Enhancement of software project performance by overcoming waste, volatility and constraints simultaneously

There have been many projects and researches conducted to identify software projects’ failure and success factors. The success factors were always remained as best practices as it favours desired results while the failure factors are always avoided as it yields undesired factors. However, it is least understood that focusing on avoiding a failure factor could actually influence other forms of failure risk(s). In this study, it has been understood through literature review that most of the findings on software projects failure factors have been repetitive for more than two decades. These failure factors commonality was then understood and categorized by bridging few studies and experts’ opinions based on three well-known theories; Lean, Requirement Volatility and Theory of Constraints. There are nine types of wastes, three types errors that leads to requirement volatility and eight types of constraints in relevance to software projects. Through literature and discussion with 15 experts it was apparent that there could be interdependency and interrelationship amongst these 20 variables. The relationship amongst the variables were studied by employing the DEMATEL methodology. DEMATEL was opted to show the Impact Relation Map which could serve as a good source of reference to help decision makers formulate their decisions pertaining these 20 variables. A Software Project Success Framework was then developed to assist the foundation for planning and prioritizing relevant mitigations and corrective measures about software projects failure factors. Requirement volatility has been emphasized as the main cause of software project failure. It does not only cause direct impact towards software projects failure but also influences other identified factors to affect the sotware project performance adversely

Developing a conceptual model to evaluate green suppliers: Decision making method using DEMATEL

Nowadays stakeholder pressure and public awareness have been raised against companies‟ environmental impacts, so green supply chain management (GSCM) seems vital for companies‟ environmental compliance and business growth. Companies continuously seek novel ideas and methods enabling them to obtain and/or maintain environmental sustainability. Greening the supply chain is one of such innovative idea involving all of the business value-adding operations, comprising purchasing and in-bound logistics, production and manufacturing, distribution, out-bound logistics and collaboration with patrons and suppliers in a way that has the least negative environmental effect. The main objective of the present study is finding interrelationship between green supplier criteria. For this to happen, we investigated experts‟ opinions through nominal group technique (NGT) to find out the interrelationship and causal preferences of the green supplier evaluation aspects using Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. A numerical example demonstrates the application of the proposed model.N/

Marketing for Sustainable Tourism

The aim of the Special Issue is to discuss the main current topics concerning marketing for sustainable tourism with reference to territories (i.e., tourism destinations, protected areas, parks and/or natural sites, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, rural regions/areas, etc.) and tourism enterprises and/or organisations (i.e., destination management organisations, hospitality enterprises, restaurant enterprises, cableway companies, travel agencies, etc.). In destinations where natural resources are pull factors for tourism development, the relationships among local actors (public, private, and local community), as well as marketing choices, are essential to develop sustainable tourism products. To this end, the Special Issue encourages papers that analyse marketing strategies adopted by tourism destinations and/or tourism enterprises to avoid overtourism, to manage mass sustainable tourism (as defined by Weaver, 2000), and to encourage and promote sustainable tourism in marginal areas or in territories suffering lack of integration in the tourism offer. Special attention will be given to contributions on the best practices to manage territories and/or enterprises adopting sustainable marketing strategies

Developing a generic safety performance evaluation prototype for construction projects in Malaysia

