Project Controls and Management Systems : current practice and how it has changed over the past decade

Project Controls and Management System (PCMS) refers to an ecosystem of processes, tools and personnel required for the proper planning and execution of capital projects throughout the different phases of design, procurement, construction and startup. This can be divided into different focus areas (functions) that would include Estimating, Planning, Scheduling, Cost Control, Change Management, Progressing, and Forecasting. Various trends such as globalization, contractor specialization and information technology developments have impacted the way PCMS are implemented and made it the subject of extensive research over the past years to investigate how to best utilize those trends. Replicating the research methodology used in a 2011 report published by the Construction Research Institute (CII), this work aims to investigate the current status of PCMS implementation and how it has changed over the past decade. It was concluded that while the original PCMS principles are still valid, adoption has drastically changed in terms of efficiency for the majority of the functions. The research also identifies areas of potential concerns and provides recommendations for further improvement.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Managing Uncertainty: How State Budgeting Can Smooth Revenue Volatility

This is the first in a series of reports by The Pew Charitable Trusts offering policymakers strategies that improve long-term fiscal health and manage budget uncertainty. In this report, Pew researchers examine patterns in revenue volatility across the 50 states between 1994 and 2012. The report examines the factors that drive volatility, including state-specific patterns of economic growth and contraction and their interaction with state taxes, and recommends the best ways to respond to these conditions. Future research will explore in greater detail how states can use fiscal management tools such as rainy day funds and revenue forecasting to better manage their finances over the course of the business cycle.Pew's research methods in reaching the conclusions and findings are discussed in detail at the end of this report. The team analyzed the relationships between state-specific economic data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and state revenue data compiled by the Rockefeller Institute of Government for all 50 states, and interviewed key fiscal policymakers and independent analysts in 15 states

Sensitive methods for estimating the anchoring strength of nematic liquid crystals on Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of fatty acids

The anchoring of the nematic liquid crystal N-(p-methoxybenzylidene)-p-butylaniline (MBBA) on Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of fatty acids (COOHC$_{n}$H$_{2n+1}$) was studied as a function of the length of the fatty acid alkyl chains, $n$ ($n = 15, 17, 19, 21$). The monolayers were deposited onto ITO-coated glass plates which were used to assemble sandwich cells of various thickness that were filled with MBBA in the nematic phase. The mechanism of relaxation from the flow-induced quasi-planar to the surface-induced homeotropic alignment was studied for the four decreases linearly with increasing the length of the alkyl chains $n$ which suggests that the Langmuir-Blodgett film plays a role in the phenomenon. This fact was confirmed by a sensitive estimation of the anchoring strength of MBBA on the fatty acid monolayers after anchoring breaking which takes place at the transition between two electric-field--induced turbulent states, denoted as DSM1 and DSM2. It was found that the threshold electric field for the anchoring breaking, which can be considered as a measure of the anchoring strength, also decreases linearly as $n$ increases. Both methods thus possess a high sensitivity in resolving small differences in anchoring strength. In cells coated with mixed Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of two fatty acids ($n=15$ and $n=17$) a maximum of the relaxation speed was observed when the two acids were present in equal amount. This observation homeotropic cells by changing the ratio between the components of the surfactant film.Comment: LaTeX article, 20 pages, 15 figures, 17 EPS files. 1 figure added, references moved. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Issues in front-end decision-making on projects

The importance of the front-end decision-making phase in projects is being increasingly recognized - the need to do the right project is on a par with doing the project right. This area is underrepresented in the literature, but there are a number of key themes that run throughout, identifying key issues or difficulties during this stage. This article looks at some of these themes and includes: the need for alignment between organizational strategy and the project concept; dealing with complexity, in particular the systemicity and interrelatedness within project decisions; consideration of the ambiguity implicit in all major projects; taking into account psychological and political biases within estimation of benefits and costs; consideration of the social geography and politics within decision-making groups; and preparation for the turbulence within the project environment, including the maintenance of strategic alignment

A Survey on Economic-driven Evaluations of Information Technology

The economic-driven evaluation of information technology (IT) has become an important instrument in the management of IT projects. Numerous approaches have been developed to quantify the costs of an IT investment and its assumed profit, to evaluate its impact on business process performance, and to analyze the role of IT regarding the achievement of enterprise objectives. This paper discusses approaches for evaluating IT from an economic-driven perspective. Our comparison is based on a framework distinguishing between classification criteria and evaluation criteria. The former allow for the categorization of evaluation approaches based on their similarities and differences. The latter, by contrast, represent attributes that allow to evaluate the discussed approaches. Finally, we give an example of a typical economic-driven IT evaluation

Adaptable Techniques for Making IT-Related Investment Decisions

The author investigated the main methods used for making IT-related investment decisions. In the view of these methods it can be said that no method was found that would help to make investment decisions 'routinelike'. The use of traditional financial indicators – which would be suitable for so-called regular investments - has a lot of obstructions and it would be dangerous to base decisions only on them. Return on Investment (ROI) methods are used in the case of classical investments (buildings, machineries) to analyze capital investments. Their simplest explanation is that net profit is expressed in percentage of invested capital. If it is a planned investment, a quotient is used for comparing variations. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) has gained upon from the 60’s (in case of several IT-related investments as well), as it made possible to consider certain not quantifiable factors and uncertain elements too, so it meant a great help for choosing between different alternatives. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)-model was created by GartnerGroup in the beginning of the 90’s, which is an excellent method for monitoring IT infrastructure and for analysing direct and indirect costs of possessed and used softwares and hardwares. An another method for making investment decisions, Rapid Economic Justification (REJ) is an attempt made by Microsoft and Intellectual Arbitrage to develop a better-balanced approach for examining and developing IT projects as it had been before. REJ offers the possibility of assessment balance against the cost-models dealing with only the cost side of a project

