What makes you a digital native? Is it enough to be born after 1980?

The multi-dimensional digital divide: Perspectives from an e-government portal in Nigeria

A review of research from organizational behavior supported the guidelines by corporate planners: that is, use an explicit approach for setting objectives, generating strategies, evaluating strategies, monitoring results, and obtaining commitment. To determine whether these findings could be applied to strategic decision making in organizations, a review was made of all published field research on the evaluation of formal planning. Formal planning was superior in 10 of the 15 comparisons drawn from 12 studies, while informal planning was superior in only two comparisons. Although this research did not provide sufficient information on the use of various aspects of the planning process, mild support was provided for having participation by stakeholders. Formal planning tended to be more useful where large changes were involved, but, beyond that, little information was available to suggest when formal planning is most valuable. Future research should assess the formal planning process, the situation in which it is used, and its effects on the total system.

The value of formal planning for strategic decisions: review of empirical research

Abstract Consideration of social issues in environmental impact assessment (EIA) of development projects has been an integral part of project cycle since the inception of EIA in Bangladesh in the early 1990s. This paper examines the emergence of social impact assessment (SIA) in Bangladesh environmental management and its institutionalization. It reveals that although SIA does not have a statutory status like EIA, social dimensions are firmly established in donor funded poverty alleviation projects. It is proposed that SIA is given a clear legislative mandate. The Department of Environment (DOE)—the agency that looks after the implementation of EIA on behalf of the government—needs to be strengthened and transparent in order to play a more effective role.

Institutionalizing social impact assessment in Bangladesh resource management: limitations and opportunities | NOVA. The University of Newcastle's Digital Repository

A new methodology for assessing water quality, based on data envelopment analysis: Application to Algerian dams

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate project activities' efficiency in different execution modes for the optimization of time–cost-quality and environmental impacts trade-off problem.,This paper presents a parallel Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method for evaluation of project activities with different execution modes to select the best execution mode and find a trade-off between objectives. Also, according to the nature of the project activities, outputs are categorized into desirable (quality) and undesirable (time, cost and environmental impacts) and analyzed based on the DEA model. In order to rank efficient execution modes, the ideal and anti-ideal virtual units method is used. The proposed model is implemented on a real case of a rural water supply construction project to demonstrate its validity.,The findings show that the use of the efficient execution mode in each activity leads to an optimal trade-off between the four project objectives (time, cost, quality and environmental impacts).,This study help project managers and practitioners with choosing the most efficient execution modes of project activities taking time–cost-quality-environmental impacts into account.,In this paper, in addition to time and cost optimization of construction projects, quality factors and environmental impacts are considered. Further to the authors' knowledge, there is no method for evaluating project activities' efficiency. The efficiency of different activity modes is also evaluated for the first time to select the most efficient modes. This research can assist project managers with choosing the most appropriate execution modes for the activities to ultimately accomplish the project with the lowest time, cost and environmental impacts along with the highest quality.

Time-cost-quality-environmental impact trade-off resource-constrained project scheduling problem with DEA approach

Currently, construction projects have a significant share in environmental pollution. Usually, the employers and managers of construction projects pay attention to the project implementation with the shortest duration and the lowest cost, whereas less attention is paid to the environmental effects of the implementation of projects. Sustainable development requires the planning and implementation of construction projects, taking environmental impacts, along with other factors, into account. Few studies have investigated the balancing time, cost, and environmental effects. Although the selection of an execution method for the project activity requires the use of decision-making methods, these methods have not been used in the project scheduling problems. This study seeks to simultaneously minimize the project time, cost, and environmental impacts. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the environmental impact of project activities in three physical, biological, and social aspects throughout the construction projects, and to attempt to minimize them as measurable values. In this paper, the environmental effects of an urban water supply construction project as a real case study are assessed in different activity execution modes by the Leopold matrix and the best execution mode of each project activity is selected using the CoCoSo (combined compromise solution) multi-criteria decision-making method, considering the time–cost-environmental impact trade-off. The CoCoSo method is employed because of its high flexibility compared to other multi-criteria decision-making methods. The results of this study will direct managers and stakeholders of construction projects to pay more attention to the environmental effects of construction project activities, together with the other conventional project goals and objectives, such as the time and cost.

