in a real-life project management context. The data was collected between 2010 and 2013 and consists of observational data from project meetings, document analysis and interviews.

Crossing times: Temporal boundary-spanning practices in interorganizational projects

This paper introduces the notion of “temporal boundary spanning” and highlights the key role of project management in resolving temporal tensions among partners participating in interorganizational projects (IOPs). The present study, which is based on data from 93 IOPs undertaken within a major change program, relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews, observations, and detailed analyses of written documents and procedures from those IOPs. Based on the data, we inductively develop a practice-based theory that identifies three main practices (framing, synchronizing, hyping) used to resolve the central temporal tensions observed in the studied IOPs. In that respect, the paper offers novel insights into the role and practice of project management in IOPs.

Identification and Analysis of Project Management Success Factors in Information Technology SMEs

This article identifies and analyses the success factors involved in project management through an exploratory study that encompasses nineteen interviews, fifty-seven surveys and one session with a focus group of project managers, department managers who have taken the role of project managers and general managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the information technology (IT) sector in Bogota, Colombia. After analyzing the information, the authors identified eleven factors for the achievement of project management goals in these organizations. These comprise managerial, organizational and sector aspects that influence the resource management and leadership in projects of SMEs of information technology.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT BETWEEN PROJECT LEADERSHIP AND PROJECT SUPPORT

ABSTRACT This article examines the transformation of the role of project management in research and development projects and the influence of digitalization in this context. It works with the theoretical concept of the transformation of projectization with a core emphasis on project management and (increasingly) on flexibility, innovation and supportive leadership in the form of coaching. Empirical ideal types are project leadership in the sense of classical waterfall projects and scrum masters, who are not leaders in the true sense, but a process owner or owners without a direct leadership function. Keywords project management, projectization, leadership, coaching leadership, transformation, digitalization, scrum masters

Impacts of PM’s Leadership Type on Project Performance in PPP Project

Recently, PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) Projects, which private companies invest in, plan, design, construct and operate, have become more popular around the world. The construction industry environment is becoming increasingly competitive. The PPP project is composed of various organizations, so it is very difficult to carry out the project successfully. In this environment, the construction companies are trying hard to secure a competitive advantage. In this study, we tried to identify the role of project manager’s leadership and project citizenship behavior as a precedent for creating performance in PPP (Private-Public-Partnership) project. We examine the impact of PM’s transformational leadership and transactional leadership on project citizen behavior and examine the impact of project citizen action on project management performance and completion performance. For this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey on PPP project participants. As a result, the following results were obtained. First, transformational leadership and transactional leadership had a significant influence on project citizenship behavior. Second, project citizen behavior had a significant impact on both project management performance and project completion performance. The idealized influence of transformational leadership and the Active management by exception of transactional leadership were found to be very important in shaping PPP team’s project citizenship behavior. Therefore, this study has academic implications in studying the effects of PM leadership and project citizenship behavior on the performance of PPP project. And it is expected that it will help selection and training of PM to secure a competitive advantage for construction companies that implement PPP projects practically.

Optimal software testing-resource allocation with operational profile: computational aspects

Software testing-resource allocation plays a significant role in software project management. During the last two decades, a number of software-resource allocation problems have been formulated from various points of view, by taking account of several optimization criteria with constraints. First, we consider three optimization problems with constraints in a combination of expected total software cost, cumulative software testing effort and desired software reliability level. Especially, we focus on the operational profile of a software product and formulate rather different software testing-resource allocation problems from the existing ones. The optimization algorithms to determine the software testing resource for each software component are given by means of nonlinear programming. Next, we consider a statistical estimation problem of the optimal software testing-resource allocation, where a simulation-based parametric bootstrap method is applied to obtain not only the confidence interval, but also the higher moments of an estimator of the optimal software testing effort for each software component. In simulation experiments, we give an illustrative example on how to evaluate the uncertainty of the estimator of the optimal software testing-effort allocation.

