The use of computers for graduate education in Project Management. Improving the integration to the industry.

This paper presents an initiative for monitoring the competence acquisition by a team of students with different backgrounds facing the experience of being working by projects and in a project. These students are graduated bachelor engineering are inexperienced in the project management field and they play this course on a time-shared manner along with other activities. The goal of this experience is to increase the competence levels acquired by using an structured web based portfolio tool helping to reinforce how relevant different project management approaches can result for final products and how important it becomes to maintain the integration along the project. Monitoring is carried out by means of have a look on how the work is being done and measuring different technical parameters per participant. The use of this information could make possible to bring additional information to the students involved in terms of their individual competencies and the identification of new opportunities of personal improvement. These capabilities are strongly requested by companies in their daily work as well as they can be very convenient too for students when they try to organize their PhD work.

Educating in Project Management: an innovative approach. A shared-experience among Spanish Universities

This work presents an educational formal initiative aimed to monitor the acquisition and strengthening of competences by students that are being taught in project management subject. Groups of students belonging to three universities, embracing different knowledge areas such as engineering, biology, etc., were selected to run the experience. All of them had nevertheless a common and basic starting point: inexperience in project management field. In this scenario, we propose a new theoretical and practical approach oriented to reinforce problem-solving and related competences in a project management subject context. For this purpose, a Project-Based Learning (PjBL) initiative has been specifically designed and developed. The main idea is to bring a real world engineering project management case into the classroom, where students must face up to a completely new learning approach –groups in different locations, collaborative mode and unspecific solution, supported by a powerful internet platform:.project.net (http://www.Project.net). Other relevant aspects such as project climate, knowledge increasing, have also been monitored during the course. Results show and overall improvement in key competences. The obtained information will be used in two ways: to feed the students back about personal opportunities for improvement in specific competences, and to fine-tune the experience for further initiatives.

The Effect That Project Management Certification Has on Employability: Agent's Perceptions from Spain

This study analyses the effects that the project management certification has on employability. This analysis started with a participative process in which various groups of experts who are involved in the certification of people were consulted. A personal interview was carried out amongst 106 professionals —certifying bodies, training institutions, the civil service, and international organisations— and amongst professional who are certified in project management by the International Project Management Association in Spain. The results show that the certification emerges as a powerful tool for improving employability. The effects are demonstrated across two complementary aspects: internal company aspects and external aspects relating to the labour market. Finally, by compiling the different agents’ opinions, a series of measures emerge for improving the accreditation processes as an employability tool and increasing the mutual learning between public and private actors.

Training project management complexity in postgraduate and continuing education programs: a learning strategy in the eshe (European Space of Higher Education) framework

The objective of this paper is to address the methodological process of a teaching strategy for training project management complexity in postgraduate programs. The proposal is made up of different methods —intuitive, comparative, deductive, case study, problem-solving Project-Based Learning— and different activities inside and outside the classroom. This integration of methods motivated the current use of the concept of “learning strategy”. The strategy has two phases: firstly, the integration of the competences —technical, behavioral and contextual—in real projects; and secondly, the learning activity was oriented in upper level of knowledge, the evaluating the complexity for projects management in real situations. Both the competences in the learning strategy and the Project Complexity Evaluation are based on the ICB of IPMA. The learning strategy is applied in an international Postgraduate Program —Erasmus Mundus Master of Science— with the participation of five Universities of the European Union. This master program is fruit of a cooperative experience from one Educative Innovation Group of the UPM -GIE-Project-, two Research Groups of the UPM and the collaboration with other external agents to the university. Some reflections on the experience and the main success factors in the learning strategy were presented in the paper

Training project management complexity in postgraduate and continuing education programs: a learning strategy in the eshe (European Space of Higher Education) framework

The objective of this paper is to address the methodological process of a teaching strategy for training project management complexity in postgraduate programs. The proposal is made up of different methods —intuitive, comparative, deductive, case study, problem-solving Project-Based Learning— and different activities inside and outside the classroom. This integration of methods motivated the current use of the concept of ―learning strategy‖. The strategy has two phases: firstly, the integration of the competences —technical, behavioral and contextual—in real projects; and secondly, the learning activity was oriented in upper level of knowledge, the evaluating the complexity for projects management in real situations. Both the competences in the learning strategy and the Project Complexity Evaluation are based on the ICB of IPMA. The learning strategy is applied in an international Postgraduate Program —Erasmus Mundus Master of Science— with the participation of five Universities of the European Union. This master program is fruit of a cooperative experience from one Educative Innovation Group of the UPM -GIE-Project-, two Research Groups of the UPM and the collaboration with other external agents to the university. Some reflections on the experience and the main success factors in the learning strategy were presented in the paper.

