Effective management of engineering productivity is critical to achieving overall project success (CII 2001). Although engineering cost has approached to the level of 20 percent of a project’s total cost on some industrial projects, engineering productivity is not well understood. For these reasons, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) developed an Engineering Productivity Measurement System (EPMS) that consists of quantity-based metrics to directly measure engineering productivity, and drive continuous performance improvement. However, barriers to system implementation exist. Productivity metrics in the EPMS are measured for various disciplines and thus evaluating overall productivity was initially difficult because of the lack of a summary metric. Because the EPMS is still new to the industry, limited understanding of its metrics has presented a challenge to gaining acceptance for its use in benchmarking. This has inhibited the realization of its potential for supporting improvement. Now that a dataset for the EPMS has been compiled, however, analyses can be performed to support research and the resulting findings will help to overcome implementation barriers of the EPMS. The author developed this research with data from the EPMS and input from industry. Feedback was collected in CII training sessions, committee meetings, and industry forums. The researcher undertook quantitative analyses using the EPMS data. The results will assist industry practitioners to effectively monitor and manage engineering process to reach project success. Four main objectives were achieved in this study: 1) discipline and project level indices to summarize engineering productivity were constructed; 2) influence factors as a foundation of engineering productivity improvement were identified; 3) discipline information dependencies were measured quantitatively; and 4) the associations between engineering productivity and project performance were documented. / text

The focal point for this research is a drilling automation small business. Questions regarding survival, growth, innovation, flexibility and professional management related to this technology business are seeded as the root for the research. Topics were selected based on the experience of the author as an attempt to provide answers to such questions. In a broader context, small businesses make an important contribution to the economy and job creation. Low survival rates raise questions about the factors that influence the success or failure of such businesses. Researches have attempted to identify such factors. However, there are limited theoretical models that were generated based on a small business setting. Many factors and their interactions among each other could determine the survival of a small business. However, there are techniques and philosophies that enhance the potential for success. Some of those techniques and philosophies proposed by authors researched are the Lean Startup methodology, analysis of roadblocks and speed bumps on the Product Development Process model, participative management, competencies alignment and outsourcing. Correlations between the small drilling automation business and research are made in order to generate the answers to the questions proposed initially. Ultimately, in regard to the company I work for, generation of intellectual property via outsourcing, deep knowledge of the potential market, financial flexibility obtained from capital and other resources by means of the relationships established helped the company to survive startup and grow. Founding expertise translated into good behavioral focus supported a sustained growth stage and competitiveness. There are applicable models and methodologies that serve to guide to faster innovation where associated risks are managed by having the multiple solutions available. The level of informality tolerated within the firm should be related to the level of performance, so for us there may be benefit to a more formal evaluation of the strategy, uncovering relationships and details not anticipated, that could lead to different decisions. Overcoming capital restraints to earn financial flexibility was particularly beneficial to our initial success. At current size and complexity level, it would be beneficial for our company to evaluate more formal tactical management. / text

Reliable engineering productivity measurement is a critical element of predictable project performance and continuous improvement. Despite the fact that engineering costs have risen to levels approaching 20 percent of total project cost on some industrial projects, engineering productivity is less well understood and has received less study than construction productivity. Furthermore, engineering productivity is a critical determinant of the final cost and schedule performance of a project (Chang et al. 2001). For these reasons, metrics for assessing productivity to drive improvement are essential, especially considering trends toward offshore engineering. Applicable industry standard engineering productivity measurements must first be established and then applied to present day work processes before significant improvement and predictability of performance can be established (CII 2001). Over the years, a number of different approaches for engineering productivity measurement have been proposed. These approaches are discussed and the development of the CII Benchmarking and Metrics approach, a direct measurement approach, is presented for this research. This research: (1) identifies critical issues for the implementation of engineering productivity measurement; (2) develops an Engineering Productivity Measurement System (EPMS) based on real project data; and, finally (3) recommends a framework for future studies. / text

M. Tech. Business Administration / This paper aims to determine the role and influence of emotional intelligence on overall efficiency in engineering project management. It also focuses on establishing whether emotional intelligence, when applied, does enhance project success and how project managers handle their emotions and relationships with stakeholders of projects.

No description available.

Zugl.: Wuppertal, Univ., Diss., 2009

This dissertation discusses risk management in the context of software development. It commences by investigating why so many software development projects fail. It then focuses on approaches to software development that emerged as attempts to improve the success rate. A common shortcoming to these approaches is identified, namely that they only cater for the tasks that need to be done, ignoring possible unexpected problems. After having motivated the need for risk management, the framework for a risk management methodology is discussed, outlining the steps in the risk management process. Decision-making guidelines and best practices follow, as well as a discussion about the way they should be implemented as part of the risk management effort. Guidelines are provided for the implementation of risk management as part of software development. Finally, the risks that may cause the failure of the implementation of risk management are identified and guidelines provided to address them. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Leadership and how it impacts on the performance of human beings remains to wide and to generic to define in a one stop shop. The inability of the research community to have one definition of this well researched topic, complicates the process of identifying those critical factors that lead to effective leadership. Sometimes, incorrectly so, leadership and management are interchangeably used when they do not always mean the same thing. Whilst both can be found in an individual, they are different with leadership relating to personality as compared to management which relates to formal position. Because leadership resides in the person of the individual, it lands itself into different styles as they pertain to the knowledge, understanding, education, culture and experience of the leader. Project management or leadership, is unique because of the unique nature of the project and the environment in which projects are executed. A special type of leadership is presumed to be able to provide effective leadership in the presence of the matrix structure leading to the authority gap, the temporary nature of the project leading to labour instability, and the square root parameters against which the success of the project are measured. The findings clearly indicate that there are certain behavioural patterns necessary to provide effective project execution in the risky and unpredictable project terrain.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Requirements engineering forms an integral part of software engineering. The purpose of requirements engineering is to provide high quality requirements for a system or solution. These requirements are then utilised by developers to produce a high quality system. They also assist project managers to better plan the schedule and costing of information technology projects, resultinq in cost savinqs. The problem is that although formal definitions and processes do exist for requirements engineering, projects are still failing due to the poor quality of requirements, This study investigates this phenomenon, in particular to understand why project teams cannot deliver high quality requirements. This is done against the background of the processes and standards available to organisations. The root cause of the problem is researched to determine whether the processes are the cause or whether other factors are contributing to poor quality requirements. This study makes use of two cases within one organisation to determine what the contributing factors are with regard to poor and good quality requirements. The cases provide information on why one project delivered good quality requirements and another project within same organisation, the same business unit, with the same support structure, delivered poor quality requirements. It is perceived that the case study method was a valid method in this particular research study as it provided the researcher with in-depth knowledge and observations on how organisations deal with the process of requirements engineering. It was found that the quality and clarity of communication or the lack thereof plays a significant role in the quality of requirements. This research provides an alternative view on the factors contributing towards poor quality requirements. This implies that organisations can train or educate requirements engineers in communication skills. The skill of communication allows a requirements engineer to create a trust relationship with customers, and this empowers him/her to elicit good quality requirements from the users.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract