Nowadays, the nature of the projects has changed to be unique, uncertain, ambiguous,complex and innovative. It becomes hard to plan in advance the project progress, asdeviations from plans and unpredictable changes occur more frequently. This can bespecifically observed in the software development industry which needs to constantlymeet customers’ rapidly changed requirements. Traditionally, software projects aredeveloped through a plan-driven approach which emphasizes an overall project plan andcontrol process in terms of project management. Recently, this has been challenged byagile approach that focuses on flexibility to quickly meet changing requirements, andthese new agile methods provoked huge interest and got more and more popular andwidely applied especially in IT industry. However, the popularity does not mean theagile methods have advantage over traditional plan-based project management methods.In fact, both methods have own advantages and disadvantages and cannot be fullyreplaced by each other. Therefore, it becomes important and necessary for companymanagement to know how to select a suitable method for the new software developmentproject to get the maximum benefits.The purpose of this study is to describe different project management methods(traditional plan-driven and agile methods) and their various consequences for themanagement of software-development projects. Additionally, a more practical purposeis to suggest on what grounds a choice between methods may be made. Morespecifically, this research aims to provide the possible solution on how to selecttraditional plan-driven or agile project management method for managing a newsoftware development project. The research conducted a qualitative study in a casecompany of IT industry through several semi-structured interviews and questionnaireswith experienced and knowledgeable employees. It started with the analysis andcomparison of traditional and agile project management methods’ characteristics andapplication domains based on two specific examples (PROPS and Scrum) selected fromtraditional and agile project management methods respectively, in order to identify a setof preliminary outstanding characteristics which could be used to help IT company tochoose project management methods for new software development projects. Theempirical data obtained from interviews of case company was investigated to verifythese characteristics based on the literature review, and further adjusted thecharacteristics identification. After going through the whole research process, finallyresearchers identified the most suitable characteristics that were important both intheory and practice to examine on what ground a software development company needsto base the selection of project management methods. These suitable characteristics are:Project Complexity, Communication, Competencies and Requirements, in order to helpselect the best management way for the specific project.

The estimation of software project attributes, such as size, is important for software project resource planning and process control. However, research regarding software attribute modeling, such as size, effort, and cost, are high-level and static in nature. This research defines a new operation-level software project attribute that describes the operational characteristic of a software project. The result is a measurement based on the s-curve parameter that can be used as a control variable for software project management. This result is derived from modeling the count of artifact instances created by the software engineering process, which are stored by software tools. Because of the orthogonal origin of this attribute in regard to traditional static estimators, this s-curve based software attribute can function as an additional indicator of software project activities and also as a quantitative metric for assessing development team capability.

As business environment is getting globalized,. how to rapidly integrate information for improving the competitiveness of enterprise becomes a key issue. Therefore, adopting the information system outsourcing to increase the ability of an organization becomes one of the management trends. To obtain a suitable information system is always a critical challenge for most of the companies. Many researches of information system outsourcing showed a lot of un-satisfactions from the user side. Some of the projects are not only un-satisfied but even failed. Did improper expectations exist between the both sides? It is very important to find a trustful, experienced and professional partner for developing the system. Improper expectations and biases can be reduced so as to reduce the risk and avoid the un-necessary delay or conflicts. There were many researches and discussions about the critical success factors of outsourcing ,the relationship between the two sides and outsourcing satisfaction. However, very few researches are devotedto the issue of differences in perception and expectation between the two sides. In this research, multi-case study was adopted as the research method. Fourteen people in eleven cases were interviewed. Differences in perception and expection were investigated under the dimensions of objective, responsibility, relationship, culture and external environment. A framework was proposed to explain the phenomena under investigation. This framework can serve as a reference model for practical information system outsourcing as well as future research.

Information systems development (ISD) project management involves planning, organizing resources, measuring and controlling progress against plans with an overall goal of achieving a set of project objectives, including schedule, cost, and quality. The purpose of project control is to provide an understanding of project¡¦s progress so that appropriate corrective actions can be taken when the project¡¦s performance deviates significantly from the plan. Because the management of ISD is nonroutine and difficult, it provides a classic example of the issues associated with structuring control mechanisms for complex tasks. For the rapid development of information technology and the quick change of environment, companies are increasingly outsourcing all or part of their IS activities, including IS development. Become a partnership of strategic alliance between the client and the vendor is the trend of IS outsourcing activities. The truly critical success factors associated with successful outsourcing are those associated with vendor governance. An important aspect of this governance is how the client exercise control over the vendor. Outsourced ISD projects pose unique problems that make the task of controlling them particularly challenging. This research views control broadly, in a behavioral sense. The behavioral view of control implies that the controller uses certain devices, or control mechanisms, to promote desired behavior by the controllee. These control mechanisms help implement control modes, which may broadly be divided into formal controls and informal controls. Two types of formal controls have been commonly considered in prior literature, including outcome control and behavior control. Informal controls are also of two types: clan control and self-control. This study employs control theory to establish the research model, and examines the factors influencing the choice of control modes, the dynamics of control, and evolution of portfolio of controls over the duration of outsourced ISD projects. The differences between the internal ISD and the outsourced IS projects are also examined. Drawing from the case study, it concludes that some findings from research on control of internal ISD projects apply to the outsourced context as well, but with some interesting differences¡G (1)At the choice of formal controls, there is no distinction between the internal ISD and the outsourced ISD projects. (2)At the choice of informal controls, there is obvious distinction between the internal ISD and the outsourced ISD projects. (3)In a strategic alliance context, it is expected that informal controls could be exercised in the outsourced ISD projects, as well as in the internal ISD projects. The degree of informal controls could be exercised is determined by the role expectations and the long-term cooperation between the client firms and the vendors.

