Delivering successful IS/IT projects: Eight key elements from success criteria to review via appropriate management, methodologies and teams

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.In spite of decades of research, Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) projects still often fail to deliver the objectives expected of them. Managers require information systems to achieve their business objectives and the failure of these projects inevitably hinders the progress and success of their organisations. This research examines the key criteria by which IS/IT projects are judged to be successful and what factors are important in influencing the success of IS/IT projects. The research shows that very often different participants in a project are aiming at different targets and they each have their own perception of project success. There must be greater convergence on the criteria for success. To achieve this, the criteria for success and associated factors that influence success need to be defined clearly, agreed by all parties at the start of the project and reviewed as the project progresses. Agreeing the criteria is not sufficient to guarantee success. The project has to be carried out within a defined framework. The project life cycle is used to link the two disciplines of project management and systems development, and to highlight the fundamental issues that must be carried out on all projects. However, project managers need to focus more on the products of the system and not on the plans and schedules. Therefore, there should be the emphasis on configuration management as a means of linking the two disciplines. Furthermore, automated tools need to provide additional functionality to be of any practical use to project managers and system developers. Project managers are crucial to the development process and they need a portfolio of skills to deliver successful projects in the future. The research outlines the development path for project managers to acquire these skills. They should not rely solely on experience but formal career development has to be part of the overall strategy of the organisation

Success management as a PM knowledge area – work-in-progress

It is a fact that an organization's success is closely linked with its projects’ success. Although there are many studies in literature that focus on different aspects of project success like, for instance, the success factors or the criteria for success assessment, there are only few studies that mention the processes required for success evaluation. Guides and standards, such as the PMBOK 5 or ISO 21500:2012, are not exceptions to this reality. Given the high importance and complexity of the evaluation of the projects’ success, in this work-in-progress the Success Management is proposed as a new knowledge area of project management, as well as a set of processes to be carried out in its scop

A Novel Automated System Yields Reproducible Temporal Feeding Patterns in Laboratory Rodents

Background The impact of temporal feeding patterns remains a major unanswered question in nutritional science. Progress has been hampered by the absence of a reliable method to impose temporal feeding in laboratory rodents, without the confounding influence of food-hoarding behavior. Objective The aim of this study was to develop and validate a reliable method for supplying crushed diets to laboratory rodents in consistent, relevant feeding patterns for prolonged periods. Methods We programmed our experimental feeding station to deliver a standard diet [StD; Atwater Fuel Energy (AFE) 13.9% fat] or high-fat diet (HFD; AFE 45% fat) during nocturnal grazing [providing 1/24th of the total daily food intake (tdF/I) of ad libitum–fed controls every 30 min] and meal-fed (3 × 1-h periods of ad libitum feeding) patterns in male rats (Sprague-Dawley: 4 wk old, 72–119 g) and mice [C57/Bl6J wild-type (WT): 6 mo old, 29–37 g], and ghrelin-null littermates (Ghr−/−; 27–34 g). Results Grazing yielded accurate, consistent feeding events in rats, with an approximately linear rise in nocturnal cumulative food intake [tdF/I (StD): 97.4 ± 1.5% accurate compared with manual measurement; R2 = 0.86; tdF/I (HFD): 99.0 ± 1.4% accurate; R2 = 0.86]. Meal-feeding produced 3 nocturnal meals of equal size and duration in StD-fed rats (tdF/I: 97.4 ± 0.9% accurate; R2 = 0.90), whereas the second meal size increased progressively in HFD-fed rats (44% higher on day 35 than on day 14; P < 0.01). Importantly, cumulative food intake in grazing and meal-fed rats was identical. Similar results were obtained in WT mice except that less restricted grazing induced hyperphagia (compared with meal-fed WT mice; P < 0.05 from day 1). This difference was abolished in Ghr−/− mice, with meal initiation delayed and meal duration enhanced. Neither pattern elevated corticosterone secretion in rats, but meal-feeding aligned ultradian pulses. Conclusions We have established a consistent, measurable, researcher-defined, stress-free method for imposing temporal feeding patterns in rats and mice. This approach will facilitate progress in understanding the physiologic impact of feeding patterns

Lymphocyte migration and the regulation of brain endothelial cell junctions

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Lymphocyte migration and the regulation of brain endothelial cell junctions

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A qualitative study on stress coping strategies in physiotherapy students

Effective coping strategies among physiotherapy students is an emerging topic. Research suggests that physiotherapy students are at risk of experiencing moderate to high-stress levels. This study aims to outline the current prevalence of stress among physiotherapy students and analyse their coping strategies towards everyday stressors experienced. A 10-item self-administered questionnaire, The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), was used to identify the prevalence of stress and as a tool to select a sample of the least stressed students to interview to determine their coping strategies towards common stressors. The participants were students from The University of Chichester enrolled in a physiotherapy programme. Data analysis was conducted using a hierarchy thematic analysis. The study found various coping strategy towards stressors such as, prioritising and exercises, which was frequently utilised towards different stressors, such as curriculum coursework, clinical placements, university-life balance, course survival tips and general techniques to manage stress. The current study found strategies that has not been identified by previous research, such as having savings and budgeting before starting their course and having an appropriate workplace

Improving project management practices in a software development team

Software development projects continue to deliver results that fall short on organization’s expectations. The present research was carried out at InfoPortugal, a technological company specialized in Geographic Information Systems and Tourism and Leisure Solutions, where project management practices were underuse. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to describe the proposals and their implementation to enable the improvement of project management practices in a software development team. Guidelines are provided by a matrix with key areas to be improved and related proposed improvement initiatives. The definition and application of a hybrid project management methodology was the most important improvement initiative to address some of the key problems identified in case under study. Traditional plan-oriented methodologies do not have the flexibility to dynamically adjust to the software development process. While, agile methodologies combine iterative and incremental approaches to adapt to high levels of change, with early and continuous delivery.- (undefined

Phosphorylation of vascular endothelial cadherin controls lymphocyte emigration

Lymphocytes emigrate from the circulation to target tissues through the microvascular endothelial cell (EC) barrier. During paracellular transmigration cell-cell junctions have been proposed to disengage and provide homophilic and heterophilic interaction surfaces in a zip-like process. However, it is not known whether ECs modulate junction proteins during this process. Here we show that tyrosine phosphorylation of adherens junction vascular endothelial cadherin (VEC) is required for successful transendothelial lymphocyte migration. We found that adhesion of lymphocytes or activation of the endothelial intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM1) led to tyrosine phosphorylation of VEC. Substitution of tyrosine for phenylalanine in VEC at positions 645, 731 or 733 produced ECs that were significantly less permissive to lymphocyte migration. We also found that these same tyrosine residues are involved in ICAM1-dependent changes of VEC phosphorylation. ICAM1 activation enhanced transendothelial permeability, suggesting the occurrence of junction disassembly. In agreement, the expression of VEC mutated at Y645F, Y731F or Y733F predominantly affected lymphocyte transmigration in paracellular areas. Taken together, these results demonstrate that phosphorylation of adherens junctions constitutes a molecular endpoint of lymphocyte-induced vascular EC signaling and may be exploited as a new target of anti-inflammatory therapies