Aplicación de los procesos del Project Management para el diseño, ejecución y control de revestimientos cerámicos (solados y alicatados)

La actual competitividad empresarial hace necesaria la persecución de la mejora de la eficiencia en todos los procesos productivos. Esta mejora se consigue mediante la implementación de una gestión enfocada en los procesos. Este hecho ha derivado en la necesidad cada vez más acuciante de adoptar metodologías y herramientas que permitan a las organizaciones configurar sus sistemas de gestión. Los proyectos de edificación no escapan a esta metodología, es más, pueden ser unos de los más beneficiados en la implementación de la gestión por procesos. Por ello han surgido multitud de instituciones y asociaciones que la promueven en el ámbito de los proyectos de edificación. Gracias a la gestión por procesos se consigue acercar los objetivos del proyecto a las necesidades y requisitos de sus interesados, consiguiendo de este modo una mejora de la eficiencia. Estos requisitos y necesidades también afectan a las unidades de alicatados y solados, por lo que acercar los principios de la gestión por procesos a estas unidades nos puede ayudar a mejorar los resultados obtenidos en la obra. En cuanto a la gestión de proyectos es numerosa la bibliografía existente en el mundo anglosajón, donde las entidades encargadas de realizar publicaciones las revisan y adaptan continuamente a las necesidades y avances del mercado. Aunque en el ámbito internacional son numerosas las publicaciones que marcan los criterios necesarios para la gestión de proyectos por procesos, la bibliografía específica para la gestión de proyectos de edificación no es tan amplia, y en España es muy reducida y no posee el dinamismo que este tipo de publicaciones tiene en el ámbito internacional. En este trabajo se analizan las principales publicaciones internacionales en materia de gestión de proyectos y se comparan con las existentes en nuestro mercado, con la intención de analizar su situación y proponer los pasos a llevar a cabo para conseguir avanzar en el camino de la aplicación de los principios de la gestión de proyectos en el sector de la edificación. Como referencia, y para acotar el alcance del trabajo, se ha tomado como caso práctico la gestión de los revestimientos cerámicos (solados y alicatados), dentro del ámbito general de la gestión del proceso edificatorio.

Methodological Proposal for Teamwork Evaluation in the field of training Project Management.

Teamwork, is one of the abilities that today is highly valued in the professional arena with a great importance for various personal and interpersonal skills associated with it. In this context, the Technical University of Madrid, is developing a coordinated educational innovation project, which main objective is to develop methodological and assessment tools for the acquisition of personal skills necessary to improve the employability of graduates and their skills for project management. Within this context, this paper proposes a methodology composed of various activities and indicators, as well as specific assessment instruments linked to the teamwork competence. Through a series of systematic steps it was allowed the design of an instrument and construction of a scale for measuring the competence of teamwork. The practical application of the methodology has been carried out in Projects lectures from different Schools of Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid, which results are presented in this document as a pilot experience. Results show the various aspects and methods that teachers should consider in evaluating the competence of the work, including analysis of the quality of results, through reliability and construct validity. On the other hand, show the advantages of applying this methodology in the field of project management teaching.

A Web-based Support System for Providing Effective Monitoring, Feedback and Evaluation in Project Management Education

This work introduces a web-based learning environment to facilitate learning in Project Management. The proposed web-based support system integrates methodological procedures and information systems, allowing to promote learning among geographically-dispersed students. Thus, students who are enrolled in different universities at different locations and attend their own project management courses, share a virtual experience in executing and managing projects. Specific support systems were used or developed to automatically collect information about student activities, making it possible to monitor the progress made on learning and assess learning performance as established in the defined rubric.

