Big data innovation and diffusion in projects teams: Towards a conflict prevention culture

Despite the enormous literature on how team conflicts can be managed and resolved, this study diverges, by examining factors that facilitate conflict prevention culture in project teams, especially when introducing Big Data Technology. Relying on findings from relevant literatures and focus group discussions, 28 attributes for embedding conflict prevention culture were identified and put together in questionnaire survey. Series of statistical tests including reliability analysis and exploratory factor-analysis. The results identified five critical success factors for entrenching the culture of conflict prevention in project teams introducing big data driving innovations. The five-factor solution include “building effective relationship”, “effective project communications”, “project team efficacy”, “pro-active conflict management approach” and “effectual project documentation”. Result of this study presents a Conceptual framework for effective management of human resource in relation to conflict prevention among project teams, as an effective strategy for facilitating seamless adoption and diffusion of big data innovation in organisations

MANAGING CROSS-CULTURAL ONLINE COMMUNICATION IN MULTICULTURAL PROJECT TEAMS: THE CASE OF CULTOUR+ PROJECT

The paper aims to present the process and partnership building in multicultural project teams through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) taking into account the Cultour+ communication project management plan to build virtual teams. CULTOUR+  is a Strategic Partnership (SP) of universities, local governments, SMEs and NGOs, that following the mainlines of the Higher Education Modernization Agenda, will offer high quality and innovative courses and tools, integrating innovation, international mobility and cross-border cooperation to enhance capacity building in higher education curricula in the fields of cultural tourism and hospitality, cultural management and shared cultural heritage.  This paper aims to enhance the effective use of ICT in project work by analyzing the way it fits in with various project activities having as an example the Cultour+ project. This approach may facilitate the choice of appropriate tools by each project team and show how ICT can support key processes like leadership, management, communication and co-operation within other European project teams

Requirements for building information modeling based lean production management systems for construction

Smooth flow of production in construction is hampered by disparity between individual trade teams' goals and the goals of stable production flow for the project as a whole. This is exacerbated by the difficulty of visualizing the flow of work in a construction project. While the addresses some of the issues in Building information modeling provides a powerful platform for visualizing work flow in control systems that also enable pull flow and deeper collaboration between teams on and off site. The requirements for implementation of a BIM-enabled pull flow construction management software system based on the Last Planner System™, called ‘KanBIM’, have been specified, and a set of functional mock-ups of the proposed system has been implemented and evaluated in a series of three focus group workshops. The requirements cover the areas of maintenance of work flow stability, enabling negotiation and commitment between teams, lean production planning with sophisticated pull flow control, and effective communication and visualization of flow. The evaluation results show that the system holds the potential to improve work flow and reduce waste by providing both process and product visualization at the work face

Factors that generate effective teams

The journey to prosper competitively in the millennium will demand teamwork. The use of a team-based structure in organizations is no longer just a surplus tool to enhance service quality in the operation. In today\u27s developed economies, the use of effective teams has proven to be essential for helping businesses to have continued prosperity and success on a long-term basis. Further, building teams has shown means for organizations to differentiate from competition, once copying human capabilities is not easy as copying technologies advancements. Therefore, in an environment of constant change, organizations must have perseverance and courage to stay on course with the evolution of teams. Implementing a team is not so difficult, but making the team effective is a real challenge. When teams do not achieve effectiveness it may be a waste of time, but when teams become effective they might generate outcomes that were though intangible before. The objective of this project is to assist the reader in appraising the team building concepts in order to bring more effectiveness to the overall organization. The study includes examination of relevant literature from books and articles collected from abstracts, periodicals, and journals related to team building. This study includes as well as the results of interviews with business personnel in Ithaca and Rochester, NY concerning what factors generate effective teams. The results collected from these interviews were transcript and analyzed against the primary research and the differences and matching findings between these researches were discussed

Effectiveness of Virtual Team for Improving Communication Breakdown in IBS Project Delivery Process

Technological innovation and globalization force the organizations collaborate across time, culture, and geographical boundaries. It becomes one of the ordinary practices to the construction sector and has given rise to the concept of global teams known as a virtual team. Virtual team drives by advance technology to solve the communication issues and perceived as an effective, efficient, and creative team structure. Effective communication is an essential process to develop project success in the construction Industrialised Building System (IBS) project. However the implication of the fragmented approach in the IBS project development process was reflected in the lack of communication between multidisciplinary project teams cause various problem such as lower performance and a higher turnover of staff. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the effects of communication, subject to different project stage and to identify the key factors to enhance virtual team communication processes between the practitioners

FrAmework for Multi-Agency Environments (FAME) : Final Report of the Learning & Evaluation Strand

Framework for Multi-agency Environments (FAME) was one of the Local Government On-Line funded National Projects sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Within FAME there were six local projects (known as strands) led by English local authorities in partnership with service providers. Each strand aimed to improve a particular set of services (for example, to vulnerable older people or disabled children) through effective and appropriate exchange of information. These local projects worked with IT suppliers (known as technology partners) to produce a technical system to facilitate the exchange and management of client / patient information across agency boundaries. Not all the outputs of FAME were in the form of IT systems. Improvements to business processes and information sharing practices were also expected. Newcastle University led two further strands, the Generic Framework and Learning & Evaluation. The Generic Framework identifies and describes nine building blocks that are essential to effective multi-agency working. The FAME website http://www.fame-uk.org contains details of these building blocks, together with a ‘how to’ guide and a toolkit to support local authorities and their partners in assessing their ‘readiness’ for multi-agency working. This is the report of the Learning & Evaluation strand. The Learning & Evaluation team worked closely with the local FAME project teams, who were supportive of our work and generous with their time. Throughout the project we reported back to the local teams both individually and collectively. Evaluation was thoroughgoing and critical, not an exercise in public relations or advocacy. It is important to stress that learning is likely to be gained from what did not work as well as from what did. Problems and setbacks, as well as successes, are therefore documented and analysed in the report

