Senior Project Manager Research Articles

Talent mobility for accelerating diversity at leadership levels: A pilot study

Mayo Clinic is committed to reskilling and upskilling its workforce and to creating a strong, diverse leadership pipeline to advance its ‘Bold. Forward.’ strategy. In alignment with this commitment, the Mayo Clinic Shared Services Organization (MCSSO) launched a pilot offering staff the opportunity to work in a hybrid role and build new skills and connections. Pilot participants split their time equally between job roles in which the professional skill sets required were approximately the same. The pilot involved six MCSSO departments and six candidates (three pairs) from the participating departments. Staff were recruited for three roles: senior project manager, senior business analyst and call centre representative. Each of the three pairs worked in a hybrid assignment for six months. Candidates were offered opportunities to network with each other, MCSSO senior leaders and other diverse colleagues. Pilot evaluations were conducted at 0, 3 and 6 months with candidates and their supervisors. Additionally, benchmarking with external organisations allowed learning from advanced talent mobility and leadership diversity programmes. The evaluations highlighted that 50 per cent of the candidates were promoted by the end of their hybrid assignment. Most of them engaged in new projects, cross-trained and gained valuable insights, skills and expertise. Candidates and supervisors valued the opportunity to network with senior leaders and cross-functional colleagues. The pilot and external benchmarks emphasised the importance of a formal ‘talent mobility programme’ to build and sustain a diverse leadership pipeline. It is crucial to be intentional and bold with hybrid and mobility opportunities for intersectional candidates, under-represented groups and staff committed to equity, inclusion and diversity. All candidates and supervisors wanted the pilot to be expanded and operationalised. We believe that these early experiences, results and lessons on preparing diverse talent for leadership levels in the organisation are broadly transferable to other healthcare and non-healthcare organisations.

Russian nuclear weapons, 2023

ABSTRACT The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by the staff of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project: Director Hans M. Kristensen, Senior Research Associate and Project Manager Matt Korda, and Research Associate Eliana Reynolds. The Nuclear Notebook column has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987. This issue’s column examines Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which includes a stockpile of approximately 4,489 warheads. Of these, some 1,674 strategic warheads are deployed on ballistic missiles and at heavy bomber bases, while an approximate additional 999 strategic warheads, along with 1,816 nonstrategic warheads, are held in reserve. The Russian arsenal continues its broad modernization intended to replace most Soviet-era weapons by the late-2020s. To see all previous Nuclear Notebook columns, go to https://thebulletin.org/nuclear-risk/nuclear-weapons/nuclear-notebook/.

Proposal of Hierarchical Organization Structure for Negotiation Consensus in Multinational Joint-Client Megaprojects: Case of US Force Relocation Program in Korea

During negotiations in the initial stage of multinational megaprojects, technical issues are underemphasized compared to diplomatic or political perspectives despite varying relevant standards of participating countries. If the organization structures are established soundly while overcoming heterogeneous aspects of involved countries, decision making among countries satisfying both could be made timely and properly. With the aim of positive multilateral relationships and negotiations concerning engineering factors collectively, a framework is presented for identifying the roles and responsibilities of multinational joint clients with a hierarchical organization structure composed of a decision maker, senior responsible owner, project sponsor, and project manager. US forces relocation program in the Republic of Korea, a $1.4 billion megaproject, was analyzed where political and cultural aspects were attempted to melt down in a hierarchical organization. Results from interviewing high-level decision makers from both countries show that upper-level participants focus on political issues, while lower-level practitioners aim to achieve satisfactory technical quality. The involvement of engineers in earlier negotiation stages with upper-level counterparts is essential in establishing realistic goals. The uniqueness of the framework compared to previous factor-driven perspectives between different joint-client structures are as follows: Identical hierarchy of level from the countries supports defining roles with integrated scope management, and neutral consultative body for arbitrating conflict between countries and in-house departments within a country is required.

Past, Present, and Future of Language Assessment: An Interview with Dr. Hossein Farhady