An ICT based Project Management Learning Framework

The objective of this paper is to present a framework that can facilitate the university level learning process in the Project Management of different students who are enrolled in different universities in different locations and attending their own Project Management courses, but running a virtual experience in executing and managing projects. The framework includes both information systems and methodological procedures that are integrated in the information system, making it possible to assess learning performance.

Development of a management system for virtual machines on private clouds

Cloud computing and, more particularly, private IaaS, is seen as a mature technol- ogy with a myriad solutions to choose from. However, this disparity of solutions and products has instilled in potential adopters the fear of vendor and data lock- in. Several competing and incompatible interfaces and management styles have increased even more these fears. On top of this, cloud users might want to work with several solutions at the same time, an integration that is difficult to achieve in practice. In this Master Thesis I propose a management architecture that tries to solve these problems; it provides a generalized control mechanism for several cloud infrastructures, and an interface that can meet the requirements of the users. This management architecture is designed in a modular way, and using a generic infor- mation model. I have validated the approach through the implementation of the components needed for this architecture to support a sample private IaaS solution: OpenStack.

Categorization of Anti-Patterns in Software Project Management

In the last decades, software systems have become an intrinsic element in our daily lives. Software exists in our computers, in our cars, and even in our refrigerators. Today’s world has become heavily dependent on software and yet, we still struggle to deliver quality software products, on-time and within budget. When searching for the causes of such alarming scenario, we find concurrent voices pointing to the role of the project manager. But what is project management and what makes it so challenging? Part of the answer to this question requires a deeper analysis of why software project managers have been largely ineffective. Answering this question might assist current and future software project managers in avoiding, or at least effectively mitigating, problematic scenarios that, if unresolved, will eventually lead to additional failures. This is where anti-patterns come into play and where they can be a useful tool in identifying and addressing software project management failure. Unfortunately, anti-patterns are still a fairly recent concept, and thus, available information is still scarce and loosely organized. This thesis will attempt to help remedy this scenario. The objective of this work is to help organize existing, documented software project management anti-patterns by answering our two research questions: · What are the different anti-patterns in software project management? · How can these anti-patterns be categorized?

An Analysis Of The Recommended Knowledge For The Software Project Management Discipline

According to the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements” [1]. Project Management has proven to be one of the most important disciplines at the moment of determining the success of any project [2][3][4]. Given that many of the activities covered by this discipline can be said that are “horizontal” for any kind of domain, the importance of acknowledge the concepts and practices becomes even more obvious. The specific case of the projects that fall in the domain of Software Engineering are not the exception about the great influence of Project Management for their success. The critical role that this discipline plays in the industry has come to numbers. A report by McKinsey & Co [4] shows that the establishment of programs for the teaching of critical skills of project management can improve the performance of the project in time and costs. As an example of the above, the reports exposes: “One defense organization used these programs to train several waves of project managers and leaders who together administered a portfolio of more than 1,000 capital projects ranging in Project management size from $100,000 to $500 million. Managers who successfully completed the training were able to cut costs on most projects by between 20 and 35 percent. Over time, the organization expects savings of about 15 percent of its entire baseline spending”. In a white paper by the PMI (Project Management Institute) about the value of project management [5], it is stated that: “Leading organizations across sectors and geographic borders have been steadily embracing project management as a way to control spending and improve project results”. According to the research made by the PMI for the paper, after the economical crisis “Executives discovered that adhering to project management methods and strategies reduced risks, cut costs and improved success rates—all vital to surviving the economic crisis”. In every elite company, a proper execution of the project management discipline has become a must. Several members of the software industry have putted effort into achieving ways of assuring high quality results from projects; many standards, best practices, methodologies and other resources have been produced by experts from different fields of expertise. In the industry and the academic community, there is a continuous research on how to teach better software engineering together with project management [4][6]. For the general practices of Project Management the PMI produced a guide of the required knowledge that any project manager should have in their toolbox to lead any kind of project, this guide is called the PMBOK. On the side of best practices 10 and required knowledge for the Software Engineering discipline, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) developed the SWEBOK (Software Engineering Body of Knowledge) in collaboration with software industry experts and academic researchers, introducing into the guide many of the needed knowledge for a 5-year expertise software engineer [7]. The SWEBOK also covers management from the perspective of a software project. This thesis is developed to provide guidance to practitioners and members of the academic community about project management applied to software engineering. The way used in this thesis to get useful information for practitioners is to take an industry-approved guide for software engineering professionals such as the SWEBOK, and compare the content to what is found in the PMBOK. After comparing the contents of the SWEBOK and the PMBOK, what is found missing in the SWEBOK is used to give recommendations on how to enrich project management skills for a software engineering professional. Recommendations for members of the academic community on the other hand, are given taking into account the GSwE2009 (Graduated Software Engineering 2009) standard [8]. GSwE2009 is often used as a main reference for software engineering master programs [9]. The standard is mostly based on the content of the SWEBOK, plus some contents that are considered to reinforce the education of software engineering. Given the similarities between the SWEBOK and the GSwE2009, the results of comparing SWEBOK and PMBOK are also considered valid to enrich what the GSwE2009 proposes. So in the end the recommendations for practitioners end up being also useful for the academic community and their strategies to teach project management in the context of software engineering.

