scholarly journals Role and impact of social relationships and networks in a software project team environment – a conceptual framework

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Awie Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Software Project ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Project Environment ◽  
It Project ◽  
Research Findings

The establishment of social relationships between information technology (IT) project team members is a phenomenon all IT professionals are exposed to and, in many cases, involved in. Furthermore, these relationships are used by IT project team members for personal as well as professional purposes. The question is what positive or negative contributions do these kinds of relationships have on the project itself? Past studies have placed little focus on these social relationships and networks, and have failed to take cognisance of their importance in the IT project environment. This paper demonstrates that social relationships and networks in the IT project environment play a significant role in project teams and should be managed in such a way that the team members and the project as a whole can benefit from them. A partial grounded theory (GT) research approach was followed. Interpretive patterns from GT enabled inferences to be drawn about the role and impact of social relationships and networks in IT project teams. The research findings provide practical considerations and highlight potential problem areas. A conceptual framework is proposed to support management in decision making and to give them a better understanding of the complexities involved in such relationships.

Social Issues in IT Project Teams

2018 ◽  
pp. 777-787
Author(s):  
Awie C. Leonard ◽  
D. H. Van Zyl
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Software Project ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Project Environment ◽  
Team Environment ◽  
It Project ◽  
It Department

The role and impact of social issues in IT project teams should not be under estimated. With the involvement of virtual project teams, this is even more relevant. One such social issue is the establishment of relationships between members of teams. The establishment and maintenance of social relationships and networks in the IT project environment is a phenomenon all IT professionals are exposed to and in many cases involved in. The question is what impact such social relationships and networks might have on the success or failure of any given IT project? The objective of this chapter is therefore to emphasize the important role social relationships and networks play in the IT project team environment. Furthermore, to illustrate to the management of software project teams how such relationships can have a positive or negative impact on team members. In this regard a climate or culture should be allowed for these relationships to flourish to the benefit of the IT department.

Social Issues in IT Project Teams

2019 ◽  
pp. 392-404
Author(s):  
Awie C. Leonard ◽  
D. H. Van Zyl
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Software Project ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Project Environment ◽  
Team Environment ◽  
It Project ◽  
It Department

The role and impact of social issues in IT project teams should not be underestimated. With the involvement of virtual project teams, this is even more relevant. One such social issue is the establishment of relationships between members of teams. The establishment and maintenance of social relationships and networks in the IT project environment is a phenomenon all IT professionals are exposed to and in many cases involved in. The question is what impact such social relationships and networks might have on the success or failure of any given IT project. The objective of this chapter is therefore to emphasize the important role social relationships and networks play in the IT project team environment and furthermore, to illustrate to the management of software project teams how such relationships can have a positive or negative impact on team members. In this regard, a climate or culture should be allowed for these relationships to flourish to the benefit of the IT department.

Transfer of Information and Knowledge in the Project Management

2011 ◽  
pp. 544-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Kisielnicki
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Communication System ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Project Outcome ◽  
Communication Methods

Success and failure in information technology (IT) projects depend on many factors. Based on the analysis of literature as well as the author’s research and experience, we can build a working hypothesis of a significant influence of the communication system on a final project outcome in the context of: • Communication between the project team and the outside world (users, suppliers, other project teams, etc.) • Communication within a project team In project management literature, communication occupies a significant position (Candle & Yeates, 2003; Maylor, 2003). Most research projects, however, are focused on the analysis of communication between the project team and the outside world while communication within the project team seems to take a second place. From the literature dealing with building effective project teams, research carried out by Mullins (2001) deserves a closer look. Mullins researched the key contradiction within a project team; he discovered that project leaders demand from their team members the willingness to compromise and subordinate while at the same time they promote individualism and want to foster creativity. Chaffe (2001), on the other hand, concluded that most people during their professional career lose both their creativity and individualism and prefer to conform to the existing standards. This is the very reason why some leaders prefer to build their teams from young people knowing that they lack experience. By doing that, they realize they increase the risk of not achieving their goals. Therefore, the IT leaders need to combine these conflicting trends and build the project team to ensure the overall success of the project. Adair (1999) indicates three criteria that need to be taken into consideration when evaluating potential team members: competence, motivation, and personal traits. The subject of this article is to prove the hypothesis that the communication system within the team significantly influences the its effectiveness. The key question that needs to be answered is: what conditions does the project leader need to create in order to maximize the positive and minimize the negative effects of teamwork? While at first glance this hypothesis might seem obvious, detailed analysis does not lead to decisive conclusions. While executing the project, teams could use different communication methods to both define the project tasks as well as evaluate results. The effectiveness of various communication methods can be very different; therefore, we want to prove the hypothesis that:

