Modern construction projects are delivered in complex, fast pace environments. Stakeholders are required to participate in dynamic project settings with resource constraints, information constraints, and time constraints. To overcome gaps in knowledge, to deliver decisions quickly, and to overcome human limits in cognitive ability, decision makers typically employ heuristics, or rules of thumb to arrive at relatively quick answers. Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that an individual employs to arrive at quick decisions (Goodwin et al., 2004). These heuristics are used in a variety of ways, ranging from using the process of elimination (elimination heuristic) to applying different cognitive weights to options based on recent experience, reputation, or familiarity (Shah and Oppenheimer, 2008). This research aims to identify heuristics present in the implementation phase of construction. By summarizing the results of two studies conducted with a Mid-Atlantic Contractor, this thesis prescribes seven heuristics commonly used by construction stakeholders. / Master of Science / Modern construction provides a difficult decision making environment for workers. Construction stakeholders often work in environments with limited time, with limited information, and with limited knowledge. Decision makers in these environments typically use mental rules of thumb (formerly known as heuristics). These rules of thumb help decisions makers arrive at quick answers and often increase efficiency. They can be used in a variety of ways. An individual may use the process of elimination to find a solution. Others may base their decision off a company, person, or object ‘s reputation. Others may only choose an option that is recognizable. Rules of thumb take many forms and are used by all people. Studying rules of thumb can benefit an industry. This has already been proven in many industries, such as insurance (Handel & Kolstad, 2015), medicine (Martin et al., 2012), and economics (Grandori, 2010). The construction industry has begun to study rules of thumb that impact early stages of the construction process, but it still lacks rules of thumb that impact the process of physical construction. This paper aims to assist the construction industry in gaining a fuller view of decision making shortcuts used by its stakeholders. By summarizing the results of two studies conducted with a Mid-Atlantic Contractor, this thesis outlines seven heuristic used by construction workers.

Yes / The analysis of the root causes of information systems project failure has been the subject of intense scrutiny for some time within industry and the academic community. Researchers have developed various models, notions of failure and categorisations to succinctly classify project failure into a set of key factors for organisations and project managers to focus on in their attempts to avoid failure. This study incorporates a technique titled: interpretive structural modelling as the methodology to formalise the relationships between the selected failure factors. This approach is positioned as a mechanism that can yield greater insights into the relationships between the factors surrounding project failure, thereby developing a better understanding of how these relationships can have a bearing on project outcomes. The findings identify key driving variables that are presented as having significant impact on the other factors within the model. A number of variables are also identified as being heavily dependent on other connected factors highlighting that a failure in one or more of these connected factors is likely to result in a failure in one or more of the dependent factors unless timely steps are taken to address these key issues. This research details a number of practical implications for senior management and project managers as well as the academic community. These considerations form an underlying thread within this study as specific practice-related implications are highlighted and discussed throughout the study.

By definition, a system is comprised of hardware, software and "liveware". It also interacts with other systems composed themselves of those elements. However, the "human" element tends to be neglected in many projects, leading to unsafe or inefficient systems. Although some studies have shown that sociotechnical approaches to project management can generate economic gains of 20%, not to mention social gains, in practice, few projects integrate human factors correctly. Many reasons can explain this lack of integration. Humans alone are much more difficult to model and understand than technology. When considering groups or organizations, the problem increases exponentially. Hence, traditional engineering and risk management methods cannot be used to address the human side of a system. There exist approaches and methods to use our current understanding of human behavior, however these tend to be understood and used only by a small number of specialists. Most project managers, designers and engineers have insufficient knowledge of their existence or do not understand how to make good use of them. There are two major challenges in the integration of human factors. The first one is to justify an interest in such an approach. Given the educational background and experience of many engineers, this is no easy task. The SNCF (French Railways) has chosen to face this challenge and achieved quite good results. However, this does not solve the problem, as project managers and engineers then request tools and methods. Fulfilling this need represents the second challenge. This is the subject of this study: to make a shift from technology-centered approaches to design and risk management to a more sociotechnical approach thanks to a macroergonomics project framework. Human factors engineering and ergonomics is a multi-disciplinary domain. It goes from human resources management to physical ergonomics and integrates such subjects as psychology, sociology and human reliability. To improve the reliability or efficiency of systems, one approach is to develop a single tool addressing one aspect of human factors or integrating it with one kind of activities. However, many of those tools already exist, even if they have remained at the state of research results yet or been applied only in some very specific sectors. Hence, for this research, it was decided to develop a method that covers the whole process of a project and contains the different considerations related to human factors as well as the activities required to ensure the safety of the system. Recent research led by the US Army and adapted by the UK and Canadian Armies as well as Eurocontrol have lead to the emergence of a new discipline called Human Factors Integration (HFI). This discipline proposes a project management process that covers different domains of human factors: manpower, personnel, training, ergonomics, safety, health and hazards, survivability. HFI is a good starting point but it responds only partly to our expressed need. Indeed, the SNCF requires a more general approach, easily accessible, with a greater emphasis on organization and risk management. During this study, the HFI method was extended based on recent research results, especially in human and organizational reliability. The main improvements made are the addition of the "organization" domain and the development of safety-related activities. Many other principles were also integrated including barriers, prescribed vs. real tasks, redundancy, recovery, degraded situation, system dynamics and measurement. Some interests of this method are its inheritance from systems engineering, its capacity to be utilized by users from different cultures and experience, and its independence from specific models of human behavior or task processing. The main output of the study is a documentation of this method defining the activities and tasks for each phase of the project as well as the composition of the team. The method was evaluated based on its application on the "Sécurité des Travaux Organisation Réalisation Préparation" (STORP) project. This project aims at redesigning the infrastructure maintenance system of the SNCF, modifying the concepts, principles, guidelines and documentations, in order to improve its efficiency and safety. This application enabled to test the coherence and usability of the method, as well as highlight its main advantages, while underlining and improving the human factors integration in STORP. Through this evaluation, this study constitutes one of the first attempts to apply HFI to a non-military domain and to non-specific projects. / Master of Science