Re-estimating software effort using prior phase efforts and data mining techniques

Software effort estimation has played an important role in software project management. An accurate estimation helps reduce cost overrun and the eventual project failure. Unfortunately, many existing estimation techniques rely on the total project effort which is often determined from the project life cycle. As the project moves on, the course of action deviates from what originally has planned, despite close monitoring and control. This leads to re-estimating software effort so as to improve project operating costs and budgeting. Recent research endeavors attempt to explore phase level estimation that uses known information from prior development phases to predict effort of the next phase by using different learning techniques. This study aims to investigate the influence of preprocessing in prior phases on learning techniques to re-estimate the effort of next phase. The proposed re-estimation approach preprocesses prior phase effort by means of statistical techniques to select a set of input features for learning which in turn are exploited to generate the estimation models. These models are then used to re-estimate next phase effort by using four processing steps, namely data transformation, outlier detection, feature selection, and learning. An empirical study is conducted on 440 estimation models being generated from combinations of techniques on 5 data transformation, 5 outlier detection, 5 feature selection, and 5 learning techniques. The experimental results show that suitable preprocessing is significantly useful for building proper learning techniques to boosting re-estimation accuracy. However, there is no one learning technique that can outperform other techniques over all phases. The proposed re-estimation approach yields more accurate estimation than proportion-based estimation approach. It is envisioned that the proposed re-estimation approach can facilitate researchers and project managers on re-estimating software effort so as to finish the project on time and within the allotted budget.

Emotional intelligence and transformational leadership behaviours of construction project managers

PurposeExisting research has highlighted the need for influential leaders to respond to the evolving social, economic and environmental constraints on the construction industry. Studies on leadership in other sectors have shown that influential leaders tend to demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence. Little or no research examining relationships between leadership style and emotional intelligence has been conducted specific to construction project managers. This study aims to identify the prevalent leadership style adopted by construction project managers and investigate potential correlations between leadership style and emotional intelligence.Design/methodology/approachAn online questionnaire including a mix of open and closed questions was adopted to address the research objectives. The group studied comprised project managers currently working in the construction industry in New Zealand and the UK.FindingsThe research found that transformational leadership style is prevalent among project managers examined in this study. Significant positive relationships were found between project managers’ emotional intelligence and their likelihood of adopting a transformational leadership style.Originality/valueThe research results provide the construction industry with a benchmark against which individuals with high emotional intelligence, and so most suited to the challenges of the project management role, can be identified and trained. Recommendations including suitable methods for identifying, recruiting and training project managers, as well as secondment and mentoring options, were suggested for improving leadership capabilities in the construction industry.

American Association for Cancer Research Project Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange: From Inception to First Data Release and Beyond-Lessons Learned and Member Institutions' Perspectives.

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Project Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange (GENIE) is an international data-sharing consortium focused on enabling advances in precision oncology through the gathering and sharing of tumor genetic sequencing data linked with clinical data. The project’s history, operational structure, lessons learned, and institutional perspectives on participation in the data-sharing consortium are reviewed. Individuals involved with the inception and execution of AACR Project GENIE from each member institution described their experiences and lessons learned. The consortium was conceived in January 2014 and publicly released its first data set in January 2017, which consisted of 18,804 samples from 18,324 patients contributed by the eight founding institutions. Commitment and contributions from many individuals at AACR and the member institutions were crucial to the consortium’s success. These individuals filled leadership, project management, informatics, data curation, contracts, ethics, and security roles. Many lessons were learned during the first 3 years of the consortium, including on how to gather, harmonize, and share data; how to make decisions and foster collaboration; and how to set the stage for continued participation and expansion of the consortium. We hope that the lessons shared here will assist new GENIE members as well as others who embark on the journey of forming a genomic data–sharing consortium.

