Traditional Project Research Articles

Scrum: A Systematic Literature Review

This study presents a Systematic Literature Review on an agile project management tool. The study offers a brief comparison between traditional and agile project management methodologies. Their respective concepts and characteristics are laid out to highlight and explain their main differences. The agile methods include quantitative and qualitative data, showing Scrum framework characteristics. This study highlights the importance of project management in function of its emergence as a response to problems encountered during improperly conducted projects. Furthermore, this study provides relevant information for professionals in the Industrial Engineering area and computer science. The results allowed us to conclude that Scrum is an agile framework for empirical-based project development; it was developed in the 1990s by Jeff Sutherland. It is a flexible and adaptable methodology. Scrum research peaked in 2020, and continues to be studied, mainly in the field of computer science. Finally, Brazil is well-positioned in third place for works published.

Study on Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Pollution and Its Control Method Based on Sewage Interception Along Rivers

Combined sewer overflow (CSO) pollution is the main factor that plagues the water environment in the area with combined sewer system in most cities of China. This paper analyzed CSO pollution, and reviewed the measures to solve CSO pollution and the latest research progress. The problems of traditional river interception projects were analyzed, and optimization and improvement ideas were proposed. Finally, a combined optimization scheme of source reduction-process control-end storage was proposed to control CSO pollution, which could provide reference for urban CSO pollution control in China.

MCDM approach to investigate the effectiveness of SCRUM events in minimizing risk factors in project management

Traditional project management methods have been used for many years in the implementation and management of projects. With the publication of the agile manifesto in 2001, the interest in agile methods increased and successful results were obtained in the execution and solution of complex projects with agile approaches. Agile approach consists of different structures that can be named as framework or method. Among these agile methods, which are selected and applied according to the suitability and purpose of the project, the most frequently preferred one is SCRUM. In this study, SCRUM, an agile project management technique that has been used frequently in recent years in order to develop a flexible project management process, has been examined, and the effectiveness of the events of the SCRUM technique in minimizing the risks that arise in project management has been evaluated. Determining the effectiveness of these SCRUM events, which each agile project team implements in turn, is very important for the correct and effective allocation of resources. For this purpose, a multi-criteria decision-making model has been proposed to evaluate the effectiveness of 4 SCRUM events within the scope of this study. While the importance weights of the 24 project management risk factors proposed in the solution phase of the created model were determined by the SWARA method, the SCRUM events were evaluated with the WASPAS, COPRAS and EDAS methods and the solution values found by three different methods were compared.

Which contractor competencies are valuable for the client in the pre-construction phase?

Large and complex construction projects have a new, increasing need to engage contractors in the pre-construction phase. New technology, cost- and time saving execution methods along with sustainability goals require solutions that the traditional project delivery models where contractor is involved at a later stage, are insufficient solutions as their ability to influence the outcome decreases. The purpose of this study is to examine the main competencies the client needs from the contractor in the preconstruction phase. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, along with 4 workshops and literature studies. Top ten technical competencies were identified, namely design, cost, planning, risk, regulations, materials, constructability, geotechnical knowledge, site planning & preparation, and HSE. According to the respondents, the ten competencies could be grouped in three categories; innovative approach, previous experience and a neutral group.As these groups are somewhat contradictory, it can indicate the cautious approach to ECI.

