Improving project management planning and control in service operations environment.

Projects have evidently become the core activity in most companies and organisations where they are investing significant amount of resources in different types of projects as building new services, process improvement, etc. This research has focused on service sector in attempt to improve project management planning and control activities. The research is concerned with improving the planning and control of software development projects. Existing software development models are analysed and their best practices identified and these have been used to build the proposed model in this research. The research extended the existing planning and control approaches by considering uncertainty in customer requirements, resource flexibility and risks level variability. In considering these issues, the research has adopted lean principles for planning and control software development projects. A novel approach introduced within this research through the integration of simulation modelling techniques with Taguchi analysis to investigate ‗what if‘ project scenarios. Such scenarios reflect the different combinations of the factors affecting project completion time and deliverables. In addition, the research has adopted the concept of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to develop an automated Operations Project Management Deployment (OPMD) model. The model acts as an iterative manner uses ‗what if‘ scenario performance outputs to identify constraints that may affect the completion of a certain task or phase. Any changes made during the project phases will then automatically update the performance metrics for each software development phases. In addition, optimisation routines have been developed that can be used to provide management response and to react to the different levels of uncertainty. Therefore, this research has looked at providing a comprehensive and visual overview of important project tasks i.e. progress, scheduled work, different resources, deliverables and completion that will make it easier for project members to communicate with each other to reach consensus on goals, status and required changes. Risk is important aspect that has been included in the model as well to avoid failure. The research emphasised on customer involvement, top management involvement as well as team members to be among the operational factors that escalate variability levels 3 and effect project completion time and deliverables. Therefore, commitment from everyone can improve chances of success. Although the role of different project management techniques to implement projects successfully has been widely established in areas such as the planning and control of time, cost and quality; still, the distinction between the project and project management is less than precise and a little was done in investigating different levels of uncertainty and risk levels that may occur during different project phase.United Arab Emirates Governmen

Diverse virtual social networks: Implications for remote software testing teams

This paper evaluates offshore outsourcing in the IT testing industry and determines what conditions determine its success. There is particular focus on the influence of diversity in teams on group relationships. Two studies are described: the first, investigated the perceptions of professional software testers on the critical factors of offshore outsourcing; and the second study looked at the ability for diverse teams to form close working relationships through virtual networks. We find that overt diversity factors inhibit interaction across nationality boundaries. The limitations of virtual networks for fostering personal communications is apparent in preventing group members from overcoming the initial aversion to mix with out-group members, which could be achieved with closer and more personal communications between members with different diversity factors in normal face to face communications. Where software testing teams are outsourced globaly, and must rely on virtual communications, there seems potential for significant difficulties in developing close working relationships, which on the one hand, can be negative for group cohesion, but one the other hand, can be positive for encouraging imparitality

EFFECTIVENESS OF FOOD SAFETY TRAINING ON KNOWLEDGE, ATITUDE, AND PRACTICES (KAP) OF HOMEBASED FOOD BUSINESS (HFB) IN Al AIN, UAE

This research aimed at evaluating the levels of knowledge, relevant attitudes, and food safety practices (KAP) of food handlers that have home food businesses (HFB) in Al Ain city, UAE. It examined the effectiveness of the Essential Food Safety Training Program (EFST) in providing food safety Knowledge, attitude, and practices. A quantitative research method was conducted using a sample of 68 participants who responded to the questionnaires. Three research questions were used to guide the study and explore the differences of the level of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice (KAP) before and after training program by using a paired-samples t-test. This study revealed that EFST had positive effects on all subcategories of food safety practices. Most of the subcategories of attitudes showed a positive impact except the cross-contamination. Regarding the food safety knowledge, no positive impact was found in the subcategories of cleaning and chilling. The results of this study can contribute to improving government policies and actions regarding the safety of food and training programs

Factors Influencing Teachers Attrition in the United Arab Emirates

Factors Influencing Teacher AttritionIn the United Arab EmiratesAli S. Al Kaabi, PhDUniversity of Pittsburgh, 2005The purpose of this study was to examine the factors associated with high attrition rate among the UAE citizen teachers who teach in public schools grades 1-12. The factors that this study investigated are: personal factors, economic factors, teacher preparation, employment factors, and social-cultural factors. The study was guided by five research questions. Data for this study was collected through two methods: a survey questionnaire that was sent to the sample of this study was 594 UAE citizen teachers in the public schools, and a constructed interview with five educational zone directors. To analyze the quantitative data descriptive statistics (means, percentage, and standard deviations), and Chi-Square Test were applied to examine the relation between the most important factors and teachers gender, qualifications, and years of experience. Qualitative analysis was applied to interpret the data obtained from the interviews with five educational zone directors and open-ended questions from the last part of the questionnaire.The result of this study indicated that the most important factors associated with teacher attrition are: (a) The personal factors that have the highest effect on teacher attrition are "stress" with mean (3.31), and "accountability" with mean (3.19). (b) The economic factor that has the highest effect on teacher attrition is "incentives" with mean (3.23). (c) The employment factor that has the highest effect on teacher attrition is "paperwork" with mean (3.07). (d) The social-cultural factor that has the highest effect on teacher attrition is "social appreciation" with mean (3.07). The result indicated that teacher preparation factors are the least important factors associated with teacher attrition with a very low mean (2.10)

Bridgeless Step/Up Unity Power Factor Rectifier for High Voltage Applications

Power electronic devices with front- end rectifier are widely used in computer, communication and electric vehicle industries. These rectifiers are nonlinear in nature and generate current harmonics which pollute utility power. International harmonic standards (e.g., IEC 61000-3-2 and EN 61000-3-2) have been put in place to confine power pollution. These standards limit the current harmonics generated by loads to a specified threshold depending on load power and application. In other words, a high power factor is required. Power supplies with active power factor correction (PFC) techniques are becoming necessary for many types of electronic equipment to meet the harmonic regulations and standards. However, classical PFC schemes have lower efficiency due to significant losses in the diode bridge. Several bridgeless topologies have been introduced to decrease diode bridge conduction losses. Most of the step-up PFC rectifiers utilize boost converter at their front end due to its natural PFC capability. In this thesis, a new bridgeless PFC topology based on Cuk converter is presented. Similar to Cuk converter, the proposed topology offers several advantages in PFC applications, such as easy implementation of transformer isolation, inherent inrush current limitation during start-up and overload conditions, and lower electromagnetic interference (EMI). These advantages make the proposed topology a viable solution for high voltage DC loads such as electric vehicle battery charger. Chapter III presents steady state analysis for the proposed rectifier. The rectifier is analyzed only during the positive half of the line frequency due to symmetry. Design procedure, simulation and measurements to verify the capability of the rectifier are presented in Chapter IV. Harmonics content and efficiency of the proposed rectifier versus conventional Cuk full bridge PFC rectifier are also presented

The determinants of the future of agriculture in Qatar

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