This master’s thesis is focused on the design and implementation of a project which defines a custom monitoring system for needs of a specific company. The design addresses the integration, innovation and simplification of selected company processes based on chosen procedures and analyses from the project management methodology. These processes belong to a single integrated system to save expenses connected with their monitoring and execution.

Abstract in English / Software project management has been less effective as a result of being focused on resource management and the completion of projects within allocated resources and other confines. There has not been much focus on improving software project management quality through improved decision-making, software project management standards and methodologies, hence the focus of this study to explore the possibility of using data analytics with project management standards and methodologies to improve software project management quality. The main question to be addressed in this study is: Can data analytics use in software project management improve decision-making and project management quality? This study, therefore, explores and provides insight on data analytics use, by means of a survey that was completed by software project managers. A questionnaire was used to collect data from software project managers. The gathered data was captured and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), and the analysed data was used for validity testing, while the reliability of the measurement items was tested using Cronbach’s Alpha. A hypothesis was used to evaluate the effect of data analytics use on software project management quality. The research made use of the positivist research method. The study established that data analytics has not yet been widely adopted by software project managers and organisations alike, as both the project managers and organisations have not done enough to promote the training in, and the adoption of data analytics. The research also established that data analytics can improve software project management quality through improved decision-making and in complementing software project management standards. The study findings will be beneficial to software project managers, researchers and organisations as it reveals the factors that are necessary to effectively use data analytics in software project management, as well as highlighting how data analytics improves software project management quality / School of Computing / M.Sc. (Computing)

This research presents a Resource-constrained Critical Path Method (RCPM) technique that capitalizes on and improves the existing Critical Path Method (CPM) and Resource-Constrained Scheduling (RCS) techniques. A traditional CPM schedule is not realistic since it assumes unlimited resources, some of which are highly limited in practice. Although traditional RCS techniques can consider resource limitations, they do not provide correct floats and the critical path as the CPM does. The difference between the theoretical remaining total float and the real remaining total float is referred to as "Phantom Float" in this study. Another disadvantage of the traditional RCS techniques is that work sequence in the schedule could be considerably changed with a schedule update resulting in high costs to reorganize it. These problems are caused by the fact that, in addition to technological relationships, a resource-constrained schedule contains resource dependencies between activities that are neglected in traditional RCS techniques. This study proposes a step-by-step RCPM algorithm to consider those resource-constrained relationships. Hence, the method can identify real floats and correct critical paths, considering both technological and resource-dependent relationships. RCPM also provides a certain level of stability with a schedule update due to the newly identified resource relationships. Based on the RCPM algorithm, a prototype RCPM system has been developed using Visual C++, Visual Basic, and Ra (Primavera Project Planner API). The system is integrated with P3, so that it reads project information directly from a P3 project, performs necessary RCPM procedures, and updates the P3 project to contain identified resource relationships. To make the system more practical, functions to handle multiple project calendars and progressed schedules have been included as well. / Ph. D.