Analysis of the essential literature on project management in Spanish

The advancement of science and engineering projects is brewing major changes in the various phases of a project. These changes have produced more rigorous aspects of project management that tracks the research fronts of engineering and project management becomes key. However, research in engineering and project management in Spanish is hindered by access to information to enable the person concerned to ascertain the most recent and current research, limiting the exchange of information and strengthening research networks in this field interest with great implications in business, industry and scientific issues. Therefore, the article aims to present the state of the art of engineering research and project management in Spanish, using the analysis of scientific domains and network analysis of the research literature to identify and analyze relationships between authors and documents that establish the base and research fronts topic under study. The results also provide statistics on the contribution of international research in Spanish and scientific collaboration networks.

Project management in cloud

Este proyecto consiste en la construcción de un prototipo para la gestión de proyectos, destinada a usuarios del entorno profesional. La herramienta pretende servir de soporte a los equipos que realicen un proyecto dotando al usuario con la posibilidad de gestionar los tiempos del proyecto, gestión de requisitos, gestión de recursos, gestión de la documentación, etc. Adicionalmente, este trabajo llevará asociado un plan de negocio para poder estudiar la viabilidad del proyecto, en este plan de negocio se analizará; el entorno externo (competencia); análisis de las debilidades, fortalezas, amenazas y oportunidades; plan de marketing; plan económicofinanciero; análisis de riesgos del proyecto. A grandes rasgos, la herramienta desarrollada se compone de dos bases de datos (una relacional y otra no relacional), un conjunto de módulos que implementan la funcionalidad y una interfaz gráfica que proporciona a los usuarios una forma cómoda de interactuar con el sistema, principalmente ofrecerá las siguientes opciones:  Gestión de proyectos  Gestión de usuarios.  Gestión de recursos  Gestión de tiempos  Cuadro de mando y notificaciones. ---ABSTRACT---This Project consist of the construction of a prototype for Project management, intended for users of the profesional environment. The software aims to support teams conducting a project by providing the user with the ability to manage time, requirements management, resource management, document management, etc. In addition, this work includes a business plan to study the viability of the project. This business plan addresses the following; analysis of the external enviroment; analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; marketing plan; economic and financial plan; analysis of project risks. In general terms, the developed tools are composed of two databases (relational and nonrelational), a set of modules that implement the functionality and a web interface that gives users a convenient way to interact with the system. The options that the system offers are:  Project management  User management  Resource management  Time management  Dashboard and notifications

Cross-analysis of Transversal Competences in Project Management

This paper presents a framework for project management competence assessment based on participant’s performance and contribution in a simulated environment. The proposed framework considers competence assessment through evidences and the participation of different roles. The system enforces the assessment of individual competences by means of a set of performance indicators. A specific case study is presented and the relationship between exhibited transversal competences and project quality is analysed.