Civil & Environmental Engineering
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Item INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IN NONPROFIT UNIVERSITY: A PROJECT GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVE(2016) Ghosh, Soumajit; Cui, Qingbin; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The universities rely on the Information Technology (IT) projects to support and enhance their core strategic objectives of teaching, research, and administration. The researcher’s literature review found that the level of IT funding and resources in the universities is not adequate to meet the IT demands. The universities received more IT project requests than they could execute. As such, universities must selectively fund the IT projects. The objectives of the IT projects in the universities vary. An IT project which benefits the teaching functions may not benefit the administrative functions. As such, the selection of an IT project is challenging in the universities. To aid with the IT decision making, many universities in the United States of America (USA) have formed the IT Governance (ITG) processes. ITG is an IT decision making and accountability framework whose purpose is to align the IT efforts in an organization with its strategic objectives, realize the value of the IT investments, meet the expected performance criteria, and manage the risks and the resources (Weil & Ross, 2004). ITG in the universities is relatively new, and it is not well known how the ITG processes are aiding the nonprofit universities in selecting the right IT projects, and managing the performance of these IT projects. This research adds to the body of knowledge regarding the IT project selection under the governance structure, the maturity of the IT projects, and the IT project performance in the nonprofit universities. The case study research methodology was chosen for this exploratory research. The convenience sampling was done to choose the cases from two large, research universities with decentralized colleges, and two small, centralized universities. The data were collected on nine IT projects from these four universities using the interviews and the university documents. The multi-case analysis was complemented by the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to systematically analyze how the IT conditions lead to an outcome. This research found that the IT projects were selected in the centralized universities in a more informed manner. ITG was more authoritative in the small centralized universities; the ITG committees were formed by including the key decision makers, the decision-making roles, and responsibilities were better defined, and the frequency of ITG communication was higher. In the centralized universities, the business units and colleges brought the IT requests to ITG committees; which in turn prioritized the IT requests and allocated the funds and the resources to the IT projects. ITG committee members in the centralized universities had a higher awareness of the university-wide IT needs, and the IT projects tended to align with the strategic objectives. On the other hand, the decentralized colleges and business units in the large universities were influential and often bypassed the ITG processes. The decentralized units often chose the “pet” IT projects, and executed them within a silo, without bringing them to the attention of the ITG committees. While these IT projects met the departmental objectives, they did not always align with the university’s strategic objectives. This research found that the IT project maturity in the university could be increased by following the project management methodologies. The IT project management maturity was found higher in the IT projects executed by the centralized university, where a full-time project manager was assigned to manage the project, and the project manager had a higher expertise in the project management. The IT project executed under the guidance of the Project Management Office (PMO) has exhibited a higher project management maturity, as the PMO set the standards and controls for the project. The IT projects managed by the decentralized colleges by a part-time project manager with lower project management expertise have exhibited a lower project management maturity. The IT projects in the decentralized colleges were often managed by the business, or technical leads, who often lacked the project management expertise. This research found that higher the IT project management maturity, the better is the project performance. The IT projects with a higher maturity had a lower project delay, lower number of missed requirements, and lower number of IT system errors. This research found that the quality of IT decision in the university could be improved by centralizing the IT decision-making processes. The IT project management maturity could be improved by following the project management methodologies. The stakeholder management and communication were found critical for the success of the IT projects in the university. It is hoped that the findings from this research would help the university leaders make the strategic IT decisions, and the university’s IT project managers make the IT project decisions.Item Exploring Linkages between Travel Behavior and Health with Person-Level Data from Smartphone Applications(2013) Vemulapati, Sapeksha Virinchi; Zhang, Lei; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the past, scholars have explored different variables and linked them with the individual's travel behavior. This study explores the linkages between an individual's health and his/her everyday travel behavior. In order to capture accurate and comprehensive travel behavior information, a smartphone application is developed that can track user location for long periods without the need of user intervention. Focus is placed on designing the application to have minimum respondent burden and long-standing battery life of the smart device. Subjects are recruited through a web survey designed to collect information about the individual's healthy living habits. Data from the application is regressed against the health measure data acquired from the survey. Results show that active modes of travel are positively associated with the person's general health measures. The feasibility of this platform as a data collection method is highlighted while explaining the limitations due to the sample distribution and size.Item Study of real-time traffic state estimation and short-term prediction of signalized arterial network considering heterogeneous information sources(2013) Lu, Yang; Ali, Haghani; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Compared with a freeway network, real-time traffic state estimation and prediction of a signalized arterial network is a challenging yet under-studied field. Starting from discussing the arterial traffic flow