Towards the port-city: thirty years of waterfront regeneration projects in Malaga.

A principios de la década de los 80' la ciudad de Málaga, con un centro histórico totalmente degradado, y un puerto, aún sin hacer frente a la demanda de contenedores y cruceros, deciden embaucarse en el desarrollo de un Plan Especial. Este plan permitiría por un lado que el puerto se modernizara y pudiera ser competitivo, liberando los muelles más próximos a la ciudad y adentrándose en el mar; y por otro lado que esos muelles liberados de actividad portuaria pudieran transformarse en terciario para la regeneración del centro histórico tal y como había ocurrido en Baltimore y otras tantas ciudades que habían adaptado ese modelo. Sin embargo, esto que en un principio parecía resolver los problemas de ambas realidades, dio lugar a más de 25 años de discusiones y propuestas distantes. Durante este largo periodo el Plan se quedó obsoleto. El tiempo de aprobación del Plan superó la previsión del mismo. Cuando llegaron a un acuerdo, tanto el puerto como la ciudad ya se habían desarrollado paralelamente, tanto en el tiempo como en el espacio, pero sin ninguna relación. Esto mismo se reflejaba en el Plan acordado que se limitaba a los muelles, sin relacionarse ni con la dársena ni con la ciudad. Sin embargo, a pesar de la discordancia, los ciudadanos han ido conquistando ambos terrenos, y aunque no existe ninguna continuidad física ni funcional, han sido ellos mismos los que han conseguido la integración del puerto-ciudad.

Os projetos de desenvolvimento do Brasil contemporâneo

This paper makes an analysis on the expansion of the development debate, from the rise of the democracy and social justice cycle, in the Brazil of the post-national-developmentalism era, using as method the structural-historical approach. Initially, the article will feature the three main cycles of development of the country, according to the chronology proposed by Bresser-Pereira. Later, they identify four causes for the transition from second to third cycle. Finally, some considerations are made about the current development cycle, interpreting the political spectrum of development projects in dispute in the contemporary Brazil.

Disputa de Proyectos en Ecuador : El Hecho Social del 30 de Septiembre de 2010

El hecho social estudiado en este trabajo es lo ocurrido el 30 de Septiembre del año 2010 en Ecuador, cuando un sector de las fuerzas armadas y de la policía realizan una protesta en contra de la Ley de Servicio Público. Esta protesta fue acompañada, entre otras, por un conjunto de acciones que incluyeron la retención del presidente Rafael Correa por más de 10 horas en el hospital policial, distintos hechos delictivos en varios puntos del país, la toma del Aeropuerto de Quito, el intento de tomar los medios de comunicación públicos. Ante esto, se produjo una importante y rápida repercusión a nivel internacional y especialmente desde Latinoamérica. A lo largo del trabajo, se analizará cómo intervienen y se posicionan ante el hecho distintos actores nacionales e internacionales, políticos, sociales, culturales y económicos, lo cual permitirá reconstruir los intereses en juego, la disputa de proyectos y los conflictos de intereses latentes no sólo en Ecuador, sino en toda la región Latinoamérica. El análisis que se realiza en este trabajo se hace a partir de la construcción de una base de datos de medios gráficos argentinos (Clarín, La Nación, Página 12, Perfil), ecuatorianos (Diario Hoy, Diario Popular, El Universo, El Telégrafo) y latinoamericanos como Telesur y con un marco teórico desarrollado a partir de la bibliografía. Desde los Medios Masivos de Comunicación, así como distintos actores, fueron considerando lo ocurrido como una sublevación policial, un intento de golpe de estado o un autogolpe. Esto es lo que se reconstruirá a lo largo del trabajo

Disputa de Proyectos en Ecuador : El Hecho Social del 30 de Septiembre de 2010

El hecho social estudiado en este trabajo es lo ocurrido el 30 de Septiembre del año 2010 en Ecuador, cuando un sector de las fuerzas armadas y de la policía realizan una protesta en contra de la Ley de Servicio Público. Esta protesta fue acompañada, entre otras, por un conjunto de acciones que incluyeron la retención del presidente Rafael Correa por más de 10 horas en el hospital policial, distintos hechos delictivos en varios puntos del país, la toma del Aeropuerto de Quito, el intento de tomar los medios de comunicación públicos. Ante esto, se produjo una importante y rápida repercusión a nivel internacional y especialmente desde Latinoamérica. A lo largo del trabajo, se analizará cómo intervienen y se posicionan ante el hecho distintos actores nacionales e internacionales, políticos, sociales, culturales y económicos, lo cual permitirá reconstruir los intereses en juego, la disputa de proyectos y los conflictos de intereses latentes no sólo en Ecuador, sino en toda la región Latinoamérica. El análisis que se realiza en este trabajo se hace a partir de la construcción de una base de datos de medios gráficos argentinos (Clarín, La Nación, Página 12, Perfil), ecuatorianos (Diario Hoy, Diario Popular, El Universo, El Telégrafo) y latinoamericanos como Telesur y con un marco teórico desarrollado a partir de la bibliografía. Desde los Medios Masivos de Comunicación, así como distintos actores, fueron considerando lo ocurrido como una sublevación policial, un intento de golpe de estado o un autogolpe. Esto es lo que se reconstruirá a lo largo del trabajo

