Skills of junior project management professionals and project success achieved by them

New graduates are often placed into project management roles, but may face challenges in these roles. This study surveyed managers from Brazilian organizations and gathered information on the environment, practices and results of projects where new graduates were in project management roles. In-depth interviews were executed with a subset of these managers to further collect insights into issues surrounding new graduates’ performance in project management. This paper examines the preparation and performance of new graduates in project management roles. It addresses specific project management skills and competencies that are involved in delivering successful projects and how these relate to project success or failure. The conclusions determined that new graduates are often not fully prepared for project management roles and fail to conduct comprehensive project preparations, often missing risk management; their soft skills are not fully developed creating further challenges; and the corporate environment towards project management may not lead to developing well-prepared project managers

Teaching Tip: Teaching Scrum Product Owner Competencies Using an Experiential Learning Simulation

The product owner role is one of three key roles in the Scrum software development process. Industry demand for product owners is growing exponentially, and educators need effective techniques for teaching students the knowledge, skills, and competencies required to be effective product owners. To address this need, this Teaching Tip describes how SimAgile, an experiential learning simulation, may be used as one part of a series of Scrum-based assignments to help students better understand the product owner role and the competencies required to be an effective product owner. Results from a graduate class on agile project management indicate that when SimAgile is combined with complementary Scrum workflow assignments students report high levels of active learning, relevance, and utility and closely mirrors real world product-owner experiences. Furthermore, students are able to successfully identify product-owner competency requirements upon completion of assignments. With minor modifications, the simulation and Scrum workflow assignments may also be used for undergraduate students. Using the simulation in combination with supplemental Scrum workflow assignments appears to be an approach well suited for teaching students about the product owner role in a classroom setting and will help educators meet the growing demand for product owners in industry

Student Attitudes toward Information Systems Graduate Program Design and Delivery

This study examines student preferences regarding graduate management information systems (MIS) education. One hundred and eighty four graduate students responded to a survey exploring student attitudes towards degree program content, delivery format, and peer group interaction. Study results indicate that students prefer a program with an even mix of business and technical coursework taught by full-time faculty featuring frequent guest lectures by industry professionals. The most often cited business courses that should be required include quantitative business analysis, operations management, strategy, and leadership, and the most often identified management information systems courses that should be required were internships, business intelligence, data warehousing, management information systems fundamentals, and information technology project management. The study also explored how students with and without prior work experience differed in their preferences, which will help administrators and faculty with insights and tools to design more effective programs of study

10301 Executive Summary and Abstracts Collection -- Service Value Networks

From 25.07.2010 to 30.07.2010, the Perspectives Workshop 10301 ``Perspectives Workshop: Service Value Networks \u27\u27 was held in Schloss Dagstuhl~--~Leibniz Center for Informatics. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

The Economic Impact of the Value Chain of a Marcellus Shale Well

The Economic Impact of the Value Chain of a Marcellus Shale Well Site examines the direct economic impact of a Marcellus Shale well located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This study seeks to fill a critical information gap on the impact of gas drilling and extraction from Marcellus Shale deposits deep underground: an assessment of the economic impacts – emphasizing the direct economic impact, rather than just focusing on the perceived benefits and impacts affecting the region. Our analysis is based on extensive field research, including a site visit and interviews with industry participants. It is further cross-validated by examining similar costs for development of Marcellus Wells by a vertically-integrated exploration and production firm

Exploring Hypermedia Information Services for Disseminating Software Engineering Information

This report describes the accomplishments of a pilot hypermedia information service embodying the conceptual definition of a pilot information base developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in support of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) Software and Intelligent Systems Technology Office (SISTO). This pilot effort was conducted in support of the Technology Cost-Benefit Analysis tasks within TO&P 2-151, Software Engineering Technology Transition for Director, Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) and ARPA. This report also describes the intended uses and user populations of the proposed information base, design issues that influenced the structure and contents of the information base, a proposed information model consisting of information content and linkages, the pilot information base including the technology selected for the initial pilot effort and the pilot capability, lessons learned from the pilot effort, and future plans relating to the information base efforts. Key to these pilot efforts was the development of a set of proposed information structures for an information base on software engineering. These hypermedia-based information structures can be presented across the Internet and displayed on local workstations using client/server technologies, such as World Wide Web (WWW) and NCSA Mosaic (produced by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications). This work to date has accomplished four goals. First, the objectives of the pilot effort have been met. An information base containing software engineering information that provides value to ARPA program managers has been demonstrated, and a work plan has been generated to expand from the pilot to an operational system. Second, the SEI has demonstrated a capability for effectively using the WWW, which is certain to be a critical part of the information highway for years to come. Third, techniques to enhance developers' productivity have been identified and demonstrated. Preparation of online information can be aided by templates. Delivery of online information can be enhanced through study of actual users' navigational and usage patterns. Fourth, the SEI has established a magnetic platform as the facilities demonstrable at the SEI can be used as a starting point for developing new technology transition capabilities

Conference Report: Overcoming the Disincentives to Modernization in the Defense Industry

The Procurement Committee of the National Security Industrial Association held its annual winter meeting on 7-10 February 1988. This conference report documents the keynote address by Thomas J. Murrin, Distinguished Service Professor in Management and Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, along with panel sessions on the topic of "Regulatory and Statutory Direction of Acquisition" and "Financial Aspects of Disincentives to Modernization.

FOR THE COMMANDER

The ideas and findings in this report should not be construed as an official DoD position. It is published in the interest of scientific and technical information exchange