A competência em gerenciamento de projetos (GP) é reconhecida como um fator crítico para o desenvolvimento de novos produtos e possuir sistemas de informação adequados é um quesito fundamental para apoiá-la. Há uma disponibilidade de ferramentas e em contrapartida, um número significativo de críticas à sua utilização, especialmente no caso de produtos inovadores e complexos. O trabalho tem por objetivo identificar os desafios a serem enfrentados para o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de software para apoiar práticas com esse enfoque. Empregou-se a revisão bibliográfica combinada com o estudo de caso múltiplo. Compilou-se os desafios apontados na literatura, revisando os temas: colaboração, gerenciamento ágil de projetos e softwares para gerenciamento de projetos. O resultado, organizado segundo as áreas de processo do PMI, foi comparado com problemas reais, coletados por meio do método de estudo de caso. O setor de bens de capital foi escolhido para garantir a complexidade dos projetos (número de peças do produto e presença de colaboração). A unidade de análise é o sistema de informação para gerenciamento dos projetos (SIGP) de cada empresa. Descreveu-se o SIGP e o papel dos softwares de GP, de forma a identificar os desafios e classificá-los segundo áreas de conhecimento de GP. Os instrumentos utilizados foram roteiros de entrevistas, observações e análise de documentos. Os desafios foram confrontados com o esforço da comunidade científica, identificado por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica, classificada segundo as mesmas áreas de GP. Ao final, comparam-se os desafios das empresas com a teoria e identifica-se uma lista de requisitos para o desenvolvimento de softwares na área. A análise indica também que as ferramentas de GP são utilizadas de forma restrita na indústria de bens de capital e que há discordâncias entre o esforço dos pesquisadores e necessidades dos profissionais da área. Por fim, esta pesquisa identifica como temas relevantes: a integração de dados, o desenvolvimento de funcionalidades de aquisição e de gerenciamento de interfaces, riscos, recursos e multiprojetos. / The project management competence has been recognized as a critical factor to develop new products. Information systems are a fundamental factor to support it. There is an exceptional amount of tools. In opposition there are a significant number of critics about its utilization, in special in projects like innovative and collaborative product projects. The critics pointed needs for new methods and practices to support the agile project management. This research aims to identify challenges of developing project management tool to support this approach. The method used combines a bibliographical review with a multiple case study. The literature challenges were compiled, reviewing the themes: collaboration, agile project management and project management software. The result, organized by PMI process areas, was compared with case study real problems. The capital goods (BK) sector was chosen to ensure the projects complexity (by the product and collaboration presence). The analysis unit is the project management information system (PMIS) of each company. The PMIS and the role of the project management software were described to identify the challenges and classify them according to project management areas. The data collection instruments are plan interview, non-participant observations and document analysis. The challenges were faced with the scientific community effort, identified through a literature review and classified according to the same areas of PM. Following, the challenges of companies was compared with the literature and a requirement list is identified to develop PM software. The analysis indicates that the PM tools used in the BK industry are restricted. There is a mismatch between the researcher efforts and necessities of professionals in the area. Finally, this research identifies as relevant themes: data integration, development of acquisition features, interfaces, risks, resources and multi-projects management.

In this study, results of a comparison on benchmark test problems are presented to investigate the performance of Primavera V.4.1 with its two resource allocation priority rules and MS Project 2003. Resource allocation capabilities of the packages are measured in terms of deviation from the upper bound of the minimum makespan. Resource constrained project scheduling problem instances are taken from PSPLIB which are generated under a factorial design from ProGen. Statistical tests are applied to the results for investigating the significance effectiveness of the parameters.

A competência em gerenciamento de projetos (GP) é reconhecida como um fator crítico para o desenvolvimento de novos produtos e possuir sistemas de informação adequados é um quesito fundamental para apoiá-la. Há uma disponibilidade de ferramentas e em contrapartida, um número significativo de críticas à sua utilização, especialmente no caso de produtos inovadores e complexos. O trabalho tem por objetivo identificar os desafios a serem enfrentados para o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de software para apoiar práticas com esse enfoque. Empregou-se a revisão bibliográfica combinada com o estudo de caso múltiplo. Compilou-se os desafios apontados na literatura, revisando os temas: colaboração, gerenciamento ágil de projetos e softwares para gerenciamento de projetos. O resultado, organizado segundo as áreas de processo do PMI, foi comparado com problemas reais, coletados por meio do método de estudo de caso. O setor de bens de capital foi escolhido para garantir a complexidade dos projetos (número de peças do produto e presença de colaboração). A unidade de análise é o sistema de informação para gerenciamento dos projetos (SIGP) de cada empresa. Descreveu-se o SIGP e o papel dos softwares de GP, de forma a identificar os desafios e classificá-los segundo áreas de conhecimento de GP. Os instrumentos utilizados foram roteiros de entrevistas, observações e análise de documentos. Os desafios foram confrontados com o esforço da comunidade científica, identificado por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica, classificada segundo as mesmas áreas de GP. Ao final, comparam-se os desafios das empresas com a teoria e identifica-se uma lista de requisitos para o desenvolvimento de softwares na área. A análise indica também que as ferramentas de GP são utilizadas de forma restrita na indústria de bens de capital e que há discordâncias entre o esforço dos pesquisadores e necessidades dos profissionais da área. Por fim, esta pesquisa identifica como temas relevantes: a integração de dados, o desenvolvimento de funcionalidades de aquisição e de gerenciamento de interfaces, riscos, recursos e multiprojetos. / The project management competence has been recognized as a critical factor to develop new products. Information systems are a fundamental factor to support it. There is an exceptional amount of tools. In opposition there are a significant number of critics about its utilization, in special in projects like innovative and collaborative product projects. The critics pointed needs for new methods and practices to support the agile project management. This research aims to identify challenges of developing project management tool to support this approach. The method used combines a bibliographical review with a multiple case study. The literature challenges were compiled, reviewing the themes: collaboration, agile project management and project management software. The result, organized by PMI process areas, was compared with case study real problems. The capital goods (BK) sector was chosen to ensure the projects complexity (by the product and collaboration presence). The analysis unit is the project management information system (PMIS) of each company. The PMIS and the role of the project management software were described to identify the challenges and classify them according to project management areas. The data collection instruments are plan interview, non-participant observations and document analysis. The challenges were faced with the scientific community effort, identified through a literature review and classified according to the same areas of PM. Following, the challenges of companies was compared with the literature and a requirement list is identified to develop PM software. The analysis indicates that the PM tools used in the BK industry are restricted. There is a mismatch between the researcher efforts and necessities of professionals in the area. Finally, this research identifies as relevant themes: data integration, development of acquisition features, interfaces, risks, resources and multi-projects management.

