Identifying the critical success factors for relationship management in PPP projects

The longer the contract period, the higher the chance that major changes will arise. Thus a greater reliance on the established relationships is needed to maintain the contractual bond in PPP project. Relationship management (RM) can therefore be expected to be even more valuable in the PPP context. This paper aims to investigate current perceptions and experiences of RM in PPP projects and more importantly, to identify the CSFs for RM in PPP projects. By means of an empirical questionnaire survey geared towards PPP practitioners with direct hands-on experience, the opinions were solicited, analyzed and compared in relation to potential PPP RM success factors. The survey findings indicate that industry practitioners currently lack a general understanding of concepts and applications of RM, given that it is relatively new in PPP. However, they do think that RM is very important to improve the present performance of PPPs. Future PPP business opportunities can also be increased by effective RM. The top four CSFs for RM are found to be commitment of senior executives, defining the objectives, integration of the different divisions and a multidisciplinary team. However, the relative importance presently assigned for each of the above factors is insufficient, and commitment from senior management is perceived as the most difficult factor to improve.     

Project planning practices based on enterprise resource planning systems in small and medium enterprises — A case study from the Republic of Macedonia

This paper examines whether Macedonian SMEs plan for the implementation of ERP projects and studies the effect of project planning practices on project success. Four project planning measures were taken into consideration: business case development, scope planning, baseline plan development and risk planning along with three measures of project success; customer satisfaction, perceived quality of the project and success of the implementation process. The study was based on a survey that was conducted on 30 SMEs in the Republic of Macedonia. Data dimensionality was reduced through factor analysis and relationships between the two sets of variables were analyzed by correlation and regression analyses. The findings demonstrated that Macedonian SMEs implemented general project planning practices, even though they did not consider the planning process as a separate phase of the ERP implementation. However, they did not use any particular project planning tools, such as the Gantt chart or WBS. Of the project planning practices that were surveyed, the most practiced were the development of a business case, project scope and baseline plan. The least practiced were risk planning practices. Considering the success of the ERP implementations, this study demonstrated that most of the companies' representatives perceive this undertaking as successful in terms of client satisfaction and perceived quality measures. A higher percentage of respondents found their ERP implementations unsuccessful in terms of implementation process measures, when compared to the previous two success parameters.     

Adaptive programme management through a balanced performance/strategy oriented focus

This paper explores how programme management (as opposed to project management) can contribute to the effective design and delivery of megaprojects. Traditionally, project management is considered to be performance focused and task oriented, whilst programme management entails a more strategic focus. The programme management literature suggests that this can result in tensions between the management of the projects and the programme as a whole. This paper uses the findings of the €2.4 billion Room for the River flood protection programme in the Netherlands as a case study, because indicators about its budget, time, quality and stakeholder satisfaction suggest high programme management performance upon completion of the planning and design stage of its 39 river widening projects. Based on a literature review, document analysis and 55 face-to-face interviews, we have analysed how the programme management of the programme contributed to this result. Six attributes for effective programme management that are identified from the project and programme management literature are used to structure the research data. Consecutively, the interactions between project and programme management are analysed. The analysis of Room for the River reveals a combined strategic/performance focus at the level of both programme and project management that enables a collaborative approach between programme and project management. This particularly enables effective stakeholder collaboration, coordination and adaptation of the programme to contextual changes, newly acquired insights and the changing needs of consecutive planning stages, which positively contributes to the performance of the programme as a whole.     

Rating defence major project success: The role of personal attributes and stakeholder relationships

In this paper we develop and test a model of the associations between major project managers' personal attributes and project success in the context of the Australian Defence industry. In our model, emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility and systemic thinking were hypothesised to relate to project success, mediated by internal and external stakeholder relationships. The model was tested in an online survey with 373 major project managers. Emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility were found to be related to the development, quality and effectiveness of major project managers' relationships with both internal and external stakeholders; and these in turn were associated with their ratings of project success. Systemic thinking, however, had no relationship with either stakeholder relationships or project success. Additional research is needed to examine the contribution of a wider range of personal attributes to stakeholder relationships and project success, and to assess whether this model is applicable in other industries and types of projects.     

The relationship between success criteria and success factors in organisational event projects

Project success is a widely studied and discussed phenomenon of project management. Whilst certain success criteria and success factors are common across different project types, there are unique criteria and factors that apply only to specific projects. This paper presents the development and investigation of the attributes of the success criteria and factors of organisational event projects, as well as an analysis of the relationship between the criteria and factor areas. The study is based on a questionnaire survey of world and European championships. The findings of the study are of interest because they distinguish the success factors that represent relationship orientation and task focus. An analysis of the correlations suggests that relationship-oriented success factors, such as communication, co-operation and project leadership, play a crucial role in carrying out successful organisational event projects.     

Future criteria for success of building projects in Malaysia

Several success criteria (SC) and categorization models have been introduced and studied in the previous decades to address the issue of project success. However, most of these models have failed to align success criteria with company's success in the long-term. This paper aims at proposing a framework to categorize project success for building projects in Malaysia from the contractors' perspective. The proposed framework incorporates criteria that align the project efforts with both short and long-term goals of the companies; moreover provide an appropriate judgment of success at all stages of the project. If construction managers can judge the probability of success, they would be able to evaluate the overall relative strength of each project, and identify problems on current projects to direct them toward success.Based on the available literature, thirteen success criteria were found to be significantly and substantially related to building projects success. To develop the SC categorization framework, 151 participants, who are involved in building construction, were invited through a postal and e-mails survey to generate priorities of these criteria. The results of this study indicated that a categorization scheme for success criteria for building projects should include the categories of project management success, product success, along with market success. The findings of this study can further help future researchers seeking solutions in the challenges relating to improvement of building projects implementation and enhancement of project success.     

The role of perceived barriers and relational support in the educational and vocational lives of urban high school students.

Drawing on developmental contextual theory, the authors examined the relationship of perceived barriers and support with school engagement and vocational attitudes among 9th-grade urban high school students in 2 studies. Study 1 (N=174) showed that both perceived barriers and perceived support from family kin were associated with youths' commitment to school and aspirations for success in their future careers. Study 2 (N=181) replicated and extended Study 1, demonstrating that perceived barriers, general perceptions of support, and kinship support were associated with behavioral and attitudinal indexes of school engagement, as well as with aspirations for career success, expectations for attaining career goals, and the importance of work in one's future. The findings contribute to efforts to identify individual and contextual factors relevant to the educational and vocational lives of urban minority youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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传统的油气勘探项目经济评价方法基本都是单一的分析：或表征勘探项目所取得的投资收益，或衡量项目所承担的地质风险。为统一评价勘探项目的经济可行性和地质风险性，探索性地提出了一种新的经济评价指标——风险收益率，把地质指标（勘探成功概率）与经济指标（净现金流量）进行有效结合，作为勘探项目投资决策的准绳和依据。在介绍风险收益率概念和公式的基础上，指出了风险收益率和内部收益率的区别与联系，并以J油田的实际资料为例，演示了风险收益率的计算推导过程。分析了风险收益率的应用范围和特点：可一步比选勘探项目方案并作出决策，可以推测风险金（勘探投资）的边界值等。从而得出结论：引入勘探成功概率的风险收益率指标完全可以有效地应用于勘探项目的经济评价中；最后指出风险收益率在应用中的注意事项。     

Self-awareness, probability of improvement, and the self-serving bias.

Evidence for the self-serving bias (attributing success internally and failure externally) is inconsistent. Although internal success attributions are consistently found, researchers find both internal and external attributions for failure. The authors explain these disparate effects by considering the intersection of 2 systems, a system comparing self against standards and a causal attribution system. It was predicted that success and failure attributions are moderated by self-awareness and by the ability to improve. When self-focus is high (a) success is attributed internally, (b) failure is attributed internally when people can improve, (c) failure is attributed externally when people cannot improve, and (d) these attributions affect state self-esteem. Implications for the self-serving bias are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

CDMA现网接入失败测试分析及优化

本文通过对CDMA现网实际测试所采集的详细数据进行分析,着重介绍了CDMA网络接通率方面所涉及的案例,从而对分析CDMA网络运行中出现的接入失败问题起到一定的指导作用。