Zmierzyć ślad węglowy kultury. Przykład projektu teatralnego

To Measure the Carbon Footprint of a Culture. A Case Study of a Theatrical Project The article presents the results of carbon footprint measurements of a theatre project. For the purpose of the research, data from a survey and in-depth interviews with representatives of Polish theatres were used. Based on this data, a “model” was created, encompassing different variations of theatrical performances, including production, promotion, as well as online and on-site operations during guest performances. The analysis covers both direct emissions related to electricity consumption, transportation, and set design, as well as indirect emissions resulting from the supply chain and possible audience behaviour. The results clearly indicate that the greatest challenge in terms of the carbon footprint of a theatre project faced by cultural managers is mobility and the use of air travel for transporting theatre ensembles and set designs over long distances. Moreover, the transportation needs of the theatre ensembles and set designs for long distance travels pose a challenge. Additionally, the use of individual car transportation by audiences – even for short distances, is problematic – which could be addressed through the implementation of local partnerships. Getting familiar with this analysis can help producers, cultural managers, artists, and those responsible for shaping cultural policies to identify aspects with the greatest environmental impact and take appropriate adaptive actions. Although most of these actions will involve a profound change in traditional project management practices in the theatre, paying attention to relevant indicators, consciously developing new habits, and sharing resources provides an opportunity to expedite adaptation based on knowledge and organizational learning. These types of activities are necessary due to the unrelenting projectification of the field of culture and beyond, which causes organizations to operate in a kind of “projectocene”.

Learning in the transformation of organizations with the implementation of agile methods

Objective: This article aims to understand the influence of organizational learning on adaptation during the implementation of agile methods in the project management environment in companies. The study focuses on changing project management processes from the traditional “waterfall” to agile management models to meet the needs of organizations. It aims to identify how the organization based on traditional project management migrates to a new process, adapting the new agile methodology to its day-to-day activities. Design/methodology/approach: We carried out a systematic literature review, answering the question: How does organizational learning influence the adaptation of agile methods? Results: We grouped the articles into five fields of research: Agile Learning; Organizational Learning in the implementation of Lean and Scrum methodologies: Implementation of Lean and Scrum methodologies; Learning of the individual in the organization and Organizational Learning. Originality/Value: This article seeks interests in the potential of applying agile projects and the organizational learning acquired from this new model.

Application of BIM Technologies at All Stages of a Construction Project Life Cycle

Introduction. In the current realia of limited resources, high level of competition and high degree of market uncertainty the use of the modern information technologies at all stages of the construction investment project life cycle aimed at facilitating the construction companies in fulfilling their tasks becomes a priority. The implementation of BIM technologies is possible at all stages of a construction project life cycle. This is its advantage over traditional project management tools. The use of BIM technologies makes it possible to add and accumulate information about a capital construction facility in a 3D virtual model throughout the entire life cycle of the project. In this regard, it is possible to optimize such important managerial processes as planning, designing, supply chain management, building and erecting, equipment installment and commissioning of the completed facility. Thanks to using the virtual model, it is possible to control and coordinate the progress of works in all areas and at all stages of the project. Materials and methods. This study considers the possibility of forming and executing all stages of the construction investment projects using BIM technologies, including analysis and forecasting of the facility’s subsequent operation. The use of BIM technologies in the development of the construction investment projects makes it possible to reduce the risk of errors, quickly revise the design and extract the necessary data about the facility, as well as facilitate work progress monitoring.Results. Life cycle management of a construction project using BIM technologies includes five main stages that save not only time but also financial resources required for implementing the project. The BIM model ensures the accumulation of information about the facility in a scope and composition appropriate for making timely managerial decisions, as well as helps to avoid incorrect calculations of time, labor, finance and other resources demand, the same as inconsistencies between the structural elements of a facility and its engineering infrastructure. The use of a BIM model makes it possible to accurately plan the operation of machines and equipment, generate up-todate schedules for procurement of materials and optimize the main logistics processes within construction and operation.Discussion and conclusion. At present, the context and tradition of BIM technologies application in Russia are underdeveloped, their full potential is not used. In most domestic projects there is no integrate application of BIM. The transition to application of BIM technologies in the construction investment projects in Russia will still require some time. However, taking into account the scale and complexity of ongoing projects, the positive effect of BIM technologies implementation will increase encouraging more and more participants of construction investment market to turn to the use of modern technologies. The use of BIM technologies at all stages of construction projects life cycle will significantly contribute to boosting the level of process management, ensuring the high quality of construction products, reducing costs and time of construction. The implementation of BIM technologies at all stages of facilities entire life cycle is an important aid which will greatly foster the transformation of the construction industry in the context of its digitalization.

