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There are many types of contracts used by NASA for science missions to procure spacecraft, this paper focuses on two main categories: Cost-Plus (CP) contracts and Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) contracts. When CP contracts are used, the government agrees to cover the actual expenses of the project which include the planned original cost and any additional labor or material costs incurred to complete the work. The CP contract mechanism is ideally implemented when government requirements are not well-defined, and the likelihood of a modification to the scope of the project is high. When FFP contracts are used, the government agrees to cover a non-variable cost and will not pay for any additional labor or material costs incurred to complete the work. The FFP contract mechanism is ideally implemented when the government requirements are well-defined, costs can be predicted, and the contractor has experience in manufacturing a product that fulfills the requirements. This paper investigates historical cost growth of spacecraft for a variety of NASA science missions launched over the last 20 years, by comparing historical cost growth of CP and FFP spacecraft from contract start to delivery. Additionally, this paper will also examine the potential causes of cost growth on FFP contracts, including schedule delays, requirement changes, the addition of new scope after the contract was signed, and mistakenly formulating a basis of estimate by assuming high heritage to a previous spacecraft. The results of this study will provide guidelines and lessons learned to help NASA and other government agencies determine when an FFP contract can be used effectively and efficiently.

When reviewing and evaluating the basis of estimate for mission phases, it is important to understand how the labor basis of estimate compares with past NASA science missions. As such, it can be very valuable to understand the labor loading [Full-time Equivalents and Work Year Equivalents (FTE/WYE)] for historical missions and how the final, actual staffing levels compare with the initially planned staffing levels for these missions at certain project milestones. The FTE Tool11Justin F. McNeill, Jr. et al., “FTE Tool, a Practical Tool for Analyzing Staffing Levels and Cost Across Missions,” IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 5 March 2014. is a legacy, Microsoft©Excel application-based plotting capability built upon a detailed repository of mission programmatic data. The tool has been in use as a tool for comparative analysis in staffing profiles since 2009. It provides high-level views of the historical data for twenty-six NASA missions for development Phases C and D as well as the operations Phase E. FTE Tool is available via the One NASA Cost Engineering Database (ONCE). To modernize and enhance this capability, a new web browser-based application, aView, is being developed on an open source software platform: chart.js for its front-end and a SQLite database for its backend. The name aView is short for Aerospace Viewer of NASA Project Staffing Data. As with the FTE Tool, in aView, the user may select from a set of predefined plots that give a wide variety of views into the missions' programmatic data. One can plot FTE/WYE versus dollar cost for multiple missions during specific phases of development or during operations. Other plots provided by the tool include planned versus actual annual FTE/WYE and FTE/WYE and dollar cost per fiscal year. In addition to the plotting capabilities, aView is a repository of fairly detailed mission information and data. Individual fact pages have been compiled for each mission. Each page provides an illustration of the mission's space vehicle and instruments and the associated technical data and programmatic information, i.e., estimated and/or actual program cost, major development milestones including launch date, launch vehicle, mission trajectory, links to mission website. All of the fact pages are crafted based on information drawn from the NASA Cost Analysis Data Requirement (CADRe) documents and from the project's monthly management/status reviews (MMR/MSR). This paper will discuss the general capabilities and construction of aView. In addition, the paper will explore some use cases (scenarios of application) to illustrate how this application may answer specific programmatic questions. The presentation may include a brief video or live demonstration.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed case study on the methods and organisational structure used for controlling the time schedule for a large and complex project. The paper discusses the use of “project controlling”, a term used to describe project control by a third-party organisation. Design/methodology/approach The researchers used action research to collect data for the case study. A member of the research team was a “participant-observer” on the project on a day-to-day basis for a period of 18 months collecting and analysing data which were subsequently analysed by a mixed methods approach. Findings The use of a “Project Controlling Unit” operated by an independent adviser organisation has significant advantages over traditional methods. It can provide timely, consolidated, independent guidance to the client and assistance to other participating organisations. Research limitations/implications The research has confirmed the effectiveness of the method on the project under study. Practical implications The findings provide guidance for enhanced project control on large complex infrastructural projects that will be of interest to other researchers, other clients and other construction organisations both within China and internationally. Social implications Organisations that seek to develop Project Controlling Units to implement the methods described in this paper will need to review their recruitment and training strategies to ensure that appropriate and experienced staffs are engaged. Originality/value The paper extends the knowledge relating to “project controlling” method. The findings provide additional insights to progress reporting and the management of construction production on HOPSCA and other large infrastructural projects.

This paper reports two empirical studies on how the use of different contract types affects, directly and indirectly, the outcomes of software projects. The first study evaluates the effect of contract type on project failure using information from a large international dataset of small-scale, outsourced software projects and tasks. The second study proposes and tests how the use of contracts is connected with project outcome using information about Norwegian software projects with a public client. Both studies find that the use of fixed price contracts is connected with a higher risk of project failure compared to time and materials types of contracts. The results from the second study suggest that different project outcomes with different contract types is explained by differences in how the provider is selected, how the client is involved in the project, the use of agile practices and the use of benefit management during project execution.

none 1 no Analytical techniques usually employed in making project selection decisions are of strictly financial origin and, traditionally, tend to consider projects as separate entities from undertaking organizations. This fact underestimates potential negative (and pervasive) outcomes considering that binding constraints affect the whole organization in further additional developments. This paper proposes a methodological algorithm to analyze, model and quantify irreversibility aspects to integrate and support traditional financial techniques. The goal is pursued by considering widespread well-known accounting indexes, and assuming reversibility rate as time needed to return to the “optimal original state” (as defined in accounting literature) prior project investment decisions. An illustrative case is proposed to explain how the methodology can be applied since the pre-feasibility step of the management of project framework. As calculations show, such a reversibility rate can be usefully implemented to improve effectiveness of planning processes within project cost management knowledge area. none Focacci, Antonio Focacci, Antonio

In this article, the object of research is the methods of quantitative analysis of the financial risk of investment projects. Among the methods used in practice of this type, there is no universal method suitable for a comprehensive risk assessment of most investment projects in practice. Therefore, the problem of creating new or improving known methods of quantitative analysis of project risks is still relevant. The authors of the article in their previous works developed a new method for assessing the risks of investment projects - an analysis of the financial stability of the project. One of the main drawbacks of this method is its determinism. In this article, the authors attempted to combine their method of analyzing the financial sustainability of the project with the scenario method. As a result of the combination, the two methods that make up the combination have become more universal. The method of estimating the margin of financial stability of the project has the ability to find the mathematical expectations of the margin for all project scenarios, and the scenario method now assesses not only the integral risk of the project as a whole, but also the project risks by its parameters. In addition, the scenario method has been able to find critical parameter values and their mathematical expectations. With the help of the new combined method of analysis of project risks, it is possible to build project ratings by descending risk and a matrix of risk and predictability of project factors. The projects with different structure of payments (from rental to arbitrary) are considered.

