A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 11 August 2015 / This research set out to investigate two relationships; the relationship between technical qualifications and emerging contractor project performance, and the relationship between experience and emerging contractor project performance. The focus was on emerging contractors in the public sector. This study was motivated by the notion that emerging contractors generally fail and have poor project performance. The objective of the report was to determine the general factors that affect emerging contractor performance and demonstrate the relationship between competence and project performance. Information pertaining to progress and performance for thirty projects from a government institution in Mpumalanga Province was collected. This information included contact details of the contractors who conducted the 30 government infrastructure projects. The contact details were used to collect contractors’ curriculum vitaes and company profiles in order to extract information on qualifications and experience. Literature has shown that the most prevalent issues facing emerging contractors in South Africa can be attributed to the contractors’ competencies. These competencies include skills, experience, qualifications and project management knowledge. Other factors that affect emerging contractor performance include project delays caused by late payments by clients, shortage of labour and lack of financial resources and equipment. The results of this study showed that contractors with technical qualifications and experience generally perform better than those with no technical background. It was also found that where there is no technical background, the level of education also affects the level of project performance. This study demonstrated the importance of the number of technical or construction related projects conducted by an emerging contractor company as compared to the number of years that the company has been in operation. The number of projects conducted, regardless of timeline, is more beneficial to project performance than the number of years in operation in the construction industry. This study recommends that focus should be drawn to the definite need to develop emerging contractor competence through skills development, training, collaborations and knowledge sharing. Competence development should focus on transferring technical knowledge and experience through policy formulation, collaboration of government and educational or training institutes. Focus should also be drawn to developing project management competence of emerging contractors in the South African public sector.

The topic of the thesis is use of project management in information and communication technologies with further focus on - Launch of New Product and Evaluation of Investment Effectiveness involving not only specifics of project management, individual phases of life product cycle or introduction of main characteristics of IT project but also a detailed description of common standards which are often used in the area of IT project management. Practical part of the thesis is furthermore aimed at the analysis of activities regarding to development and launch of new product on the market and the evaluation of investment effectiveness from financial side. For the purpose of the analysis it was chosen an investment project from banking area whose target is first of all to find out problems during preparation and realization of this project and prove the importance of financial indicators for decision process whether to realize a particular project or not.

This thesis deals with the subject of project management, primarily from the viewpoint of the development of a tool for project management support using the PRINCE2 methodology and the Unicorn Universe information system. The subject of the theoretical part is the definition of a project and project management and a description and a comparison of the most widely used project management standards, PRINCE2, PMI and IPMA. Subsequently, the emphasis is put on a detailed description of PRINCE2 with regard to its use in the next parts of the work. At the end of the theoretical part of the thesis the chapters are devoted to Unicorn Universe and to Unicorn Enterprise System Powered Company, which is a methodology used for company management. In the practical part, the author followed the recommended 4-phases process of the development of a new methodology set defined by the UESPC methodology; inception, elaboration, construction and transition. By means of the analysis in inception and elaboration stages and creation of A4 and High Level Concept documents, which describe specific ways how to implement various elements of PRINCE2into the Unicorn Universe, and the subsequent production of project management tool prototype, the author worked his way up to the construction stage, in which he designed and created definitions of meta artifacts and scripts for their later implementation in the final phase, called transition. In this phase metaartifacts were set up. They are templates for management and control artifacts and for other items necessary for the production of the methodological set, a final product of the thesis. At the end of thesis, the automation scripts, as proposed in the previous stage to verify the practical use of the thesis product, were assigned for implementation.

The thesis is focused on the role of assurance within project management standards. Firstly, the theoretical role of assurance was established based on the performed research. Three main areas of interest have been identified: Assurance over business, the project itself and the product. The role established in the theoretical part of the work was subsequently compared to information systems development methodologies and project management standards. From the comparison with AUP, Scrum and FDD methodologies, it seems that the better assurance is defined, the longer the feedback cycle is. During the comparison with the three most widespread project management standards - IPMA, PRINCE2 and PMBOK - various areas have been identified where these are not fully compliant with the theoretical role of assurance. Additions to IPMA and PMBOK have been created to support the compliance with the theoretically established role of assurance, fulfilling the objective set for the practical part of the work and providing benefits to IT project management professionals that struggle to deliver quality products while following one of the aforementioned standards.