Does entrepreneurial project monitoring and controlling process matter in social enterprises? Evidence from a developing African country

Social enterprises in developing countries act as development agents and are a constituent of the rising ‘social and solidarity’ economy whose established vision is to create social value and generate positive social outcomes. Traditional monitoring limit project managers’ capabilities to probe a project's ‘known – unknown’ impacts. Given that traditional monitoring arrangements persist to be challenging in resolving the high project failure rate in Africa, entrepreneurial project monitoring and controlling process enables project success. Corporate entrepreneurship literature has provided a strong theoretical basis for incorporating entrepreneurial actions, orientations, and decisions into ‘traditional’ project management process. This paper draws primary data from six selected social enterprises in Uganda to examine what constitute entrepreneurial project monitoring and controlling process. The findings support the need for (a) creating room for errors, (b) self-managed teams, and (c) soft skills maximisation amongst entrepreneurial project managers. Implications for strengthening social entrepreneurship ecosystems in developing economies to accelerate and scale-up social ventures to deliver social and economic value is discussed.

Managing artificial intelligence projects: Key insights from an AI consulting firm

AbstractWhile organisations are increasingly interested in artificial intelligence (AI), many AI projects encounter significant issues or even fail. To gain a deeper understanding of the issues that arise during these projects and the practices that contribute to addressing them, we study the case of Consult, a North American AI consulting firm that helps organisations leverage the power of AI by providing custom solutions. The management of AI projects at Consult is a multi‐method approach that draws on elements from traditional project management, agile practices, and AI workflow practices. While the combination of these elements enables Consult to be effective in delivering AI projects to their customers, our analysis reveals that managing AI projects in this way draw upon three core logics, that is, commonly shared norms, values, and prescribed behaviours which influence actors' understanding of how work should be done. We identify that the simultaneous presence of these three logics—a traditional project management logic, an agile logic, and an AI workflow logic—gives rise to conflicts and issues in managing AI projects at Consult, and successfully managing these AI projects involves resolving conflicts that arise between them. From our case findings, we derive four strategies to help organisations better manage their AI projects.

Evolutionary game analysis of the intelligent upgrading of smart solar photovoltaic projects

PurposeThe development of China's solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is in a transition period from pursuing scale and speed to focusing on efficiency and quality. “Smart PV projects” (SPVPs) were proposed by the ministries of the Chinese government in 2018 to encourage intelligent upgrading and to fill the gaps in traditional PV projects. However, only a small number of PV enterprises are in progress, and only a few SPVPs have been built. The intelligence level of China's PV projects needs to be improved. The purpose of this study is to analyze the willingness of the main participants to be involved in the intelligent upgrading of PV projects by establishing an evolutionary game model that includes three parties.Design/methodology/approachA tripartite evolutionary game model is constructed that considers PV enterprises, project owners and the government. The evolutionary stability strategies of each party and the corresponding stable conditions are obtained. The parameters that affect the decision behaviors are also analyzed.FindingsThe four stages of the intelligent upgrade of PV projects and the effects of the government subsidy strategies are examined. At different stages, adopting different measures to promote cooperation among the three parties involved is necessary. Government subsidies should be provided to PV enterprises during the initial stage and should be biased toward project owners during the intermediate stage. During the peak stage, PV enterprises constantly need to decrease project costs and improve quality and service, thus helping project owners reduce their initial investments and obtain additional gains. The government's reputation drives it to continually adopt incentive strategies.Originality/valueThis research focuses on the interactions among the three parties. Based on evolutionary game analysis, several conditions that facilitate the intelligent upgrading of PV projects are illustrated. Implications for different developing stages are proposed from the perspectives of each party for the decision-makers of SPVPs.

