A Quantitative Examination of the Relationship between Project Management Training and Project Management Self-Efficacy among Faculty/Staff in Higher Education

Project management techniques are common within a number of construction related industries, however, higher education is not a field to which the practices of project management are routinely applied. Although multiple factors could lead to the lack of project management application in higher education, this study focused on faculty/staff self-efficacy and project work experience. The purpose was to determine if self-efficacy and project work experience contribute to the lack of project management techniques applied in higher education. The study was based upon Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy and how project work experience may affect faculty/staff venturing into applying project management techniques. The significance of the study will contribute to addressing the gaps in the literature pertaining to why project work in higher education is viewed differently than other industries experiencing similar issues. The study shows the implications of self-efficacy and project work experience along with how organizational change factors in the application of project management techniques. The results of the study provided a positive change in the organizational climate of higher education by demonstrating the value of project management in addressing a variety of processes within a higher education setting. Finally, the biblical application of the research correlated with the evidence of project management techniques utilized in the Old Testament accounts of Nehemiah and the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem

Implementation of a Successful Project Management Method to Serve Modern Organizations

The project management arena requires much knowledge, many skills, techniques, tools, and a high level of experience in order to achieve satisfactory results and to add value to organizations. The scope of this paper is to address and discuss many important aspects needed to succeed in project management within Iraqi organizations because Iraqi businesses are developing and expanding their products into global markets. However, most Iraqi organizations struggle to implement and select productive programs and projects that will fit in with their strategic objectives. Therefore, a primary aim of this paper is to discuss the factors that make project management more effective and successful in these organizations. Also, there are many challenges and risks that project management can face during project processes that can have an effect on an entire project and sometime cause project failure. In addition, many organizations have problems with project teams, such as, differences in culture and behavior within the same team. Therefore, project management should have the organizational skills, knowledge, experience, and technical skills in order to meet the project requirements. This paper contributes and clarifies the understanding of project management field and how it works in an efficient manner. The results will help Iraqi organizations to utilize project management skills and knowledge. Also, these skills will help them to reduce budgets and increase the value of the final products within a reasonable time

The Power of Point of Sale Improving Growth, Profit, and Customer Service in a Retail Business

For many small businesses, creating a captivating retail experience is the key to success, and finding the right technologies to enable that experience is crucial for sustaining a competitive advantage. This project is a case study designed to evaluate and select a Point of Sale (POS) system and Inventory Management (IM) system for a small business based upon its specific industry needs. The project creates a three step framework leading up to the real world implementation of these systems and uses the Rhode Island based company - Wildwood Inc. - as the subject of the study. Wildwood Inc. is a garden center and nursery that uses manual processes for both its checkout and inventory management practices, but due to its growth is experiencing difficulties in serving its customers effectively. The project looks at specific challenges facing Wildwood and creates a roadmap for POS and IM implementation that can be generalized for businesses looking to upgrade their systems. The framework for the implementation includes (1) initial research and current process analysis, (2) new system evaluation and process comparison, and (3) a final recommendation for management. The project explores the necessary capabilities of POS and IM systems within the retail agriculture industry; creates a comparison matrix of potential product offerings based upon hardware components, software features, technical support, and price points; and develops a final recommendation for Wildwood considering its specific needs. Upon completion, Wildwood will have the information necessary to purchase a computerized system that can: (1) Maintain a database of all inventory, including plant characteristics, units in stock, price, supplier, and SKU number, (2) facilitate a more efficient checkout method that eliminates handwritten receipts of purchases and digitally records all sales within the system, expedites the checkout process for both customers and employees, and 4 communicates with the IM system to allow for real-time inventory updates upon completion of POS transactions, and (3) runs a variety of reports on the collected data so that management has greater accuracy and success when making business decisions

Sistema de gestión de calidad en procesos documentales

The experience of Quality Certification is presented under the ISO 9001: 2015 standard of the Libraries System of the Catholic University of Córdoba. Within this context, the work of the Documentary Processes Department is developed within the framework of quality management and the generation of documented information within the sector: definition of procedures, instructions, mail templates, forms, forms, registers, processes file , job profile, etc. The statistical data and indicators of the department are determined and finalized with an example of a project for continuous improvement: simplification of the classification of documents in open access shelves