Disputa de Proyectos en Ecuador : El Hecho Social del 30 de Septiembre de 2010

El hecho social estudiado en este trabajo es lo ocurrido el 30 de Septiembre del año 2010 en Ecuador, cuando un sector de las fuerzas armadas y de la policía realizan una protesta en contra de la Ley de Servicio Público. Esta protesta fue acompañada, entre otras, por un conjunto de acciones que incluyeron la retención del presidente Rafael Correa por más de 10 horas en el hospital policial, distintos hechos delictivos en varios puntos del país, la toma del Aeropuerto de Quito, el intento de tomar los medios de comunicación públicos. Ante esto, se produjo una importante y rápida repercusión a nivel internacional y especialmente desde Latinoamérica. A lo largo del trabajo, se analizará cómo intervienen y se posicionan ante el hecho distintos actores nacionales e internacionales, políticos, sociales, culturales y económicos, lo cual permitirá reconstruir los intereses en juego, la disputa de proyectos y los conflictos de intereses latentes no sólo en Ecuador, sino en toda la región Latinoamérica. El análisis que se realiza en este trabajo se hace a partir de la construcción de una base de datos de medios gráficos argentinos (Clarín, La Nación, Página 12, Perfil), ecuatorianos (Diario Hoy, Diario Popular, El Universo, El Telégrafo) y latinoamericanos como Telesur y con un marco teórico desarrollado a partir de la bibliografía. Desde los Medios Masivos de Comunicación, así como distintos actores, fueron considerando lo ocurrido como una sublevación policial, un intento de golpe de estado o un autogolpe. Esto es lo que se reconstruirá a lo largo del trabajo

A solution for estimates in software development projects

The Corporate world is becoming more and more competitive. This leads organisations to adapt to this reality, by adopting more efficient processes, which result in a decrease in cost as well as an increase of product quality. One of these processes consists in making proposals to clients, which necessarily include a cost estimation of the project. This estimation is the main focus of this project. In particular, one of the goals is to evaluate which estimation models fit the Altran Portugal software factory the most, the organization where the fieldwork of this thesis will be carried out. There is no broad agreement about which is the type of estimation model more suitable to be used in software projects. Concerning contexts where there is plenty of objective information available to be used as input to an estimation model, model-based methods usually yield better results than the expert judgment. However, what happens more frequently is not having this volume and quality of information, which has a negative impact in the model-based methods performance, favouring the usage of expert judgement. In practice, most organisations use expert judgment, making themselves dependent on the expert. A common problem found is that the performance of the expert’s estimation depends on his previous experience with identical projects. This means that when new types of projects arrive, the estimation will have an unpredictable accuracy. Moreover, different experts will make different estimates, based on their individual experience. As a result, the company will not directly attain a continuous growing knowledge about how the estimate should be carried. Estimation models depend on the input information collected from previous projects, the size of the project database and the resources available. Altran currently does not store the input information from previous projects in a systematic way. It has a small project database and a team of experts. Our work is targeted to companies that operate in similar contexts. We start by gathering information from the organisation in order to identify which estimation approaches can be applied considering the organization’s context. A gap analysis is used to understand what type of information the company would have to collect so that other approaches would become available. Based on our assessment, in our opinion, expert judgment is the most adequate approach for Altran Portugal, in the current context. We analysed past development and evolution projects from Altran Portugal and assessed their estimates. This resulted in the identification of common estimation deviations, errors, and patterns, which lead to the proposal of metrics to help estimators produce estimates leveraging past projects quantitative and qualitative information in a convenient way. This dissertation aims to contribute to more realistic estimates, by identifying shortcomings in the current estimation process and supporting the self-improvement of the process, by gathering as much relevant information as possible from each finished project.

