The prime objective of this thesis is to research and develop a new system of project budgeting, monitoring and forecasting to meet the needs of the Construction Industry. It is intended that this work will facilitate the means for more efficient control of projects from inception to final completion, utilising where possible the latest developments in computer technology. The initial stage of the work involves an investigation and appraisal of existing methods of formulating project budgets. In particular attention is paid to previous work in the development of mathematical 's' curve models, together with their limitations in use and application. Potential for future development is also identified. The thesis then focuses on the evolution of an improved modelling philosophy for project budgets and forecasts which overcomes previously known problems. In parallel with this work is the development of a computerised system intended to enable the testing of the model against live project data. The model finally selected is then tested against the extensive research work previously undertaken by the DHSS and the data collected from sixteen construction projects. To facilitate the development of a suitable control system to act as a vehicle for the application of the principles developed, a contextual survey is included. This survey is intended to provide an update of previous survey work undertaken by the author in 1977 and to further investigate factors orientated specifically to the objectives of the thesis. The research then concentrates on the development of an integrated set of sub-systems which contribute to the budgeting, monitoring and prediction of project expenditure. These systems are developed in accordance with the need to establish the financial status of projects both before, during and after they are completed. The overall system is based on the latest computer technology available and is designed to be flexible in its application. Tests documented in the text prove that the system operates both in principle and in practice. A further extension of the research is the use of the various project data bases to provide information for a corporate control system which has been developed in principle. This thesis provides a significant step forward in computerised project budgeting and control utilisng 's' curve philosophy and provides a basis for further development. Potential exists for future development of the prediction and corporate control systems, together with software developments to improve general application over a wide range of industries and disciplines where project work is undertaken.

abstract: This thesis research attempts to observe, measure and visualize the communication patterns among developers of an open source community and analyze how this can be inferred in terms of progress of that open source project. Here I attempted to analyze the Ubuntu open source project's email data (9 subproject log archives over a period of five years) and focused on drawing more precise metrics from different perspectives of the communication data. Also, I attempted to overcome the scalability issue by using Apache Pig libraries, which run on a MapReduce framework based Hadoop Cluster. I described four metrics based on which I observed and analyzed the data and also presented the results which show the required patterns and anomalies to better understand and infer the communication. Also described the usage experience with Pig Latin (scripting language of Apache Pig Libraries) for this research and how they brought the feature of scalability, simplicity, and visibility in this data intensive research work. These approaches are useful in project monitoring, to augment human observation and reporting, in social network analysis, to track individual contributions. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2011