Professor Hossein Farhady is an outstanding English Language Teaching (ELT) scholar in the field of applied linguistics, in general, and aspects of language testing and assessment, in particular with the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL). He has been teaching various courses on language testing and assessment, research methods, and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at MA and Ph.D. programs for the last four decades in Iran, the USA, Canada, Armenia, and Turkey. He has also been a prolific writer, publishing papers and books in prestigious international journals and publishing houses and presented numerous speeches and papers at national and international seminars and conferences. Moreover, he has supervised more than 80 MA theses and Ph.D. dissertations. His widely used book about research methodology for applied linguistics commonly known as “Hatch and Farhady” (1982) has served as the basic textbook at both undergraduate and graduate levels since the early 1980s. He has, additionally, been a curriculum developer and test developer in Iran and other parts of the world. He worked as a senior scholar and project manager for several organizations such as Ordinate and Lidget Green Corporations in California, Avant Assessment, and Second Language Testing, INC., in Rockville, Maryland. He has also received research grants and awards from organizations such as Pearson, Educational Testing Service (ETS), and International Language Testing Association (ILTA) in scoring and validating language tests. Currently, he is a faculty member at the English Language Teaching (ELT) Department at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Assessing the Implications for Children in Violent Extremist Families

On September 8, 2022, the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) Vancouver hosted the Defence and Security Advisory Network (DSAN) workshop in which Dr. Joana Cook, Senior Project Manager at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) and Editor-in-Chief of the ICCT Journal, presented on Assessing the Implications for Children in Violent Extremist Families. The presentation was followed by a moderated question-and-answer period in which the audience was able to deepen their understanding of the topic. The discussion centered around understanding the context of children who are affiliated with violent extremist (VE) groups so that practitioners can better support them and address their specific needs.

Involvement in State and Federal Aging Policy

The fourth speaker is Dr. Erica Solway. Dr. Solway will discuss her experience working in policy at the federal level as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow and a policy advisor with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging and in her current involvement in policy-relevant research at the state and national level at the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation. Dr. Solway is a senior project manager forthe evaluation of the Healthy Michigan Plan, Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program, and is also an associate director of the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging.

The first disease centred network in Spain: a bottom-up cardiovascular hospital and primary care network focused on reducing variability, improving population health and efficiency

Abstract Introduction In an autonomous region in Spain, the heads of cardiovascular disease from four hospitals, forty-three primary care centres and the ambulance provider, have come together to collectively reduce variability, improve outcomes and patient experience, increase efficiency and focus on population health through prevention. As a result, a cardiovascular network was founded to address the needs of the population through eight projects, each with a group of professionals dedicated to its completion. This region has Beveridge-type universal healthcare and the clinical network must operate under a choice model in which patients can choose where they wish to be treated. This approach has never been carried forward in Spain previously nor, as far as we are aware, in Europe from the bottom-up with clinical leaders achieving buy-in from the political level. Purpose With the well-known demographic challenge putting the system under strain, our hypothesis is that this innovative collaborative approach where by hospitals pool resources and implement collective improvements from the bottom-up will results in better health for its population of over one million people. Methods The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Assessment Scale for Collaboratives is used to track project progress through the valuation of project leads assigned to each project and the senior project manager. This scale divides progress from: forming team, activity but no changes, modest improvement, significant improvement, and outstanding sustainable results; some are further subdivided as shown in the image. Projects each have their set of indicators to ensure project objectives are achieved. Results The network has 8 working projects which include different specialists, professional groups and organizations including primary care and the main ambulance provider. The four hospitals have pulled together their resources to recruit two project managers. Progress measured with the Assessment Scale for Collaboratives indicates that projects have moved forward 18% in a three month period, reaching an average progress of 35%. Conclusion The closer collaboration across four hospital sites has put this network at the forefront of Spanish health policy by focusing work on diseases rather than by geographical areas. This allows clinical leaders to decide and focus on objectives that most suit the needs of its population whilst building a culture of continuous improvement across multiple care sites and professional groups. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Fundaciόn Interhospitalaria para la Investigaciόn Cardiovascular - Fundaciόn FIC

Cover Story: Matters of Perspective: Appreciating Diversity and Promoting Inclusion in Health Technology Professions.

Cover Story: Matters of Perspective: Appreciating Diversity and Promoting Inclusion in Health Technology Professions.

Secure Data Integration in a Cloud Environment

Honeywell was an industry leader in the aerospace market for both government and commercial needs, and had a proud history of making best-in-class products for a wide range of customers. Mike Brutsman, senior project manager, thought, “We have great data, great analysts, and great products. Why can’t we provide better and timelier project data to all our customers?” To address these issues, Aero had decided to test Microsoft Project Online (MSPO), a cloud-based planning and scheduling tool as replacement for the desktop versions that were currently in use. If adopted there would be many obstacles to rolling this software out.

