A Management Maturity Model (MMM) for project-based organisational performance assessment

Common sense suggests that organisations are more likely to deliver successful projects if they have systems in place that reflect a mature project environment based on a culture of continuous improvement. This paper develops and discusses a Management Maturity Model (MMM) to assess the maturity of project management organisations through a customisable, systematic, strategic and practical methodology inspired from the seminal work of Darwin, Deming, Drucker and Daniel. The model presented is relevant to organisations, such as construction and engineering companies, that prefer to use the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK™ Guide) published by the Project Management Institute (PMI), but without the disadvantages of excessive time and cost commitments and a ‘one size fits all’ approach linked to rigid increments of maturity. It offers a game-changing advance in the application of project-based organisational performance assessment compared to existing market solutions that are unnecessarily complex. The feasibility of MMM is field-tested using a medium-sized data centre infrastructure firm in Tehran

A cost estimate maturity benchmark method to support early concept design decision-making: a case study application to the small modular nuclear reactor

Constructing large Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) is synonymous with significant cost and schedule uncertainty. Innovative Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) have been identified as a way of increasing certainty of delivery, whilst also maintaining a competitive Life Cycle Cost (LCC). Previous research into the cost of SMRs has focused on the economics of a design from the perspective of an owner or investor. There is a significant gap in the literature associated with cost estimating SMRs at the early concept development stage from the perspective of a reactor developer. Early design stage cost estimates are inherently uncertain. Design teams, therefore, need to make decisions that will achieve a cost competitive product by considering uncertainty. Existing cost uncertainty analysis methods lack standardisation in their application, often relying on the subjective assessment of experts. The central argument presented in this research is that the SMR vendor can make more effective decisions related to achieving cost certainty by understanding the drivers of knowledge uncertainty associated with early design stage cost estimates. This thesis describes research spanning the concept design phase of the UK SMR development programme. The research investigation is divided into two distinct phases. The first phase identifies the requirements for cost information from the perspective of the SMR vendor through interviews, a participatory case study investigation and surveys. Limited access to cost information means that early design cost assessment is highly subjective. Cost uncertainty analysis should provide decision makers with an understanding of the level of confidence associated with the estimate. A survey investigating how cost information is interpreted revealed that providing more granular detail about cost uncertainty would support the design team with additional rationale for selecting a design option. The main requirement identified from phase 1 of the research is the need for a standardised method to identify how sources of cost uncertainty influence the maturity of the estimate at each stage of the design development process. The second phase of the research involved a participatory research approach where the Acceptable Cost Uncertainty Benchmark Assessment (ACUBA) method was developed and then implemented retrospectively on the case study cost data. The ACUBA method uses a qualitative measure to assess the quality and impact of engineering definition, manufacturing process knowledge and supply chain knowledge on the cost estimate confidence. The maturity rating is then assessed against a benchmark to determine the acceptability of the estimate uncertainty range. Focus groups were carried out in the vendor organisation to investigate whether the design team could clarify their reasoning for decisions related to reducing cost uncertainty when given insight into the sources of cost uncertainty. The rationale for a decision is found to be clearer using the ACUBA method compared with existing cost uncertainty analysis methods used by the case study organisation. This research has led to the development of a novel method which standardises and improves the communication of cost information across different functions within a design team. By establishing a benchmark acceptable level of cost maturity for a decision, the cost maturity metric can be employed to measure the performance of the SMR development programme towards achieving product cost maturity. In addition, the ACUBA method supports the more effective allocation of limited resources available at the early design stage, by identifying design activities which could lead to an acceptable cost maturity.</div

Investigating the relationship between software process improvement, situational change, and business success in software SMEs

While we have learned a great deal from Software Process Improvement (SPI) research to date, no earlier study has been designed from the outset to examine the relationship between SPI and business success in software development small- to- medium- sized companies (software SMEs). Since business processes are generally acknowledged as having an important role to play in supporting business success, it follows that the software development process (a large and complex component of the overall business process) has an important contribution to make in supporting business success in software development companies. However, to date we have very little evidence regarding the role of SPI in supporting business success, especially for software SMEs. The need for SPI is dependent on the extent of situational change in a software development setting, and therefore any examination of the relationship between SPI and business success would be deficient if it did not also examine the extent of situational change. Therefore, this thesis describes a novel approach to examining SPI, situational change and business success in software development companies. Furthermore, having discharged this new approach to 15 software SMEs, this thesis makes the important new discovery that the amount of SPI implemented in a software SME is positively associated with the extent of business success – especially when the degree of situational change is taken into account. This thesis describes the first published study to examine the relationship between SPI, situational change and business success in software SMEs. The findings suggest that there are business benefits to implementing SPI in software SMEs, with the degree of situational change being an important factor informing SPI initiatives. Furthermore, this research has yielded valuable new insights into the nature of SPI, situational change and business success in software SMEs

Product Lifecycle Management: Measuring What Is Important - Product Lifecycle Implementation Maturity Model