Project risks come mainly from the future uncertainties, and new product and service development projects possess the most uncertainty and therefore the highest risk. However, if the project team has gained experiences from previous similar projects, the risk to the project drastically declines. In other words, an inverse correlation exists between member experiences and project risk. Therefore, the guiding principle would be to assign an experienced member to execute familiar work for that member. This study aims to establish a mathematical model that uses member experience to minimize project uncertainty. The nonlinear model assigns members with different experiences to the most suitable tasks to minimize project risk, and thus maximize project success rates under constraints of project costs and communication complexities. An experimental case is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model, and results indicated that under cost and communication complexity constraints, project u...

Inherent in project management is the risk that a project fails to meet planned completion deadlines due to delays experienced in individual tasks. As such, certain critical tasks may be candidates for risk management (e.g., the allocation of additional resources such as labor, materials, and equipment) to prevent delays. A common means to identify such critical tasks is with the critical path method (CPM), which identifies a path of tasks in a project network that, when delayed, result in project delays. This work offers a complementary, stochastic approach to CPM that ranks tasks according to their effect on the project completion time distribution, when the distributions of task completion time are delayed. The new hybrid approach is based on the use of a Monte Carlo simulation and a multi-criteria decision analysis technique. Monte Carlo simulation allows for approximating the cumulative distribution function of the total duration of the project, while the multi-criteria decision analysis tech...

Project resources leveling and scheduling under time and cost constraints.Prioritization rules examination as decision making problem.Standard optimization techniques and Multi-Attribute Decision Models combination.Project duration and resources moments compensation to select the most suitable schedule. Project scheduling is one of the most vital processes in Project Management. It is a widely discussed topic in academic and practical circles due to its importance and complexity. Manpower, machines, materials and equipment are used for the execution of project activities, but these mostly have limited availability, which can constrain project scheduling procedures. Project resources might exceed or fall short of the resource demand in a project's time horizon. These considerations present issues to project managers who must try to properly allocate among these demands in order to achieve a near optimal utilization during a project's lifetime. Resource leveling is among the greatest challenges faced by project managers as the success of a project largely depends on it. This is because peaks and valleys in the resource usage histogram are responsible for cost overruns due to the necessary recruitment, dismissal and training of the personnel Moreover, issues may arise regarding the efficient management of available resources given that large peaks correspond to fluctuations in resource allocation during a project's life cycle or construction period. To address these issues, resource leveling provides procedures and frameworks that ensure the efficient management of resources to obtain smooth resource usage profiles. These procedures attempt to identify activities that should be delayed to resolve resource over-allocations under time and cost constraints. Given the existence of a variety of available rules that could be followed by project managers to prioritize activities, the paper at hand examines the implementation of five Multi-Attribute Decision Making models and how they perform in the scheduling of a solar park construction project. Namely these models are the Weighted Sum Method, Analytic Hierarchy Process, PROMETHEE, TOPSIS, Ordered Weighted Average (OWA) and Hybrid Weighted Average (HWA). Finally, the derived results are discussed in comparison with those obtained by the standard resource leveling procedures of MS-Project.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use survey data to rank the relative importance of perceived factors that inhibit the transfer of knowledge across projects and examine the statistical relationship between various “higher order” dimensions of project management competencies and project efficiency among a sample of project-based firms (PBFs). Design/methodology/approach The research philosophical approach adopted was post-positivism, a half-way house between positivism and phenomenological approaches. The author used a largely structured survey questionnaire with an inclusion of few open-ended items. The survey data collected were largely based on the “perceptions” of mostly experienced project management practitioners, whose perspectives on project processes and performance are likely to be more dependable. Because of budget limitations, a total of 260 questionnaires were mailed to randomly selected PBFs (with an enclosed self-addressed and stamped return envelope). Of the 260 questionnaires sent to PBFs, 58 questionnaires were returned, representing a return rate of just over 22 percent. Findings Results indicate that “high time pressures towards the end of the project,” “too much focus on short-term project deliverables,” and “fear of negative sanctions when disclosing project mistakes” were three top-ranked factors that inhibited knowledge transfer across projects. Some “higher order” project management competencies like “dynamic competencies” have relatively a greater impact on predicting project efficiency. Dynamic competencies will only continue to increase in importance as today’s project environments are characterized as continuously evolving, turbulent, and complex and require the need to be effective in dealing with various uncertainties. Once included in the regression equation, the “ownership variable” dominates all other explanatory variables in predicting project efficiency among a sample of PBFs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), most likely driven by the project management competencies of multinational corporations (MNCs). However, the project efficiency of state-owned PBFs did not differ significantly from that of “international firms that were not MNCs.” Specific conditions may have led to such an outcome. The author shows that enhancing project efficiency requires the reinforcement of multiple but specific factors. Research limitations/implications As the study was largely conducted on a limited budget and time frame, the author was not able to employ a multi-method approach. The inclusion of a few case studies would have facilitated triangulation of the current findings. In addition, the study captures “perceptions” and practical experiences of project management practitioners. Future studies could possibly develop what may be seen as “objective” measures of project learning and project management competencies. A larger survey supported by a larger budget would be one option in which some of the findings could be tested across PBFs located in different sectors and countries. Practical implications The author argues that the creation of a client-led “no-blame culture” within PBFs can ensure the development of a “safe” environment in which project team members can acknowledge project mistakes without the fear or danger(s) that may come with such admission. This may require changes in project organizational culture that reduces power distance, lowers sensitivity to hierarchal power relations, enhances team building efforts, and fosters a “learning climate” that tolerates “trial and error” experimentation. It may also require strengthening clients’ specific capabilities. Such change may require time and patience but could take advantage of “positive” aspects of participatory practices, personal relationships, and consensus decision-making approach that is prevalent in the UAE culture. One managerial implication points to the need to tailor scarce resources in building up multi-dimensional “higher order” competencies like “dynamic competencies” that have a relatively higher significant impact on enhancing project efficiency. Linking MNCs with local PBFs as collaborative mega project delivery partners may lead to enhancing project management competencies of the latter, conditional on their absorptive capacity. Originality/value The contribution of the paper is in providing survey-based empirical evidence that goes beyond case studies to highlight the importance of enhancing “higher order” project management competencies, such as “dynamic competencies,” that have a stronger predictive power of project efficiency in PBFs. The study also ranks the relative importance of various factors that inhibit the transfer of new knowledge across projects. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that has demonstrated the statistical relationship between “higher order” project management competencies and project efficiency. Project efficiency is a multi-faceted construct. Its strengthening is determined by a configuration of multiple but specific factors. A more “nuanced” understanding of the relationship between project management competencies and project efficiency in a particular context may be required.