An emergency exercise is an important part of emergency management and helps prepare and test the emergency management system to face an emergency. Emergencies tested include those caused by earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and technological accidents--nuclear and chemical. This research focuses on emergency exercises for accidents at nuclear facilities. The aim of this research is to identify which project management tools emergency exercise development managers can use to assist them in developing emergency exercises. The project management tools selected were the stakeholder analysis, work breakdown structure, responsibility matrix, activity/ milestone list, progress diagram, Gantt chart, and activity network. A group of experts in emergency exercise development acted as a source of information on how project management tools could be used in emergency exercise development. This group of experts were given a hands-on workshop on using the seven project management tools. The experts developed an emergency exercise shortly after the workshop. These experts were asked for their opinions on how they could have used the tools to assist them in developing the exercise. The experts' opinions were gathered using open-ended and structured interviews. The interview data on analysis, revealed that of the seven project management tools, experts felt most comfortable with the stakeholder analysis, work breakdown structure, responsibility matrix, and activity/milestone chart. Analysis also revealed that further training was required before the group of experts felt comfortable with the project management tools. Hypotheses on the relationship between the group developing exercises and usage of project management tools are made. Exercise developers' suggestions on usage of project management tools are also provided. / Master of Science

No

The aim of the work is: development of methods and approaches to the management of internal software projects using the example of a project to develop and implement an electronic document management system for the UCSB group of companies. The object of the study is the process of managing the project to develop and implement an electronic document management system for the UCSB group of companies. Research methods: literature analysis, interviews and surveys, observation, modeling and forecasting. Results of the work: a regulation for managing internal software projects was developed, which was successfully used in practice during the implementation of the project to develop and implement an electronic document management system for the UCSB group of companies. / Целью работы является: развитие методов и подходов к управлению внутренними программными проектами на примере проекта по разработке и внедрению системы электронного документооборота для группы компаний «УЦСБ». Объектом исследования является процесс управления проектом по разработке и внедрению системы электронного документооборота для группы компаний «УЦСБ». Методы исследования: анализ литературы, интервью и опросы, наблюдение, модулирование и прогнозирование. Результаты работы: разработан регламент управления внутренними программными проектами, который успешно использован на практике при реализации проекта по разработке и внедрению системы электронного документооборота для группы компаний «УЦСБ».