MANAGING CHANGE IN ERP IMPLEMENTATION: LESSONS LEARNED FROM AN SME CONTEXT

Organizations implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems experience the need for extensive changes in structure, core processes, and roles - making change management crucial. Prior research on change management in ERP implementations focuses mostly on large enterprises and lacks empirical insight into why change management is challenging. We conducted a case study in a Norwegian Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) working in mechanical manufacturing. Interviews, observations, and documents were analyzed. This study contributes to the literature focusing on change management in ERP implementations and pro-vides rich insight into how and why change management is challenging in an SME context by detailing eight key reasons behind 33 challenges. Lessons learned from this study may have transferable value to other SMEs implementing ERP. The study highlights the importance of considering culture, overall organizational workload, and ensuring deep engagement during an ERP project. Several of the challenges were interconnected. Customizing organizational processes was challenging because it opposed the established culture within the company, risk management was underestimated, and culture was more of an impediment than a facilitator for change management. Finally, the management style, lack of holistic project view, and lack of competence in computer usage were also identified as challenges impeding an efficient implementation

CSF\u27s for Implementing ERP within SME\u27s

The study uses a project retrospective approach to study the implementation of ERP within eight SME’s (small and mid-sized enterprises). A project retrospective is designed to assess project performance, to identify lessons learned, and to measure success. The findings report (1) ERP project management , (2) ERP project timeline, (3) Lessons learned, (4) Risk factors, including adequacy of skill sets and level of customization, (4) Evaluation of ERP project success, and (5) Critical success factors in ERP project implementation. Many of the themes from ERP implementation studies in larger corporations were reiterated as keys to success: top management support, end-user involvement, vanilla implementation of key business processes, and team-building. In the SME’s, project sponsors were senior managers, and project managers were less likely to have ERP project experience. Formalized ROI processes and Steering Committees were not standard. Since change was mandated from the top, and since standard vanilla processes were implemented, many of these projects stayed on-course in terms of time and budget. The story of ERP implementation in SME’s indicates that these projects have definite benefits and can be effectively implemented with existing personnel and existing leadership

Propuesta de Creación de una Oficina para el Manejo de Proyectos (PMO) en la Compañía ABC

Proyecto de Graduación (Maestría en Gerencia de Proyectos) Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Área Académica de Gerencia de Proyectos, 2012.This research proposes the creation of a Project Management Office planned in the Sales, Distribution and Collections (SD&C) organization which is part of the IT area within the ABC Company, this organization focuses on the implementation of technical applications by creating innovative solutions to the above processes. The significant growth in the number of projects as well from members, who are part of the organization in Latin America, causes more complexity, making it essential a change to achieve effective coordination and standardization in the area of project management. The use of different methodologies, the various types of procurement and developers of these, and the limited experience and training in project management of human resources create problems of cost, delivery time, quality and added value, a situation that can get worse by the fast increase in the number of projects in the Sales, Distribution and Collections organization. For the development of the objectives of this study, data was collected through field research and through the application of a questionnaire that was used to analyze the situation of the organization SD&C. Likewise, it was conducted an investigation with applied character with a high descriptive component, which facilitated the identification of the level of maturity in project management within the organization, determining the continuity improvement model and features of the project Management Office in accordance with the particularities of the organization and according to their level of maturity in project management. This research identified that the organization SD&C is in the maturity level three, which according to the Heerkens model is the “Managed” level, that is why is important to propose a continuity improvement model to develop successful projects, moreover it was identified the type of PMO recommending the “Control Tower” as the most relevant. As well, it was define its ideal structure, roles, responsibilities and functions, and finally proposed performance indicators for monitoring and project management. Creating a project management office in SD&C allows continuity improvement in their processes, focus on best practices, development and training of human resources, encourage an organizational culture oriented towards projects, and measure their performance; all with the aim of achieving successfully targets in cost, time, scope and quality

Building on “soft systems for soft projects” : project management lessons learned