Technologies and infrastructure: costs and obstacles in developing large-scale computer–based testing

ABSTRACTThis paper identifies important technological, financial, and equity challenges to the development and implementation of online or onscreen educational testing. The insights are based on the author’s experiences in New Zealand of being the senior project manager for the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) computer-based standardised testing system. The system was funded by the government for formative educational purposes and is delivered to schools for free. The issues faced in the project that need to be considered in any new online testing system include: clarity about the purpose of the testing system, the importance of knowing the current technology conditions, the challenges of working within the dynamic and changing world of technology, the need to assure quality and equity for all test-takers, the economics of paying for a public, rather than commercial, service, and challenges in the management processes of developing and introducing a new system. This survey of technology issues makes it clear that moving to online or onscreen testing has many fishhooks in it that need substantial thought prior to engaging in the development process.

Collaboration Yields Presentations About … Collaboration

Collaboration Yields Presentations About … Collaboration

Are E-Cigarettes a Less Harmful Alternative to Smoking?

Are E-Cigarettes a Less Harmful Alternative to Smoking?

Untangling the Complexities of Successful Tendering Practices: Exploring the Factors Leading to Bidding Success from a General Contractor’s Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to explore the complexity of tendering practices from a contractor perspective by investigating the conditions that lead to successful bid results. To do this, the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) method is used to describe combinations of conditions and their results. Empirical material collected through data mining of previously completed building projects in Denmark (quantitative data) is supported by data obtained from project managers of the same general contractor company (qualitative data) in order to holistically describe the combination of conditions that has resulted in particular tender results. The major finding of the analysis is a solution set explaining the path leading to the winning of project contracts; previous work experience between the client and general contractor, together with either previous work experience between the architect and general contractor for design-bid-build projects, or senior project manager involvement on the contractor’s side in design-build projects. The analysis illustrates how contracting companies whose existence is highly dependent on winning new contracts can learn from patterns abstracted from previous projects. The results will contribute to the development of more predictable project organizations and might thereby be used to help construction organizations allocate valuable resources during the bidding phase in the best way possible.

Rebound To Test If Cost Cuts Will Last

One sign that things are getting better for US onshore exploration is the revival of talk about looming shortages and bottlenecks. By mid-year, sand to prop open fractures and trucks to pump those jobs are expected to be in short supply. Oilfield hands are already a scarce commodity. Those are solvable problems, but at a price some companies may find uncomfortably high. Surveys by branches of the US Federal Reserve Bank done in the fourth quarter of 2016 said that the break-even oil price for companies in Texas and surrounding states varies widely, and is generally greater than USD 50/bbl. The survey by the bank’s Dallas branch found that nearly 60% of the 141 companies surveyed said that it would take a price from USD 55/bbl to USD 65/bbl to “substantially increase” US crude oil drilling. And that was before service costs began rising. The smallest bar on the chart was for companies that can make money drilling when oil is USD 49/bbl or less. Some analysts publish estimates of average oil prices needed to profitably produce oil, but those averages mask a wide range of break-even levels. There are also differences among analysts on what percentage of the cost reductions made in the industry since 2014 will vaporize in the face of the double-digit service price increases that are expected this year in the unconventional services sector. “We hear every ratio possible,” said Jackson Sandeen, a senior research analyst for Wood Mackenzie, who said the savings are 40% from more efficient operations and 60% due to service sec-tor price concessions, which will shrink. Bain & Company clients put it at 60% of sustainable efficiencies and 40% from price concessions, said Jorge Leis, a Bain partner that leads its Americas Oil & Gas Practice. Rystad Energy said the average price needed to profitably produce oil in the US nonconventional sector has dropped by 50% since the downturn hit in late 2014, but a lot of that is based on supplier discounts. “Lower unit prices of service companies are a major reason for the drop,” said Jon Duesund, senior project manager for Rystad, during a recent briefing in Houston.

E&P Notes (January 2017)

E&P Notes (January 2017)

The challenges and future of oral drug delivery: An interview with David Brayden.

David Brayden speaks to Hannah Makin, Commissioning Editor: David Brayden is a Full Professor (Advanced Drug Delivery) at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin (UCD) and also a Fellow of the UCD Conway Institute. Following a PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge, UK (1989), and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Stanford University, CA, USA, he set up Elan Biotechnology Research's in vitro pharmacology laboratory in Dublin (1991). At Elan, he became a senior scientist and project manager of several of Elan's joint-venture drug delivery research collaborations with US biotech companies. In 2001, he joined UCD as a lecturer in veterinary pharmacology and was appointed Associate Professor in 2006 and Full Professor in 2014. He was a Director of the Science Foundation Ireland Research Cluster (The Irish Drug Delivery Research Network) from 2007 to 2013, is a Deputy Coordinator of an FP7 Consortium on oral peptides in nanoparticles ('TRANS-INT', 2012-2017), and is a Co-Principal Investigator in 'CURAM', Science Foundation Ireland's new Centre for Medical Devices (2014-2020[ 1 ]). He was made a Fellow of the Controlled Release Society in 2012. He is the author or co-author of >200 research publications and patents. D Brayden serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Drug Discovery Today, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews and the Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and is an Associate Editor of Therapeutic Delivery. D Brayden works as an independent consultant for drug delivery companies.

