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This book is intended as a basis for advanced treatment of concepts in project management. In the current scenario where most questions are answered through the internet, the knowledge element in project management has come under the influence of disruptive technologies. In other words, project managers no longer get 'points' for knowing something that is easily available on the internet. This has far-reaching consequences. The present day project managers need to orient themselves to newer benchmarks of what is required for success on the business front. This book deals with a few such advanced concepts in project management. This book is not designed as an elementary primer to the field of project management, rather it is an advanced level treatment on the subject, to be read after the preliminary study has already been completed. The book is designed for practicing project managers, and graduate students in engineering and management, who need to understand the dynamics that are typically encountered in a project-based environment. The content in the book is based on extensive study of literature and training programs. Many of the tools have been developed on the basis of modeling and simulation methods that are specially designed by the author. These were tested at several live projects across the globe. Most of the exercises in the book are actually meant for the reader to perform as they go. The book is not designed with a ‘read-all-and-come-back-later’ approach, rather it focuses on ‘learning by doing’, whereby the reader is expected to do the exercises before reading on. The book will prove useful in self-learning, as well as in classroom teaching and professional training programs.
The growing complexity of today's interconnected systems has not only increased the need for improved information security, but also helped to move information from the IT backroom to the executive boardroom as a strategic asset. And, just like the tip of an iceberg is all you see until you run into it, the risks to your information are mostly invi
In Project Risk Governance, Dieter Fink breaks new ground in two ways. Firstly, he places project risk management in the context of today’s organisations in which objectives are increasingly implemented through projects to better respond to fast-changing markets. Secondly, he applies a governance perspective to examine project risk at the project and corporate levels, an approach which is significantly under-researched and for which theoretical knowledge and professional practice are at an early stage of maturity. Project risk governance falls between corporate governance and project governance and is attracting increasing attention. The author argues that there are two reasons for this. The first is the ’projectisation’ of organisations, in particular within organisations conforming to the Project-Based Organisation (PBO) model. The second is the prevalence of a strategic approach to managing risk for the purposes of protecting organisational values and creating competitive advantage. The book addresses governance, strategy, value management and building enterprise-wide Project Risk Governance (PRG) capabilities. Chapters examine the role of projects in organisations and the need to integrate project and business strategy within the framework of the Project-Based Organisation. PRG is introduced via its links with corporate and project governance and its scope is covered in chapters that identify relevant processes, structures and relationship mechanisms. Contextual influences such as the professionalisation of project management are recognised and insights provided to increase readers’ understanding of uncertainty, risk events, and probabilities and of the essential requirements of managing risks at project level. The final chapter provides a roadmap to the stages and dimensions of a PRG maturity model.
The use of data and analytics significantly improves project performance, but it requires a cultural foundation that connects and engages people, enables evidence-based thinking and facilitates new capabilities. In an era of rapid change and an ever-increasing flow of information, data is a highly-valued asset. Organizations are transforming business areas into data-driven practices to make better and faster decisions and respond accurately to fast-changing market behaviors and demands. The project management domain cannot afford to be left behind. Old practices will not serve the sector in the twenty-first century. That means project delivery functions must embrace new and innovative ways to deliver change. In this book, Marcus Glowasz argues the urgent need to employ data and analytics for improved project performance. Leading Projects with Data is full of actionable insights to drive the behaviors and culture shifts necessary to ensure a successful transition to data-informed project delivery practices. A thriving practice needs people with the mindset to collaborate across boundaries, learn from failure, adapt to a new normal of frequent disruption and change, and value knowledge. Diversity, transparency, and critical thinking are key drivers in the new world of project management. The future is here. Embrace it.
Over the past years, business schools have been experimenting with distance learning and online education. In many cases this new technology has not brought the anticipated results. Questions raised by online education can be linked to the fundamental problem of education and teaching, and more specifically to the models and philosophy of education and teaching. Virtual Corporate Universities: A Matrix of Knowledge and Learning for the New Digital Dawn offers a source for new thoughts about those processes in view of the use of new technologies. Learning is considered as a key-strategic tool for new strategies, innovation, and significantly improving organizational effectiveness. The book blends the elements of knowledge management, as well as organizational and individual learning. The book is not just a treatment of technology, but a fusion of a novel dynamic learner (student)-driven learning concept, the management and creation of dynamic knowledge, and next-generation technologies to generic business, organizational and managerial processes, and the development of human capital. Obviously, the implications of online learning go far beyond the field of business as presented in this book.
The Project Management Office (PMO) is a rapidly emerging concept in project management that has evolved in terms of its application, sophistication, and proven results. Most literature on the subject focuses on a specific facet or purpose of PMO. The Advanced Project Management Office: A Comprehensive Look at Function and Implementation provides a
Managing risk is essential for every organization. However, significant opportunities may be lost by concentrating on the negative aspects of risk without bearing in mind the positive attributes. The objective of Project Risk Management: Managing Software Development Risk is to provide a distinct approach to a broad range of risks and rewards associated with the design, development, implementation and deployment of software systems. The traditional perspective of software development risk is to view risk as a negative characteristic associated with the impact of potential threats. The perspective of this book is to explore a more discerning view of software development risks, including the positive aspects of risk associated with potential beneficial opportunities. A balanced approach requires that software project managers approach negative risks with a view to reduce the likelihood and impact on a software project, and approach positive risks with a view to increase the likelihood of exploiting opportunities. Project Risk Management: Managing Software Development Risk explores software development risk both from a technological and business perspective. Issues regarding strategies for software development are discussed and topics including risks related to technical performance, outsourcing, cybersecurity, scheduling, quality, costs, opportunities and competition are presented. Bringing together concepts across the broad spectrum of software engineering with a project management perspective, this volume represents both a professional and scholarly perspective on the topic.