Industry reports that benefits of PLM are difficult to assess because the same benefit can be expressed as a function of time, cost, quality, or any combination. Based on a review of the PLM literature in an earlier study, a PLM Process Model and an initial list of PLM related metrics was generated and later confirmed through interviews with experienced PLM users. In the current study, the original PLM Process Model was refined and the list of metrics was subjected to an exploratory factor analysis in which specific metrics were found to be related to one of four factors: Inputs, Processes, Outputs, and Outcomes. Based on the results of this study, a Product Lifecycle Implementation Maturity Model was developed that serves as a program-level guide in helping to quantify PLM performance in support of meeting organizational strategic goals

BASEL II: THE REVISED FRAMEWORK OF JUNE 2004

A major aim of Basel II has been to revise the rules of the 1988 Basel Capital Accord in such a way as to align banks´ regulatory capital more closely with their risks, taking account of progress in the measurement and management of risk and of the opportunities which these provide for strengthened supervision. Achievement of this aim has involved the incorporation in Basel II of methods for quantifying banking risks introduced since the late 1980s. The task of the designers of Basel II has been complicated by the way in which the BCBS´s rules for banks´ capital, originally intended for the internationally active banks of its member countries, have become a global standard widely applied in developing as well as developed countries. Acceptance of this role by the BCBS has entailed a global consultation process, whose results have been reflected in three consultative papers and the RF, and the different approaches and options for setting numerical capital requirements which are intended to accommodate banks and supervisors of different levels of sophistication. As well as providing a commentary on the main features of the RF this paper documents the response of the BCBS to some of the more important points which were raised during this consultation process, including the outcome of decisions taken at a meeting in Madrid in October 2003 following comments on the consultative paper of April 2003, and summarises the results of the most recent of the BCBS´s initiatives to estimate the quantitative impact of the Basel II rules on banks´ capital. This discussion includes a review of papers issued by the BCBS as part of the last stage of its work preceding the RF.

A Cross-national Comparison of Public Project Benefits Management Practices – The Effectiveness of Benefits Management Frameworks in Application

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Benefits are the principal reason why an organization may seek to enact change through programmes and projects. The discipline of identification, definition, planning, tracking and realization of benefits is recognized to be instrumental in achieving organizational strategy. In this study, we describe the results of a cross-national comparison of public sector benefits management (BM) practices in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA. It explores ‘BM practices in action’, considering to what extent ‘espoused’ or ‘mandated’ frameworks are actually practised and perceived by their users. Employing qualitative analysis, semi-structured interview data were analysed from 46 participants with experience in sponsoring, managing and/or reviewing government projects. The results expose considerable variation in the adoption and standardization of BM frameworks from inter and intragovernmental perspectives. We evidence a strong focus on benefits identification across the data set, specifically at the outset (the business case stage seeking project approval) and observe deterioration in focus as the project or programme progresses through the authorization (or assurance) approval gates towards close-out and operations. The results further emphasize the prominence of political interest, leadership buy-in, a benefits-driven culture and a transparent benefits reporting mechanism in the implementation of ‘effective’ BM frameworks

Modeling and Simulating Causal Dependencies on Process-aware Information Systems from a Cost Perspective

Providing effective IT support for business processes has become crucial for enterprises to stay competitive in their market. Business processes must be defined, implemented, enacted, monitored, and continuously adapted to changing situations. Process life cycle support and continuous process improvement become critical success factors in contemporary and future enterprise computing. In this context, process-aware information systems (PAISs) adopt a key role. Thereby, organization-specific and generic process support systems are distinguished. In the former case, the PAIS is build "from scratch" and incorporates organization-specific information about the structure and processes to be supported. In the latter case, the PAIS does not contain any information about the structure and processes of a particular organization. Instead, an organization needs to configure the PAIS by specifying processes, organizational entities, and business objects. To enable the realization of PAISs, numerous process support paradigms, process modeling standards, and business process management tools have been introduced. The application of these approaches in PAIS engineering projects is not only influenced by technological, but also by organizational and project-specific factors. Between these factors there exist numerous causal dependencies, which, in turn, often lead to complex and unexpected effects in PAIS engineering projects. In particular, the costs of PAIS engineering projects are significantly influenced by these causal dependencies. What is therefore needed is a comprehensive approach enabling PAIS engineers to systematically investigate these causal dependencies as well as their impact on the costs of PAIS engineering projects. Existing economic-driven IT evaluation and software cost estimation approaches, however, are unable to take into account causal dependencies and resulting effects. In response, this thesis introduces the EcoPOST framework. This framework utilizes evaluation models to describe the interplay of technological, organizational, and project-specific evaluation factors, and simulation concepts to unfold the dynamic behavior of PAIS engineering projects. In this context, the EcoPOST framework also supports the reuse of evaluation models based on a library of generic, predefined evaluation patterns and also provides governing guidelines (e.g., model design guidelines) which enhance the transfer of the EcoPOST framework into practice. Tool support is available as well. Finally, we present the results of two online surveys, three case studies, and one controlled software experiment. Based on these empirical and experimental research activities, we are able to validate evaluation concepts underlying the EcoPOST framework and additionally demonstrate its practical applicability