A cause of communication failure in managing industrialized building system (IBS) projects : a perspective view from project managers

An effective communication process is an important element in distributing information to various project teams. The previous study demonstrates the importance of communication in the project management process in order to encourage project delivery processes successfully. Unfortunately, the issue of communication still dominates Industrialization Building System (IBS) because the project development process are still based on traditional methods. This research aims to explore the cause of communication challenges between construction players in managing IBS projects. The research methodology implemented for this paper was a semi-structured interview approach used to investigate the communication problem. Five experienced project managers were chosen from across the industry. The findings of this study are valuable for improving the communication level of project teams, which will indirectly increase the level of the IBS project delivery process and strengthen team integration on IBS projects in Malaysia

Project Management Skills for Highly Successful Virtual Project Teams

Virtual project teams gained wider acceptance in organizations over the past 30 years, supported by improved communications technology and spurred by global competition. Virtual working arrangements provide benefits to employers, employees, and the environment. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 stimulated the transition from traditional to virtual project teams. Project management in the virtual environment requires different skills than leading in the collocated environment. Skills that lead to successful project outcomes in the traditional environment do not simply transfer to the virtual environment. Project managers must focus on new skills, especially those that contribute to developing open communication and building trust. This qualitative case study examined the problem that some project managers lack the skills to lead in the virtual environment, resulting in reduced project efficiency, productivity, and overall success. This case study also filled a gap in the literature, providing real-world best practices of project management leadership skills applied in the virtual environment. Seventeen (17) virtual project team managers and project team members from the MITRE Corporation, a leader in the government contracting industry, shared their experiences leading successful project teams. Through semi-structured interviews, coding, and analysis, five main themes emerged: Importance of Communication to the Success of Virtual Project Teams, Importance of Trust on the Performance of Virtual Project Teams, The Effective Implementation of Technology is Foundational to the Success of Virtual Project Teams, Virtual Project Teams Create Advantages, and Virtual Project Teams Present Challenges. The practical application of these themes resulted in nine lessons learned. Understanding these themes and applying the lessons learned should improve the practice of project management, general business, and virtual project success

Using IOP as a mechanism for project team management

This project investigates the application of Industrial-Organizational Psychology (IOP) in project management. Project managers are responsible for creating effective teams and building a proper environment to communicate, collaborate, and deliver their tasks. Factors such as lack of trust, miscommunications, and personal conflicts lead to dysfunctional teams which can ultimately fail a project. Thus, understanding the behavioral characteristics of the team members and realizing the psychological principles of the interpersonal relationships in organizational settings would significantly help project managers. The purpose of this project is to find out whether project managers can exploit IOP for effective team management. By an exhaustive review of literature and focused examination of two case studies, various behaviors and personal traits have been explored and mapped to one’s functional and behavioral characteristics. Because of the nature of this project and the research instrument, i.e. case studies and literature survey, qualitative research approach was adopted; this method of research is appropriate for in-depth study of social and psychological topics. Finally, it is concluded that not only project managers can exploit IOP for effective team management, but also they benefit from the awareness of human psychology that IOP provides. The findings of this research and the characteristic profiling presented here deliver a comprehensive understanding of interpersonal behaviors and make it possible for successful team management

Development of First-Year Engineering Teams\u27 Mathematical Models through Linked Modeling and Simulation Projects

The development and use of mathematical models and simulations underlies much of the work of engineers. Mathematical models describe a situation or system through mathematics, quantification, and pattern identification. Simulations enable users to interact with models through manipulation of input variables and visualization of model outputs. Although modeling skills are fundamental, they are rarely explicitly taught in engineering. Model-eliciting activities (MEAs) represent a pedagogical approach used in engineering to teach students mathematical modeling skills through the development of a model to solve an authentic problem. This study is an investigation into the impact of linking a MEA and a simulation-building project on students’ model development. The purpose of this research is to further address the need for developing effective curricula to teach students’ mathematical modeling skills and begin to address the need to teach students about simulations. The data for this study were 122 first-year engineering student teams’ solutions to both a MEA and a subsequent simulation-building project set in the context of a nanotechnology topic, specifically quantum dot solar cells. The teams’ mathematical models submitted at the end of the MEA and the simulation project were analyzed using two frameworks to assess the quality of the mathematical models and the level of simulation completeness. Three teams’ works with the feedback they received were analyzed in a case study. The analysis of the 122 teams’ mathematical models showed that many teams selected particular aspects of their final MEA models for further development in their simulations. Based on the components of the models that were consistent in the MEA and project submissions, teams either improved, did not change, or weakened aspects of their models. Twenty-six teams improved the functionality of their model. Six teams increased the input variable handling of their models. Two teams improved the efficiency of their models; eight teams made their models less efficient through poor programming decisions. Based on an analysis of the 122 teams’ simulations, 62 percent were complete simulations (i.e. backed by a model and front-ended with user-input and output visualization capabilities). The case study enabled a more detailed analysis of how select teams’ mathematical models changed across their submissions and the evidence of potential deeper learning about their models across their submissions. The findings of this study suggest that model development continued through simulation development enables student teams an opportunity to either further improve or explore their models. These sequential projects provide teams with low quality models with more time for development and application within a simulation. They provide teams with high quality models an opportunity to explore ideas beyond the original scope of the MEA