Phronetic judgement, an essential competence for a project manager in a complex project environment!

In this paper, we invite the reader to rethink project management from the perspective of phronesis, or practical wisdom, a central notion in Aristotle's philosophy. The turn to Aristotle has been in vogue ever since Martin Heidegger (2009) pointed out the importance of phronesis for the humanities and philosophy. Contemporary critical project management literature argues for a rich set of reflections, ones that phronesis could provide. This paper is one of the first to illustrate how a reflection based on phronesis could inform project management practices. The illustration comes from an inquiry into the practice of the first author in his role as a senior project manager for a large infrastructural project.

Comparing senior executive and project manager perceptions of IT project risk: a Chinese Delphi study

AbstractThe success rate for information technology (IT) projects continues to be low. With an increasing number of IT projects in developing countries such as China, it is important to understand the risks they are experiencing on IT projects. To date, there has been little research documenting Asian perceptions of IT project risk. In this research, we examine the risks identified by Chinese senior executives (SEs) and project managers (PMs), and compare these two groups. The importance of top management support in IT projects is well documented. Prior research has shown that from the perspective of IT PMs, lack of support from SEs is the number one risk in IT projects. Surprisingly, senior executives' perceptions towards IT project risk have never been systematically examined. One reason why lack of support from senior executives continues to represent a major risk may be that senior executives themselves do not realize the critical role that they can play in helping to deliver successful projects. In this study, we use the Delphi method to compare the risk perceptions of senior executives and project managers. By comparing risk factors selected by each group, zones of concordance and discordance are identified. In terms of perceived importance ascribed to risk factors, PMs tend to focus on lower‐level risks with particular emphasis on risks associated with requirements and user involvement, whereas SEs tend to focus on higher‐level risks such as those risks involving politics, organization structure, process, and culture. Finally, approaches for dealing with risk factors that are seen as important by both SEs and PMs are provided.

Consciousness and its Measures: Joint Workshop for COST Actions NeuroMath and Consciousness

The main goals of COST Action NeuroMath are the same as those of the open access journal Nonlinear Biomedical Physics to show how new methods that are being developed in physical disciplines can shed new light on biological phenomena and their medical applications and to bridge the gaps between specialists in physics and biomedical specialists who use these methods in practice. Medical doctors and biologists rather avoid reading physical journals because the articles published there contain ‘heavy’ mathematics; on the other hand, physicists and engineers rarely read biological and medical journals because articles there are mostly descriptive. Both COST NeuroMath Action with its workshops and the journal Nonlinear Biomedical Physics were created to enable these groups to meet together. In this Supplement to Nonlinear Biomedical Physics we publish the best papers based on the presentations shown during the joint workshop for COST Actions NeuroMath (BM0601) and Consciousness (BM0605) ‘Consciousness and its Measures’ that took place in Limassol, Cyprus, 29 November 01 December, 2009. The papers present the newest interdisciplinary achievements in both applied and theoretical research on brain and consciousness. Transient process and synchrony of cortical activity [1], different patterns of cortical activity [2] and assessment of different conscious states [3] are presented. Neurodynamics is studied based on fMRI [4] and on high-resolution EEG signals [5]. Mutual Information is used to study yoking of eyes during saccadic movements [6] and MEG around saccades is analyzed for non-invasive characterization of the human eye fields [7]. Parameter selection for cortical potential imaging [8], and classification of ADHD patients based on independent ERP components [9] are discussed. Language processing by human brain using fMRI [10] and the influence of noise due to electromagnetic interference on processing of visual information [11] are studied. We thank the Authors and the Reviewers for the great job they all have done. We also thank Dr. Kalliopi Kostelidou, Science Officer, BMBS Domain, COST Office, Brussels, and Isobel Peters, Senior Project Manager as well as The Independent Editorial Production Team of BioMed Central, London, for their invaluable assistance in publishing this Supplement to Nonlinear Biomedical Physics.

Media asset management — Interview with John Theodore and Tim Day of SVC, Cognizant

Michael Moon interviews John Theodore, Senior Project Manager, and Tim Day, Senior Project Manager, both with SVC, a division of Cognizant, on their work as technology consultants to the entertainment industry. John and Tim also share their vision of the current and future state of the industry.