Project finance is the process of financing a specific economic unit that the sponsors create, in which creditors share much of the venture’s business risk and funding is obtained strictly for the project itself. Project finance creates value by reducing the costs of funding, maintaining the sponsors financial flexibility, increasing the leverage ratios, avoiding contamination risk, reducing corporate taxes, improving risk management, and reducing the costs associated with market imperfections. However, project finance transactions are complex undertakings, they have higher costs of borrowing when compared to conventional financing and the negotiation of the financing and operating agreements is time-consuming. In addition to describing the economic motivation for the use of project finance, this paper provides details on project finance characteristics and players, presents the recent trends of the project finance market and provides some statistics in relation to project finance lending activity between 2000 and 2014. Statistical analysis shows that project finance loans arranged for U.S. borrowers have higher credit spreads and upfront fees, and have higher loan size to deal size ratios when compared with loans arranged for borrowers located in W.E. On the contrary, loans closed in the U.S. have a much shorter average maturity and are much less likely to be subject to currency risk and to be closed as term loans.

Purpose This paper intends to propose an approach for formation of the R&D project teams, so that in addition to the selection of the most expert individuals, facilitates the knowledge sharing among people. Design/methodology/approach Mathematical modeling was used to formulate the problem of selecting appropriate members for the project team. As the problem was formulated as a bi-objective mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, it was initially transformed from nonlinear to linear problem, and then, the global criterion method was applied to convert the problem into a single-objective problem. To collect the data for exogenous variables, the measurement scales (their validity had been verified in previous research) were adopted. Findings The results of various tests for evaluating the proposed approach in the case study confirmed its effectiveness in selecting the appropriate members of the project team. Practical implications Using the proposed approach, R&D project managers will be able to select the most appropriate members for the project team and, while ensuring the achievement of project objectives, prevent the loss of knowledge gained in the project lifecycle. Originality/value This paper is the first attempt to provide an approach for sharing the knowledge gained by the project team members in the R&D projects.

Cooperative projects involve a set of self-interested contractors, each in charge of a part of the project. Each contractor may control the duration of his activities, which can be shorten up to an incompressible limit, by gathering extra resources at a given cost. In this context the resulting project makespan depends on all contractors' decisions. The client of the project is interested in a short project makespan. As an incentive, the client offers a daily reward to be shared among the contractors in order to complete the project earlier than expected. In practice, either the reward sharing policy results from an upfront agreement or payments are freely allocated by the client himself. Each contractor is only interested in the maximization of his own profit, and behaves accordingly. This paper addresses the problem of finding a Nash equilibrium and a sharing policy that minimize such project makespan while ensuring its local stability. We explain how the resulting problem, which is NP-hard, can be modeled and solved with mixed integer linear programming (MILP). A computational analysis on large instances proves the effectiveness of our approach. Useful insights are also derived from an empirical investigation of the influence of reward sharing policy, for a better understanding of how a project customer should make the most of his funds in such project management context.

In this study, we address a public R&D project portfolio selection problem with project cancellations. For several reasons, a funded R&D project may be halted before finishing the planned research. When a project is canceled, most of its budget is usually unused and also some of the spendings can return to the funding organization. In the call-based R&D programs, usually project selection decisions are made in one go, and, in the current call, it is not possible to award new projects with the unused budget. Decision-makers (DMs) of funding organizations can benefit from considering possible project cancellation situations to improve the budget utilization. We consider two cases. In the first case, we assume that cancellation probability of a project cannot be assessed but the DM can estimate the number of projects that will be canceled. In the second case, we assume that for each project, a cancellation probability can be assessed. For the first problem, we develop a mixed-integer linear programming formulation and a dynamic programming algorithm. For the second problem, we develop a chance-constrained stochastic programming formulation that can be solved as a mixed-integer second-order cone program. Our computational results show that practical-size problems can be solved by the proposed solution approaches.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: ( a) to present a nontraditional, performance outcome–based public–private partnership (PPP) approach to finance and fund freeway reconstruction that relies not just on generating new revenue but also on optimizing scope and costs to achieve financial viability and ( b) to demonstrate how the approach can be evaluated for a specific project with an innovative value for money (VfM) assessment method that considers financial parameters, risk elements, and social benefits. The paper assesses the potential effects of the approach for a hypothetical project on ( a) the public agency’s financial position and ( b) public welfare. For this assessment, the effects of the project itself are assessed first by comparing conventional delivery of the project with “no build,” assuming that the project can be conventionally delivered in the same time frame as the PPP. Next, the effects of project acceleration are assessed by analyzing the effects of delaying conventional project delivery because of the public agency’s fiscal constraints. Finally, the PPP approach is compared with conventional delivery using public financing. The evaluation approach demonstrates how current VfM analysis practice may be enhanced by ( a) including a quantitative assessment of public welfare benefits and ( b) considering “no build” operations and maintenance cost savings to assess the net effect on the financial position of the agency.

The construction industry tumbled along with the other industry/sectors during the recent economic crash. Construction business could not regain thereafter and is still passing through a slowdown phase, resulting in time and cost overrun of many real estate as well as infrastructure projects. There are many theories, tool and techniques with software packages available in the market to analyze construction schedule. This study focuses on the construction project schedule and uncertainties associated with construction activities. The infrastructure construction project has been considered for the analysis of uncertainty on project activities affecting project duration and analysis is done using @RISK software. Different simulation results arising from three probability distribution functions are compiled. This study helps construction project managers to plan and prepare more realistic schedules for construction projects and document probable project completion date in the contract to avoid compensations or claims arising due to missing the planned schedule. Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/mijst.2017.31.104109 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

Analysis of possible risks in the process of implementing a specific project has been carried out, measures to reduce their negative impact on the project have been developed and proposed. The object of study is a wind energy project, namely a wind farm working as part of the national energy system. The implementation of the project is related to both external and internal risk factors that are characteristic to such projects in the real economy sector under the current conditions. Such risks have been classified and the fractional structure of risk adjustment has been analysed taking into account the properties of the particular wind energy project, which consists of three main components. A description has been given of the innovative technology selected for project implementation, power generation using wind, which is used to limit the negative influence of the above-mentioned risks. The current strategic management tools, such as SWOT analysis and McKinsey matrix, which are useful for the identification of project risks, have been examined. For the wind energy project that is being implemented, the project dot location coordinates were determined in the McKinsey matrix on axes: Advantages against competitors and Market attractiveness. Also, a sector characterising the project development prospects was established to be subsequently used as a tool for risk identification. Following the identification of risks, specific measures of state support and special project management measures were developed and proposed to be implemented with the aim of limiting the negative influence of the possible project risks.