If there are concepts that have huge academic literature and are of outstanding practcal signifcance in corporate practce, then business performance is certainly one of them. However, the authors of this special issue add interestng and excitng elements to our knowledge regarding business success and performance in many ways. This special issue underlines that business success, which has both fnancial and social components, depends to a great extent on the knowledge, skills, and cooperatve skills of people in the organizaton, and their openness to the world of external and internal stakeholders. The behavior of people, when heavily influenced by the values of the organizaton and its associated business ethics, has a major impact on business success. This is also true for ethically and socially controversial industries, such as pharmaceutcal, alcohol and tobacco. The research results of the authors in this special issue show that different organizatonal frameworks and solutons can lead to the success of a business. There is, of course, no single, infallible “recipe” leading to success. However, developing project management skills and applying a project management approach within an organizaton can increase the organizaton’s entrepreneurial ability. The key feature of such a soluton is that the organizaton becomes more open to stakeholders and processes in its local environment. This also means that an organizaton’s ability to innovate, and improve the efciency of its innovaton processes, increases. It is an excitng feature of the special issue that most of the studies deal with a specifc area of the global economy, namely Central and Eastern Europe. Empirical research carried out in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, and a comparatve analysis of them, is a valuable contributon to the increasingly rich literature dealing with this region, as well as the academic literature in the more general sense. The frst paper by Majra Hodžić and Helena Hrůzová, “A study of project management practces in the Czech Republic,” addresses the importance of project management for organizatons’ innovaton and performance. Based on the example of the Czech Republic, Hodžić and Hrůzová study current practces used in the feld of project management and underline the importance of stakeholders’ main demands and requests, and the level of use of project management methods. The results that are presented provide practcal implicatons, especially for new start-ups wantng to boost their compettveness and innovatveness, by displaying success factors for project management and the necessity for innovaton in this area. The subject of project management is contnued in the second paper by Katarzyna Grzesik and Katarzyna Piwowar-Sulej enttled “Project managers’ competencies and leadership styles from the perspectve of organizatons functoning in Poland.” Grzesik and Piwowar-Sulej discuss the signifcance of project managers’ different competencies and project leadership styles, which are especially important nowadays considering the increasing dynamics of the organizatons’ environment. The needed and adopted competences are compared between the strictly project-oriented organizatons (implementng projects for external clients) and organizatons that manage projects for internal purposes. The authors identfy competencies which are important for organizatons’ success in the area of project management and may, in turn, lead to beter business performance. The importance of human capital for organizatons’ performance and compettve advantage is addressed in the third paper by Łukasz Bryl called “Human capital orientaton and fnancial performance. A comparatve analysis of US corporatons”. In the paper, Bryl verifes whether human capital orientated organizatons generate a positve or even above-average fnancial performance due to: higher skills of employees, greater motvaton and, thus, higher overall effectveness. The paper has signifcant practcal implicatons for both managers aiming at increased compettve advantage and investors in terms of the possible directons of stock market investments aimed at achieving above-average returns. Financial success and high performance may also be gained by innovatveness. In the fourth paper, “An innovaton capability development process for frms in developing countries: A theoretcal conceptual model,” Gezahegn Tesfaye and Daniel Kitaw analyze the problem of innovaton capability development. The much-needed complexity of the analysis is reflected by combining both the technical and the fnancial aspects of innovaton capability development. The proposed model identfes three key innovaton capability constructs and is of practcal value, especially to organizatons from developing countries, as it helps to progress the innovaton capabilites more effectvely. The ffh paper by Włodzimierz Sroka and Richard Szántó, “CSR and business ethics in controversial sectors: analysis of research results,” addresses the issue of organizatons’ performance from a different perspectve, namely the partcular obligatons toward society or the environment consttuted by corporate social responsibility. Based on the example of controversial sectors of the economy (pharmaceutcal, tobacco and alcohol) Sroka and Szántó examine the scale and scope of the use of business ethics principles and practces in Poland and Hungary. The analysis provides not only signifcant fresh insights in this feld but also shows that business ethics have an influence on business success and the corporate image of organizatons. The sixth paper, “The themes of entrepreneurship discourse: A data analytcs approach” by Philip T. Roundy and Arben Asllani, considers the importance of the language used by entrepreneurs. Roundy and Asllani identfy fve dominant themes in entrepreneurship discourse which address, among other things, technology and professional investments. The analysis of the most recurring themes in entrepreneurship discourse, and their change over tme, sets directons for future research and indicates the importance of entrepreneurship discourse for organizatons’ business success. We would like to thank all the authors for their contributon to this special issue and for sharing their research. We believe that this new research represents a valuable input to our knowledge regarding business success and organizatons’ performance. We also want to thank the reviewers whose comments contributed to the improvement of the papers and the whole of this special issue. We hope the artcles presented here will be of interest to readers, scholars and researchers around the world, and that they will inspire them on to further scientfc and practcal research in the feld of business performance.
The new sustainable development agenda is expected to touch every country, person, and activity. Therefore, shouldn't every dollar count toward achieving it? Asia and the Pacific, home to more than half of humanity, has the money to improve the lives of all its people, and protect the planet in fair and durable ways. However, funds are in many hands, invested elsewhere, or used for various purposes. It is time to move beyond this fragmentation and align finance behind sustainable development, recognizing that while capital will be key, so will the capacity to apply and attract it effectively. This report explores some of the ways forward. It highlights not just the need to inject more money into investments that contribute to sustainable development, but also the need to attract funds toward them---to finance human needs, infrastructure, and cross-border public goods. The report spans public and private options, in their distinct roles and in combination. An eight-point agenda suggests how key constituents can do their parts. Working together, they can make money work for development where benefits are not only more equitably shared, but will last for generations to come.