Method for Improving the Efficiency of IT Project Management Using a Genetic Algorithm

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 673-682
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Vaynilovich ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Project Team ◽  
It Project Management ◽  
Labor Input ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Software Complex ◽  
It Project ◽  
Project Participants ◽  
Cocomo Ii

The article is devoted to solving the current problem of improving the efficiency of IT project management processes. When managing IT projects, managers are faced with the problem of formation teams and distributing tasks among project participants in the face of the need to minimize costs and completion dates of an IT project. The lack of necessary methods and software doesn't allow the IT project Manager to adequately assess competences and skills of participants, their personal qualities, which leads to a decrease in the effectiveness of project management. The article proposes a method of improving the efficiency of IT project management, which differs by using a genetic algorithm to form project commands and assign team participants to project tasks. The efficiency criterion is the complexity and duration of the project and individual tasks using the COCOMO II method. When forming project teams, takes into account the level of technologies proficiency, experience with technologies, the coherence of the project team members, and the experience of similar developments of project participants. The level of technologies proficiency affects the level of labor input multiplier, experience with technologies — at the level of the multiplier, the coherence of the project team members — on the level of scale factor, the experience of similar development — on the level of the scale factors of the COCOMO II methodology. Taking into account the personal and psychological qualities of project participants reduces the risk of interpersonal conflicts within the team, which also reduces the duration of projects and the labor input of solving tasks. Research of personal and psychological qualities is carried out on the basis of automated tests. The test suite includes Rosenzweig, Belbin, Myers-Briggs, Thomas and Honey-Mumford tests. The developed method is implemented in a software complex for multilevel IT project management. Testing of the method and software complex was carried out within the framework of the students' learning practice of the specialty "Software engineering" of the Belarusian-Russian University. The use of the proposed method allowed to reduce the labor input of solving the tasks of training projects by 19.2 %, to reduce the project realization term by 10 %.

Selecting the Project Teams’ Members. A Challenging Human Resources Management Process for Laboratory Research

2011 ◽  
Vol 495 ◽  
pp. 159-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia N. Markaki ◽  
Damianos P. Sakas ◽  
Theodoros Chadjipantelis
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Project Manager ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Laboratory Research ◽  
Management Process ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
The Way

The aim of our paper is to focus on the way a project manager chooses the appropriate members of his team in order to develop hi - technological project for a laboratory research in different sectors (business, hi-technological, financial, societal, political). Our aim is to focus on the differences and the challenges that hi - technological project team members have in laboratory research.

The Effect of Conflict and Knowledge Sharing on the Information Technology Project Team Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Barbara Hewitt ◽  
Diane B. Walz ◽  
Alexander McLeod
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Team Performance ◽  
Group Processes ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Technology Project ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
It Project ◽  
Information Technology Project

The existent literature lacks papers that explored the proposed model, which examines how process, relationship, and task conflict impacts knowledge sharing and the subsequently perceived team performance in the information technology (IT) development process. The proposed research model adds knowledge sharing to prior studies that explored how the types of conflict impacted team performance. The hypotheses were tested using a field survey, which was distributed to IT project team members. While team members who experience task conflicts tend to share more knowledge and perform better, members who experience more process or relationship conflicts are less likely to share knowledge, and the team performance is also impacted. The results offer insights to explain how the different types of conflict can affect knowledge sharing and subsequently group processes within IT project teams and, ultimately, improve or degrade performance.

Information systems project team members: factors for high performance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Moura ◽  
Caroline Dominguez ◽  
João Varajão
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Project Teams ◽  
Design Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
The Individual

PurposeThe main aim of this study is to contribute to the discussion on the factors that can influence the high performance of information systems (IS) project team members, from the individual perspective. This study also allows both IS project team members and their managers to have a thorough picture of high-performing project teams, helping them improve team design, management and performance in today's demanding business environment.Design/methodology/approachTo address the research questions, the authors carried out an exploratory case study of a small-sized holding company and a qualitative analysis of the data.FindingsResults show a set of perceived factors that can influence (facilitate/hinder) the high performance of IS project team members. “Proper reward systems” was the most mentioned facilitating factor. “Negative affectivity” and “Lack of competence” were the two most referred as hindering factors. Most of the perceived factors are classified in the literature as non-technical.Originality/valueBesides being among the very few empirical studies consolidating knowledge on the high performance of IS project team members, this paper extends the authors' previous research (done at the team level) to the individual team member level (as opposed to the team or organizational levels). In spite of IS being a highly technical industry, this study came across mostly human-centered factors transversal to different professionals (IS and non-IS) involved in project teams.