The diploma thesis focuses on the assessment of the information system of a developing marketing agency and subsequent proposals for the improvement of its components. The theoretical part describes the importance of the information system in the company, its components and methods of distribution. The analytical part deals with strategic analysis of the company and its surroundings and a description of the current state of the company's information systems. The final part deals with changes proposed to improve the situation in the field of information systems and economic assessment of the changes proposed.

O uso de gestão visual, por meio de painéis físicos, é um diferencial do gerenciamento ágil de projetos. Os quadros servem de suporte para o trabalho colaborativo, permitindo que artefatos e indicadores sejam criados de maneira participativa e sejam divulgados de forma a motivar a comunicação, com uso de quadros brancos e recados autocolantes. Apesar dos argumentos sobre vantagens para a interação da equipe, há várias inconveniências nessa forma de armazenar as informações do projeto, como a perda de dados históricos. Por outro lado, vivencia-se a popularização de tecnologias que permitem a interação entre usuários, mediadas por painéis digitais touchscreen. Essa tecnologia pode substituir os painéis físicos com significativa ampliação de recursos. Este trabalho propõe uma interface original, de forma a combinar a simplicidade dos quadros físicos com as funcionalidades dos softwares de gerenciamento de projetos, segundo as diretrizes identificadas na teoria do gerenciamento de projetos, tanto na abordagem ágil como na tradicional e especialmente projetada para explorar recursos presentes em painéis digitais. Emprega-se uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática para demonstrar o estado da arte sobre softwares de gerenciamento de projetos e outra revisão bibliográfica para reunir as recomendações para projetos de interface em painéis digitais e interação usuário-computador, com a finalidade de construir a proposta. Em seguida, avalia a usabilidade dessa nova interface, comparando-a, por meio de experimentos, com o uso de softwares tradicionais de gerenciamento de projetos e softwares de gerenciamento ágil, voltados para o uso em desktop. Os resultados indicam que a nova interface gera uma maior satisfação para o usuário. A contribuição original está na interface apresentada, mostrando que há um espaço para o desenvolvimento de novos estudos na área de softwares de gerenciamento de projetos, englobando novas formas de interação e uso de novos dispositivos. / The use of physical boards with stickers to visual management is a differential of agile project management. This kind of artifact serves as a support for collaborative work allowing the creation of indicators in a participatory way in order to motivate the communication. There are several drawbacks in this way to store project information despite the arguments about advantages for team interaction with physical boards, such as the loss of historical data. On the other hand, the popularization of technologies that enable interaction between users, like digital touchscreen panels, grows. This technology can replace the physical boards with a significant expansion of resources. This paper proposes an original interface in order to combine the simplicity of the physical boards with the features of project management software tool, according to the guidelines identified in the theory of agile project management (PM) and traditional PM. It was specially designed to exploit resources present in digital panels. This research combines a systematic literature review to demonstrate the state of the art on project management software tool and a literature review to gather recommendations for interface design in digital dashboards and user-computer interaction in order to build the proposal. Then, the usability of this new interface was evaluates, comparing it with the traditional project management software tool and agile project management software tool, through experiment. The results indicate that the new interface generates greater satisfaction to the project management team. The original contribution is the interface presented showing that there is a space for the development of new studies in the area of project management software tool, embracing new forms of interaction and use of new devices.