The report examines trends in the development, construction project management systems in the overall system of the global network economy. The approaches of system developing the information tools of investment and construction project management of complex infrastructure projects is proved throughout their lifecycle from project initiation to disposal facility.

This article is devoted to a problem of project success and failure assessment. The purpose of the work is to analyse the existing approaches to the assessment of project results, and to identify potential benefits that an organization obtains in the process of project success or failure determination. Theoretical aspects of a project management in the field of the project result assessment are analysed to achieve the aim of the study. The concept of project success and failure is presented from the point of view of the development of a project management. The traditional and modern understanding of project success and failure is determined in the article. The traditional approach estimates project results from the point of view of triple restriction for the project: terms, budget and quality. Modern approach estimates any project according to a multiple combination of various restrictions. Two approaches to the evaluation of a project have been developed by the authors based on the scientific literature review. They are binary and flexible approaches. A binary approach estimates the project results on the basis of traditional constrains: to follow the constrains means the project success, otherwise at least one restriction is not observed the project will fail. A flexible approach takes into account both traditional and additional restrictions determined by managers and interested parties of a project. For all that the project success or failure is determined on the basis of ranged restriction according to their importance (restriction priority). Practical application of the approaches to project success or failure determination is examined in the case studies that allow demonstrate scientific and practical value of the results obtained by the authors as well as the specific character of both binary and flexible approaches in the field of project management. In particular the above mentioned approaches were applied to the building and commission of the fifth terminal at Heathrow and the project of Donald Trump’s electioneering. After the analysis of the case studies the disadvantages of the binary approach and the adaptability of the flexible one to project success and failure have been revealed, that is very important in the current environment instability. Moreover, the advantages of the flexible approach are the assessment of project results according to different restriction priorities and the ability to assess the project success and failure simultaneously. This fact allows determine the best and worst practices within a particular project. Expertise and realisation of a huge number of projects permits an organisation to gain the experience, to standardize the management processes, to decrease costs, and as a result, to become more competitive. The application of the authors’ approach in complex increases the efficiency of an organisation management. Further the authors are intended to develop a multi-factors model for a project assessment considering the interested parties and project restriction priorities conferring a value for each restriction. In future it will allow ranging the project restriction from the point of view of their importance. Keywords efficiency of the organisation activity, a project, project success, project failure, a traditional approach, a modern approach, constraints for success achievement, restriction priorities. References 1. Batalova T., Kodeikh N. Teoretiko-metodologicheskie podkhody k modelirovaniiu otsenki uspekha proektov [Theoretical and methodological approaches to modeling the assessment of project suc-cess]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Seriia «Ekonomika» [Perm University Herald. ECONOMY], 2013, no. 2 (17), pp. 24–29. (In Russian).2. Klishin А. V srok ili v ramkakh biudzheta: kak otsenit' uspeshnost' proekta? [In time or within the budget: how to estimate success of the project?]. Fundamental'nye i prikladnye issledovaniia v sov-remennom mire [Basic and Applied Researches in the Modern World.], 2016, no. 14–2, pp. 156–159. (In Russian).3. Kerzner H. Project management 2.0: leveraging tools, distributed collaboration, and metrics for project success. New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2015. 339 p.4. Аrtem'ev D., Kilina K. Osobennosti opredeleniia uspekha internet-proektov [Specifics of deter-mining the success of Internet projects]. Menedzhment i biznes-administrirovanie [Management and Business Administration], 2015, no. 1, pp. 88–109. (In Russian).5. Аrtem'ev D., Grebenshchikova E. Kriterii uspekha proektov po razrabotke novogo produkta na raznykh stadiiakh ikh zhiznennogo tsikla [Success criteria of projects for new product development at differ-ent stages of their life cycle]. Ars administrandi, 2015, no. 4, pp. 41–56. (In Russian).6. Kerzner H. Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. New York, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2001. 1122 p.7. Burke R. Planning and Control Techniques. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2013. 384 p 8. Els M., Van der Merwe M., Hauptfleisch A. Critical success criteria and success factors in pro-ject management: A quest to enhance generic professional practice. ICEC Publ., 2012, no. 36, pp. 1–15.9. Atkinson R. Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, it’s time to accept other success criteria. International Journal of Project Management, 1999, no. 6 (17), pp. 337–342.10. Belassi W., Tukel O. A new Framework for Determining Critical Success-Failure Factors in Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 1996, no. 3, pp. 141–151.11. Cooper R. Formula for Success. Marketing Management Magazine, 2006, March-April, pp. 21–24.12. Cooper R. Kleinschmidt E. Winning Businesses in Product Development: The Critical Success Factors. Research Technology Management Industrial Research Institute Publ., 2007, no. 50, pp. 52–66.13. Shenhar A. et al. Project Success: A Multidimensional Strategic Concept. Long Range Planning, 2001, no. 6 (34), pp. 699–725.14. Koelmans R. Project success and performance evaluation. International Platinum Conference “Platinum Adding Value”. The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Publ., 2004, pp. 229–236.15. Priemus H., Wee B. International handbook on mega-projects. Cheltenham (UK), Edward Elgar Publ., 2013. 462 p.16. Silvius G. Considering Sustainability in Project Management Processes. Handbook of Research on Sustainable Development and Economics, 2015, pp. 311–334.17. Silvius G., Schipper R., Planko J., Brink J., Kohler A. Sustainability in project management. England, Gower Publ., 2012. 164 p.18. Silvius G., Schipper P. Sustainability in project management: A literature review and impact analysis. 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In recent years, the size of road projects has increased significantly. These projects face several challenges due to the size and the complexity of the projects. The purpose of this paper is to identify the project delivery method of a large road project in Norway and to explore the nature of the challenges the project faces. In addition, the paper will assess how implementing early contractor involvement (ECI) affects these challenges in the case project. In addition to a literature study, a case study on a public road project was carried out. The case study was conducted by a document study and semi-structure in-depth interviews with ten key personnel. The key personnel include representatives from the client side as well as representatives from the design team and the main contractor. Even though the project is large and complex, the client has used design-bid-build (DBB) as project delivery method. By using this project delivery method, the client faced several challenges during the early stages of the project execution. Some of the client's challenges were shortcomings in the design, as well as lack of control of the subcontractors. By involving the contractor's knowledge in the early phase, some of the challenges could have been reduced. Since the project will not be fully implemented until the spring of 2019, the paper addresses challenges in the early execution phase of the project. ECI should be considered in such large and complex road projects to reduce challenges that could appear in the execution phase. Since several large and complex road projects are coming, the experience from this case study could help them to decide the project delivery method.

