Educating Project Managers to Deal With Project Risks

During the last years, the development of the project risk management competencies became a ubiquitous objective for education and training in project management due to the increasing constraints which companies face on the implementation of their projects. Alignment to the professional standards and usage of innovative methods in designing and delivery of instruction represent common requirements that education and training providers should consider and fulfill. The authors examine the main challenges in addressing project risk management subject in the education programmes and identify how these challenges could be dealt by using curriculum management systems. In order to implement the identified improvements, the authors propose an innovative architecture for a curriculum management system, which can be adopted by those universities interested in developing competencies-based programmes in project management. Some preliminary results are presented and discussed.

Technique for Risk Identification of Software Acquisition and Information Technologies

In this chapter, the authors present the automatization of a technique for identifying the risks that may affect software acquisition projects. The proposed technique can have an impact in two software acquisition areas: 1) acquisition software contract for: Fully Developed (FD) software, Modified-Off-The-Shelf (MOTS) software, and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software; and 2) information technology services contract, which can be a result of using the required technological tools for the operation of any organization. In both cases, it is indispensable to manage and address (track) the risks that may affect the success of any project type mentioned above.

The Rigorous Security Risk Management Model

This chapter presents the security concepts terminologies (threat, risk, security risk management, security risk management process, security threat model) and present the state of the art of security risk management models, compare and discuss strengths and weaknesses of such models. Then it presents the Mean Failure Cost (MFC) model for quantifying security threats as a rigorous measure of cyber security, and as a cascade of linear models in order to estimate the system security using the loss of a given stakeholders as a result of security breakdown. Finally it presents an overview of the applicability of the MFC measure to e-systems. In the conclusion, the chapter criticizes the MFC Cyber Security Measure and presents an overview of different perspectives.

E-Banking in India

This chapter deals with the evolving process of electronic banking in India, focusing on the risks facing different payment and settlement systems. It covers how the banks are managing risks in payments and settlement systems within the ambit of Internet banking activities as per regulatory guidelines in India. In the process, it refers to a number of national and international institutions and countries.

Competitive Advantage and Automated Sharing of Tacit Knowledge

In this chapter, the authors investigate how raw data, obtained from a variety of sources, can be processed into knowledge using automated techniques that will help organizations gain a competitive advantage. Firms have amassed so much data that only automated methods, such as data mining or converting existing knowledge into expert systems is possible to make any sense of it or to protect it from competitors. Further, the data that is processed may be considered tacit knowledge because it is hidden from people until it is processed. In this chapter, the authors discuss various sources of data that might help an organization achieve and sustain a competitive advantage. A firm can data mine its own production database for insight regarding its customers and markets that have previously been ignored. It might also mine social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter), which has become a forum for individual preferences and activities from which the savvy organization could turn into competitive advantage. They also discuss how this knowledge can be protected from intrusion by competitors to sustain the competitive position it may achieve as a result of the discovery of knowledge from massive data sets.

Strategic Planning, Cultural Context, and Business Continuity Management

This study is focused on the role, importance and practice of Business Continuity Management (BCM) in relation with Strategic Planning (SP) and Cultural Context (CC) by offering a holistic framework for short-term and long-term strategic business analysis. The purpose is to create a unique structured plan for understanding the organizational failure willingness and to create a culture of readiness, feedback and risk management. The methodology used is quantitative with questionnaire for collection data. The study sample includes 50 organizations from four different sectors: banking, services, industrial and insurance in Shkoder (Albania). The research findings show a positive correlation between SP and BCM (0.54%), with a significant positive impact of SP on BCM. A positive correlation is founded between SP and CC (0.588%). The study suggests that placing the BCM in the Corporate Culture may be entitled as another manner of integrating BCM and SP in one structure. Between culture and strategy there is a huge number of characteristics and similarities they have in common with each other.

Considering Middle Circles in Mobile Cloud Computing

Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) is increasingly asserted as the technology with the potential to change the way internet and information systems are being utilized into business enterprises. It is rapidly changing the landscape of technology, and ultimately turning the long-held promise of utility computing into a reality. Nevertheless, utilizing MCC is never a trivial task, thus calling for a special approach to get the benefits, reduce risks and control operations. The main objective of this chapter is to provide some specific guidelines to provide governance directions to align MCC into enterprise strategy and reduce risks resulted from utilizing middle circle providers; In this context, this chapter also promote and discuss some ethics that help client enterprises and MCC providers understand roles and obligations in an ever changing environment.

Implementing Risk Management Processes Into a Cloud Computing Environment

With the significant advances in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) over the last half a century, the Cloud computing paradigm is one of the most discussed topics in the field of ICT today. Additionally, Cloud computing has a critical role in today's business world. Without risk management processes embedded into innovative technology that supports Cloud computing, businesses are setting themselves up for a fall. Hence, in this paper, the authors propose a conceptual model of implementing risk management processes into a Cloud computing environment. It highlights the different processes of risk management (risk identification, risk analysis, risk planning, risk execution, and risk monitoring) and how their existence can affect the Cloud environment to ensure proper protection of data and information in order to ensure Cloud networks and connections are secure.

Contemporary Financial Risk Management Perceptions and Practices of Small-Sized Chinese Businesses

This study investigated the current perceptions and practices of financial risk management at small businesses in China. The researchers took an interpretative approach, using interviews within a case study, to collect qualitative data from Chinese business owners. Despite the well-documented importance of financial risk management in light of the 2008 global financial crises, surprisingly, the data indicated that little progress has been made on implementing an effective financial risk management in many Chinese small businesses. Analysis indicated the core problems in the case study organization stemmed from a lack of expertise, along with insufficient operational resources, for applying risk management. Interestingly, the researchers also found that Chinese small business managers perceived financial risks differently from managers of large organizations in China. Specifically, small business owners preferred to utilize risk transfer and insurance cover to hedge against financial risk.

Supply Chain Management Practices, Competitive Advantage and Organizational Performance

Supply chain is the process of continuous flow of products or services from source to the destination. Supply chain management has become an effective tool now a day to survive in this competitive world. Organizations do their best to harvest profits by adopting better supply chain management practices for competitive advantage and organizational performance. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand the relationship among supply chain practices, competitive advantage, and organizational performance using structural equation modelling. This research conceptualizes and develops five secondary dimensions of supply chain practices (Use of technology, SC speed, Customer satisfaction, SC integration, and Inventory management). The research also identifies four primary competitive advantage components (Inventory management, Customer satisfaction, Profitability, and Customer base identification) and six primary organizational performance components (Financial Performance, Market performance, SC competencies, Customer satisfaction, Stakeholder satisfaction, and Innovation and learning). The data for analysis was collected from top 10 non-livestock organized retail players operating in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, New Delhi and, Gurgaon in India. The relationships in the proposed framework were tested using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that Indian retailers know that competitive advantage has high impact on SCP but they have less understanding in matching SCP and competitive advantage with organizational performance.