Universidad EAN Breaking a Babel Tower Applying SAP as a Tool Under a PMO Model

This chapter describes the PMO model used to renovates the information systems of the Universidad EAN that before 2015 operated with multiple obsolete tools, generating incidents in the management of the information required for its operation. As part of the institutional innovation project implemented to ensure economic and administrative efficiency besides its strategic alignment, a SAP-based solution was implemented allowing it to move from a technological babel tower with almost 40 independent information systems in multiple platforms, towards a comprehensive platform that ensured a unified interoperability model with a scalable hardware infrastructure, using state-of-the-art applications supporting the provision of self-services to the community, expanding IT capabilities, reducing the risks, increasing the information security, improving the quality of service, and, despite being it in a stabilization stage, has been supporting the operation in an efficient and effective way, as shows the institutional results from the financial and academic quality perspectives.

Sustainability Supply Chain Orientation Bibliometric Agenda

The purpose of this document is to present the evolution of the supply chain with different points of view, from the perspective of the main authors on the subject, in order to show the benefits and difficulties faced in carrying out the sustainable orientation of the supply chain (SSCO). For this research, it is necessary to take into account from which point each of the definitions that helped reach the concept of SSCO was born and how the concept has changed over the years. It is interesting to note that currently the concept does not have a specific definition, because it is in a boom in recent years, which makes it an attractive topic to investigate and learn more in depth. In Colombia it has very few exponents of the subject. Therefore, researching SSCO can generate a competitive advantage in the industry for supply chains that compete in the interior and exterior of the country.

Model Based on Ontological Engineering as Support for Stakeholder Management

The objective of this article is a way of working that is used as an instrument for managing the parts with semantic and conceptual elements, such as mastery of management projects, and the effects of ontological engineering techniques, which solves frequently asked questions with respect to information related to this resource. This is done in an agile, precise, and effective way, facilitating its management in the phases that make up the life cycle of the project. The research will contribute to the integration of ontological engineering and project management, enabling the construction of a stakeholder information structure with semantic components that enable it to be the input of a more complex knowledge management model.

Competence Training for Project Management

Organizations currently need project managers that are capable of performing in environments where change has gained great relevance. To accomplish this, these professionals must possess very diverse skills. On the other hand, project management is a young discipline that requires research to help us understand how to develop these skills. This chapter provides a holistic research framework proposal that is based on four elements: competences, approaches, scenarios, and levels of analysis. We affirm the importance of the meta-cognition competency, which is not commonly mentioned in previous studies but has proven to be very useful for a professional development that is self-regulated, reflective, and experience-based, with emphasis on the opportunities offered by new technologies. Two fundamental challenges are introduced: achieving a list of unified competences and transferring individual competences to the project teams and the organizations where these competences are displayed.

Project-Based Organizations

Project-based organizations coordinate their activities using projects. These projects act as temporary and almost independent organizations that directly interlace the project-based organization with their customers. This complex interface is characterized by the existence of divergent interests between the two organizations. Therefore, project managers become crucial agents to handle this interface in order to accomplish the project's goals. By analyzing the retrospective accounts of twenty-four project managers, this chapter found that the project managers' actions that fostered the establishment of a relationship of trust and collaboration with their customer can be divided into four dimensions: providing knowledge, contextualizing the project, keeping the information flow, and boundary spanning. The authors argue that these project managers' actions and the generation of interaction spaces with the customer have an important impact on the development and success of the project.

Impact of Project Management Offices on Knowledge Management

This applied research work identifies the impact of the project management offices (PMO) on knowledge management among 502 organizations from Colombian enterprises. First, a literature review about PMOs and knowledge management within the project perspective was conducted. Then, a bibliometric analysis was conducted in order to establish the link between this type of offices and the knowledge management on scientific publications about project management. Afterwards, a comprehensive theoretical framework about the matter of study was build. Subsequently, an information gathering instrument was developed in order to collect data for the research. Next, a nation-wide fieldwork was undertaken by analyzing the organizations. Successively, a detailed statistical analysis was conducted in order to identify the impact of the project management offices on knowledge management within the objects of study. Finally, results and conclusions were documented, and future lines of research were established.

Model P3S-VB

This chapter describes and details the P3S-VB model: the Selection of Projects and Programs Portfolio Based on Value. The P3S-VB contributes to the discipline of project management and portfolios, in the definition of the constructs of an appropriate level of incorporation of capabilities, value and technology; identification of the range in which technological capabilities, projects and portfolios can create value; the processes for selecting the portfolio of projects based on value; and the alignment of benefit management and project management. The model was designed keeping the rigor of scientific research, following as a reference the DSR-IS science design method, with a focus on practical applicability.

Trends in Management of TI Projects and CEO Competence

The purpose of this article is to expose the articulation that should exist between the CEO's competences of projects and TI's business processes with an effective management for the execution, follow up, control and closing of projects, making emphasis in the planning and management areas which are the ones that relieve the complexity as an intangible reality within the unstable environment of changes and competition in which companies or organizations move. An analysis of technological surveillance was done which explains the traceability and importance of the areas and their relationship with the timely and accurate decision making, as long as processes are taken into account such as strategic management, risk management, adequate administration of resources and time, as well as soft elements associated to leadership and emotional intelligence that the TI projects and processes' CEO should have. Under these circumstances, competences of CEOs are raised and how they manage the dynamic organizational scenarios.

Conflict Management in International Cooperation Project Teams

The complexity of projects of international cooperation (IC) and especially the characteristics which are similar to those of social, international projects in the public sector, and the amount and diversity of the interested parts, makes it necessary to implement strategies when handling conflicts in order to maintain the project according to the established plan and get benefits based on its objectives. This empirical cross-cutting research has as main objective to identify the conflict management process in project teams of international cooperation in Colombia and determine the great influence observed in the style of handling the conflict on the performance of the project. The results showed that the cooperative and collaborative styles are significantly and positively related to the project performance whereas competitive and evasive styles affect significantly and negatively the performance of the project of international cooperation in Colombia.

Adopting Communications Management Practices in Project Management

This chapter deals with the adoption of communication management practices applied by project managers in Colombia. It has become a priority in project management practices in the past decade, but the research field and knowledge domain has seen limited empirical evidence. Therefore, it verifies the influence of the application of these types of practices against performance indicators obtained in projects. To carry out this preliminary study, leaders of companies from different sectors of Bogota in Colombia were interviewed under a mixed-methods approach. It was verified that the practices currently applied have a low adoption rate, but they are influential for achieving success in project management and highlight the importance of these types of techniques for the performance of the planned work. This study aims to generate the option of applying unconventional approaches to manage communication in projects that allow for improving performance rates in companies.