Stories behind the scenes: L2 students’ cognitive processes of multimodal composing and traditional writing

In recent years, multimodal composing has attracted much attention in the field of second language (L2) writing. Previous research focused heavily on the pedagogical effects of teaching multimodal writing to L2 students. Less investigated is students’ cognitive engagement in the complicated processes of composing multimodal texts. To bridge the research gap, this qualitative study examines the composing processes of two groups of L2 writers over five weeks, as one group completed a multimodal video project and the other one completed a traditional essay project. Data consist of students’ screen recordings with the think-aloud protocol, written and multimodal products, and post-project interviews. This study shows that the two groups shared common behavioral patterns of consulting outside sources and initiating revisions, which might be attributed to similar writing schemas. Students who were tasked to create a video showed more autonomous writing and inconsistent text-borrowing behaviors. Pedagogical implications and research suggestions are discussed in light of the findings.

How input, process, and institutional factors influence the effects of transdisciplinary research projects

Transdisciplinary research projects integrate several disciplines and practice stakeholders into the research process. Both of these interactions are described as important in addressing complex and interconnected sustainability problems. In addition to knowledge generation, transdisciplinary research projects have other effects. For example, they may facilitate the adoption of solutions, whereas traditional research projects focus on the presentation of results. However, there is considerable diversity in transdisciplinary research projects in terms of their design, research process, and surrounding institutions, making it difficult to unravel what type of transdisciplinary research project works well to reach which effects. This article uses a systematic literature review and expert interviews to study how different input, process, and institutional factors influence the effects of transdisciplinary research projects. The results show that process factors, such as the quality of the process or the specific methods used, have the strongest influence on the effects of transdisciplinary projects, whereas institutional factors are less prominent. Furthermore, different factors influence not only the effects but also each other and are thus interconnected.

“Equally worthy of divine providence”: Women as Sponsors of Monasteries and Independent Social Agents in Epirus, 1204–1393

Abstract This article investigates the strategies of monastic patronage employed by women in medieval Epirus. It looks at how royal and noble women effectively applied this traditional tool of public engagement to a variety of ends—a display of political claims, self-representation, networking, and a rise in the social hierarchy. Recognizing the gradual changes in the public perception of female sponsors, it measures their actions against their perception by male writers and elucidates the most common ways of women’s involvement, from participation in traditional family projects to independent endowment acts distinguished by personal agendas. It also attempts to shed some light on the underrepresentation of female monastic institutions in the region that compelled the local women to offer donations almost exclusively to male foundations. This study considers that the main reason for the patronesses’ behavior was the longevity of prominent institutions and their ability to ensure the donors’ continuous commemoration.

The use of traditional and agile Project Management methodologies in ICT

1. Albuquerque, F., Tones, A.S., Berssaneti, F.T. (2020). Lean product development and agile project management in the construction industry, 27(2), 135-151. Rege-Revista de Gestao. Google Scholar

Research on Teaching Practice System Based on BIM

Building information modeling (BIM) course is a subject course integrating project management course and BIM Technology. BIM-based engineering project teaching is different from traditional engineering project management. It has many advantages such as information creation, information management, digital management of information sharing, and so on, which improves the integration of project management as a whole. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the curriculum system of colleges and universities by setting up BIM courses, and to integrate BIM knowledge into the curriculum system. Setting up BIM courses and integrating BIM knowledge into the curriculum system have also been the highlight for colleges and universities. The engineering management major of the university is combined with the BIM curriculum system to adjust the relevant talent training plan. Foreign countries have gradually integrated BIM technology into the classroom teaching system, and domestic curriculum teaching is undergoing a reform and is under development. Through a systematic link between theory and practical education, a targeted, accurate, and efficient characteristic curriculum system for engineering management specialty has been developed.

The Rehabilitation of the Historic Barzan Traditional Market and Its Impact on Cultural Tourism in Hail City

Hail is regarded as one of the richest cities in Saudi Arabia in terms of heritage sites. The city center, where the Barzan marketplace is located, is regarded as critical to the city’s cultural tourism. The purpose of this study is to understand the traditional Barzan market rehabilitation project within the city center and its role in preserving Hail’s urban identity. According to the study, the rehabilitation of the city center presents an opportunity for urban development to boost tourism and connect various historic landmarks in a variety of ways, including the development of pedestrian routes. The study also presents and discusses several complexities and challenges that must be considered when implementing such an urban development. A multi-approach methodology is employed to investigate several urban factors and involved actors, including a social online survey and semi-structured interviews, as well as empirical data to support the study objectives. The study’s findings indicate that there is an issue with the urban solution implemented in the Barzan market on multiple levels, the most important of which is the ‘miso’ level of the city center, where several potential landmarks are neglected and isolated from the Barzan marketplace. A solution is proposed to create multiple urban spaces that can be used by the Hail community as a whole, not just those involved in the market. This would necessitate a different approach to space design, as well as changes in how the Barzan market is managed and maintained.