Review of Cold In-Place Recycled Asphalt Concrete Projects, HR-392, 1998

Highway Research Project HR-392 was undertaken to evaluate cold in-place asphalt recycled (CIR) projects in the State of Iowa. The research involved assessment of performance levels, investigation of factors that most influence pavement performance and economy, and development of guidelines for CIR project selection. The performance was evaluated in two ways: Pavement Condition Indices (PCI, U.S. Corps of Engineers) were calculated and overall ratings were given on ride and appearance. A regression analysis was extrapolated to predict the future service life of CIR roads. The results were that CIR roads within the State of Iowa, with less than 2000 annual average daily traffic (AADT), have an average predicted service life of fifteen to twenty-six years. Subgrade stability problems can prevent a CIR project from being successfully constructed. A series of Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP) tests were conducted on a CIR project that experienced varying levels of subgrade failure during construction. Based on this case study, and supporting data, it was determined that the DCP test can be used to evaluate subgrades that have insufficient stability for recycling. Overall, CIR roads in Iowa are performing well. It appears that the development of transverse cracking has been retarded and little rutting has occurred. Contracting agencies must pay special attention to the subgrade conditions during project selection. Because of its performance, CIR is a recommended method to be considered for rehabilitating aged low volume (<2000 AADT) asphalt concrete roads in Iowa.

Clean development mechanism and joint implementation in China and Russia as related to industrial energy projects

Being highly discussed the problem of climate change and global warming has been keeping importance for several of decades. As a response to the world’s need in solution for climate change disasters, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in 1992 and supplemented with the Kyoto protocol in 1997. This work is aimed to give better understanding of the Convention, Kyoto Protocol with its mechanisms and their function, related to energy projects in such case countries, as Russia and China, in order to assist evaluation of projects cost-effectiveness. It provides basic information about the Convention and the Protocol with their regulations, overview of present situation and future post-Kyoto forecasts, while the most attention is concentrated on the clean development mechanism and joint implementation step-by-step project cycles and specific regulations in given countries. The current study disclosed that CDM and JI project cycles are resulting in a complicated process. By the moment it requires step-by-step following of a number of methodologies, spending time and finance to particular project development. Uncertainties about post-Kyoto period bring additional risk to the projects and complicate any business decision concerning Kyoto Protocol.

Project owner’s and outside engineering consultant’s role in power plant implementation projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of co-operation between a project owner and an outside engineering consultant in combined heat and power plant implementation projects. Moreover, as another focal subject of the study was to familiarize the purchasing behavior of the energy producer and how an outside engineering consultant participated into different stages of the purchasing process. The study was carried out as a multiple case study including altogether six Finnish power plant implementation projects that had been taken into commercial use during 1995 – 2015. By adjusting the findings of empirical interview data and comparing those to the theoretical framework concerning, among others, Finnish energy production, engineering consulting businesses, delivery methods of construction project and finally the purchasing process, it can be concluded that especially in the power plant implementation projects in the past have a great influence to decisions made during the project. The role of the main engineering consultant is to act as an assistant, who helps to achieve the project goals successfully rather than an advisor who only knows how the project should be conducted. At least in these five project cases this was the case, meaning that the final decision power always remaining with project owner.

Coaching agile methods in research and development projects

Agile coaching of a project team is one way to aid learning of the agile methods. The objective of this thesis is to present the agile coaching plan and to follow how complying the plan affects to the project teams. Furthermore, the agile methods are followed how they work in the projects. Two projects are used to help the research. From the thesis point of view, the task for the first project is to coach the project team and two new coaches. The task for the second project is also to coach the project team, but this time so that one of the new coaches acts as the coach. The agile methods Scrum process and Extreme programming are utilized by the projects. In the latter, the test driven development, continuous integration and pair programming are concentrated more precisely. The results of the work are based on the observations from the projects and the analysis derived from the observations. The results are divided to the effects of the coaching and to functionality of the agile methods in the projects. Because of the small sample set, the results are directional. The presented plan, to coach the agile methods, needs developing, but the results of the functionality of the agile methods are encouraging.

Cyberjustice in Brazil : the use of technology to enhance access to justice and procedural celerity

Dans une société mondialisée, où les relations sont intégrées à une vitesse différente avec l'utilisation des technologies de l'information et des communications, l'accès à la justice gagne de nouveaux concepts, mais elle est encore confrontée à de vieux obstacles. La crise mondiale de l'accès à la justice dans le système judiciaire provoque des débats concernant l'égalité en vertu de la loi, la capacité des individus, la connaissance des droits, l'aide juridique, les coûts et les délais. Les deux derniers ont été les facteurs les plus importants du mécontentement des individus avec le système judiciaire. La présente étude a pour objet d'analyser l'incidence de l'utilisation de la technologie dans l’appareil judiciaire, avec l'accent sur la réalité brésilienne, la voie législative et des expériences antérieures dans le développement de logiciels de cyberjustice. La mise en œuvre de ces instruments innovants exige des investissements et de la planification, avec une attention particulière sur l'incidence qu'ils peuvent avoir sur les routines traditionnelles des tribunaux. De nouveaux défis sont sur la voie de ce processus de transformation et doivent être traités avec professionnalisme afin d'éviter l'échec de projets de qualité. En outre, si la technologie peut faire partie des différents aspects de notre quotidien et l'utilisation de modes alternatifs de résolution des conflits en ligne sont considérés comme un succès, pourquoi serait-il difficile de faire ce changement dans la prestation de la justice par le système judiciaire? Des solutions technologiques adoptées dans d'autres pays ne sont pas facilement transférables à un environnement culturel différent, mais il y a toujours la possibilité d'apprendre des expériences des autres et d’éviter de mauvaises voies qui pourraient compromettre la définition globale de l'accès à la justice.

