Este é um estudo sobre o conhecimento da importância que o gerenciamento dos projetos tem no desempenho dos projetos que procuram aumentar a eficiência nos processos das empresas. Trata-se de um tema que se converteu em um desafio para as empresas e os profissionais que trabalham nesse campo, já que não existem muitas pesquisas sobre a relação entre os projetos de eficiência e as ferramentas de gestão de projetos. O presente trabalho tem esse foco e foi orientado pelo seguinte problema: qual é a contribuição percebida das ferramentas da gerência de projetos para o desempenho dos projetos de eficiência dos processos? Para responder à pergunta, foi analisados os projetos que procuram melhorias nos processos nas empresas. Além disso, estudou-se as ferramentas do Project Management Institute (PMI). Por último, se avaliou a contribuição percebida das ferramentas do PMI para o desempenho dos projetos que procuram melhorar a performance dos processos nas empresas. A pesquisa é de natureza descritiva e exploratória com uma abordagem quantitativa. O desenvolvimento do estudo envolveu pesquisa bibliográfica e questionário. O questionário foi aplicado a professionais com experiência no desenvolvimento de projetos de melhoria de processos e em gestão de projetos nos países do Brasil e da Colômbia. Os resultados indicaram que as ferramentas de gestão de projetos contribuem para o desempenho dos projetos Lean, Kaizen, Seis Sigmas e Reengenharia, mas nem todas as ferramentas contribuem para cada um destes projetos. Também identificou-se que a contribuição das ferramentas de gestão de projetos pode variar entre moderadamente significativa ou extremamente significativa. Além disso, percebeu-se que o uso e a percepção da contribuição das ferramentas de gestão de projetos usadas neste tipo de projetos varia de um país para outro, neste caso o Brasil e a Colômbia. Com este estudo, espera-se contribuir com conhecimento no campo da administração de projetos e de produção para estudos futuros. / This is a study about what the knowledge of the importance of project management has on the performance of projects that seeks to increase efficiency in the processes of companies. This subject has become a challenge for companies and professionals who work in this field, because there is not much research about the relationship between the efficiency of projects and project management tools. This study has that focus and was guided by the following problem: what is the contribution of the perceived project management tools for the performance of process efficiency projects? To answer this question, the projects seeking process improvements in companies were analyzed. Furthermore, we studied the Project Management Institute (PMI) tools. Finally, this study assessed the perceived contribution of the PMI tools for the performance of projects that seek to improve the performance of processes in companies. The research is descriptive and exploratory with a quantitative approach. The development of the study involved literature review and a survey. The questionnaire was applied to professionals with experience in the development of process improvement projects and project management in Brazil and Colombia. The results indicated that the project management tools contribute to the performance of projects Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma and Reengineering, but not all tools contribute to each of these projects. It was also found that the contribution of project management tools can range from moderately significant or extremely significant. Moreover, it was noticed that the use and perception of the contribution of the project management tools used in these types of projects could be different from one country to another, in this case Brazil and Colombia. With this study, a contribution is expected to be made to the field of project management and production for future studies.

M.Phil. / Procurement, design and construction of an engineering or building project is a process that involves the broadest range of engineering and construction skills. There are risks throughout that can lead to a strategy that cannot succeed in terms of time, cost effectiveness, quality and profitability. There are also various contracting approaches employed in both building and engineering construction projects. Each has its own advantages, disadvantages, degree of flexibility, incentives and allocation of risks. A risk profile leads to important aspects considered in selecting a suitable contracting strategy for a construction project. The risk considered includes among others the design and functionality, variations, errors and/or omissions, budget overruns, price fluctuations, project timing, change in quantities, design and construction defects, etc (Morton and Jagger, 1995). In South Africa's tradition, the responsibilities of design and construction of projects have been separated, where the contractors undertake to provide the works in accordance with employer's and/or employer's agent's design and specifications. Disadvantages of this strategy include among others the fact that the design and specifications may not suit the construction process in terms of time cost savings. More than often this approach results in an adversarial relationship between the professional team and the contractor, and between professional team members. Globally, especially in developed countries, projects were executed using design and build strategy (Construction world, April 2006). This is an arrangement whereby the contractor assumes the responsibility of producing the design and the works. Recently the construction industry has been experiencing an unprecedented high level of economic growth both locally and in the global arena. In an attempt by construction stakeholders to redefine the approach to contracting to facilitate delivery, partnering evolved to bring all parties together to form common goals, to integrate design and construction into a collaborative working by involving contractors at an earlier stage, to set up mechanisms to resolve disputes and to share the risk and rewards of projects (Gould and Joyce, 2003).