Metric collection process and Project Management activities cannot be performed in an integrated fashion on most of the software projects. In software engineering world, there are Project Management Tools that has embedded project metrics and there are various Metric Collection Tools that collect specific metrics for satisfying requirements of different software life cycle phase activities (Configuration Management, Requirements Management, Application Development tools etc.). These tools however are not communicating with each other with any interface or any common database. This thesis focuses on the development of a tool to define, export, collect and use metrics for software project planning, tracking and oversight processes. To satisfy these objectives, POMMES with functionalities of Generic Metric Definition, Collection, Analysis, and Import, Update and Export of Project Metrics from 3rd Party Project Management Tools is developed and implemented in a software organization during this thesis work.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-06-12T13:02:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 5.pdf: 954609 bytes, checksum: 15745853f8eccf8c8d121de374592460 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-12T13:02:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5.pdf: 954609 bytes, checksum: 15745853f8eccf8c8d121de374592460 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-26 / UNIMED VTRP - União dos Médicos Vales do Taquari e Rio Pardo / A realização de projetos pelas organizações é uma prática amplamente utilizada para obter resultados diferenciados. No entanto, a insatisfação com os resultados obtidos não é uma exceção. Entre os fatores que influenciam o desempenho dos projetos está a execução eficiente e eficaz dos processos relacionados ao monitoramento e controle do projeto. O uso de Tecnologias da Informação Móveis e Sem fio (TIMS) podem contribuir na execução de processos nos quais os trabalhadores possuem características de mobilidade. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar de que formas a utilização de TIMS nos processos de monitoramento e controle do projeto afeta o desempenho do mesmo. A metodologia empregada para alcançar esse objetivo foi baseada na realização de uma etapa exploratória, na qual se entrevistou gerentes de projetos para compreender melhor o fenômeno. Com base nas percepções dos entrevistados e na revisão teórica sobre gestão de projetos e TIMS foi proposto um modelo conceitual que demonstra a relação entre o grau de utilização de TIMS nos processos de monitoramento e controle do projeto e o desempenho dos projetos. Uma survey foi realizada com gerentes de projetos para verificação empírica do modelo, tendo ao final uma amostra de 223 respondentes. Como técnica estatística utilizou-se a Partial Least Squares(PLS). Nos testes de validação do modelo foi necessário retirar o constructo dependência da localização. Na análise dos resultados observou-se que a relação entre a criticidade do tempo e o uso de TIMS não possui, no contexto da pesquisa, significância estatística. Por outro lado, o constructo mobilidade possui uma relação estatisticamente significativa com o uso de TIMS. Da mesma forma, o uso de TIMS nos processos de monitoramento e controle do projeto possui relação significativa estatisticamente com o desempenho de projeto. Os resultados obtidos indicam uma relação positiva entre o uso de TIMS nos processos de monitoramento e controle e o desempenho do projeto, especialmente em relação ao cumprimento do prazo. Como limitações da pesquisa destaque-se a forma de medição da mobilidade do gerente de projetos e a verificação do uso de TIMS apenas nos processos de monitoramento e controle dos projetos. Sugere-se para futuras pesquisas o aprimoramento da forma de medir a mobilidade dos gerentes de projetos e a inclusão da análise do uso de TIMS em outros processos relacionados ao gerenciamento de projetos que podem afetar o desempenho dos projetos. / ABSTRACT The development of projects by organizations is a widely used practice to get different results. However, dissatisfaction with the results obtained is not an exception. Among the factors influencing project performance is the efficient and effective implementation of processes related to monitoring and controlling the project. The use of mobile technologies can contribute to the execution of processes in which workers have mobility characteristics. The objective of this study is to investigate ways that the use of mobile technologies in project monitoring and controlling processes affects project performance. The methodology used to achieve this objective was based on the realization of an exploratory stage in which we interviewed project managers to better understand the phenomenon. A conceptual model that demonstrates the relationship between the degree of use of mobile technologies in the project monitoring and controlling processes and projects performance was proposed. It was based on respondents' perceptions and theoretical review of project management and mobile technologies. A survey was conducted with project managers for empirical verification of the model. At the end of the survey sample consisted of 223 respondents. We used the statistical technique of Partial Least Squares (PLS). During validation of the model it was necessary to remove the construct dependence on location. The analysis of the results showed that the relation between the critical time and the use of mobile technologies is not of statistical significance in the context of research. Moreover, the mobility construct has a statistically significant relationship with the use of mobile technologies. Likewise, the use of mobile technologies in project monitoring and controlling processes has statistically significant relationship with project performance. The results indicate a positive relationship between the use of TIMS in project monitoring and controlling processes and project performance, particularly with respect to time. We highlighted the limitations of the survey method of measuring the mobility of the project manager and the verification of the use of mobile technologies just in project monitoring and control processes. We suggest for future research the improvement of the method of measuring the mobility of project managers and the inclusion of the analysis of the use of mobile technologies in other processes related to project management that may affect project performance.

Main goal of this thesis is to provide information about project management quality and possibilities of quality improvement in project management by project postaudit. Other goals are to inform about best practice in project management and project postaudit and to provide manual for project postaudit implementation.