ILR Research in Progress 2013-14

The production of scholarly research continues to be one of the primary missions of the ILR School. During a typical academic year, ILR faculty members published or had accepted for publication over 25 books, edited volumes, and monographs, 170 articles and chapters in edited volumes, numerous book reviews. In addition, a large number of manuscripts were submitted for publication, presented at professional association meetings, or circulated in working paper form. Our faculty's research continues to find its way into the very best industrial relations, social science and statistics journals.Research_in_Progress_2013_14.pdf: 54 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

The Role of the Basic Health Program in the Coverage Continuum: Opportunities, Risks and Considerations for States

Outlines issues for offering subsidized coverage to those eligible for insurance exchange subsidies by using federal dollars that would otherwise go to those subsidies, including continuity of coverage, impact on exchanges, and financial feasibility

Исследование стоимости и трудоёмкости разработки программного обеспечения для решения задачи управления запасами предприятия

The article describes the process of estimating the cost and complexity of software development for the task of inventory management of a commercial enterprise to improve the decision-making process at the stage of formation of requirements for similar software products. There are different approaches to inventory management of a commercial enterprise. The algorithms implemented in the system are based on the constraint theory tool –dynamic inventory buffer management. Inventory management according to the theory of restrictions allows to provide a high level of availability of goods with minimal inventory in the system. After analyzing the subject area of inventory management and the methodology of dynamic inventory buffer management, a list of functional and non-functional software requirements was formed, and a data model was designed. The information obtained was used to compile a list of logical files and transactions specific to a particular requirement. From the resulting list of files and transactions, it is determined which elementary data, elementary records and links to files they consist of. The information obtained was used to estimate the size of the software at non-aligned functional points. To take into account the impact of non-functional requirements on the complexity of software development, the VAF alignment factor was calculated, for which it is necessary to give a qualitative assessment of the impact of system-wide requirements on the complexity of the software. The estimation of the complexity of the development was obtained using the COCOMO II methodology, namely, using seven multipliers of the complexity for the case of the initial assessment at the stage of approval of requirements. The calculations were obtained for teams with different professional level and equipment, in the conditions of a significant tightening of the development process, a high level of certainty of risks, without a rigid schedule of work. The cost of development was calculated for several common programming languages: J2EE, C#, C++.В статье описывается процесс оценки стоимости и трудоемкости разработки программного обеспечения задачи управления запасами торгового предприятия для улучшения процесса принятия решений на этапе формирования требований к аналогичным программным продуктам. Существуют различные подходы к управлению запасами торгового предприятия. Алгоритмы, реализованные в системе основаны на инструменте теории ограничений – динамическом управлении буфером запасов. Управление запасами по теории ограничений позволяет обеспечить высокий уровень наличия товара при минимальных запасах в системе. Проанализировав предметную область управления запасами и методологию динамического управления буфером товарных запасов был сформирован список функциональных и нефункциональных требований к программного обеспечения, а также спроектирована модель данных. Полученная информация была использована для составления перечня логических файлов и транзакций, характерных для конкретного требования. Из полученного списка файлов и транзакций определено, из каких элементарных данных, элементарных записей и ссылок на файлы они состоят. Полученная информация была использована для оценки размера программного обеспечения в не выровненных функциональных точках. Для учета влияния нефункциональных требований на трудоемкость разработки программного обеспечения был посчитан фактор выравнивания VAF, для чего необходимо дать качественную оценку влияния общесистемных требований на трудоемкость программного обеспечения. Оценка трудоемкости разработки была получена с использованием методологии COCOMO II, а именно с использованием семи множителей трудоемкости для случая первичной оценки на этапе утверждения требований. Расчеты были получены для команд с разным профессиональным уровнем и оборудованием, в условиях значительного ужесточения процесса разработки, высоким уровнем определенности рисков, без жесткого графика работ. Стоимость разработки была рассчитана для нескольких распространенных языков программирования: J2EE, C#, C++

Valuing service design: Lessons from SROI

This paper describes lessons learned through the use of a Social Return On Investment (SROI) approach to evaluate a completed Service Design project with a large vocational training company. It is written by the Service Design team that led the original project and who subsequently used SROI to evaluate its impact. Experiencing the SROI evaluation process first-hand, in a live setting, is the approach by which the authors develop a discussion about its potential fit with Service Design processes. The SROI method enabled both the design team and the case-study organisation to acknowledge and measure additional social/stakeholder benefits created through the design work. These elements would not have been visible in a traditional ROI evaluation. There is the promise of a useful fit between SROI and Service Design in larger projects. The approach could be used as a framework for forecasting and evolving indicators for likely social impacts (and their financial proxies) throughout a Service Design project, to guide decisions at each stage. Its usefulness depends, however, on there being a will at Design Management level to rehearse the approach and develop tailored approaches towards it. In the current study, the method was found to be time-intensive for the Service Design team as lay-users and also for some key project stakeholders, but that could be better managed with experience. SROI will not suit every project, however may fit very well with those projects that already count a full business plan amongst their deliverables. One of the main limitations encountered in using the SROI process was difficulty identifying appropriate proxies for the calculations. It is proposed that social benefit might be expressed to multidisciplinary co-design teams through visual and emotive means rather than in quantitative, financial terms. Such ‘visual proxies’ would better fit with the semantic mode of design