In the present world, the companies on using the open source projects have been tend to increase in the innovation and productivity which is beneficial in sustaining the competence. These involve various developers across the globe who may be contributing to several other projects, they constantly engage with the project to improve and uplift the overall project. In each open source project, the level of intensity and the motivation with which the developers engage and contribute vary among time. Initially the research is aimed to identify how the engagement and activity of the developers in open source projects vary over time. Secondly to assess the reasons over the variance in engagement activities of the developers involved in various open source projects. Firstly, a literature review was conducted to identify the list of available metrics that are helpful to analyse the developer’s engagement in open source projects. Secondly, we conducted a multi-case study, that involved the investigation of developer’s engagement in 10 different open source projects of Apache foundation. The GitHub repositories were mined to gather the data regarding the engagement activities of the developers over the selected projects. To identify the reasons for the variation in engagement and activity of developers, we analysed documentation about each project and also interviewed 10 developers and 5 instructors, who provided additional insights about the challenges faced to contribute in open source projects. The results of this research contain the list of factors that affect the developer’s engagement with open source projects which are extracted from the case studies and are strengthened through interviews. From the data that is collected by performing repository mining, the selected projects have been categorized with the increase, decrease activeness of developers among the selected projects. By utilizing the archival data that is collected from the selected projects, the factors corporate support, community involvement, distribution of issues and contributions to open source projects and specificity of guidelines have been identified as the crucial and key factors upon the success of the open source projects reflecting the engagement of contributors. In addition to this finding the insights on using open source projects are also collected from both perspectives of developers and instructors are presented.  This research had provided us a deeper insight on the working of open source projects and driving factors that influence engagement and activeness of the contributors. It has been evident from this research that the stated factors corporate support, community involvement, distribution of issues and contributions to open source projects and specificity of guidelines impacts the engagement and activeness of the developers. So, the open source projects minimally satisfying these projects can tend to see the increase of the engagement and activeness levels of the contributors. It also helps to seek the existing challenges and benefits upon contributing to open source projects from different perspectives.

The purpose of this study was to document and assess the consequences of implementing employee involvement in a manufacturing setting. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study utilized information from various sources of data including archives, interview, and questionnaire data for a three to four year period. Time series comparisons were used. The results indicated that production increased initially, but then dropped back to original level. Quality of products increased and continued to improve gradually. The highest rate of improvement was observed in safety. An attempt was made to measure current level of commitment at the plant but was unsuccessful due to a low return rate of questionnaires. Overall, data collected partially support the hypotheses. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

The aim of the study was to investigate the role played by urban agriculture (UA) in alleviating poverty in poor and low income households of Harare. It further examined the factors that confront the practice. The study was conducted after a realisation that despite not receiving much support from city by- laws, poor and low income households of Harare continue to engage in agricultural activities yearly. The desk research method was used to acquire information from a vast of secondary data sources. The secondary sources which were qualitative in nature provided the research with broad literature on urban agriculture and poverty in Harare, Zimbabwe and the world at large. However, a case study research design was employed whereby an in-depth analysis of the topic focused on poor and low income farmers of Harare Province. Literature reviewed and analysed was organised into themes and categories that portrayed urban agriculture as a crucial tool for alleviating poverty. It was also viewed as a tool that can be used as a sustainable livelihood. Despite other factors affecting the performance of urban farmers, lack of clear policies and city by- laws that guide agriculture in the study area proved to be a huge hindrance. Therefore, to achieve sustainable livelihoods and reduce poverty, the research suggested that instead of different pieces of city by- laws governing the practice in Harare and Zimbabwe there is need for one clear urban agriculture policy. It was concluded that the government and city authorities remain the key to unlocking UA‟s full potential by providing formal support to the practice by organising formulation of an inclusive urban agriculture policy that will be understood by every citizen.

The ability to work effectively in teams has been a key competence for information systems engineers for a long time. Gradually, more attention is being paid to developing this generic competence as part of academic curricula, resulting in two questions: how to best promote team competencies and how to implement team projects successfully. These questions are closely interwoven and need to be looked at together. To address these questions, this paper identifies relevant studies and approaches, best practices, and key findings in the field of information systems education and related fields such as computer science and business, and examines them together to develop a systematic framework. The framework is intended to categorize existing research on teams and team competencies in information systems education and to guide information systems educators in supporting teamwork and promoting team competencies in students at the course and curricular level in the context of teaching in tertiary education.