Physicians’ accounts of frontline tensions when implementing pilot projects to improve primary care

PurposeCanada’s primary care system has been described as “a culture of pilot projects” with little evidence of converting successful initiatives into funded, permanent programs or sharing project outcomes and insights across jurisdictions. Health services pilot projects are advocated as an effective strategy for identifying promising models of care and building integrated care partnerships in local settings. In the qualitative study reported here, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the strengths and challenges of this approach.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 primary care physicians who discussed their experiences as pilot project leads. Following thematic analysis methods, broad system issues were captured as well as individual project information.FindingsWhile participants often portrayed themselves as advocates for vulnerable patients, mobilizing healthcare organizations and providers to support new models of care was discussed as challenging. Competition between local healthcare providers and initiatives could impact pilot project success. Participants also reported tensions between their clinical, project management and research roles with additional time demands and skill requirements interfering with the work of implementing and evaluating service innovations.Originality/valueStudy findings highlight the complexity of pilot project implementation, which encompasses physician commitment to addressing care for vulnerable populations through to the need for additional skill set requirements and the impact of local project environments. The current pilot project approach could be strengthened by including more multidisciplinary collaboration and providing infrastructure supports to enhance the design, implementation and evaluation of health services improvement initiatives.

Nove uloge projektnog menadžera

In this paper are discussed new roles of project managers that are caused by different projects and different project management methodologies, used to manage these projects. With a brief recollection of the basic roles and tasks of traditional project managers, it was pointed out the new roles and tasks of project managers that correspond to the specific characteristics of certain groups of similar projects. This is particularly noticeable for project managers who manage software development projects using agile methodologies, but also for some other specific project groups.

Ensemble effort estimation using selection and genetic algorithms

Software effort estimation plays a vital role in software project management. Several single estimation methods have been introduced vying to be the best estimation method. However, it is difficult to decide which method offers the best estimation result. This study proposes an ensemble effort estimation from several single estimation methods which yield different estimations but comparably high accuracy. The proposed technique employs a correlation-based feature selection algorithm to choose methods out of twelve methods derived from combinations of four transformation and three learning techniques. The ensemble then uses a genetic algorithm to build a mathematical function to compute one combined estimation from those selected method estimations. Experiments are set up based on six benchmark data sets to evaluate estimation performance. The resulting measure of error metrics show that the proposed ensemble technique deploying only necessary estimation methods can yield more accurate estimation than the best method from the twelve methods.

Information Systems Projects and Individual Developer Outcomes: Role of Project Managers and Process Control

We integrate control theory and the information systems (IS) project management literature using a multilevel lens to theorize the cross-level effects of technical IS project risk on individual developer outcomes—performance and psychological stress—and the mechanisms by which IS project managers’ project-related knowledge attenuates this relationship. We argue that IS project managers with project-related knowledge mitigate technical IS project risk by facilitating the enactment of internal and external process controls in their IS projects. Our empirical study involves data collected from 1,230 individual developers embedded in 130 IS project teams that are managed by 20 IS project managers. Our results provide strong support for the three-level model and its set of (a) cross-level main effects of technical IS project risk on individual developer outcomes; (b) cross-level main effects of IS project manager project-related knowledge on enacted internal and external process controls; and (c) cross-level moderation of the relationship between technical IS project risk and individual developer outcomes by IS project manager project-related knowledge through internal and external process controls. Our study provides insights on how IS project management, IS project process controls, and technical IS project risk must be managed as a system of multilevel dependencies to achieve the desired developer outcomes. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0723 .

Evaluating Pred(p) and standardized accuracy criteria in software development effort estimation

AbstractSoftware development effort estimation (SDEE) plays a primary role in software project management. But choosing the appropriate SDEE technique remains elusive for many project managers and researchers. Moreover, the choice of a reliable estimation accuracy measure is crucial because SDEE techniques behave differently given different accuracy measures. The most widely used accuracy measures in SDEE are those based on magnitude of relative error (MRE) such as mean/median MRE (MMRE/MedMRE) and prediction at level p (Pred(p)), which counts the number of observations where an SDEE technique gave MREs lower than p. However, MRE has proven to be an unreliable accuracy measure, favoring SDEE techniques that underestimate. Consequently, an unbiased measure called standardized accuracy (SA) has been proposed.This paper deals with the Pred(p) and SA measures. We investigate (1) the consistency of Pred(p) and SA as accuracy measures and SDEE technique selectors, and (2) the relationship between Pred(p) and SA. The results suggest that Pred(p) is less biased towards underestimates and generally selects the same best technique as SA. Moreover, SA and Pred(p) measure different aspects of technique performance, and SA may be used as a predictor of Pred(p) by means of the 3 association rules.

