Supporting Water Governance and Climate Change Adaptation Through Systemic Praxis

Understanding and working with multiple perspectives on issues of change is an essential part of managing “common pool” water resources. In uncertain and complex situations arising from changes in human settlements and climate, both lives and livelihoods can be at stake. One individual’s or group’s choices can adversely affect others and traditional processes of participation and legislation are often inadequate. Discourse on environmental law recognises that noncompliance with legislation is associated with weak national governance structures. A systemic approach to managing change is required to appreciate interconnections among issues at various levels and to mediate different stakeholdings. Yet there are no blueprints for effecting systemic transformations of complex situations. This paper explores how the implementation of climate change adaptation can be supported when grounded in situations, such as water governance. It draws on the authors’ experiences of systemic praxis in the water sector

IT Outsourcing

Businesses, shareholders and all other interested parties (Custom, Tax Administration and Customers) require just in time information regarding profit, price, stock and support. Businesses have responded to those requests with implementation of IT (Information Technology) infrastructure, but implementation of advanced IT system infrastructure has created cost for shareholder and there was immediate need to recruit and to train existing staff. With this step, management focus was oriented in non-strategic processes, and for the implementation and managing of those processes, the management did not have necessary skills, due to this reason many companies in US, Europe and Asia have started to outsource those processes. Regarding process of outsourcing Glassman (2010) concludes, “outsourcing of non-strategic processes eliminates a distraction, enabling management to focus its distinctive capabilities on areas critical to its strategic success” (p.1)

Global IT project performance through effective stakeholder management: a conceptual framework

Abstract : Multinational organisations face several challenges during the implementation of projects across country borders. These projects are referred to as global projects and involve various stakeholders with diverse demands and requirements that need to be understood, balanced and managed. Despite challenges in managing stakeholders, global IT projects need to comply with several structures of governance during implementation. The objective of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for improving global IT project performance. The conceptual framework provides insight into how several types of governance through stakeholder management processes enhance global IT project performance. The methodology used was based on a literature review to understand the subject being researched. Through the literature review, the level of governance as well as the impact from a global perspective in managing various stakeholders were evaluated. This paper presents a description of four quadrants that constitute stakeholder management processes. The findings indicate that corporate governance, IT governance and project governance should be implemented along with stakeholder management processes. An understanding of global influencing factors is also required. The proposed conceptual framework indicates the key features associated with global IT project performance in each quadrant

The role of visual management in collaborative integrated planning and control for engineer-to-order building systems

Visual Management is a key approach in the implementation of Lean Production. It emphasizes the importance of developing easy-to-understand visual devices for sharing knowledge within an organization. Such visual devices can play an important role in mitigating the complexity of engineer-to-order production systems. A major difficulty in managing engineer-to-order prefabricated building systems is the need to integrate planning and control of different processes, such as design, fabrication and assembly on site, in a multiple project environment. This paper reports preliminary findings on the implementation of visual devices for collaborative and integrated planning and control in a Steel Fabricator, which designs, fabricates and assembles steel structures. The aim of this paper is to understand how visual management tools can contribute to improve the effectiveness of planning and control in this environment. A set of visual devices have been used in the planning and control system in this company, including a panel that makes available information about 200 simultaneous contracts in an easy-to-understand way. The implementation of those tools has enhanced the participation of different people in the planning process from operational levels or from the different production units

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES STRUCTURING IN THE EDUCATION THROUGH BUSINESS PROCESSES

This paper wants to present the possibility for IT use like a tool for educational problem solving, as well as the problems following IT implementation. Great IT features does not ensure great advantages – incorrect IT use might not only bring no benefits, but to become an expensive problem. IT management systematization requires objective needs and directions development judgment of education. Do business processes can bring value for IT managing in education

A practical approach to goal modelling for time-constrained projects

Goal modelling is a well known rigorous method for analysing problem rationale and developing requirements. Under the pressures typical of time-constrained projects its benefits are not accessible. This is because of the effort and time needed to create the graph and because reading the results can be difficult owing to the effects of crosscutting concerns. Here we introduce an adaptation of KAOS to meet the needs of rapid turn around and clarity. The main aim is to help the stakeholders gain an insight into the larger issues that might be overlooked if they make a premature start into implementation. The method emphasises the use of obstacles, accepts under-refined goals and has new methods for managing crosscutting concerns and strategic decision making. It is expected to be of value to agile as well as traditional processes

Opposing views on the urgency for healthcare changes in the Netherlands: A temporal narrative struggle

This paper illuminates the way multiple narratives concerning urgency for change dynamically interact on different levels and influence change processes in healthcare organizations. It explores the processes of sensemaking and opposing urgency narratives during a period of implementation for new legislation within the Dutch healthcare sector. Building on recent debates on process theory, narratives, and temporality, a new perspective on change urgency is presented, which shows how urgency is not unilaterally created from one position but is produced and reproduced by different editors in a narrative struggle. A temporal framework for change urgency was developed to study these narrative dynamics. Three urgency narratives contested the dominant narrative in the public discourse. The article shows how directors of healthcare organizations, dominated by these narratives, also hold narrative power. Managing change processes implies managing discourse

Context Based Knowledge Management in Healthcare: An EA Approached

While an enterprise architectural approach is appropriate for business and IT alignment it also has potential with respect to the design and implementation of healthcare applications by effective representation of healthcare processes. Our research is to develop an enterprise architectural framework for managing contextual knowledge by exploiting object location deduction technologies in healthcare processes that involve the movement of patients. Such a framework is intended to facilitate healthcare managers in adopting location deduction technologies for patient care resulting in improvements in clinical process management and healthcare services

Evaluating site induction practice efficiency and effectiveness:an organisational case study

The style of induction presentation and other processes, irrespective of duration, immediately establishes the context and attitude of the construction site team and is where initial behavioural standards are established. A case study within a large contractor investigates site induction activities in practice to better understand the operational demands on time for those involved in managing site inductions and the impact of this activity on safety behaviour on site. The research method adopted was a desk-based review of company policy through document analysis, observations of site induction practice, operations and semi structured interviews. Trade-offs between time losses/benefits, safety in practice, technology implementation and their impact on administrative processes are examined. It is argued that the use of observations has allowed the identification of the actual time commitment in practice. The principal contractor's allocated time for providing and undertaking site induction activities was underestimated by 16% to 20%. There is potential to save time through exploitation of existing and new technology solutions more fully. However, those with an H&S leadership role have indicated difficulties in keeping up with the pace of change in technology development for this purpose

A General Approach of Quality Cost Management Suitable for Effective Implementation in Software Systems

Investments in quality are best quantified by implementing and managing quality cost systems. A review of various opinions coming from practitioners and researchers about the existent quality cost models reveals a set of drawbacks (e.g. too theoretical and too close to ideal cases; too academic, with less practical impact; too much personalized to particular business processes, with difficulties in extrapolating to other cases; not comprising all dimensions of a business system). Using concepts and tools in quality management theory and practice and algorithms of innovative problem solving, this paper formulates a novel approach to improve practical usability, comprehensiveness, flexibility and customizability of a quality cost management system (QCMS) when implementing it in a specific software application. Conclusions arising from the implementation in real industrial cases are also highlighted.Quality Costs, Performance Planning and Monitoring, Quality Management, Quality Cost Software