Problem - The challenge investigated in this present study is for a project-based organization to create a well-planned implementation by knowing the current state of the organization and its readiness for a change. This while also taking the time for unexpected events and communicating the issue while also taking their organizational structure into consideration. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the readiness to change for the case company with focus on three aspects of readiness: information sharing, common views and implementation approach, while also taking into account the distinct features of a PBO-structured organization. The study aims to identify supporting factors for successfully managing an implementation of a new business system at the individual level. Method - This study is a case study based on a single case company: Sweco, which is a Swedish technical consulting firm that is about to change their business system. A literature review was conducted in order to collect previously conducted research within the research area. The primary methods used for data collection in this study have been semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire, the data was mainly analyzed though thematic analysis. Results – The readiness for change for the case company is affected by their organizational structure. The results of the questionnaire show that collaboration within Sweco works relatively well, but there are some aspects that can be improved, such as communication and information sharing. The results of the conducted interviews show that most employees at the case company perceive the change of business system to be good, but they were unsure about why it would be carried through. Guides on how the change would affect the specific individual and knowing where to turn for feedback and information was pointed out as a suggested improvement by the employees. A lot of responsibility of implementing the new system was put on the unit managers. Conclusions - The study strengthens the existing theory regarding change readiness and individual supporting factors for successful change implementation. It confirms some of the strengths and drawbacks for organizations working with projects. The study also concludes how the case-company and other companies in a similar situation can utilize some advantages of being familiar with working in projects.

For several years, knowledge has been treated as a key successful resource in business and management. As knowledge management has been researched in various research domains, academics in project management have been also interested in the potential role of knowledge management. The aim of the research is to explore the usefulness and potentiality of knowledge management as well as to confirm the influencing elements of knowledge sharing within project-based organisations. This research implemented a qualitative research method which prompted an in-depth understanding of individual members’ perceptions towards knowledge sharing in project teams. In order to fulfil the methodological objective, the data were collected by using semi-structured interviews with 26 project managers from five project-based firms. The grounded theory method was adopted as the data analysis technique of this study. It allowed the researcher to explore and analyse the individuals’ perceptions of knowledge sharing and knowledge management. As a result, this study suggests four potential influencing factors of knowledge sharing, which are trust, relationship, motivation, and self-efficacy. The research data show that trust plays a role as a basic currency between members to share knowledge. Positive and affirmative relationships with other members will make it easy to share more knowledge and lead to better quality of knowledge. In this research, the informants also imply that members would be motivated to engage in knowledge sharing in respect to workload, culture, and remuneration. Lastly, one’s belief that one can achieve certain things -self-efficacy- is also important to create improved knowledge sharing between members in project teams. The research found that the majority of the companies managed their knowledge and carried out knowledge sharing activities. However, most of them did not recognise that their behaviours were relevant to knowledge management. In this research, the author suggests that confirming precedent knowledge management and knowledge sharing activities should occur prior to adopting new approaches. Furthermore, this research explores the potential influencing factors that play a role as either enablers or barriers. Thus, project managers and management should be cautious and ensure that influencing factors are equally balanced. Due to the nature of qualitative research methods, the sample size is relatively small compared to quantitative methods such as a survey and a questionnaire. As a result, future studies will consider more data in order to enhance further applicability and utilisation of the research.

Objective: Public projects are used to delivery policy objectives. From a financial perspective, the Major Projects Authority (MPA) estimated a whole life investment of £488 billion for 199 major projects in 2014, only a small subset of the total number of public projects. Given the financial exposure, the impact of endemic public project failures could put the economic health of the nation at risk. This thesis studies the challenges facing public projects. It applies an organisational capabilities lens to investigate projectification, when organisations shift away from functional-based organising (FBO) toward project-based organising (PBO). Research Design: This study adopts an interpretivist research paradigm, with a constructionist epistemology and an idealist ontology, and employs an abductive research strategy. Structurally, it follows the Cranfield Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) methodology, with a linking document that summarises three complementary research projects: a systematic literature review (SLR) followed by two empirical studies that investigate the Department of Health (DoH) during the early phases of the Next Stage Review Implementation Programme (NSRIP). The findings are derived from over 250 academic literature sources, 100 government publications and 41 semi-structured interviews. ...[cont.]