Performance Analysis of Federated Learning Aggregation Algorithms for Secure and Efficient Data Handling

Traditional machine learning projects have revolved around training the model with the help of previously observed data to be able to predict output for future unknown data. In the current scenario, when the data generated are huge, centralized training of the model becomes inefficient. Hence, distributed approach with client server model has to be used for training the models. This introduces data handling and critical data privacy issues. This paper concentrates on Federated learning (FL) which builds a model for the server by aggregating the parameters obtained from the local models of the client devices. The research work focuses on design and evaluation of three new FL algorithms against the average of the performances of the local models. The evolved approach considering weights of the local models proportional to accuracy of the local model is found to be the most accurate and better than the centralized approach. The evaluation is done using three different algorithms belonging to regression and classification on multiple datasets. It is observed that there is only one round of communication between the clients and server required in the federated learning setup to achieve the benchmarked accuracy set by the centralized setup. This is a considerable development and state-of-the-art approach to reduce communication and computation costs.

Enabling Autonomous Teams and Continuous Deployment at Scale

In this article, we advise on transitioning to a more agile delivery model for large-scale agile development projects based on experience from the Parental Benefit Project of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. The project modernized a central part of the organization's IT portfolio and included up to ten development teams working in parallel. The project successfully changed from using a delivery model that combined traditional project management elements and agile methods to a more agile delivery model with autonomous teams and continuous deployment. This transition was completed in tandem with the project execution. We identify key lessons learned, which will be useful for other organizations considering similar changes and report how the new delivery model reduced risk and opened up a range of new possibilities for delivering the benefits of digitalization.

Sources of challenges for sustainability in the building design – The relationship between designers and clients

Sustainability demands have changed the building design nature, which gained complexity due to the increased diversity of requirements, activities, agents, and tools. Building Information Modeling (BIM) has a potential to contribute to sustainability enabling the building integrated design, performance simulations, life cycle assessment and information use throughout the building life cycle. The aim of this paper is to investigate the sources of challenges in the relation between architectural and engineering (AE) design firms and clients (developers or private individuals) for promoting sustainability in the building design. Also, it is investigated if BIM has been implemented by the firms and how it relates to management and sustainability. The research method adopted is qualitative and participatory based on focus groups. Two groups were interviewed: eight AE design firms and six developers and/or construction companies. Analysing the research findings, the sources of challenges that were identified are the lack of definition and communication about the stakeholders’ sustainability approach; the lack of a more detailed design scope and required qualifications by the clients, but also the lack of business management and firm’s performance evaluation processes by designers; the traditional project delivery systems, traditional work relationships, tools and processes that do not support the collaboration needs. In addition, AE design firms’ organization affects the client relationship and design quality including the consideration of sustainability issues in the design solutions. The sources are found in the AE design firm’s processes of strategy planning, business and marketing, design, people, and knowledge management. So, further research will be carried out about managerial and organizational capabilities of AE design firms for sustainability and BIM.

Application of Agile Project Management in Software R&D Management of M Enterprise

With the rapid development of information and network technology, the scale and complexity of software are becoming larger and larger, and the traditional software development process has become increasingly difficult to cope with the rapidly changing market. In the fierce market competition, more software development teams begin to use lightweight agile management methods to replace the traditional software project management process. Due to the incremental nature of agile methods and their emphasis on communication and people-centered values, some conventional software project management processes and methods cannot be applied. First of all, through the analysis of the current situation of software management projects and the quality problems in the agile process, the direction of quality improvement is clarified.