Improving project management planning and control in service operations environment.

Projects have evidently become the core activity in most companies and organisations where they are investing significant amount of resources in different types of projects as building new services, process improvement, etc. This research has focused on service sector in attempt to improve project management planning and control activities. The research is concerned with improving the planning and control of software development projects. Existing software development models are analysed and their best practices identified and these have been used to build the proposed model in this research. The research extended the existing planning and control approaches by considering uncertainty in customer requirements, resource flexibility and risks level variability. In considering these issues, the research has adopted lean principles for planning and control software development projects. A novel approach introduced within this research through the integration of simulation modelling techniques with Taguchi analysis to investigate ‗what if‘ project scenarios. Such scenarios reflect the different combinations of the factors affecting project completion time and deliverables. In addition, the research has adopted the concept of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to develop an automated Operations Project Management Deployment (OPMD) model. The model acts as an iterative manner uses ‗what if‘ scenario performance outputs to identify constraints that may affect the completion of a certain task or phase. Any changes made during the project phases will then automatically update the performance metrics for each software development phases. In addition, optimisation routines have been developed that can be used to provide management response and to react to the different levels of uncertainty. Therefore, this research has looked at providing a comprehensive and visual overview of important project tasks i.e. progress, scheduled work, different resources, deliverables and completion that will make it easier for project members to communicate with each other to reach consensus on goals, status and required changes. Risk is important aspect that has been included in the model as well to avoid failure. The research emphasised on customer involvement, top management involvement as well as team members to be among the operational factors that escalate variability levels 3 and effect project completion time and deliverables. Therefore, commitment from everyone can improve chances of success. Although the role of different project management techniques to implement projects successfully has been widely established in areas such as the planning and control of time, cost and quality; still, the distinction between the project and project management is less than precise and a little was done in investigating different levels of uncertainty and risk levels that may occur during different project phase.United Arab Emirates Governmen

Integrating Cost as an Independent Variable Analysis with Evolutionary Acquisition - A Multiattribute Design Evaluation Approach

Guidance from the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) requires 100 percent of defense programs to incorporate cost as an independent variable (CAIV) and evolutionary acquisition (EA) plans within their management baselines. Historically, these two concepts have been implemented independent of one another. In reality, CAIV and EA are tightly coupled, Integration of these two initiatives enables warfighters and developers to better allocate constrained resources, respond to fluctuations in program funding, and plan for future development activities. This research creates a decision tool to assist the DoD acquisition community in satisfying the intent of the USD(AT&L) guidance. Using multiattribute design evaluation techniques, a core CAIV model is formulated. Next, the core model is expanded to incorporate the dominant features of EA. The expanded model seeks to optimize overall utility across a horizon of multiple development increments. Additionally, technical risk factors are integrated to discount the realized level of attainment for design attributes. Using a DoD command and control system development as the case study, the fully formulated CAIV/EA model is implemented and in a PC spreadsheet. An optimization application solves the mathematical program for a series of cost constraints. The resulting data are collected and translated into a variety of graphics. Sensitivity analysis is performed to understand the response caused by variations in the model\u27s parameters. Model limitations are discussed and recommendations for further investigation are presented

A diversity-based approach to requirements tracing in new product development.

Production models emerged in recent times have stressed the need to face complex production contexts, characterized in particular by the rise in internal and environmental variability. In this work, a stylization of some elements concerning analysis and design of new products is given, and in particular those that involve definition and transfer phases in the development of innovative goods, where change and variability in requirements along development process are often high. This analysis has a twofold goal: first, to supply a conceptual frame for the close examination of some dynamics of requirement's integration into an artifact's design, in order to give account of their variability along development cycle; on the other side, to propose an approach based on simple similarity metrics, to be applied to linguistic descriptions of artifacts in the early phases of development process, in order to identify components in an artifact that undergo larger variability and therefore are to be paid more attention in the subsequent phases of life cycle.

Applications of Axiomatic Design in academic publications 2013-2018 : A Systematic Literature Review

