{"title":"e-Waste Management Awareness Program in Solomon Island: A Project Risk Management Framework","authors":"Shamsuddin Ahmed","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019040105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019040105","url":null,"abstract":"Worldwide electronic waste items have grown as product life has become shorter. The electronic products are e-waste and end up in rubbish dumps and recycling centers, posing a threat to the environment. The e-waste disposal methods adopted by Pacific island countries (PICs) are inadequate. The Solomon Island (SI) is one of the PICs and does not have a sustainable solution. The purpose of this article is to develop a framework for sustainable e-waste management campaign based on a project management framework incorporating stakeholder, risk, time, and public awareness and people management. A macro project management risk model is constructed to implement an e-waste awareness education program and assist PICs policy makers to successfully launch e-waste management program. It is shown in this work how an e-waste project management awareness program can work for SI. The important factors to be controlled for successful e-awareness program are identified with a project risk management framework. The impact, failure, and consequences of the e-waste awareness campaign are quantified. This article also provides a review of the e-waste awareness in Pacific island countries and puts forward a pan to mitigate the e-waste problem in IS. The e‐wastes in SI are unwanted electronic equipment and electrical appliances which reached its end of life and does not function as it was planned. The toxic elements within e-waste contaminate the water, land, and air. The SI does not have enough resources and technical capacity to recycle e-waste. Appropriate management and disposal of e‐waste is essential as the long-standing shield for the protection of SI and regional PICs environments. The aim is to maintain long‐term regional sustainability. The adoption of national e‐waste management policies will safeguard the movement recycling and disposal of e‐waste in a controlled manner through the Basel and Waigani convention protocols. The study designs a new paradigm for solving e-waste management issues is PICs using a project management approach, focusing on risk management, risk impact, organizational design with communication plan, and human interaction.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129667572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dilbert Moments: Exploring the Factors Impacting Upon the Accuracy of Project Managers' Baseline Schedules","authors":"James Prater, K. Kirytopoulos, T. Ma","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019040104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019040104","url":null,"abstract":"Developing and delivering a project to an agreed schedule is fundamentally what project managers do. There is still an ongoing debate about schedule delays. This research investigates the development of schedules through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that half of the respondents believe that delays reported in the media are not real and should be attributed to scope changes. IT project managers estimating techniques include bottom-up estimates, analogy, and expert judgement. Impeding factors reported for the development of realistic schedules were technical (e.g. honest mistakes) and political (e.g. completion dates imposed by the sponsor). Respondents did not mention any psychological factors, although most were aware of optimism bias. However, they were not familiar with approaches to mitigate its impacts. Yet, when these techniques were mentioned, the overwhelming majority agreed that these mitigation approaches would change their schedule estimate.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127742781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transforming Public Procurement Contracts Into Smart Contracts","authors":"Paul Debono","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019040103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019040103","url":null,"abstract":"The terms governing the provision of supplies, services, or works by an economic operator to a governmental entity are set into a public contract that is signed, following a procurement process. This article explores whether the public administration can utilise smart contracts to incorporate the terms governing the provision of supplies, services, or works. The fundamental elements of a contract are assessed, in order to determine whether a smart contract can be considered as fulfilling these requirements. Following this assessment, the main hurdles to the use of smart contracting are examined and a possible solution proposed. The case for utilising smart contracting within the realm of public procurement is finally advocated.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133653761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Agile Project Management in University-Industry Collaboration Projects","authors":"M. Säisä, Katariina Tiura, R. Matikainen","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019040102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019040102","url":null,"abstract":"Both disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge is needed in order for a student to succeed as a professional after graduation. Interdisciplinary knowledge, such as project management skills are important in working life regardless the competence area. In order for a student to gain competences relevant for working life, both traditional and agile project management frameworks should be a part of their studies – in theory and in practice. In this article, a case study is presented on the integration of an agile project management framework into university-industry collaboration projects. First, the methodologies used in theFIRMA are introduced. Thereafter, the activities and the roles of theFIRMA are described and an externally funded R&D project is presented. Finally, the experiences of past and current activities are discussed, and future development thoughts are presented.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130797621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Coverage Criteria for State-Based Testing: A Systematic Review","authors":"Sonali Pradhan, M. Ray, S. Patnaik","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019010101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019010101","url":null,"abstract":"State-based testing (SBT) is known as deriving test cases from state machines and examining the dynamic behaviour of the system. It helps to identify various types of state-based faults within a system under test (SUT). For SBT, test cases are generated from state chart diagrams based on various coverage criteria such as All Transition, Round Trip Path, All Transition Pair, All Transition Pair with length 2, All Transition Pair with length 3, All Transition Pair of length 4 and Full Predicate. This article discuses a number of coverage criteria at the design level to find out various types of state-based faults in SBT. First, the intermediate graph is generated from a state chart diagram using an XML parser. The graph is traversed based on the given coverage criteria to generate a sequence of test cases. Then, mutation testing and sneak-path testing are applied on the generated test cases to check the effectiveness of the generated test suite. These two are common methods for checking the effectiveness of test cases. Mutation testing helps in the number of seeded errors covered whereas sneak-path testing basically helps to examine the unspecified behavior of the system. In round trip path (RTP), it is not possible to cover all paths. All transition is not an adequate level of fault detection with more execution time compared to all transition pair (ATP) with length 4 (LN4). In the discussion, ATP with LN4 is the best among all coverage criteria. SBT can able to detect various state-based faults-incorrect transition, missing transition, missing or incorrect event, missing or incorrect action, extra missing or corrupt state, which are difficult to detect in code-based testing. Most of these state-based faults can be avoided, if the testing is conducted at the early phase of design.