dynamics, this study proposes a novel framework for real-time traffic state estimation and short-term prediction for signalized corridors. Particle filter techniques are used to integrate field measurements from different sources to improve the accuracy and robustness of the model. Several comprehensive numerical studies based on both real world and simulated datasets showed that the proposed model can generate reliable estimation and short-term prediction of different traffic states including queue length, flow density, speed and travel time with a high degree of accuracy. The proposed model can serve as the key component in both ATIS (Advanced Traveler's Information System) and proactive traffic control systemsItem GOVERNANCE STRATEGIES FOR ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATIONS(2013) Ghosh, Saumyendu N.; Skibniewski, Miroslaw J; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Enterprise application system implementations are highly complex implementations that automate several business functions, such as financials, accounting, supply chain, customer services management, human resources management and reporting among others. This study aims at providing an alternative view of organization's enterprise application system (EAS) acceptance. Despite the large body of literature, there are still empirical inquiries to investigate the EAS system implementation from adopters' perspectives and how to identify risks in a multi-stakeholder and dynamic environment. The thesis consists of three essays on various aspects of relationship between enterprise application implementation in a multi-stakeholder environment and project governance. Valid measurement scales for predicting organization's acceptance of enterprise systems are in short supply. The first essay develops and validates new scales for two specific variables, integration and inter-dependency risks. These variables are hypothesized as key determinant for organizational success of enterprise application implementations by mitigating risks involved in a multi-stakeholder environment. A model of organization acceptance of enterprise systems was developed using these two scales and then tested for reliability from a total of 365 users and nine application groups. The measures were validated using ten different direct measures with reliabilities between 0.72 and 0.96. Integration risk was significantly related with perceived ease of use, consultant's product knowledge and training provided to the end users. Inter-dependency risk was significantly correlated with perceived usefulness, consultant's industry and product knowledge. Both integration and inter-dependency risks are significantly related with success of the new enterprise application. This study would benefit project executives by offering valuable managerial insights that enable them to appreciate and improve integration and inter-dependency of stakeholders. Implications for theory and practice are discussed for two sub-groups: that less experienced resources treat risks differently than more experienced resources, and business applications compared to technical enterprise applications. Academic community has not addressed governance of enterprise application projects that involve dynamic environments and how to mitigate integration and inter-dependency risks. In the second essay it is argued that acceptance of the system from end users is not enough? Adopters of new enterprise wide information technology solutions get most benefit when the solution continues to be adaptable when business, environment or other organizational priorities change - therefore making an implementation sustainable. The second essay discussed characteristics of sustainability of enterprise application implementation from organizational perspective. A case study was used to validate the characteristics of sustainability. The thesis sought to demonstrate the causal relationship between the organization's preparedness for sustainability and the emergence of implementation problems. The study extracted insight into the criticality of certain factors and the type of problems making decisions under weak governance situation. The third essay develops determinants for project governance success of enterprise application implementations by mitigating risks in a multi-stakeholder environment. This essay develops and validates new scales for five specific variables. Definitions of five variables were used to develop a model that was presented for content validity and then tested for reliability from a total of 117 project executives globally. The measures were validated with reliabilities between 0.73 and 0.94. Relationships between five measures were broken down to meaningful components and a three tier project governance structure was proposed to mitigate integration and inter-dependency risks in a multi-stakeholder environment.Item Measuring the Impact of Training in the Implementation of Project Management Information Systems(2012) McCarty, Andrew; Skibniewski, Miroslaw; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations can use training to maximize the benefits realized through the implementation of project, program, and portfolio management software. However, the relationship between Project Management Information System (PMIS) training and the creation of organizational value is not well understood. The goal of the research is to create a better understanding of current industry project management software training practices and outcomes. This research investigates training utilization and outcomes in the PMIS industry, the prevalence, relative effectiveness and efficiency of several commonly used training delivery methods at increasing PMIS outcomes, and the relationships of individual and organizational characteristics on outcomes. An expansive multi-disciplinary review of existing scholarly literature was undertaken to develop a framework for the measurement of project management software training outcomes. Expert input from a panel of 9 practitioners averaging 16.7 years of professional experience related to PM, and 15.1 years of years of professional experience related to PM software usage was used to objectively select a small number of the best-scoring elements of the proposed framework for inclusion in a survey to be administered to practitioners. In total, 1,021 completed surveys were collected and analyzed using statistical methods. Research findings suggest statistically significant differences in consumption rates, effectiveness and efficiency among the examined training delivery methods. This research may contribute to training that is more effective and more efficient, based on the unique requirements of each individual and organization, at a reasonable cost. The methodologies and findings of this research have immediate implications in improving the planning, delivery, and measurement of PMIS training.