Small scale farmers represent 80% of all farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and contribute up to 90% of agriculture production. Small scale farming is not without its problems and sub-Saharan Africa has one of the lowest agriculture productivities in the world - this despite ample land and water availability. These problems include inter alia, the fundamental lack of economies of scale and access to market, high transaction costs, and limited access to finance. This is in a global environment, where contract farming is becoming very dominant in agriculture: In 2010, 41% of the North American agriculture output was sold on contract, compared to 11% in the ‘60’s. The research objective was to evaluate contract farming as a vertical integration mechanism for small scale farmers to take advantage of this growing long term trend. To this end, a hypothesis was proposed that contract farming is a practical model that increases farm income for the small scale farmer. In support of this hypothesis, five propositions were tested, viz: does contract farming provide market linkage, reduce transaction costs, increase rural development, raise production output, and can it be applied across different crops. The research followed a deductive approach and a qualitative data collection method. The propositions were tested using empirical evidence obtained from semi-structured interviews with companies involved in contract farming. The hypothesis was confirmed by the evidence presented. The individual propositions: market linkage, transaction costs, rural development and different crops were all supported. However the evidence presented that contract farming raises output was inconclusive. These findings are however, subject to solving a number of issues - such as land transfer, mitigating the effect of low economies of scale, controlling side selling, and having a dispensation that increases profits over the long term. Further to the findings, a model framework is proposed to structure a contract farming system. With 60% of the sub-Saharan population involved in agriculture, the ability to increase farm side income presents an enormous opportunity to contribute to rural economic prosperity. This is not only for the benefit of farmer, but also for his community, via the multiplier effect. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Many construction projects in the United States are facing the risk of cost overrun and schedule delays. This is also happening here in the State of Louisiana. When these things happen, it causes cost overrun which can then be passed on to the tax payers and may also cause the state to take on less projects than they normal. Many researchers have studied the reasons behind both the cost overrun and the delays resulting in private firms, developing project management tools and best practices to prevent this risk. In this research, I aim to study the historical trend in 2912 publically funded projects in the State of Louisiana. The study will reveal the overall state level of accuracy of forecasting cost and schedule. A forecasting formula based on those historical projects will be developed to assist estimators at the Parish level in predicting cost and schedule performance. The State of Louisiana has so many projects that deal with the transportation system (roadway, bridges, drainage, traffic sign, traffic signal, lighting etc...) My Dissertation will be a study and analysis of time and cost of the projects in LADOTD, whether the projects finish on time, before time or after time as well as the cost of the project that has been completed overrun or underrun or the exact amount that the bid amount was. With this study and analysis, my intention is to create time schedule and cost to be used to on reaching accuracy on finishing the project on time and the exact bid amount of the project (exclude whether condition, extra work, and some unexpected problems that may arise during the length of the project).

M.Tech. (Information Technology) / Increasingly, more now than before, the corporate world has been paying more attention to the prominent topic of “governance”. The absence of governance in an organisation or ineffective governance has become synonymous with all that is wrong. It is regarded to be the root cause of all evils – not only in the corporate environment, but also in society. Following corporate scandals of recent years that have exposed corporate malpractices and mismanagement, corporate governance is increasingly being recognised worldwide as a best practice and an effective mechanism that not only promotes corporate efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability, but is also a tool for combating corporate corruption. The audit function is considered one of the main supporting pillars of corporate governance, as it plays an important role in helping management attain its business goals and strategic objectives. This is realised through a systematic and disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of the organisation’s system of internal control, risk management and governance processes. The failure of the audit function is said to have been one of the critical contributors to recent global corporate scandals. Robust auditing is believed to be the cornerstone of modern corporate governance. The use of auditing in project management processes increases the probability of project success. Using corporate governance as a best practice and audit as one of its sub-sets, this research study deals with the topical issue of failures in Information Technology (IT) projects. The study strives to address this problem by adopting a holistic approach to IT project management auditing that includes corporate governance principles over and above the traditional principles and processes for auditing IT projects. Over the past 15 to 20 years, the rate of failure of IT projects has changed little in continual surveys, showing that more than half of all IT projects overrun their schedules and budgets. This situation has continued in spite of new technologies, innovative methods, tools and different management methods. Although most organisations heavily rely on IT-enabled projects for competitive advantage, it is estimated that worldwide over $6.2 trillion is being wasted annually on IT project failures. One of the reasons for this situation has allegedly been the failure of project governance. Thus, the importance and added value of this research study lies in adopting a holistic approach to IT project management auditing. The study involves corporations and not government agencies or other institutions. The study adopts a qualitative research approach and uses semi-structured face-to-face interviews as the primary method for data collection. It is intended that this study fills a gap in the research literature on the topic.

At present, many national and local governmental programmes initiated to promote greater economic growth as well as alleviating poverty and unemployment include, among others, Local Economic Development (LED) poverty alleviation projects. LED poverty alleviation projects which are the focus of this study typically concentrate on empowering vulnerable groups, especially women and the disabled to improve their livelihoods by providing them with rural infrastructure, employment opportunities as well as training. It is evident that the need to address poverty and inequality has been firmly placed at the centre of the nation’s agenda. Several poverty audits have been undertaken, and a range of policy documents and strategies have been developed to address this crucial issue. The LED strategy is a locally driven process by which public, business and the non-governmental sector partners work collectively to create better conditions for economic growth and employment generation in order to sustain livelihood and to improve future economic prospects. This study explored the concept of poverty as understood globally and investigated the perspectives and poverty alleviation approaches in developing countries and in South Africa against the background of certain developing countries’ trends, especially LED. The study also determined the meaning of the concept of LED within the South African context and investigated the historical legislative milieu of LED, the key role players and strategies as well as an investigation on how this relates to the implementation strategy of LED implementation projects in the Thulamela Municipality. This study also assessed whether LED initiatives, and in particular, LED projects are successful toward alleviating poverty in the Thulamela Municipality in the Limpopo province. Specific critical issues addressed in this study include the determination of the socio-economic development benefits derived by the projects’ participants in the Thulamela Municipality towards unemployment and poverty alleviation as well as the sustainability of the projects. / Prof. C. J. Auriacombe