O uso de gestão visual, por meio de painéis físicos, é um diferencial do gerenciamento ágil de projetos. Os quadros servem de suporte para o trabalho colaborativo, permitindo que artefatos e indicadores sejam criados de maneira participativa e sejam divulgados de forma a motivar a comunicação, com uso de quadros brancos e recados autocolantes. Apesar dos argumentos sobre vantagens para a interação da equipe, há várias inconveniências nessa forma de armazenar as informações do projeto, como a perda de dados históricos. Por outro lado, vivencia-se a popularização de tecnologias que permitem a interação entre usuários, mediadas por painéis digitais touchscreen. Essa tecnologia pode substituir os painéis físicos com significativa ampliação de recursos. Este trabalho propõe uma interface original, de forma a combinar a simplicidade dos quadros físicos com as funcionalidades dos softwares de gerenciamento de projetos, segundo as diretrizes identificadas na teoria do gerenciamento de projetos, tanto na abordagem ágil como na tradicional e especialmente projetada para explorar recursos presentes em painéis digitais. Emprega-se uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática para demonstrar o estado da arte sobre softwares de gerenciamento de projetos e outra revisão bibliográfica para reunir as recomendações para projetos de interface em painéis digitais e interação usuário-computador, com a finalidade de construir a proposta. Em seguida, avalia a usabilidade dessa nova interface, comparando-a, por meio de experimentos, com o uso de softwares tradicionais de gerenciamento de projetos e softwares de gerenciamento ágil, voltados para o uso em desktop. Os resultados indicam que a nova interface gera uma maior satisfação para o usuário. A contribuição original está na interface apresentada, mostrando que há um espaço para o desenvolvimento de novos estudos na área de softwares de gerenciamento de projetos, englobando novas formas de interação e uso de novos dispositivos. / The use of physical boards with stickers to visual management is a differential of agile project management. This kind of artifact serves as a support for collaborative work allowing the creation of indicators in a participatory way in order to motivate the communication. There are several drawbacks in this way to store project information despite the arguments about advantages for team interaction with physical boards, such as the loss of historical data. On the other hand, the popularization of technologies that enable interaction between users, like digital touchscreen panels, grows. This technology can replace the physical boards with a significant expansion of resources. This paper proposes an original interface in order to combine the simplicity of the physical boards with the features of project management software tool, according to the guidelines identified in the theory of agile project management (PM) and traditional PM. It was specially designed to exploit resources present in digital panels. This research combines a systematic literature review to demonstrate the state of the art on project management software tool and a literature review to gather recommendations for interface design in digital dashboards and user-computer interaction in order to build the proposal. Then, the usability of this new interface was evaluates, comparing it with the traditional project management software tool and agile project management software tool, through experiment. The results indicate that the new interface generates greater satisfaction to the project management team. The original contribution is the interface presented showing that there is a space for the development of new studies in the area of project management software tool, embracing new forms of interaction and use of new devices.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project Management Information System is tightly connected with organizational structure and particularity of executed projects. However the main objective of this research was to identify project management model that would be universal, helpful and easily used with small and medium projects In analysis phase we reviewed different methodologies, project management processes and methods, that are used to implement these processes. For our model we’ve chosen Adaptive Project Framework and basic process groups, such as time, resource management and some other, that can be effectively used in computer-driven system. During research we compared our project management system prototype with existing solutions to ascertain suggested model for its universality, helpfulness and easy use. The comparison showed that our model fits the requirements, though its not the most useful, but the proportion of functionality and usefulness is the best.