Šio darbo tikslas – ištyrus organizacinę projektų valdymo brandą ir asmeninę projektų vadovų kompetenciją, nustatyti jų koreliacijos buvimą arba nebuvimą ir pateikti pasiūlymus atitinkančius šiandienos tendencijas, kurie padėtų pagerinti esamą projektų valdymo padėtį Lietuvos įmonėse. Pirmoje darbo dalyje analizuojama mokslinė literatūra, kur abibrėžiamos projektų, jų valdymo, projektų vadovo sampratos, taip pat projektų valdymo brandos samprata ir jos vertinimo priemonės. Antroje darbo dalyje analizuojami tyrimo, atlikto Lietuvos projektų vadybos asociacijoje, rezultatai. Atlikus anketinę apklausą išryškėjo tendencija, kad Lietuvos įmonėse, vykdančiose projektus, dažniau dirba aukštesnės kompetencijos projektų vadovai ir organizacijos nevisada sugeba užtikrinti jiems reikalingas darbo sąlygas bei išteklius, reikalingus sėkmingam projektų įgyvendinimui. Trečioje darbo dalyje pateikiamas pasiūlymų projektas,paremtas vienu iš brandos vertinimui ir gerinimui skirtų modelių – OPM3 ir skirtas pagerinti organizacinio projektų valdymo brandą organizacijoje. / The aim of this paper - the study of organizational project management maturity and personal project management expertise to establish the relationship between them and to submit proposals consistent with contemporary trends to help improve the current situation in project management in Lithuanian companies. The first part analyzes the scientific literature, which defines the concept of project management, the project manager, as well as the concept of project management maturity and its assessment. The second part analyzes the results of survey of Lithuanian Project Management Association. After the questionnaire survey showed a trend towards the Lithuanian companies which carry out the projects are concentrated in higher-expertise project managers and organizations are not always able to provide them with the necessary working conditions and resources necessary for successful project implementation. In the third part is presented project of proposals, based on one of the maturity assessment and improvement of models - OPM3 and to improve organizational project management maturity in an organization.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / We optimize long-term project schedules subject to annual budget constraints, where the duration and cost of each task may increase as the project progresses. Initially, tasks are scheduled without regard to budgets and the project completion time is minimized. Treating the task durations as random variables, we then use simulation to describe the distribution of the project completion time. Next, we minimize the completion time under budget constraints with fixed task durations, where budget violations are tolerated albeit with penalties. Annual reviews are then introduced, which allow underway tasks to be delayed or monthly budgets to be increased. We obtain estimates of the completion time of the project and its final cost under each of these scenarios. The U.S. Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) is used for illustration. FCS is a suite of information technologies, sensors, and command systems with an estimated acquisition cost of over $90 billion. The U.S. General Accounting Office found that FCS is at risk of substantial cost overrun and delay. We analyze three schedule plans for FCS to identify which can be expected to deliver the earliest completion time and the least cost. / Major, Australian Army

A implementação e operação de um Escritório de Gerenciamento de Projetos (Project Management Office - PMO) requerem mudanças organizacionais, em especial quanto ao modo como a empresa planeja, executa e controla seus projetos. As empresas modernas, inseridas em um mercado de grandes transformações e de competição, não conseguem dominar toda a cadeia de suprimento das competências necessárias ao desenvolvimento de seus projetos, por conseguinte dos produtos entregue aos seus clientes. Diante disso, há uma importante constatação quanto ao crescimento da utilização de recursos externos, mesmo em áreas consideradas estratégicas. Este projeto de pesquisa busca compreender os mecanismos que influenciam na tomada de decisão para adoção de conceitos de serviços de outsourcing em atividades relacionadas às competências organizacionais, em especial na operação dos PMO. A pesquisa é um misto de confirmatória e exploratória, tendo o survey como método utilizado, pela coleta de dados através de um questionário auto-administrado pelos respondentes, hospedado na internet (web-based). A população da pesquisa são empresas industriais e de serviços que atuam no mercado brasileiro. Para análise dos dados foi utilizado o tratamento estatístico não-paramétrico e aplicados testes de independência em tabelas de contingência. O resultado do trabalho, com 78 casos válidos do survey, indica que apesar de não poder-se estabelecer uma relação entre o posicionamento das competências do PMO, em ser realizada por fornecedores externos, com a percepção dos clientes, os casos empíricos demonstram uma forte tendência de que as competências do PMO sejam realizadas por recursos internos da organização. Na mesma linha, não se pode estabelecer uma relação positiva entre a cultura de serviços externos praticada pela organização e a possibilidade de utilização desse modelo (outsourcing) para a operação do PMO. A despeito das limitações do projeto de pesquisa, fica claro que a realidade das organizações é um tanto complexa e, portanto, reafirma-se a necessidade de imprimir um desenvolvimento constante à área de conhecimento e de recursos relacionados às competências organizacionais em gerenciamento de projetos, e de seu modo estruturado, através de seus PMO. A conquista dessas competências, ao tempo desejável para o posicionamento da organização na luta por seu espaço e sobrevivência, por certo que passa pela utilização de recursos externos, para que seus preciosos recursos especializados se dediquem àquilo que é o seu núcleo de competências, que está ligada a sua identidade. Assim, cabe indicar as crenças no desenvolvimento e aperfeiçoamento de teorias que contribuam para a compreensão e devida intervenção sobre a realidade das organizações, indicando possíveis cenários e meios para superação de desafios presentes. A contribuição do desenvolvimento deste trabalho de pesquisa é oferecer uma abordagem teórica para a compreensão do processo de identificação do posicionamento do PMO em termos das competências organizacionais pela aplicação de outsourcing, como uma alternativa viável para a operação de PMO. / The implementation and the operation of Project Management Office (PMO) involves organizational changes, in the way how the enterprise plans, executes and control its projects. The modern enterprises, which were put in a market of big transformations and competition, cannot dominate the whole chain of supplies for its costumer products and services. Considering all that it is possible to observe a important growth in the use of services executed from external resources, even in areas considered strategic. This research project intends to understand the mechanism which can influence the decision to take on services of outsourcing in activities related to organizational competences. The type of research is a combination of confirmatory e exploratory, and uses a web based survey for the collection of data. The project is designed to enterprises which work in the brazilian market. It was used the practical nonparametric statistic of data, by independence test in the r x c contingence table. The research showed that, in 78 of the survey valid cases, the utilization of PMO in organizational competences comes from the organization\'s internal resources. In the same line, still based on the research, it is possible to conclude that it is unlikable to establish a positive relation between the culture of external services used by the organization and the possibility of utilization of the outsourcing model to the operation of PMO. In spite of the limits that appeared in the research project, it is clear that the reality of the organization is very complex, and therefore, confirm the need of showing a constant development of the knowledge area and the resources related to the organization\'s abilities in project management, and of its structured mode, using its PMO. The achievement of these abilities, at the desired time for the organization\'s positioning in the fighting for its survival in the market, definitely make use of external resources to dedicate its precious specialized resources to its core competence, which is connected to its identity. In this way, it is possible to indicate the belief in the development and the improvement of theories that can contribute to the understanding and the necessary interventions in the reality of the organizations, showing possible situations and ways to solve the present problems. The contribution of this research assignment is a theoretical approach to a better comprehension of the identification process of PMO positioning in terms of organizational competencies by the application of outsourcing as a possible alternative to the operation of PMO.