Aksiomaattinen suunnitteluteoria on ollut kasvavan kiinnostuksen kohteena tiedeyhteisössä siitä lähtien, kun Nam P. Suh esitteli teorian 1990-luvulla. Siitä huolimatta, että aiheesta on tehty runsaasti aktiivista tutkimusta (muun muassa vuotuinen aksiomaattiseen suunnitteluteoriaan keskittynyt konferenssi), kattavia kirjallisuuskatsauksia on kirjoitettu vähän. Tämä tutkimus pyrkii osaltaan täyttämään edelläkuvattua aukkoa aksiomaattisen suunnitteluteorian tutkimuskentällä, keskittyen julkaisuihin vuodesta 2013 vuoteen 2018. Tutkimus on kirjoitettu jatkumoksi vuonna 2010 tutkijoiden Kulak, Cebi & Kahmaran (2010) julkaisemalle kirjallisuuskatsakuselle. Tämän vuoksi samankaltainen kategorisointi on implementoitu tähän tutkimukseen. Kategorisoinnin perusteina ovat käytetty aksiooma, sovellutusalue, metodologia ja määrittelytyyppi. Sovellutusalueisiin on tässä tutkimuksessa lisätty ’palvelut’ omana, uutena kategorianaan. Työssä esitellään lyhyesti aksiomaattinen suunnitteluteoria ja sen keskeiset osa- alueet, tärkeimpinä sunnnittelualueet, suunnitteluprosessi ja suunnitteluaksioomat. Metodologia-osiossa taustoitetaan systemaattisen kirjallisuuskatsauksen soveltamista tähän tutkimukseen ja kuvataan prosessin toteutus PRISMA-mallia käyttäen. Tutkimustulokset käydään lyhyesti läpi esimerkein kustakin kategoriasta. Tutkimusaineisto esitetään sekä lukuina, liitteenä että graaffeina. Näitä kirjallisuuskatsauksen tutkimustuloksia verrataan varhemman tutkimuksen vastaaviin. Sovelletun aksiooman suhteen merkittäviä muutoksia ei ole havaittavissa tämän tutkimuksen perusteella aikaisempaan kirjallisuuskatsaukseen verrattuna. Sovellutusaluessa, sitä vastoin, systeemisuunnittelun osuus on kasvanut merkittävästi edelliseen tutkimukseen verrattuna, kun taas ohjelmistosuunnittelun osuus on vastaavasti pienentynyt. Palvelusuunnittelun osuus on verrattain vaatimaton, joskin suurempi kuin esimerkiksi ohjelmistosuunnittelun. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella suositellaan jatkotutkimuksia erityisesti aksiomaattisen suunitteluteorian sovellutuksista ohjelmisto- ja palvelusuunnitteluihin sekä mahdollisista syistä, miksi mainittujen sovellutusaljen osuus tutkimuskentässä on pienehkö.Axiomatic Design theory has been gaining growing interest within a design community since introduced by Nam P. Suh in 1990s. Despite an active research within the field, including yearly international conferences of Axiomatic Design, there is not many literature reviews made of academic publications of Axiomatic Design. This research aims to fulfil previously described gap on secondary research of Axiomatic Design, focusing on papers published between 2013 and 2018. The study is a continuum to previous paper published by Kulak, Cebi & Kahmaran (2010). Therefore, similar categorization based on applied axiom, application area, methodology and evaluation type is applied in this research. In application area, ‘services’ have been added as a new category for this research. Results are compared with previous study. In findings, no siginificant change has happened in applied axiom, Independece axiom still being clearly more popular within academic publications. In application area, however, there are noticeable changes compared to the previous study. Share of system design has increased while softare design has significantly decreased. Future research is recommended to further explore specifically applications of Axiomatic Design in software and in services

Supporting requirement analysis through requirement rationale capture and traceability

Manufacturers of complex engineering systems are increasingly recognising the importance of identifying, understanding and satisfying stakeholders’ needs in order to produce high-quality products. The analysis of these needs into a formal requirement specification is a time consuming and complex process for which little support is offered to design engineers. This can result in requirements being poorly documented and with little or no traceability to their origins. This dissertation reports an investigation to understand the process of requirement analysis and develop computational support for this important phase of the engineering design process. The key argument of this research is that the existing practice of requirement analysis can be improved by providing better support for requirement rationale capture and enabling greater requirement traceability. The research consisted of three main phases. In the first phase, literature related to the requirement analysis was reviewed and led to the creation of a requirement analysis model. In the second phase, the practices of a global engineering organisation were investigated using document analysis as well as interviews with and shadowing of company engineers. The research found that requirement analysis lacks support for requirement rationale capture and traceability. On the basis of this result, a workflow for requirement analysis was proposed. The workflow involves the use of the Decision Rationale editor tool to capture requirement rationale and enable requirement traceability. In the third phase, four studies were undertaken to validate the workflow. These studies investigated: 1) application of the workflow to requirements generated through reverse-engineering a low-complexity consumer product; 2) requirements extracted from documents produced by a graduate engineering team during a twelve-week project; 3) the requirement analysis process undertaken by two graduate engineering teams during twelve-week projects; and 4) requirements for a new aircraft engine development programme. The studies showed that the proposed workflow is feasible, practical, and scalable when applied to engineering projects. Requirement rationales were classified into categories, namely product design and use, pre-existing rationale, and project management. In order to fully support requirement traceability, it was found that it is important to make traceable four types of requirement transformations: newly introduced, copied, updated, and deleted requirements. The research demonstrated that the proposed workflow is a successful proof-of-concept and can lead to improved quality of requirement documentation and requirement traceability.Open Acces