Undergraduate pre-business students who had taken an introductory business statistics course three years ago were sent a questionnaire that, among several other questions, asked them about their views on the usefulness of the course. Students rated the introductory business statistics course as "moderately important" for their business education. They favored an integrated approach that covers both the statistical concepts and the computer software necessary to carry out the statistical analysis, and they had a strong preference for the Microsoft EXCEL software. Students thought that projects played an important role in introducing them to real-world applications of statistics, but they also mentioned several problems that arose with group-based work. Factors mentioned as having had an impact on teaching effectiveness are discussed in the last part of the paper. (author's abstract) / Series: Forschungsberichte / Institut für Statistik

Project-based organizations (PBOs) have drawn attention in business management and represent an increasingly important part of organizations. If managing by projects represents an adapted way to cope with the current environment, it also comes with new challenges. This research brings light on the organizational tensions between immediate performance and sustained performance in PBOs by focusing on competence development as the crucial means to achieve sustained performance. Because PBOs are temporary by nature, competence development represents one of their challenges. Therefore, this research was conducted to gain a better understanding of how this tradeoff can be managed by PBOs. With that purpose, we both researched how this organizational tradeoff and competence development processes were managed in a hockey organization. In sport organizations, player succession is crucial to the organization’s overall performance and survival, therefore making competence development a key activity. The research led us to grasp a better understanding of the nature of the tradeoff between immediate performance and sustained performance as well as brought additional findings on competence development processes. More specifically, it was found that this tradeoff requires adaptation to project stages. We summarized and visualized the findings by providing a framework that can act as a tool for practitioners in PBOs to understand and therefore manage the tradeoff between immediate performance and sustained performance by implementing competence development.

The diploma thesis "Medieval City - project-based learning at primary school" deals with the issue of the development of knowledge of pupils through project-based learning. The theoretical section is divided into two parts. In the first one, the principles and procedure of creating the project are defined, the link between project-based learning and cross-curricular subject Environmental Education being described. The second part focuses on the history of a medieval city. It explores particular aspects of the origin and development of the city during the Middle Ages, providing a summary of the knowledge that is passed on to pupils through the project instruction. The practical part of the thesis describes the preparation and realization of the "Medieval City" project. The aims are to bring pupils to understand life in a medieval town, its construction and development, so that they can understand its construction structure and location in the landscape, looking at a contemporary city from the perspective of its historical development. At the same time, they deepen their interest in the history of the place they live in and build a relationship to the cultural and historical heritage. At the end of the diploma thesis, the success of the project is evaluated. KEY WORDS project-based learning, Project,...

Ofta genomförs projekt i tillfälliga organisationer och är ett tidsbegränsat åtagande. Lärande i organisationer som till största del består av projekt, s.k. projektbaserade organisationer, har andra typer av utmaningar när det gäller kunskapsöverföring än vanliga linjeorganisationer där kunskap kan skapas och stanna i avdelningar. Kunskapsöverföring i återkommande evenemangsprojekt är viktigt för att undvika att göra om misstag som kan vara kostsamma, speciellt då det är efter själva evenemanget som det går att avgöra om projektet är lyckat eller inte. Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för tillvägagångssätt som kan användas för att överföra kunskap mellan återkommande evenemangsprojekt. En fallstudie om O-Ringen AB som organiserar O-Ringen, världens största orienteringsäventyr, genomfördes för att svara på studiens forskningsfråga: Vilka tillvägagångssätt kan användas för kunskapsöverföring mellan återkommande evenemangsprojekt? Med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med projektledare för fyra O-Ringen och VD för O-Ringen AB samt genomgång av företagets uppdragsplan redovisas tillvägagångssätt som organisationen använder för kunskapsöverföring mellan de årligt återkommande evenemangsprojekten. Studiens resultat visar hur kunskapsöverföring kan ske mellan återkommande evenemangsprojekt. O-Ringen AB överför kunskap mellan sina återkommande evenemangsprojekt genom tidigare erfarenheter, att samla erfarenheter, informella och formella möten, dokument, icke-standardiserat material och system. / Projects are often executed in temporary organizations and are under a time limit. This is part of why learning in organizations that mainly work with projects, so-called project based organizations, have other types of challenges when it comes to knowledge transfer than in other types of organizations where knowledge is created and stays in departments. Knowledge transfer in reoccurring event projects are important to avoid repeating mistakes which could prove costly, especially when it only is after the event itself that it’s possible to determine if the project was successful or not. The purpose of this study is to describe which methods can be used in knowledge transfer between reoccurring event projects. A case study in O-Ringen AB, the company that organize O-Ringen, the world’s biggest orientation adventure, was conducted to answer this study’s research question: Which methods can be used to transfer knowledge between reoccurring event projects? The methods of knowledge transfer used in O-Ringen AB are presented in this paper. The results are based on interviews with the project managers of four O-Ringen events and the CEO of O-Ringen AB. In addition, the conceptual plan that the organization produces was used. The result of the study show how knowledge transfer can occur between reoccurring event projects. O-Ringen AB transfer knowledge between their annually reoccurring event projects through earlier experiences, collected experiences, informal and formal meetings, documents, non-standardized material and systems.