内部統制におけるPMの役割と効用について : 日本版COSOフレームワーク及び「ITへの対応」に関連して( 研究会活動)

内部統制におけるPMの役割と効用について : 日本版COSOフレームワーク及び「ITへの対応」に関連して( 研究会活動)

The role of creativity and project management in enhancing service quality of advertising agencies: A qualitative approach

This research study aims to investigate the role of creativity and project management as important aspects of service quality. The context is the advertising industry which is highly competitive and its clients have very specific needs and expectations. Data was collected using indepth interviews with marketing managers and project leaders who were responsible for the advertising needs of their organisations. The findings provide detailed insights into the nature of creative competence, project management process and project outcomes from the clients' perspective. Creative competence includes an assessment of the creative work produced by the advertising agencies and their staff. The project management processes reflect the need for detailed plans and budgets to be developed and communicated, as well as having a clear process for change management once the project scope and plan have been signed off. This study is the first of its kind using a qualitative approach to investigate the role of creativity and project management in enhancing the service quality of advertising agencies.

The role of project management in organisational sustainable growth of technology-based firms

Project management plays an important role in the sustainable growth of technology-based firms. However, the fundamental relationship between the project management factors and sustainable growth of the firms has not been fully discovered. This exploratory research identifies the critical project management factors that contributing to sustainable growth of technology-based organisations. Based on literature review and demo interviews, a two-level evaluation structure is developed for further structured interview survey. Over 60 experts working in technology-based organisations are invited to the structured interview. A project management framework for organisational sustainable growth was extracted from three dimensions: personal, team and organisational levels. Furthermore, the practical implementation of these identified factors is measured by satisfaction through interview survey. The research provided researchers and practitioners of technology-based firms with an understanding of the contribution of key project management factors to organisational sustainable growth.

Complexity, uncertainty and mental models: From a paradigm of regulation to a paradigm of emergence in project management

In project management research, it is acknowledged that two perspectives on project performance must be considered: project efficiency (delivering efficient outputs) and project success (delivering beneficial outcomes). The first perspective is embedded in a deterministic paradigm of project management, while the second appears more naturally connected to the emerging non-deterministic paradigm. Complexity and uncertainty are key constructs frequently associated with the non-deterministic paradigm. This conceptual paper suggests that these two concepts could very well explain and define particularities of both paradigms, and seeks to articulate both perspectives in a contingent model.First, the constructs of complexity and uncertainty are clarified. Second, the role of project managers' mental models in managerial decision-making is considered. In the third part of this article, we propose a theoretical model suggesting that project managers should consider contingent variables to differentiate managerial conditions of regulation from managerial conditions of emergence.

Bringing project and change management roles into sync

PurposeChange management (CM) and project management (PM) literatures examine the key roles (change agent, project manager, project or change sponsor) played during projects or changes only from their respective points of view. They do so even in cases where projects and changes occur at the same time – or are so-called change projects. In such cases, effective management should utilize both scientific fields’ bodies of knowledge (BoK). The purpose of this paper is to unfold how and in which domain(s) typical roles of the two disciplines correspond to each other.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a systematic, bi-disciplinary meta-review that simultaneously studies relevant literature on roles performed during projects and changes. The common domain of CM and PM was identified; the systematic review and comparison of role definitions followed.FindingsThis paper examines and illustrates the correspondence of 7 CM and 14 PM roles; e.g., “sponsor” refers to the same role and “change agent” and “project manager” are corresponding ones, referring to the same role up to a certain degree.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper does not provide an exhaustive overview of various instances of different role (and stakeholder) interpretations.Practical implicationsFindings should facilitate the better management of changes that require CM-type and PM-type capabilities and actions.Originality/valueAs a result of the meta-review, two CM roles were re(de)fined. Linking PM and CM roles provides common ground on which practitioners of both fields can rely. A step-by-step tool for the identification of such cases in practice, when both types of roles should be played and both BoK can be utilized complementarily, was developed.