Success conditions for international development capacity building projects

Current research on success factors fails to adequately explain why development projects will achieve success in one setting yet not in others, thus making improvements to project management practice difficult. By examining the underlying conditions enabling project success, we provide additional context and practical meaning for success factors. Through a case-study and a qualitative analysis of twenty interviews with project practitioners, we look into four capacity building projects in Ghana, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam and draw out structural, institutional, and managerial success conditions, whether they are initial or emergent. We further propose a hypothesis that high levels of multi-stakeholder commitment, collaboration, alignment, and adaptation are necessary for projects to succeed. Thus, we put the ability of projects to deliver development into context and call on practitioners to harness their ability to trigger development through a better understanding of enabling success conditions or the right circumstances under which projects thrive.     

Learning from international development projects: Blending Critical Project Studies and Critical Development Studies

This article aims at making international development (ID) projects critical. To that end, it shows that project management (PM) in ID has evolved as an offshoot of conventional PM moving like the latter, but at varying speeds, from a traditional approach suited to blueprint projects where tools matter (1960s–1980s); towards eclectic and contingent approaches suited to process projects where people matter the most (1980s–now); and finally pointing towards the potential contribution of a critical perspective which focuses on issues of power (1980s–now). Consequently, it points to a confluence between the Critical Project Studies movement and Critical Development Studies movements. More specifically, it argues that the postdevelopment, the Habermasian, the Foucauldian and the neo-Marxist lenses may be effectively called upon in that scholarship. Thus, it suggests a framework to encourage project actors to reflect on their personal positions in light of the power relations which shape PM in ID.     

浅谈施工企业加强工程造价管理的重要性及对策措施

本文分析了建筑安装施工企业工程造价管理的主要问题,并就加强施工企业工程造价管理水平重要性进行了阐述和探讨以及对策措施.     

Predicting final cost for competitively bid construction projects using regression models

This paper studies the relationship between the low bid and completed cost for competitively bid highway projects. Data are analyzed from several agencies managing highway and dredging projects. A natural log transformation of the low bid and final cost was found to produce regression models for each agency that had high R and R² values. These models can predict completed project cost using only the project low bid as input. A separate regression model was determined for each agency. Based on the form of the calculated models it appears that highway agencies construct projects where the final cost increases as an increasing percentage of the low bid price as the project magnitude increases. The dredging projects appear to follow different mechanisms of cost increase than the highway projects and were not predicted as well by the regression models. The regression models can also be used for budgeting purposes by submitting the sum of the low bids for a group of projects as input. The regression models output a prediction of the cost of the group of projects that was found to be highly accurate.     

钢铁企业建设项目工程造价的控制

工程造价控制是一项系统工程,贯穿于项目建设的全过程。本文针对钢铁企业建设单位在工程建设中存在工程造价失控的一些原因,提出了一些有效的控制方法,减少或避免建设资金的浪费,最大限度地提高投资效益。     

The impact of project capabilities on project performance: Case of open source software projects

Open Source Software (OSS) projects are contingent on volunteer developers and voluntary contributions from users, accordingly, traditional performance measures used for software projects, like being on time and budget, and satisfying specifications, may not be relevant for such projects. Although researchers have studied some predictors of OSS project performance, there is a lack of empirical work that studies the impact of project capabilities on the performance of OSS projects. Therefore, this paper studies project capabilities as potential predictors of OSS project performance. The data, gathered from 607 OSS projects over time (in two snap-shots), were consistent with Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT). In other words, the results showed that in order to achieve higher project performance, OSS projects need to have strong capabilities in terms of proactive and efficient defect-removal as well as proactive and efficient functionality-enhancement. The implications of these results for the OSS research community are discussed, followed by recommendations for OSS practitioners.     