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design Architecture and Building.This thesis explores lessons emerging from a multi-disciplinary affiliation of practitionerresearchers endeavouring to apply soft systems thinking to project management practice between 1998 and 2006 in New South Wales (NSW) public sector agencies. The research began with award of an Australian Research Council grant to the Project Management Research Program at the University of Technology, Sydney and the NSW Police Service. Titled “Soft Systems for Soft Projects”, the award application had been made with reference to the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) developed by Professor Peter Checkland and colleagues. Hard project management approaches were proving inadequate for dealing with the complex and shifting project environments being encountered in NSW public sector agencies. “Soft Systems for Soft Projects” was a multi-faceted and multi-level inquiry that delivered practical results. Affiliation members carried learning from this experience into other public sector change management initiatives and wider project management research and practice networks. The inquiry reported in this thesis was initially mapped out while the author was managing a NSW public sector agency’s response to an across-government ecommerce initiative. The aim of the inquiry was to look back on the affiliation’s attempts to reconcile hard and soft perspectives, as represented by project management and SSM respectively, while supporting development of an organisational project management capability through implementing a Project Management Information System (PMIS). It was framed within a modified model of the process of inquiry which Mode 2 use of SSM facilitates (Checkland and Holwell, 1998b, p. 170) and particularly focused on the affiliation’s engagements with Checkland and Holwell’s (1998, p. 106) “processes for organization meanings” (POM) model. The research material is drawn from the affiliation’s published outputs, the author’s personal documentation of emerging project management practice, public sector practice guides and documents about the contextual discourses that were shaping the scope of project management action at the agency level. These are “read” according to a model developed for exploring the relationship between the documents according to level of public exposure and close versus long range interest. In a novel approach, the POM model is used as a sense-making framework for appreciating the dynamic relationships between the agency projects / programs, internal organisational processes and the external shaping discourses as documented in this material

Knowledge management and the codification of knowledge in the UK Post Office

This thesis explores the concept of knowledge codification in the context of Knowledge Management (KM) in an organisation. In the KM literature, codification of knowledge into information is viewed as central to the notion that knowledge can be managed and transferred. However, such literature pays little attention to knowledge codification as a process, or to the complex issues which the concept of codification raises. The research therefore examines processes of knowledge codification in an organisation, and how codification plays a part in its emerging approach to Knowledge Management. The empirical research was conducted within the internal consultancy section of the UK Post Office, using a methodology of participant observation within the Knowledge Management consultancy group. The data were collected predominantly from participation in a KM project: This aimed to capture knowledge from consultants working on an overseas consultancy project, and to transfer their knowledge elsewhere in the Post Office through the medium of codified text. The research has gained in-depth insight into an organisation's approach to Knowledge Management, and generated significant findings about knowledge codification as a process. In particular, the analysis focuses on different levels of social interaction in which the processes of knowledge codification occurred, and finds that codification involves more than just the codification of knowledge into information: Codification also involves the process of defining the codes needed to codify knowledge. However, the codified knowledge will have limited transferability to individuals or groups who do not share the underlying knowledge and experience to enable them to decodify the codes similarly. The thesis therefore concludes that further research is needed to bring attention to the importance of knowledge decodification within the Knowledge Management discourse

Information technology team projects in higher education: an international viewpoint

It is common to find final or near final year undergraduate Information Technology students undertaking a substantial development project; a project where the students have the opportunity to be fully involved in the analysis, design, and development of an information technology service or product. This involvement has been catalyzed and prepared for during their previous studies where the students have been told and shown how to develop similar systems. It is the belief that only through this ‘real’ project do they get the chance to experience something similar to what is expected of them when they embark on their chosen profession; that is, as an information technology professional. The high value of ‘near real life’ educational experience is recognized by many universities across the globe. The aim of this paper is to present examples from three countries - Australia, United Kingdom and South Africa, of the delivery of these team, capstone or industrial experience projects; their curricula and management processes. Academics from institutions in each of the countries share experiences, challenges and pitfalls encountered during the delivery of these information technology projects within their institutions. An overview of each institution’s strategies is provided and highlights specific issues such as the selection of projects, allocation of teams to projects, legal requirements, assessment methods, challenges and benefits. The pedagogies presented here are not exhaustive; however, the three institutions do have in common the implementation of a combination of constructivism with a community of practice approach in delivering the project unit. The three universities recognize the need for industrial experience and learning of applied skills, and therefore make these projects a compulsory part of the curriculum. The projects tend to be real life business problems which are solved over a period of two semesters, and in the case of Cape Town it could be two consecutive years of two semesters each. These projects tend to involve practical development (for example databases and web sites). The process of project-to-team allocation is generally similar in all cases. Despite their differences, team work related problems are quite similar in all three cases presented, and seem to appear as a result of team work complexity, and the number of stakeholders involved. The intention of this paper is not to propose solutions to these problems (as these would be context dependent), but to draw the attention to the main problem categories for similar schemes, these are; • project selection, • management of students, • management of academic staff, • student team motivation, • equality and diversity, • passengers, and • assessment. Furthermore, it is not the intention of the authors to portray one approach as better than another, however, the approaches are representative of how team projects are being delivered across the globe, and in particular, in the contributing institutions. It is hoped that the assimilation and dissemination of information regarding the various approaches presented will nurture further discussion, and open communication across the globe with the view to enhancing the teaching and learning experience of such projects