Project management under uncertainty: Resource flexibility visualization in the schedule

Going from an idea to a result, using a series of well-defined techniques with deadlines and limited resources, is a skill that a project manager must have. In a rapidly changing environment like the present one, there are many factors that contribute to budget overruns and delays that occur in most major projects. To be successful, one must rely on techniques and tools that assist the project manager in the various stages of the project. Therefore, this paper presents an Add-In for MS Project®, based on a previously developed model for solving the Resource Constraint Project Scheduling Problem with Flexible Resource Management (RCPSP-FRM), which can help the project manager with regard to the scheduling of resources using flexibility, giving him relevant information to the decision making process in case of delays during the execution phase. The flexible chart and table format view allows project managers to easily and objectively identify the activities which can have their durations increased or shortened, impacting significantly on project execution time. This research contributes not only to the academic environment, but also to professional project management environments.This work has been supported by national funds through FCT –Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologiawithin the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/201

Project management under uncertainty: a study on solution methods

Project Management involves onetime endeavors that demand for getting it right the first time. On the other hand, project scheduling, being one of the most modeled project management process stages, still faces a wide gap from theory to practice. Demanding computational models and their consequent call for simplification, divert the implementation of such models in project management tools from the actual day to day project management process. Special focus is being made to the robustness of the generated project schedules facing the omnipresence of uncertainty. An "easy" way out is to add, more or less cleverly calculated, time buffers that always result in project duration increase and correspondingly, in cost. A better approach to deal with uncertainty seems to be to explore slack that might be present in a given project schedule, a fortiori when a non-optimal schedule is used. The combination of such approach to recent advances in modeling resource allocation and scheduling techniques to cope with the increasing flexibility in resources, as can be expressed in "Flexible Resource Constraint Project Scheduling Problem" (FRCPSP) formulations, should be a promising line of research to generate more adequate project management tools. In reality, this approach has been frequently used, by project managers in an ad-hoc way

Project management under uncertainty: Solution methods revisited

Project Management involves onetime endeavors that demand for getting it right the first time. On the other hand, project scheduling, being one of the most modeled project management process stages, still faces a wide gap from theory to practice. Demanding computational models and their consequent call for simplification, divert the implementation of such models in project management tools from the actual day to day project management process. Special focus is being made to the robustness of the generated project schedules facing the omnipresence of uncertainty. An "easy" way out is to add, more or less cleverly calculated, time buffers that always result in project duration increase and correspondingly, an increase in its cost. A better approach to deal with uncertainty seems to be to explore slack that might be present in a given project schedule especially when a non-optimal schedule is used. The combination of such approach to recent advances in modeling resource allocation and scheduling techniques to cope with the increasing flexibility in resources, as can be expressed in "Flexible Resource Constraint Project Scheduling Problem" (FRCPSP) formulations, should be a promising line of research to generate more adequate project management tools. In reality this approach is frequently used by project managers in an ad-hoc way

Project management under uncertainty: using flexible resource management to exploit schedule flexibility

Project management still faces a wide gap separating theory from practice, especially regarding the robustness of the generated project schedules facing the omnipresence of uncertainty. A new approach to deal with uncertainty is presented to explore slack that might exist in a given project schedule. We propose that renewable resources' capacity to perform work can be increased so that they can perform additional work in a time unit or can be decreased with the consequent reduction on the performed work. This possibility combined with the slack that some activities have in a specific schedule can be used to absorb deviations that might occur during a project's execution. When a critical activity is about to have its duration increased, slowing down other non-critical activities by putting their resources in a decreased work mode enables the activity to still be executed within time by using resources in an increased working mode. [Received: 14 February 2018; Revised: 2 January 2019; Revised: 8 June 2019; Accepted: 17 November 2019

Development of a Framework for Managing Capacities and Schedules in Industrialization Projects: a case study in the automotive domain

ICOPEV2018: 4th International Conference on Production Economics and Project Evaluation | 20 Set. - 21 Set. 2018The behaviour of the current competitive markets makes project management one of the distinctive factors in companies’ success. Its practices have revealed to be crucial in deadlines accomplishment, costs reduction, quality requirements satisfaction, among other benefits. This research was developed as a case study in an automotive company with the aim of developing a framework for visual management of capacities in industrialization projects to tackle overload situations of project managers. The model developed considers industrialization project management a standard process that usually calls for a tipical set of activities, whose duration and effort are defined according to project complexity. The proposed activity scheduling process results from an adaption of Heuristic based Priority Rules, aligned with the problem specifications