Despite recent efforts that have been made to improve construction safety, this industry yet considered unsafe (hazardous) due to high number of recorded accident. Based on the statistics released by Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) in Malaysia, between 2009 to 2015 the highest rate of fatality is for construction sector. To avoid accidents in construction projects there is a need to implement proper safety and health program and ensure that safe working practice is in place. Moreover, safety performance must be monitored and evaluated. This research addresses the interactions among safety factors during evaluation process which have not been considered before. Moreover, majority of the measurement techniques disregards the (pivotal) role of parties such as owner, designer and subcontractors who have consequential affecting the construction safety and health. This research aims to develops a Generic Safety Performance Evaluation Prototype (GSPEP) for construction projects in Malaysia. The first objective is to identify and verify, the significant safety performance factors and sub-factors that affect the construction projects in Malaysia. The second objective is to obtain the interactions between safety performance factors through Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method while the decision model is developed. The results indicate that “Safety Commitment” is the most influential safety factor while, “Management Implementations” has the highest total effect rate. In the third objective, the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is employed to derive weightage of factors and sub factors of new safety framework. The GSPEP is developed in objective 4, which comprises 11 factors, 53 sub factors and 125 indicators that carry weightage according to their effectiveness in preventing of the occurring of construction accidents. The score of a project safety would be calculated according to evaluation of indicators in complying to safety standards. As the last objective, the GSPEP is then implemented in real case studies and evaluated through the judgments of two groups of construction safety experts and academic researchers to determine its applicability and validity level in evaluating safety and health performance of construction projects in Malaysia. The experts in both groups recognized the performance and effectiveness of the GSPEP as a new method for safety evaluation. The GSPEP evaluate the safety level of a construction project and its weaknesses within the construction organization. The GSPEP also be able to facilitate the awareness in improving safety culture on construction projects, since it involves the cooperation of all personnel from top management to ordinary workers. This research on GSPEP is a comprehensive decision maker that can be employed as a new system to benchmark the safety and health performance level of construction companies in Malaysia

An Investigation on Benefit-Cost Analysis of Greenhouse Structures in Antalya

Significant population increase across the world, loss of cultivable land and increasing demand for food put pressure on agriculture. To meet the demand, greenhouses are built, which are, light structures with transparent cladding material in order to provide controlled microclimatic environment proper for plant production. Conceptually, greenhouses are similar with manufacturing buildings where a controlled environment for manufacturing and production have been provided and proper spaces for standardized production processes have been enabled. Parallel with the trends in the world, particularly in southern regions, greenhouse structures have been increasingly constructed and operated in Turkey. A significant number of greenhouses are located at Antalya. The satellite images demonstrated that for over last three decades, there has been a continuous invasion of greenhouses on all cultivable land. There are various researches and attempts for the improvement of greenhouse design and for increasing food production by decreasing required energy consumption. However, the majority of greenhouses in Turkey are very rudimentary structures where capital required for investment is low, but maintenance requirements are high when compared with new generation greenhouse structures. In this research paper, life-long capital requirements for construction and operation of greenhouse buildings in Antalya has been investigated by using benefit-cost analysis study

Knowledge Capturing in Design Briefing Process for Requirement Elicitation and Validation

Knowledge capturing and reusing are major processes of knowledge management that deal with the elicitation of valuable knowledge via some techniques and methods for use in actual and further studies, projects, services, or products. The construction industry, as well, adopts and uses some of these concepts to improve various construction processes and stages. From pre-design to building delivery knowledge management principles and briefing frameworks have been implemented across project stakeholders: client, design teams, construction teams, consultants, and facility management teams. At pre-design and design stages, understanding the client’s needs and users’ knowledge are crucial for identifying and articulating the expected requirements and objectives. Due to underperforming results and missed goals and objectives, many projects finish with highly dissatisfied clients and loss of contracts for some organizations. Knowledge capturing has beneficial effects via its principles and methods on requirement elicitation and validation at the briefing stage between user, client and designer. This paper presents the importance and usage of knowledge capturing and reusing in briefing process at pre-design and design stages especially the involvement of client and user, and explores the techniques and technologies that are usable in briefing process for requirement elicitation

Sustainable Value Co-Creation in Welfare Service Ecosystems : Transforming temporary collaboration projects into permanent resource integration

The aim of this paper is to discuss the unexploited forces of user-orientation and shared responsibility to promote sustainable value co-creation during service innovation projects in welfare service ecosystems. The framework is based on the theoretical field of public service logic (PSL) and our thesis is that service innovation seriously requires a user-oriented approach, and that such an approach enables resource integration based on the service-user’s needs and lifeworld. In our findings, we identify prerequisites and opportunities of collaborative service innovation projects in order to transform these projects into sustainable resource integration once they have ended