业主方造价工程师对工程造价的管理探析

工程造价控制是建设工程项目管理中的三大控制(质量、造价、工期)之一,在建设项目保证质量、满足进度要求的前提下,必须合理控制工程造价。造价工程师作为业主方项目管理组织中的核心成员,运用造价管理的相关知识,在招投标、施工、竣工结算3个阶段对建设工程造价进行合理控制,能够对工程投资控制起到非常有效的作用。     

议建筑施工中的进度控制和质量控制

探讨了质量控制和进度控制的相互作用与关系,分析了进度控制和质量控制的要素和任务,并进一步总结了进度控制要素与质量控制要素在施工各阶段的作用,为工程项目管理工作提供参考。     

建设工程服务与发展

简单概括了建筑工程的特点,针对建筑工程服务与发展这一课题提出了观点和建议,并分析了影响建筑工程服务与发展的因素,总结了做好服务与发展的同时必须坚持的原则,为建筑工程施工管理者积累了经验。     

Coordinating temporary organizations in international development through social and temporal embeddedness

Programs of international development utilize groups of individuals, or temporary organizations, to provide specialist knowledge inputs at key stages in an aid program. Despite their significant role nothing is known about the coordination of the activities of these groups. Using four case studies of temporary organizations created to provide inputs to aid programs in the WATSAN sector, this study inductively derives a 4-stage, 10-step process model of coordination of activities in this context. It is argued that the model of coordination is based on mechanisms of temporal and social embeddedness, such that there is a shared understanding amongst members of the required sequence of activities.     

The impact of uncertainty and ambiguity related to iteration and overlapping on schedule of product development projects

Overlapping and iteration stemming from concurrent engineering are fundamental features of product development (PD) projects. They may not only reduce project duration but also create process uncertainty and ambiguity. We propose that the iteration and overlapping are the main causes of uncertainty and ambiguity in the PD process. Based on discrete-event simulation modeling and analysis with Arena software, our empirical research provides a quantitative method to reveal how uncertainty related to iteration and ambiguity related to overlapping impact on project schedule. In the simulation model, we use four variables to characterize uncertainty: iteration probability, iteration length, number of iterations and activity's learning curve effect. And different sequential and overlapped process structures are used to describe the variable of ambiguity in the model. Propositions regarding the reduction of uncertainty and ambiguity by controlling iteration and overlapping are derived. Simulation experiment results yield and reinforce several managerial insights, including: the relationship between uncertainty or ambiguity reduction and the complexity of iteration or levels of overlapping; and how to control project schedule and hedge the risk resulting from overlapping and iteration.     

Implementation of project strategy to improve new product development performance

Poor project strategy is one of the major causes of project failure. However, many projects do not adequately develop strategy leading to a poor basis in subsequent phases. Thus, implementation of project strategy is critical to the success of any project. The primary purpose of this study was to validate a model for assessing the relationships among implementation of project strategy, new product development (NPD) project outcomes, and market performance. The analyses suggest that implementation of differentiation, operational, and quality strategies may improve NPD project outcomes. The research results also imply that improvement in NPD project outcomes may enhance market performance, while it helps accomplish the market share and sales goals.     

杭州市建设工程造价备案管理系统开发与利用

针对杭州市建设工程造价备案管理系统开发的必要性,对该系统进行功能分析,并提出其结构及流程设计方案,最后对其开发与应用过程中急需解决的问题予以阐述。     

大型建设工程的进度延迟分析

采用P3软件对一个大型工程项目进行进度延迟分析,并且定量分析工程进度延迟的责任,提出避免大型建设工程建设项目进度延迟的有效措施,对大型复杂项目进度控制提供借鉴。     

Leadership,regulatory focus and information systems development project team performance

One primary function of a leader is to motivate followers to achieve project goals. Based on regulatory focus theory, actors may strive to the optional situation (promotion focus) or try to avoid not meeting the minimum requirements (prevention focus). This paper focuses on exploring the effect of leadership styles (transformational and transactional) on the collective regulatory focus of project team (promotion and prevention) and investigate the relationship between regulatory focus and project teamwork outcome. Data collected from 154 IS professionals shows that intelligent stimulation, idealized influence, and inspiration components of transformational leadership lead to promotion focus, and exception management and error-focus components of transactional leadership lead to prevention focus. Promotion focus associates with a higher quality system and less delay. The relationship between regulatory focus and project performance is contingent on the level of uncertainty.     