Investigations reveal that the failure rate of e-governance projects in developing countries is between 35% and 50% whereby, 35% is classified as a total failure and 50% is considered a partial failure. Furthermore, previous e-governance frameworks lack reliable project discipline to deliver e-governance systems effectively to stakeholders for further exploits. This is one of the major reasons why e-governance projects fail to deliver the expected value to the citizenry and thereby, negatively impacting on socio-economic development. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for benchmarking e-governance projects for socio-economic development in developing countries. The Design Science Research methodology was relied upon for the purpose of the study in order to answer its various research questions. Preliminary research investigations led to the identification of a range of critical success factors necessary for effective and efficient delivery of an e-governance project that fulfils expectations throughout the project lifecycle. Further investigations demonstrated that the foregoing critical success factors represent crucial and effective mechanisms for performing project assurance in the ambit of Monitoring and Evaluation. A generic framework for benchmarking e-governance projects was proposed. Further evaluation and validation exercises were undertaken on the framework through a survey involving a comprehensive sample of participants recruited from the Ghana ecosystem, a country considered a developing country. Experts who had comprehensive knowledge of challenges experienced when engaging in e-governance projects were also recruited from the international community as additional respondents in the survey. The study used a combination of simple random sampling and purposive sampling. Simple random sampling method was used to select 19 practising project managers, while purposive sampling method was employed to include e-governance experts in academic and research institutions as well as non-governmental organizations, with valuable insights concerning the research questions being addressed. The data collected was analysed using thematic analysis, and Pearson Chi-square test. The outcome of the evaluation and validation exercises produced an improved framework of which an appropriate prototyped proof of concept was developed for the purpose of enabling e-governance project stakeholders to perform project quality assurance throughout its lifecycle. Such as prototype, if implemented in real-life will go a long way in addressing many challenges faced in the entire e-governance project value chain from a prioritization, learning, cost, quality, time and impact perspectives. The overall outcome of this study showed that despite the reality that the failure rate of e-governance projects remains high in developing countries, there is strong evidence indicating that the aforementioned situation could be circumvented. The research found that success is achievable by embarking on a rigorous process of monitoring and evaluation based on well-defined performance metrics that embody time, quality, budget and scope. As such, the significant minimization of the failure rate of e-governance projects in developing countries would become reality provided that sound monitoring and evaluation are performed in all phases of the project even after its deployment. / Information Science / Ph. D. (Information Systems)

Project control is essential to ensure that the investment on a project is providing the intended benefits and is valuable to the customers. Previous methods offer project performance monitoring and forecasting tools, but they lack accuracy and the associated techniques omit the project financial risk (any unplanned event that has an impact on schedule and budget); the main factor of project failure. Poor project execution, and particularly failure to control and accurately forecast the project performance, may lead to increased costs, upset customers and eventually loss of market share. These gaps have been filled in this study by the development of novel models that use statistical analysis of the previous project performance, including risk evaluation techniques. The proposed models succeeded in providing remarkably improved forecasts in three project dimensions: duration, cost and resources. The robustness of the models has been verified by testing them on real projects. The results show superiority in terms of accuracy and easy application compared to any existing method, proving that the risk inclusion provides improvement compared to previous studies. The most important features of the models are: risk-based adjustment of the forecasted values, periodic and completion forecasts, statistical processing and holistic approach. The greatest advancements have been made in the cost forecast, for which the risk adjustment inclusion is examined for the first time. The resources (man-hours) forecast is another pioneer element of the proposed models. All the above provide a complete image of the project status and paint the picture of future performance. The models results are fed in a Decision Support System, which highlights the overperforming and underperforming areas of the project. This confirms the proposition that the model results can be used to initiate restorative action. The contribution of this study to the project management field is easy-to-use and accurate models, which include the financial risk and facilitate the project manager’s decisions and actions. Anticipation of the project performance, by considering the risk, can result to significant time and cost savings, crucial for project success.

The thesis deals with the topic of building orders are how they are managed by contracting authority or client. It presents building order as a project, and describes the way in which this project is organized, prepared and implemented. It also highlights all the factors that have impact on how building orders are managed. And since the most important of these factors is construction costs, the thesis provides an analysis of one particular building order from this perspective, listing all the things that are involved in the construction costs and pointing out in what way. The accuracy of the expected costs is then compared with construction engineering price indicators.