Project managers need to determine the appropriate operations for solving problems in project management. In order to obtain the necessary skills for determining these operations, project managers learn and practice the theory of project management, which requires great deal of time and money. To provide more efficient training for project managers, we developed a skill-up simulator to allow the project manager to practice such operations on a computer. However, the simulator did not show the project manager which operations need to be improved. Our proposed method identifies the operations that need to be improved in comparison to other operations. Because it is time-consuming to collect operations from other project managers, agent programs automatically generate the operations in the proposed method. By inputting the generated operations to the simulator, the proposed method obtains project results for the operations. Operations to be improved are identified by a decision tree trained with other operations and evaluations. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method can correctly identify operations that need to be improved.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reengineer the process of cost management in large projects. Design/methodology/approach Considering the fact most large projects overrun their budgets because of the long time period needed to completion, it was decided to reengineer the cost management. Accordingly costs allocated to packages were reviewed and changed on a dynamic basis. Different types of contingencies were provided. Concepts of package contingency and project contingency were introduced. These were based on the project buffer and feeding buffer concepts popularised by Eliyahu Goldratt. Findings The re-engineered method of cost control worked well and yielded better than expected results, leading to the setting up of a new world record in the completion time for setting up a million tonnes per annum continuous, tandem cold rolling mill to roll steel sheets. Research limitations/implications In view of the total success of the reengineered approach, which was tested out on a large project over three years, it is felt that other projects could also try out this technique, especially since it is along the lines proposed by Eliyahu Goldratt who is an authority on project management. However the success can be better understood if the results of the testing become available. To that extent the contents of the present paper have limitations. Practical implications Large projects can deploy the methodology and complete their projects on time and under budget. Social implications The reengineering of the cost management was done primarily with a view to complete projects under budget. Since many governments spend many billions of dollars on publicly funded projects for the welfare of citizens, the use of this technique could have a salutary effect on the cost. Originality/value The method was innovated in the company by the author’s team and deployed in a live project over four years for the first time to achieve world-class results.

Purpose Literature on organizational analysis identified that project participants have a certain impact on the project outcome. However, there is no study that identifies the impact of project teams and individual project participants on a green building project. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of green building project teams on green building certification. Design/methodology/approach Project information, project team information, and green building certification grade were collected using the Canadian green building database. Project team data were analyzed and organizations were ranked based on their green building project experience and collaborations with experienced green building organizations. The page rank algorithm is used to calculate the rank of organizations in order to identify the impact of organizational rank on the final green building certification grade of a project. Findings The results show a positive relationship between the green building certification grade and the number of organizations with more green building experience in a project team. The results also show that not having experienced key organizations such as owners, designers, and contractors will likely lead to a lower green building certification grade. Originality/value Impact of project teams on green building projects has not been studied before. This study used an innovative method to analyze green building project teams and to investigate the importance of green building project experience. The findings of this study provided evidence to support the influence of project team compositions in green building projects. The results presented in this paper can help project owners and managers during project team formation for successful execution of green building projects.

One of the most important parameters that is currently used in public and private procurement in building process is the lowest price. The legislation of Latvia permits that an estimate forming process does not include criterions of quality, durability, and the potential high cost of maintaining the building during the exploitation time. That allows the constructor to reduce the cost estimate by using cheaper construction product or technology and does not let to provide the highest possible quality and the basic principle of sustainable construction. One of possible construction cost reduction solutions is the replacement of building material with equal building material, at the same time assessing the quality and replacement impact on the direct costs of estimate. The tasks of the research are: (1) to do literature review on what is an estimate, what an estimate includes and the basis of estimate; (2) to analyse the existing construction estimate, to evaluate the used construction materials and to study technical characteristics of materials, to explore a specific construction junction; (3) to replace the selected construction materials with analogous, thus reducing the direct costs of estimate; (4) to evaluate the affect of the price of the construction material on quality; (5) to compare the obtained cost estimate with the current cost estimate; (6) to implement laboratory research and to compare technical characteristics of the construction materials and analogue materials in order to check if they are the performing parameters that are defined in the declaration of performance. After comparing of the obtained direct costs of construction and analysing the quality of construction materials it is possible to provide the most appropriate offer of the direct costs of estimate to satisfy the customer’s interests.

This article deals with the economic conditions required from a candidate capital investment project for its admittance within a firm's project portfolio. A stationary stochastic model is used to assess a project's N P ˜ V and its impact on a firm's expected profitability and down-side operational risk when measured by its probability of loss and conditional expected loss. In order to lower the firm's operational risk the PMO can devise, assess and implement project efficiency management (PEM) and project risk management programmes (PRM) during the PM phase of the candidate capital investment project; their economic value determines their maximum admissible implementation budgets. When the correlation coefficient between the economic activities of the candidate project and the firm takes a negative value exceeding a threshold value, its addition to the firm's project portfolio will reduce the firm's operational risk while rendering counter-productive the implementation of any effective PRM programme. 1

Despite continuous efforts into benchmarking over the last decades, few have focused on management efforts of project organizations who are involved in managing the capital project. This study presents a phase-based framework and 10 input measures for measuring project management efforts in a capital project. The measures are planning, organizing, leading, controlling, design efficiency, human resources, quality, sustainability, supply chain, and safety. This study quantifies and assesses the inputs and further sorts the results by industry sectors and project phases. The analyses show that traditional functions tend to have more consistent implementation than construction-specific functions. The results indicate that infrastructure sector tends to exert fewer and less consistent efforts than building and industrial sectors. This study contributes a new benchmarking framework and is the first to quantify project management inputs of a capital project systematically. Additionally, phase-focused and phase-wide benchmarking applications of the input measures are also discussed and provided.