Sustainability of Participatory Projects: Study of Productive Sector under Peoples’ Planning in Chempu Village Panchayat of Kottayam District

The study has wider policy implications as it identifies the possible variables which influence the sustainability of participatory productive sector projects. The method which is developed to study the sustainability of projects under People’s Planning in Chempu Panchayat could be used for studying the same in other panchayats also. Unlike the case of the standard features of sustainability identified, the independent variables vary according to the nature of the project. Hence, this needs to be modified accordingly while applying the method in a dissimilar domain. Selection of a single panchayat for the present study is relevant on the basis of a common package of inputs for decentralised planning which is forwarded by the State Planning Board respectively for the three-tier panchayat system in Kerala. The dynamic filed realities could be brought out in view of a comprehensive planning approach through an in depth study of specific cases.The assessment of the nature and pattern of productive sector projects in the selected Village Panchayat puts the projects under close scrutiny. The analysis has depended largely on secondary sources of information, especially from panchayat level plan documents, and also on the primary information obtained using direct observation and on-site inspection of project sites. An analysis of the nature and pattem of productive sector projects is important as it gives all necessary information regarding follow-up, monitoring/evaluation and even termination of a particular project. It has also revealed the tendencies of including infrastructure and service sector projects under ‘productive’ category, especially for maintaining the stipulated ratio (40:30:30) of grant-in-aid distribution. The study regarding the allocation and expenditure pattern of plan funds is vital in policy level as it reveals the under-noticed allocation and expenditure pattern of plan funds other than grant-in-aid. One major limitation of the study has been the limited availability of secondary data, especially regarding project-wise expenditure and monitoring/evaluation reports of various project committees.

Story telling in sustainable development projects

This paper constitutes an attempt to find a means to represent multiple stories in the strong narrative of conventional sustainable development (SD) projects. The authors' experience of such projects in various parts of the world indicates that they have a tendency to arise from and reflect a dominant mindset, placing the SD project in what can be a working environment that is inimical to the very ideals that SD is supposed to represent. Short-termism and value for money drive project formats and objectives, whilst counter-narratives and alternative stories arising from stakeholders in such projects are often ignored. Yet these alternative threads often contain strong SD messages of their own and could, if effectively utilized, enhance the SD project process. This paper sets out the case for a new field - 'project ethnography' - allied with the growing use of meta-analysis to compare project 'stories'. The analytical model applied to compare projects is based on the Kolb learning cycle and involves a (3 X 4)-fold questioning of project conceptual ization and roll-out. Copyright @ 2oo6 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Contemporary organizational theory in the management of construction projects

The level of insolvencies in the construction industry is high, when compared to other industry sectors. Given the management expertise and experience that is available to the construction industry, it seems strange that, according to the literature, the major causes of failure are lack of financial control and poor management. This indicates that with a good cash flow management, companies could be kept operating and financially healthy. It is possible to prevent failure. Although there are financial models that can be used to predict failure, they are based on company accounts, which have been shown to be an unreliable source of data. There are models available for cash flow management and forecasting and these could be used as a starting point for managers in rethinking their cash flow management practices. The research reported here has reached the stage of formulating researchable questions for an in-depth study including issues such as how contractors manage their cash flow, how payment practices can be managed without damaging others in the supply chain and the relationships between companies" financial structures and the payment regimes to which they are subjected.

Mathematical modelling of decision making processes in construction projects

Many different individuals, who have their own expertise and criteria for decision making, are involved in making decisions on construction projects. Decision-making processes are thus significantly affected by communication, in which a dynamic performance of human intentions leads to unpredictable outcomes. In order to theorise the decision making processes including communication, it is argued here that the decision making processes resemble evolutionary dynamics in terms of both selection and mutation, which can be expressed by the replicator-mutator equation. To support this argument, a mathematical model of decision making has been made from an analogy with evolutionary dynamics, in which there are three variables: initial support rate, business hierarchy, and power of persuasion. On the other hand, a survey of patterns in decision making in construction projects has also been performed through self-administered mail questionnaire to construction practitioners. Consequently, comparison between the numerical analysis of mathematical model and the statistical analysis of empirical data has shown a significant potential of the replicator-mutator equation as a tool to study dynamic properties of intentions in communication.