The importance of knowledge management has been on the spotlight for many years. Many researches related to the knowledge management are focused on the issues of knowledge sharing and knowledge creation, but only few are directly linked to the knowledge integration process. In this thesis, we will exam the AnTec operation to discover the benefits and incentives of knowledge integration process to it's software development. This study will also explore how the company can establish goal, make decision, confirm the knowledge requirements,and obtain knowledge externally and internally by utilizing the knowledge integration process. Performance of the software development can be dramatically improved from the knowledge integration elements of "direction", "sequencing", "routines", and "group problem soling and decision making" in a virtual team. The finding of the study has suggested: (1) The knowledge integration process requires efficient communication among system analyses, department managers, and the end users. IT manager should be responsible for the quality of all questions proposed. (2) Fully utilize the knowledge integration structure and properly extract know-hows from different areas to proceed the software development in the virtual team are essential to the success of the knowledge integration process. (3) This study will be govern into two models - "Knowledge Sharing Process and Structure" and "Virtual Team Operation" models and can be reviewed by AnTec for further reference. Keywords : Virtual Team, Knowledge Integration, Project Management

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The cost of construction projects depends on their size, complexity, and duration. Construction management applies effective management techniques to the planning, design, and construction of a project from conception to completion for the purpose of controlling time, cost and quality. A real options approach in construction projects, improves strategic thinking by helping planners recognize, design and use flexible alternatives to manage dynamic uncertainty. In order to manage uncertainty using this approach, it is necessary to value the real options. Real option models assume independence of option holder and the impacts of underlying uncertainties on performance and value. The current work proposes and initially tests whether project management reduces the value of real options. The example of resource allocation is used to test this hypothesis. Based on the results, it is concluded that project management reduces the value of real options by reducing variance of the exercise signal and the difference between exercise conditions and the mean exercise signal.

The estimation of software project attributes, such as size, is important for software project resource planning and process control. However, research regarding software attribute modeling, such as size, effort, and cost, are high-level and static in nature. This research defines a new operation-level software project attribute that describes the operational characteristic of a software project. The result is a measurement based on the s-curve parameter that can be used as a control variable for software project management. This result is derived from modeling the count of artifact instances created by the software engineering process, which are stored by software tools. Because of the orthogonal origin of this attribute in regard to traditional static estimators, this s-curve based software attribute can function as an additional indicator of software project activities and also as a quantitative metric for assessing development team capability.

In every construction project, there is involvement of multiple team-players and their individual efforts have to be coordinated in a timely manner. Sharing and synchronizing information exchange among diverse team players requires a comprehensive project management and collaboration system that is easily accessible and manageable. Web-based or web-enabled project management and collaboration software offer several opportunities for this purpose. In the last decade, the construction industry has realized the necessity of adopting project management and collaboration systems but experienced adaptation and implementation problems. The major reasons were the required software knowledge, training and comfort level of the users. These issues can be addressed by utilizing a software package that provides a familiar user interface and flexible customization options. Microsoft Groove provides an alternative for web-enabled project management and collaboration with comprehensive and customizable tools, while maintaining the familiar Microsoft Office look and feel. This thesis compares the features of Groove software to commonly used project management and collaboration systems in the construction industry. A sample Groove workspace is developed and demonstrated with customized modules and templates for a typical construction project.

The sweeping penetration of the internet into our daily life has greatly encourageed the international exposure of domestic software companies and engendered an unprecedented demand for information. However, the increasing cost of manual labor throughout the world in recent years has caused the labor force in the mainland China and India to exceed that in Taiwan. Therefore, if enterprises still hope to keep applying internal resources to support system software development and maintenance in the future, they should have a plan to request IT (Information Technology) department to promote the cost control as well as effectiveness development software from now on. The purpose of this study is to delve into the IT department¡¦s response to the reform and restructuring within a company and its assimilation of new management strategies to boost efficiency. This research aims to research how one domestic global enterprise learn project management to further improve the quality of internal software development and promote usage effects. It can be observed from this in-depth comparative study that different management methodologies induce a corresponding difference in the efficiency of developing new software, which, in turn, reflects on the reform of the entire department. The methodology of this research is using qualitative case study analysis by designing a questionnaire to interview internal technical specialists from different areas and carrying out two different structures of project management methods to heavily compare and investigate. From this research, we could actually discover that different project management methods could show different levels of promotion and advancement in software development efficiency. When it comes to corporate trainings in software development management or the reform of IT departments, this study may serve as an invaluable index or example for future reference.