Project management is one of the main areas of contemporary organization management. This article is aimed at analysis of existing tools of project assessment - mainly comprehensive methods, but also partial techniques - and referring them to undertakings efficiency calculation which comprises cost-effectiveness evaluation, risk analysis, and investment decision taking. Business case (BC), as one of the comprehensive methods of project assessment, is simultaneously the main subject in PRINCE2 (PRoject IN Controlled Environments). It is for this reason that the case study for BC is based on this recognised method of project management. This article contains also the proposals of solutions of discerned problems within project assessment.

Construction projects are facing a greater number of uncertainties and more severe risks, which could cause much bigger losses than in the past, therefore, undertake of identification the factors that influence the cost overruns are indispensable. Resources of construction projects including the man, money, methods, machines, materials, and the market, all of these resources need to be arranged so that the project resources can be used effectively and efficiently or optimally. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that cause the cost overruns in construction projects. Based on the results of the identification of the factors that cause the cost overrun on the implementation of construction project obtained several factors: estimated costs (X1), implementation and working relationships (X2), and the project documents (X3). I. Introduction In the implementation of projects, often projects experiencing cost overruns. Therefore, the project financing is the primary consideration, as usually involves a large number and vulnerable to the risk of project failure. Therefore, the implementation of construction projects requires a good project management, which aims to avoid or minimize project risks that may occur, including the risk of cost overrun and delay in execution time. A project will be successful if in accordance with the cost or budget has been planned, on time, and within specifications. Thus, a much-needed level of expertise, knowledge and experience that high in estimating the cost of the project until the project's cash flow management during the implementation stage, expertise in coordinating project resources, and project control are good so there is no cost overrun that could harm the

For monitoring the status of project activities, project costs, and for controlling the project, the Earned Value Management system (EVM) is extensively used by both researchers and practitioners. However, using only EVM methodology to control a project schedule, the project manager will not know accurately when to take the appropriate corrective measures or when to exploit opportunities for the project. We suggest in this work using both EVM methodology and statistical process control (SPC) in order to better control a project schedule progress. Using the software R, a control chart for monitoring the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) individual observations is designed for the application of the study. We present results and conclusions about unusually slow or unusually fast work progress for a construction project, about the link between the schedule progress and the project team stages of development, and about the entry data necessary to design a project control chart for controlling the sched...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate relational practices that can improve construction project outcomes in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the literature review, a questionnaire was designed containing 14 relational practices that were identified and grouped under five relational norms. Using a survey questionnaire, data were collected from clients, consultants and contractors in Malaysia’s construction industry. In-depth interviews were conducted to validate the statistical findings. Findings – When contracts are adjustable to address uncertainties, the projects concerned have better cost and quality outcomes. A better schedule outcome is correlated with coordinating and monitoring plans jointly. Open communication and sharing trustworthy project information have been found to produce better client-consultant and consultant-contractor relationships at the end of a project. When parties maintain a social relationship outside of a project, relationships between clients, contractors and consultants also improve significantly. Research limitations/implications – The findings are not easily generalisable due to the relatively small sample size, low response rate and the data being collected from only three regions in Malaysia. Practical implications – Clients need to take the lead in adopting relational practices, as these may give rise to warmer relationships and better project outcomes. Showing too much commitment and flexibility may harm the project schedule because of the frequent changes. Originality/value – This study found that the theory of relational contracting norms applies to Malaysia’s construction industry. The parties do not rely strictly on contract conditions but embrace role integrity, preserve relations and harmony to avoid relational conflict, and achieve their goals through proper means.

This paper presents an analysis method that quantifies the relationship between project management practices and the cost performance of construction projects. The analysis method includes a series of analysis procedures and methods: data measurement and transformation, contingency table analysis, logistic regression, and a composite index. Step-by-step analysis procedures and methods are described along with the data obtained from 143 owner projects to examine the effect of nineteen project management practices on cost performance. The analysis method uncovers the minimum implementation levels of project management practices for better cost performance, and quantifies the combined effects of project management practices on cost performance varied by their implementation levels. The analysis results generate specific and quantitative information used in implementing project management practices for better cost performance. This information will help practitioners achieve improved cost performance in the most effective and efficient way. The analysis method designed with a series of statistical methods makes it possible to produce useful quantitative information for the implementation of project management practices.

Increase in the number of two-wheeled motor vehicles (motorcycles, vehicles of category L3) is observed in the traffic of almost all countries in the world. That is why the number of victims and people seriously injured in the road traffic accidents (RTA) has considerably increased. The majority of RTA is the result of many factors which form together sets of different causes and effects. Identification of actual reasons having led to a traffic accident, as well as their attendant circumstances, is one of the most important tasks in ensuring traffic safety. On the one hand, configurations of two-wheeled motor vehicles have been significantly improved over the last decades, so it is necessary to align the analytical apparatus of estimating parameters of the braking process with these configurations. On the other hand, the current practice of expert analysis and settlement of accidents still involves estimation of increase in braking time and steady deceleration of motorcycles manufactured domestically during the past years, which hardly participate in the modern traffic due to their age. Both of these circumstances require review and adjustment, as well as formation of an updated basis of estimate for assessment of braking processes of two-wheeled motor vehicles in order to increase the reliability of RTA examination and determine compliance or non-compliance of driver’s actions with the requirements of traffic rules, establish the causes of accidents, evaluate a technical capability of a driver of the two-wheeled motor vehicle to prevent the accident. Settlement of all these issues can be provided by effective methods of calculation (quantitative) assessment, which are not available at the present moment.

People-centered innovation is a paradigm shift in the construction industry. It is derived from the supposition that people not methods, schedules, or budgets deliver projects. Our data suggest that a multilevel, multidisciplinary project team through shared vision, values, and a common vernacular defines, designs, and delivers more successful projects than traditional methods. These projects meet the needs of shareholders, the community, stakeholders, and the planet. We employ the concepts of emotional intelligence and agency theory to explain an integrated project delivery (IPD) construction project using lean tactics that not only delivered, but also exceeded expectations resulting in a six-month schedule acceleration and $60M savings over the original estimated cost of the project calculated assuming traditional project delivery methods. The safety rating for this project was 50% better than the national average and the expected improvement in operating margin for the new building is 33% greater. This paper introduces the notion of people-centered innovation to an industry that has struggled to adapt and show positive results over recent decades. Our case study describes the significance of people-centered innovation in construction project delivery. We discuss the implications for the construction industry going forward.