Relating risk to project performance in Indonesian building contracts

A construction project is unique, specific and dynamic, and therefore projects have different levels and combinations of risks, different responses are taken to minimise those risks and different consequences affect project performance. The primary aim of this study was to analyse the impacts of perceived project risk on project performance. A path model was developed and path analysis was used to determine the relationships between risk and performance. The main survey was predominantly based on a series of interviews with project managers. A total of 22 building projects under construction were surveyed; however, only 13 projects used an ‘S’ curve to monitor their project performance. The study focused on these 13 projects and found that perceived project risk had a direct negative effect on monthly progress achievement, while monthly progress had a direct positive impact on schedule performance. Although project risk had no direct effect on schedule performance, this was influenced indirectly with monthly progress as the mediator between them. These findings indicate that the higher the project risk in a project, the greater the negative impact on monthly progress, and consequently the worse the schedule performance will be.     

“扁平化”管理模式在国际工程管理中的实践与探索

目前中国施工企业在国际工程项目管理中普遍采用＂金字塔＂型管理模式,造成资源成本浪费,管理效率低下。在竞争日益激烈的国际承包市场中,如何提高项目的管理水平,以增强竞争力,是中国施工企业普遍面临的一个挑战。文章结合某国际工程案例推行＂扁平化＂管理模式的探索,提出＂扁平化＂管理模式相对于＂金字塔＂型管理模式的优点以及成效。指出在国际工程管理中采用＂扁平化＂管理模式是提升企业竞争力的有效途径之一。     

浅析建筑工程项目中造价控制的措施

针对建设项目管理的造价控制这一核心内容,从项目的决策、设计、施工和审计阶段分析了建筑工程项目造价控制存在的问题,并提出了造价控制的措施,从而保证投资目标的实现,确保人力、物力、财力取得较好的投资效益.     

基于治理的政府投资项目代建制绩效改善研究

政府投资项目在我国经济生活中发挥着重要作用。在政府投资项目行政代理制度下,项目管理绩效不高,导致项目绩效也不佳。国内推行的政府投资项目代建制管理模式就是针对行政代理制度下的弊端展开的一项改革措施。研究围绕国内推行的代建制改革是否有效,如何改善代建制绩效而展开。在项目治理的新范式和研究框架下,探讨了不同时期我国政府投资项目治理模式演变和企业型代建制下的项目所有权配置,建立了相应的代建制治理水平初步评价指标,在此基础上从制度层面对政府投资项目代建方案进行了设计。研究结果表明,我国代建制发展方向为企业型代建,对该代建模式下所形成的治理结构的改善需要通过内部治理和外部治理以及政府监督机制等三个途径实现。     

Project governance mechanisms and the performance of software development projects: Moderating role of requirements risk

Over the years, practitioners and academicians have been perplexed by low efficiency and poor performance in IT projects. Previous studies have uncovered a variety of critical factors, including effective project governance mechanisms that can trigger project performance and curb opportunism. However, an obvious question that emerges is how effective these governance mechanisms are at improving the performance of an IT organization and software development project in the presence of risk factors. Hence, the overarching objective of the current study is the development of a moderation model to investigate the effectiveness of these governance mechanisms in the presence of requirements risk. This paper follows a positivist research philosophy where a quantitative deductive approach has been used to collect the data of 318 respondents from 175 software development firms based in Pakistan. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS 3 have been used to analyze the hypotheses. The results of the study indicate that contractual and relational governances significantly influence project performance and are useful in reducing opportunism. Moreover, there is evidence that the presence of requirements risk tends to negatively moderate the influence of contractual and relational governances on project performance. The findings will help not only Pakistan's software firms, but also those in developing countries that want to improve performance through effective project governance and risk management.