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132041763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Complexity Framework for the Project Management Curriculum","authors":"Simon Cleveland, Cristelia Hinojosa","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019010103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019010103","url":null,"abstract":"Universities' core project management courses address the key principles and best practices of project management methodologies, while elective courses are utilized to introduce alternative project frameworks. The concept of project complexity can be taught to strengthen competency in project managers and enhance the success of the projects they manage. Previous instruction methods were evaluated to determine the key concepts that pertain to project complexity. This article proposes a preliminary framework for the development of an elective course on project complexity.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128530494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sameer Bathallath, Åsa B. Smedberg, Harald Kjellin
{"title":"The Viable System Model for Diagnosing and Handling IT-Project Interdependencies in Large Portfolios","authors":"Sameer Bathallath, Åsa B. Smedberg, Harald Kjellin","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019010105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019010105","url":null,"abstract":"Adequately considering project interdependencies has shown to be a determinant of how successful IT/IS project portfolios are managed. However, this can be especially troublesome since there is no universal way to handle many project interdependencies that continue to change over time due to environmental uncertainty or unexpected decisions. This can seriously disrupt portfolio performance. In this article, the authors used the systems perspective to address the problem of managing multiple IT-project interdependencies in complex IT/IS portfolio environment. In particular, the authors propose using the cybernetic model Viable System Model to facilitate thinking and reasoning concerning the difficulty of managing IT-project interdependencies. To validate their approach and to ensure the appropriateness of it, the authors used real-world problem situations drawn from multiple case studies conducted in four leading organizations in Saudi Arabia. The findings support that the Viable System Model can be applied to assist in diagnosing and handling of IT-project interdependencies.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132104894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Multi-Agent Optimization Method for Preemptive Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling","authors":"Y. Shou, Wenjin Hu, Changtao Lai, Y. Ying","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2019010102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2019010102","url":null,"abstract":"A multi-agent optimization method is proposed to solve the preemptive resource-constrained project scheduling problem in which activities are allowed to be preempted no more than once. The proposed method involves a multi-agent system, a negotiation process, and two types of agents (activity agents and schedule agent). The activity agents and the schedule agent negotiate with each other to allocate resources and optimize the project schedule. Computational experiments were conducted using the standard project scheduling problem sets. Compared with prior studies, results of the proposed method are competitive in terms of project makespan. The method can be extended to other preemptive resource-constrained project scheduling problems.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"83 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114601326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
F. Uzoka, Kalen Keavey, Janet Miller, Namrata Khemka, Randy W. Connolly
{"title":"Critical IT Project Management Competencies: Aligning Instructional Outcomes with Industry Expectations","authors":"F. Uzoka, Kalen Keavey, Janet Miller, Namrata Khemka, Randy W. Connolly","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2018100101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2018100101","url":null,"abstract":"Academic computing curricula generally focus on teaching the specific technological skills expected of new graduates in their disciplines. Yet when it comes to hiring these graduates, behavioral skills (also called soft skills) such as communication and personal integrity are almost always rated as being more important than the technological skills. This mixed-method research project adds to the understanding of skill expectations required for new hires by providing information from a global sample of project management professionals. Both the quantitative and qualitative results are in accord with the vast majority of the extant literature in that behavioral skills were seen as more critical than technical skills. Implications and recommendations for educators, curriculum developers, and prospective graduates are discussed.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124890229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
V. Otra-Aho, C. Arndt, Jukka-Pekka Bergman, J. Hallikas, Jouko Kaaja
{"title":"Impact of the PMOs' Roles on Project Performance","authors":"V. Otra-Aho, C. Arndt, Jukka-Pekka Bergman, J. Hallikas, Jouko Kaaja","doi":"10.4018/IJITPM.2018100103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJITPM.2018100103","url":null,"abstract":"Organizations increasingly often set up project management offices (PMOs) in order to overcome the challenges of increased complexity and importance of projects, and thereby create value, but evidence for value creation, such as improved project performance, has remained scarce. This paper uses a sample of Finnish firms in order to evaluate the impact of PMO roles and processes on project performance. Using factor analysis and regressions, the authors show that the PMO's coordinator and trainer processes have a positive association with project performance. However, a PMO in the role of a strategy manager has a negative impact on project performance.","PeriodicalId":375999,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Inf. Technol. Proj. Manag.","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128530455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}