Homeschooling can provide the opportunity for an inspiring educational journey facilitated by a parent/educator. Stepping away from social norms, and fostering strong relationships, influences and supports the negotiation of this dual role in this alternative learning environment. The line between parent and educator is often blurred and challenging to tease apart as parent/educators strive to support the unique learning interests and goals of their students. In this thesis I consider the negotiation between these roles by examining the lived experience of homeschool parent/educators through the themes of relationships, normalization and ‘We are teachers’. British Columbia, Canada (BC) is the context and influences analysis, findings and recommendations. The new BC Ministry of Education’s curriculum's “transformational” focus is used to support the position taken in this thesis that parent/educators are teachers in their own right. The author’s unique experience as a homeschool parent/educator herself provides the opportunity for a greater understanding into this under researched pedagogy. / Graduate

While literature in areas of constructivism learning theory, use of computer technology in education, and the implementation of project-based learning in the classroom have received widespread attention, there is no reported research that specifically examines the effectiveness of using a project-based learning model for computer technology instruction for pre-service teachers' programs in general, and in art education in particular. Thus, the research problem was to examine through pre- and post-test control-group experimental research design whether two different teaching methods, constructivism teaching approach (project-based learning) and traditional (step-by-step) teaching approach, result in significant differences in learning computer usage, the application of computer technical skills, design projects, and attitudes toward using of technology. The research was conducted at University of North Texas during the fall semester of 2004. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect the data. The quantitative data, collected from a pre-post test and pre and post questionnaire, was analyzed using a t-test. No significant difference was found between the groups as it relates to computer usage, one aspect of the application of computer technical skills (Photoshop usage), and attitudes towards technology. There was, however, a statistical difference between the groups in the use of the other aspect of computer application technical skills (Illustrator). The qualitative data was collected from three sources, the final design project, the focus group interview, and the reflective papers and summarized quantitatively. A rubric was used to assess the final design project and the scores from the rubric were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test. A significant difference was found between the groups as it relates to the assessment of the final project design. The constructivist (project-based learning) group scored higher than the traditional (step-by-step) group. The analysis of the focus group interviews revealed more positive responses for the project-based learning group as opposes to the step-by-step group. The analysis of the reflective papers also revealed more positive responses by the project-based learning group as oppose to the step-by-step group. Overall, the results of the study indicate that the constructivist approach project-based learning did improve student learning.

TrapSimulator é uma ferramenta didática de simulação de corrente elétrica sob efeito do ruído Random Telegraph Noise, presente nos dispositivos eletrônicos semicondutores, mais precisamente em transistores de efeito de campo. Esta ferramenta possibilita a execução de simulações rápidas, de fácil visualização e usabilidade, isto porque, além de ser um software de código aberto, disponibilizado sob licença Gnu Generic Public License, é acessível através de um simples navegador de internet. Seu propósito principal é levar ao ambiente de sala de aula, uma forma de visualização do ruído no domínio do tempo e frequência, utilizando uma infraestrutura básica, presente na maioria das universidades. TrapSimulator implementa em seu algoritmo, métodos de simulação de um vetor que representa a corrente Id(t) sob efeito de ruído citado anteriormente. Este ruído é modelo conforme o conceito Trapping De-Trapping, o qual afirma que a causa da flutuação do nível de corrente é devida a captura e emissão de portadores por defeitos localizados no dielétrico dos transistores, próximo à interface entre este e o canal ativo do dispositivo. A motivação por executar este trabalho se dá pelo interesse em contribuir com o aprendizado de estudantes de graduação da área de Engenharia Elétrica e Eletrônica. Baseando-se numa metodologia empregada no ensino tecnológico, chamada de Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos, este trabalho propõe um processo cognitivo mais atuante, priorizando a busca mais ativa pelo conhecimento. / TrapSimulator is a current simulation didactic tool under Random Telegraph Noise effect, present in electronic semiconductor devices, more precisely in field effect transistors. This tool makes it possible to perform fast, easy-to-view and usability simulations, because it is open source, made available under a Gnu Generic Public License, accessible through a simple web browser. Its main purpose is to take the classroom environment, a way of noise visualizing in the time and frequency domain, using a basic infrastructure, present in most universities. TrapSimulator implements in its algorithm, simulation methods that represents the ID(t) current vector under noise effect quoted above. Random Telegraph Noise is modeled according to the Trapping De-Trapping concept, which establishes that current level fluctuation is due to carriers capture and emission by defects located at dielectric region, next to active channel on semi-conductor devices. The work motivation is due to the desire to contribute to the undergraduate students learning in Electrical and Electronic Engineering area. Based on methodology used in technological teaching, called Project-Based Learning, this work proposes a cognitive process more directed to making hands on, the most active search for knowledge.