O estudo da gestão de projetos voltado a empreendimentos de infraestrutura ainda é incipiente no Brasil. Entretanto, esse assunto tem grande importância para o crescimento econômico nacional, para a indústria da construção civil, para a gestão e políticas públicas, e para o bem-estar da população. A eficiência da gestão desses empreendimentos, e do alcance dos resultados esperados, tem relação direta com as influências do contexto a que estão submetidos e das diversas partes interessadas envolvidas em seu ciclo de vida. O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar aspectos do contexto dos empreendimentos de infraestrutura, o papel e influência das principais partes interessadas envolvidas, e estudar a aplicabilidade de métodos de gestão de projetos existentes e em uso no mercado, a fim de auxiliar na melhoria do desempenho desses empreendimentos por meio de planejamento, monitoramento e controle mais eficientes. Usando uma abordagem qualitativa de estudo de caso, esta pesquisa examina dois casos de empreendimentos de infraestrutura de grande porte na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. A revisão bibliográfica realizada propicia a fundamentação teórica e, também, traz dados de casos que já foram analisados em estudos anteriores, corroborando com os resultados desta pesquisa. Como resultado, foram criadas 14 recomendações que auxiliarão os gestores de projetos e suas equipes a pensar e avaliar quais as melhores maneiras de fazer uma gestão de projetos mais eficiente e segundo as especificidades e necessidades de cada empreendimento. As recomendações abordam assuntos relacionados ao contexto dos empreendimentos de infraestrutura, aos aspectos da gestão pública, aos métodos de gestão de projetos, e dá atenção especial às principais partes interessadas envolvidas nesse tipo de empreendimento. / The project management study for infrastructure projects is still incipient in Brazil. However, this issue is of great importance for national economic growth, for the construction industry, for public management and public policies, and for the well-being of the population. The efficiency of the management of these projects, and the achievement of the expected results, is directly related to the influences of the context to which they are submitted and of the various stakeholders involved in their life cycle. The objective of this research is to analyze aspects of the infrastructure projects´ context, the role and influence of the main stakeholders involved, and to study the applicability of existing project management methods used in the market, in order to help improve the performance of these projects through more efficient planning, monitoring and control. Using a qualitative case study approach, this study examines two cases of large infrastructure projects in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The literature review provides the theoretical basis and also brings data from cases that have already been analysed in previous studies, corroborating with the results of this research. As a result, 14 recommendations have been created that will help project managers and their teams think and evaluate the best ways to manage projects more efficiently and according to specific needs of each project. The recommendations address issues related to the context of infrastructure projects, aspects of public management, methods of project management, and pay special attention to the key stakeholders involved in this type of project.