Many organizations establish projects to undertake change efforts. However, the aimed-for benefits are often difficult to harvest. A viable way to move the field forward may be to address the WHO question related to project benefit realization. A case study was undertaken in the international service organization with multi-site branches. The aim of this study was to investigate the potentials of integrating line managers in a formal role as project benefit managers within a project team for enhancing realization of project benefits. Based on the findings, we claim that line managers as project benefit managers can enhance compliance in project implementation. This is not least due to their detailed knowledge about operational processes. However, the cohesiveness of a project benefit manager’s network as well as the mutual relationship between the project benefit manager and relevant peer managers has an importance for the success of the project benefit managers.

In the implementation of the project, all parties involved expect the project can be completed in accordance with the expected goals. The expected goals, among others, order to the project was completed on time, not exceeding set budget and quality is met. Constraints in the implementation of the project will occur if the project objectives are not achieved properly. In the implementation of the projectmany conflicts or disputes between the elements involved in the implementation of the project. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors of conflict on the construction project.

Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to give unique output or product and infrastructure is a physical structure needed for the operations of society. These infrastructure projects have different complexities and uncertainties, hence the continuous project performance evaluation becomes necessity for project. Scope, Schedule and Budget: these are the major potential measures in order to evaluate the performance of project. Earned value analysis can be used as a project performance evaluator for infrastructure project. Earned value analysis integrates cost, schedule and work performance to estimate the status of project. This is the technique which gives the quantitative measure of a project performance. In Earned value analysis comparison between planned baseline and actual progress of work is conducted. Study includes the continuous evaluation of PQC road project during 1st October 2014 to 15 th March 2015. Work break down structure is prepared such that single work package is obtained and accordingly scheduling is done using MS-Project 2013.By comparing progress of actual work to baseline values of Cost variance, schedule variance, Critical ratio, Cost performance index, schedule performance index are calculated and continuous evaluation is carried out.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find good values of onsite-offshore team strength; number of hours of communication between business users and onsite team and between onsite and offshore team so as to reduce project cost and improve schedule in a global software development (GSD) environment for software development project. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs system dynamics simulation approach to study software project characteristics in both co-located and distributed development environments. The authors consulted 14 experts from Indian software outsourcing industry during our model construction and validation. Findings – The study results show that there is a drop in overall team productivity in outsourcing environment by considering the offshore options. But the project cost can be reduced by employing the offshore team for coding and testing work only with minimal training for imparting business knowledge. The research results show that there is a potential to save project cost by being flexible in project schedule. Research limitations/implications – The implication of the study is that the project management team should be careful not to keep high percentage of manpower at offshore location in distributed software environment. A large offshore team can increase project cost and schedule due to higher training overhead, lower productivity and higher error proneness. In GSD, the management effort should be to keep requirement analysis and design work at onsite location and involves the offshore team in coding and testing work. Practical implications – The software project manager can use the model results to divide the software team between onsite and offshore location during various phases of software development in distributed environment. Originality/value – The study is novel as there is little attempt at finding the team distribution between onsite and offshore location in GSD environment.

Project managers are concerned about completing the projects on time and cost. IT projects across the globe are notorious for their time and cost overruns. This paper presents output from a comprehensive study on software development risk and project outcome with respect to the projects executed by software companies in India. Based on the data collected from over 300 projects, the authors developed a discriminant model for predicting the project outcome category based on risk scores of a project. The discriminant models developed are seen to possess adequate prediction accuracy to be used in practice. The models can help the project managers in early detection of likely project failures and hence to initiate appropriate counter strategies.

The current trend in modern project management methodologies is to maximize project values. We suggest a quantitative model that balances time, cost, and value. It generates detailed project plans, which are feasible with respect to time, cost, and resource-constraints, and considers interactions between technical performance, time, and cost. Such interactions, which existing project management models typically ignore or project managers deal with intuitively, are important for increasing projects' values. The model, which extends the multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem by including value, generates an efficient frontier that includes the best project plans for varying project costs. We provide illustrative examples to demonstrate the suggested approach.

This chapter presents a recommended systematic risk management program and further describes a methodology for analyzing field architectures to improve the reliability of system design and to reduce operating expenses by using reliable engineering tools. A subsea project is complex and involves uncertainties from a wide range of sources. Managing these uncertainties in a systematic and efficient manner with a focus on the most critical uncertainties is the objective of a successful risk management plan. Some of the areas of uncertainty that need to be considered are as follows: technical; financial; organizational; contract/procurement; subcontractors; and political/cultural, etc. Project risk management is a systematic approach for analyzing and managing threats and opportunities associated with a specific project and can, thereby, increase the likelihood of attaining the project's objectives in terms of cost, schedule, and operational availability. The use of a project risk management process will also enhance the understanding of major risk drivers and howthese affect project objectives. Through this insight, decision makers can develop suitable risk strategies and action plans to manage and mitigate potential project threats and exploit potential project opportunities.

We use a mechanism-design approach to study a team whose members select a joint project and exert individual efforts to execute it. Members have private information about the qualities of alternative projects. Information sharing is obstructed by a trade-off between adaptation and motivation. We determine the conditions under which first-best project and effort choices are implementable and show that these conditions can become relaxed as the team grows in size. We also characterize the second-best mechanism and find that it may include a “motivational bias,” that is, a bias in favor of the team's initially preferred project, and higher-than-optimal effort by uninformed team members.

The article exposes the feasibilities of using the dynamic method of controlling the terms of investment and construction projects during the underground construction, particularly the principles of ensuring the completion of construction projects to meet the date, because in many cases project deadline exceed leads to catastrophic outcomes for the aims and results of the project. Thus, the present article deals with the relevant issues of project schedule control, methodology study based on application of schedule timeliness index and schedule progress index, indicating upon reaching the critical value of extreme deviations from the forecast project duration of targeted project implementation at any moment of time. The suggestion herein is to calculate the minimum possible durations for each project activity and estimate the project duration safety margin coefficient of the project of underground construction. Based on the safety margin coefficient value it is suggested to define the border values for project shift from one status to another upon criteria of its timely completion possibility. The suggested methodology can be recommended for use by underground construction project managers in order to prevent a potential failure of project completion deadlines. The system indicating critical project time variance enables to initiate the process of project schedule adjustment before point of no return and herewith prevent project failure. The studied methodology was implemented in modern project management software sphere.