Customer satisfaction within education – the application of an integrated curriculum design method

The post-16 stage of education is critical in securing and developing people entering engineering professions and related occupations. Engineering employers and employees alike have however highlighted problems regarding poorly designed curricula failing to prepare employees for industrial and commercial roles. The premise of this thesis is that the issue confronting education is one of quality management. Curriculum designers must know how to anticipate and understand customer requirements and practically translate these requirements into a deliverable curriculum package. The aim of this research is to realise the synergy of curriculum design and TQM by developing a theoretical integrated curriculum design method. Synergies between TQM and traditional curriculum design methods are investigated and an integrated curriculum design method based on the use of PDCA and incorporating a two-phase modified use of QFD is hypothesised and justified. Subsequently, application of the curriculum design method is completed in relation to a number of selected engineering companies within the South Wales region and an appropriate curriculum proposal, for the provision of engineering education within the 16-18 year age group is produced. The proposal has been constructed with characteristics complementary to the competencies required by these companies and incorporates the most suitable teaching, learning and assessment methods to maximise the development of the students. This is valuable information for those concerned

QFD & scorecard analysis in pavement management

Pavement management is a set of tools used to evaluate and maintain pavements so it can be used safely over a certain period of time. Many traditional methods were and are still being used by entities related to pavement management in order to increase efficiency of management in decision-making and in coordinating the different activities that have direct impact on pavement system. There were no exact method focusing on analyzing the different pavement perspectives in order to prioritize objectives based on pavement financial goals. Lately, most of pavement management entities are driven by optimization models that allows optimization of single objective. The aim of this thesis is to provide the pavement management sector with a new methodology in order to prioritize the various pavement perspectives goals based on the prioritization of the financial perspective goals, which will lead to optimization of multiple goals based on their priorities. The scorecard and the quality function deployment: were adopted and modified in order to fit the subject and main goal of the thesis. Implementation of pavement goals based on their priority related to financial goals will help in achieving the ultimate goal of understanding the requirements and allocate the required funds for the top priority objectives

The creation of “Questions Bank" and introduction of 2.0. examination session

In the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora Jagiellonian University, with the support of the Distance Learning Centre at the Jagiellonian University was introduced an innovative method of examination based on empowering the students. During the 2014 session, the students were invited to create test questions. Accepted by the lecturer questions were used on he exam. Extensive “Questions Bank” may be used in subsequent examinations 2.0. The authors of the paper present practical advice on how to prepare and carry out such an examination. They share know how of practical suggestions from pedagogical to technical aspect of moving from teaching to learning while using the idea of Questions Bank. They discuss the impact on the motivation and creativity of students, the principles of achievement and assessment, methods of verifying the content of the questions and technical measures to make questions and hindering cheating. The use of innovative methods of preparing and conducting the exam based on the Questions Bank had a positive impact on the mobilization and involvement of students, which resulted in a very good performance evaluation questionnaires of the lecture

Impact estimation: IT priority decisions

Given resource constraints, prioritization is a fundamental process within systems engineering to decide what to implement. However, there is little guidance about this process and existing IT prioritization methods have several problems, including failing to adequately cater for stakeholder value. In response to these issues, this research proposes an extension to an existing prioritization method, Impact Estimation (IE) to create Value Impact Estimation (VIE). VIE extends IE to cater for multiple stakeholder viewpoints and to move towards better capture of explicit stakeholder value. The use of metrics offers VIE the means of expressing stakeholder value that relates directly to real world data and so is informative to stakeholders and decision makers. Having been derived from prioritization factors found in the literature, stakeholder value has been developed into a multi-dimensional, composite concept, associated with other fundamental system concepts: objectives, requirements, designs, increment plans, increment deliverables and system contexts. VIE supports the prioritization process by showing where the stakeholder value resides for the proposed system changes. The prioritization method was proven to work by exposing it to three live projects, which served as case studies to this research. The use of the extended prioritization method was seen as very beneficial. Based on the three case studies, it is possible to say that the method produces two major benefits: the calculation of the stakeholder value to cost ratios (a form of ROI) and the system understanding gained through creating the VIE table