Improving risk management practice in industrialization projects: case study of an automotive company

Project-based work is increasingly regarded as a powerful organizational response to the complex challenges of management, being an excellent way to integrate organizational functions with the expectations of stakeholders, with the aim of achieving higher levels of performance and productivity. However, the particular characteristics of projects lead them to be considered risky undertakings, making risk management one of the most important knowledge areas among project management practices. Knowledge management is, in turn, progressively taken into account in risk management, since many of the problems underlying risk management processes arise from scarcity of information or lack of knowledge to understand the existing information. Then, within the scope of risk management, knowledge management can provide learning from past risks in order to simplify and support the management of new risks and decision-making. The case study research methodology was applied at a plant of a first tear automotive industry supplier by using participant observation, document analysis and questionnaires to describe the current industrialization project risk management practice. Then a proposal for a risk catalog in the form of a risk database was developed to integrate information and knowledge in order to promote and support the existing and future project risk management practice

Radiometric characterization of a novel LED array system for visual assessment

Light that enters the eye can be distorted due to several factors leading to a poor visual performance. The purpose of this paper is to describe and characterize the light-emitting diode (LED) display system to be used in a new device to assess visual quality under high glare conditions. The device has a central white LED and surrounding white LEDs distributed in a radial manner. Each LED is controlled independently using special designed software. The spectral power distribution and color of the LEDs were assessed at different voltage intensities to test the response in terms of output luminance and spectral distribution. It was found that the typical maximum luminance was about 2800 cd/m2 and 6 cd/m2 for the central and surrounding LEDs, respectively. Their color was found to be within the ΔE⁄ ab range of 2.6 and 0.23, respectively, if the minimum and maximum intensities are considered. The characterization of this device was proved successfully, which might indicate its usefulness in future visual assessments.This study has been funded by FEDER through the COMPTETE Program and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of projects PTDC/SAU-BEB/098391/2008, PTDC/SAU-BEB/098392/2008 and the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011

Stakeholder management in industrialization projects: an automotive industry case study

Stakeholder management is determinant for the sustainable growth of the organizations, becoming a competitive advantage for them. This paper aims to help professionals involved in industrialization projects, by presenting a new systematic approach to stakeholder management. This research was carried out in a professional environment, at the company Bosch Car Multimedia in which Project Management Office managers detected a gap in the process of managing stakeholders in the project management area. Given the increasing number of industrialization projects starting in the company, the development of a systematic approach to stakeholder management is highly important. Having an increasingly active, thoughtful and well-structured stakeholder management, contributes to the achieving of the projects’ success

Evaluation of PIK3CA mutations in advanced ER+/HER2-breast cancer in Portugal – U-PIK Project

Background: Around 40% of ER+/HER2-breast carcinomas (BC) present mutations in the PIK3CA gene. Assessment of PIK3CA mutational status is required to identify patients eligible for treatment with PI3Kα inhibitors, with alpelisib currently the only approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor in this setting. U-PIK project aimed to conduct a ring trial to validate and implement the PIK3CA mutation testing in several Portuguese centers, decentralizing it and optimizing its quality at national level.Methods: Eight Tester centers selected two samples of patients with advanced ER+/HER2- BC and generated eight replicates of each (n = 16). PIK3CA mutational status was assessed in two rounds. Six centers used the cobas®PIK3CA mutation test, and two used PCR and Sanger sequencing. In parallel, two reference centers (IPATIMUP and the Portuguese Institute of Oncology [IPO]-Porto) performed PIK3CA mutation testing by NGS in the two rounds. The quality of molecular reports describing the results was also assessed. Testing results and molecular reports were received and analyzed by U-PIK coordinators: IPATIMUP, IPO-Porto, and IPO-Lisboa.Results: Overall, five centers achieved a concordance rate with NGS results (allele frequency [AF] ≥5%) of 100%, one of 94%, one of 93%, and one of 87.5%, considering the overall performance in the two testing rounds. NGS reassessment of discrepancies in the results of the methods used by the Tester centers and the reference centers identified one probable false positive and two mutations with low AF (1–3%, at the analytical sensitivity threshold), interpreted as subclonal variants with heterogeneous representation in the tissue sections processed by the respective centers. The analysis of molecular reports revealed the need to implement the use of appropriate sequence variant nomenclature with the identification of reference sequences (HGVS-nomenclature) and to state the tumor cell content in each sample.Conclusion: The concordance rates between the method used by each tester center and NGS validate the use of the PIK3CA mutational status test performed at these centers in clinical practice in patients with advanced ER+/HER2- BC