Project owners are important. They shall support the project manager and provide senior backing to a project. However, there are some different aspects of project ownership, which are discussed in this paper. The main research questions addressed in the paper are; how is the project owner role described in the literature, and how is the role in practice? The paper is mainly a theory review of the topic project ownership. We present a simple model for the relation between project owner, project manager and operation of the project delivery. The basis for the model and discussion is a theoretical review, but we also test the proposed model on a sample of projects. As we will see, this testing creates the need for a distinction between two types of project owners; one that is mainly concerned with supporting the project manager and enabling project delivery, the other being focused on the business case and having responsibility for both project delivery and benefit realization. There has been a development where the importance of the role as project owner has been highlighted. It is our impression that this development has had two ambitions. One is to strengthen project execution. The other ambition is to emphasize the business case perspective. These two perspectives call for different organizational positions of the persons called project owners. We urge future researchers and practitioners to clarify what type of project owner role that is referred to in different contexts. We also call for an awareness of the fact that different project owners will have different set of incentives and priorities. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

The effective implementation of the project management plays a core roll in avoiding bad project use effect and waste of funds, caused by asset management planning and design errors or equipment selection errors; meanwhile, it can effectively improve the operational efficiency of enterprise assets, lower operating costs and save resources. In June 1974, A. Gordon published a paper “3L Economics Concept” as the starting point, on the “Building and Quantity Surveying”, which is organized by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. In this paper, a review of domestic and foreign research, from 1974 to 2015, on the total life cycle management progress will be given, and then a comment on it will be established. After detailed investigation and analysis of related materials, we can draw a conclusion: the study of the oil and gas development project lifecycle management is just beginning now. Hence, building the whole life cycle planning index system in line with the characteristics of oil and gas development project is very necessary.

The purpose of this work is to adapt probabilistic modeling methods to time control and cost control of the investment and construction projects. The paper considered the possibility of application of Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) for the time control of construction project, and the Earned Value Management has been proposed as well as the control method for the project cost control. The study revealed that in the first step is to improve the Program Evaluation and Review Technique for the control and management of construction projects, and to expand Earned Value Management to the possibility of taking into account the probabilistic character of the cost.

Current classifications of highway design and construction projects are policy specific, ad hoc or based upon engineering judgement. This research defines an empirically-based highway project classification system through latent class analysis. Data from 291 projects completed between 2004 and 2015 by agencies across the United States serve as the basis for this analysis. The analysis explores project characteristic variables that include facility type, project type, highway type, project size in terms of cost and, project complexity. Latent class analysis provides an accurate and defensible project classification. This consistent classification of projects can aid researchers and practitioners in many applications such as enhancing the understanding of how agency decisions, like selection of a project delivery method, impact project performance.

Svetlana V. MALTSEVA - Professor, Department of Innovation and Business in Information Technologies, National Research University Higher School of EconomicsAddress: 20, Myasnitskaya Street, Moscow, 101000, Russian FederationE-mail: smaltseva@hse.ruPolina V. KOTELNIKOVA - Post-graduate Student, Department of Innovation and Business in Information Technologies, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Chief Inspector, Russian Accounts ChamberAddress: 20, Myasnitskaya Street, Moscow, 101000, Russian FederationE-mail: kotelnikovapolina@gmail.com This article presents an investment project model in the telecommunications sector using public-private partnership (PPP), making it possible to link the main project parameters (duration, volume of investments, fare, request) with the expected indexes of effectiveness. When considering the project parameters and indexes of effectiveness, interests of both the state and private company are taken into account.The modeling algorithm and criteria of performance evaluation are developed based on the standards approved for evaluation of investment projects with state participation, namely the Guidelines on performance evaluation of the investment projects approved by the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, State Construction Committee of the Russian Federation on June 21, 1999, No. VK 477. This paper assumes that the most important criterion for evaluation of project effectiveness of a private company is the maximum of the net present value of the project, meaning the excess of the total cash receipts over the total cost for the project with regard to disparity of the effects (costs and benefits) related to different moments in time. Therefore, the higher this index, the greater is the interest of a private company to participate in the project. It seems that from the standpoint of the state two factors are most important: the social significance of the project and minimum expenses of the state for implementation of the investment project under conditions of a limited capacity of spending budget funds. The social significance of the project is defined by expert study as the impact of the operational results on at least one of the domestic or foreign markets: financial markets, product and service markets, labor market, etc., as well as the ecological and social environment. The model makes it possible to calculate various scenarios to determine optimal project parameters ensuring maximum efficiency for a given limit on the amount of budget investments. The calculation results for the proposed model can be used to make decisions to participate in the project by the authorities or public development finance institutions. It is proposed to document the model used and its evaluation criteria in the rules of granting subsidies for such projects.

In this paper, we examine the project-based educational practice that is co-developing a solution to the local food inventory management system. This project is aimed at the practical business of IT distribution in small and medium industries, and is linked with the project course on undergraduate students of IT division. For the practical project of the IT distribution in small and medium industries, an employee in charge of the project participates as a mentor such that he presents the project subject and the students develop the system for the subject. This system emerges from existing theory and the necessity for a term project, and this course leads students to learn practical knowledge through discussion with the employee in charge. Through this course, the latest technology is shared mutually, and students have the opportunity to understand a domain of the IT distribution business. As students experience how to understand and solve cost, quality and delivery time for the project by themselves, they build confidence. Also, the company can save on costs for the development of prototypes, while creating an opportunity for students to experience working with seasoned staff.

Project planning is widely thought to be an important contributor to project success. However, there is a little research to affirm its impact and give guidance as to how much effort should be spent on planning to achieve best results. We aim to rectify this omission. Data was collected on 1386 projects from 859 respondents via a global survey. A significant relationship was found between the quality of the planning deliverables and success. Detailed analysis of the data collected revealed an inverted-U relationship between the percentage of effort spent on planning and project success. After correcting for key moderator effects, a significant relationship with an R2 of 0.15 was revealed. Further analysis showed that the fraction of planning effort that maximized the project success was 25% of project effort. This was substantially more than the 15% mean value reported by respondents. The greatest impact was found to be on the broad success measures with a lesser effect on project efficiency: time; budget; and scope. The inverted-U relationship between effort spent on planning and project success indicates that projects can spend too much time in planning, as well as too little. But we found that projects are spending less time in planning than the optimum to achieve best results.