A Conceptual Framework to improve the design of sustainable off-grid microgrid systems for remote communities in developing countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Abhi Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
The Body ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Grid Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Standard Framework

<p>From job creation to economic development, from security concerns to the full empowerment of women, energy lies at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - agreed to by the world’s leaders in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda. In the words of former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the world to thrive." Approximately 1 billion people in the world today have no access to electricity, and the issues are dominating in the remote communities of the developing countries.  Decentralized systems have existed over a couple of decades to provide electricity provisions in the off-grid communities devoid of the necessary energy services. The literature, however, suggests that off-grid systems have failed in delivering the tasks set forth to curb the electricity crisis. The crisis has resulted in communities primarily residing in the remote/islanded areas having lower social and economic status compared to the urban areas with centralized grid connectivity. A further review of the literature points to a lack of a detailed standard framework for cross-sectional evaluation of sustainability and reliability of the off-grid systems, which results in non-uniformity of the universal electricity access.   Given this, the main objective of the thesis is to establish a conceptual framework to improve the design of remote off-grid microgrid systems through a Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) approach, by implementing a mixed-research approach. The research strategy adopted to advance knowledge and for achieving the objective of the research follows the Technology and Policy Assessment (TPA) approach, developed by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKREC). The research evaluation design involves formative evaluations where questionnaires designed for investigating failure cases of remote microgrids are introduced, and a conceptual framework is developed, based on the lessons learned.   The conceptual framework comprising of modules incorporates essential features of improving the TEA of the remote microgrids and emphasizes on features like stakeholder assessments, sustainability aspects, energy management, and improving energy efficiency as well as overall system autonomy of the rural off-grid systems. Furthermore, following the TPA approach, the conceptual framework has been verified by involving a focus group. IEEE-Sustainable Energy Systems for Developing Communities (SESDC) was involved in the research verification process. The proposed conceptual framework was validated by incorporating a quantitative analysis to situate the research findings.  The research findings in the thesis contribute extensively to the body of knowledge by establishing a standard framework indicating the importance of energy-efficient approaches towards scaling up sustainable remote microgrids for solving energy crisis issues. As it were, the practical contribution of the thesis is critical in identifying and characterizing the dimensions of the Sustainable Developing Goal 7 for “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” and its impact on the other SDGs, thereby enabling progress towards the target 2030 of the United Nations.</p>

A Conceptual Framework to improve the design of sustainable off-grid microgrid systems for remote communities in developing countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Abhi Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
The Body ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Grid Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Standard Framework

<p>From job creation to economic development, from security concerns to the full empowerment of women, energy lies at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - agreed to by the world’s leaders in September 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda. In the words of former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “Energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the world to thrive." Approximately 1 billion people in the world today have no access to electricity, and the issues are dominating in the remote communities of the developing countries.  Decentralized systems have existed over a couple of decades to provide electricity provisions in the off-grid communities devoid of the necessary energy services. The literature, however, suggests that off-grid systems have failed in delivering the tasks set forth to curb the electricity crisis. The crisis has resulted in communities primarily residing in the remote/islanded areas having lower social and economic status compared to the urban areas with centralized grid connectivity. A further review of the literature points to a lack of a detailed standard framework for cross-sectional evaluation of sustainability and reliability of the off-grid systems, which results in non-uniformity of the universal electricity access.   Given this, the main objective of the thesis is to establish a conceptual framework to improve the design of remote off-grid microgrid systems through a Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) approach, by implementing a mixed-research approach. The research strategy adopted to advance knowledge and for achieving the objective of the research follows the Technology and Policy Assessment (TPA) approach, developed by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKREC). The research evaluation design involves formative evaluations where questionnaires designed for investigating failure cases of remote microgrids are introduced, and a conceptual framework is developed, based on the lessons learned.   The conceptual framework comprising of modules incorporates essential features of improving the TEA of the remote microgrids and emphasizes on features like stakeholder assessments, sustainability aspects, energy management, and improving energy efficiency as well as overall system autonomy of the rural off-grid systems. Furthermore, following the TPA approach, the conceptual framework has been verified by involving a focus group. IEEE-Sustainable Energy Systems for Developing Communities (SESDC) was involved in the research verification process. The proposed conceptual framework was validated by incorporating a quantitative analysis to situate the research findings.  The research findings in the thesis contribute extensively to the body of knowledge by establishing a standard framework indicating the importance of energy-efficient approaches towards scaling up sustainable remote microgrids for solving energy crisis issues. As it were, the practical contribution of the thesis is critical in identifying and characterizing the dimensions of the Sustainable Developing Goal 7 for “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” and its impact on the other SDGs, thereby enabling progress towards the target 2030 of the United Nations.</p>

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