Investigating the Environmental Impacts of Construction Projects in Time-Cost Trade-Off Project Scheduling Problems with CoCoSo Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method

The increasing number of construction projects together with the limited resources of organizations led to tough competition for achieving project goals. Time, cost, and quality have been known as the project iron triangle. Project managers attempt to allocate the appropriate resources and make the best decisions for accomplishing projects with the shortest durations, lowest costs, and the highest quality. No study has examined the time–cost–quality trade-off problem with decision-making approaches. In this study, the fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are exploited to choose the best mode for performing each activity. For this purpose, the SWARA method is applied to determine the importance weights of time, cost, and quality. In addition, the TOPSIS (Technique for the Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) technique is used to rank and select the best activity execution modes. The proposed model is implemented on two medium- and large-size construction projects to evaluate its efficiency. Several execution modes with fuzzy duration, cost, and quality are considered for each project activity. Finally, sensitivity analysis is conducted taking three different conditions into account: the shortest duration of the execution modes, the lowest cost of the execution modes, and the highest quality of execution modes for each activity. The solution of each trade-off is compared with the solution obtained from the fuzzy SWARA–TOPSIS method. The schedule is developed according to the best execution mode for each project activity. The obtained results in two different construction projects show significant improvements in the overall project objectives so that the projects can be completed in fewer durations and costs along with higher quality. Because of the higher importance of cost, the cost of each activity is closer to the lowest cost. The activity duration is also closer to the most likely duration, and quality is closer to the high-quality level. The application of this approach can create new opportunities for research and knowledge development in the field of construction project scheduling.

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Trading off Time–Cost–Quality in Construction Project Scheduling Problems with Fuzzy SWARA–TOPSIS Approach

Today, project stakeholders seek to reduce the total costs and durations of projects while increasing their quality levels. Also, the governments have paid more attention to the environmental effects of projects. This study tackles the time–cost–quality-environmental effects trade-off project scheduling problem. Various activity execution modes are evaluated using the network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) method to select the best modes in order to mitigate the environmental impacts, along with reducing the duration and cost of project implementation and enhancing the overall quality of the project. The method of ideal and anti-ideal virtual units is applied to rank the efficient execution modes. In addition, the TOPSIS method is utilized to rank the different execution modes of each activity. Finally, the results of two methods are compared. The findings show that the selection of an efficient execution mode for each activity leads to a trade-off between the four project objectives including time, cost, quality, environmental impacts. The shortest project duration and the lowest total project cost were obtained using the NDEA-Nuo method, the highest quality level was gained by the NDEA-INP method, and the minimum environmental impacts of the entire project were attained by the TOPSIS method. Also, the lowest amount of resource consumption was obtained using the TOPSIS method, so that the daily consumption amount of each resource was less than the other two methods. As a result, the project management team can apply either the NDEA or TOPSIS method based on the organizational policy.

Evaluating Efficiency in Construction Projects with the TOPSIS Model and NDEA Method Considering Environmental Effects and Undesirable Data

With the beginning of postindustrial era, organizations environment has become dynamic and full of changes and complexity was proposed as a dominant issue in organizations. Changes were so intensified that the credibility of anticipant function was disappeared and new and unexpected challenges were formed. Therefore, the most important concerns of the majority of organizations are codification and implementation of strategies which ensure their success and survival under the changed and sophisticated environmental conditions. Strategic planning always intends to codify proper and competitive strategies in today's world by assessing environmental conditions and internal capabilities of organizations. The present research by the aid of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique, ranks external and internal factors affecting universities environment to be an appropriate guide for codification of university strategies.

http://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5007/article/download/2839/4282

Sayyid Ali Banihashemi

Papers

Time-cost-quality-environmental impact trade-off resource-constrained project scheduling problem with DEA approach

Investigating the Environmental Impacts of Construction Projects in Time-Cost Trade-Off Project Scheduling Problems with CoCoSo Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method

Trading off Time–Cost–Quality in Construction Project Scheduling Problems with Fuzzy SWARA–TOPSIS Approach

Evaluating Efficiency in Construction Projects with the TOPSIS Model and NDEA Method Considering Environmental Effects and Undesirable Data

Assessment of Environmental Conditions and Internal Capabilities Affecting University Strategies (IFE, EFE, SWOT & AHP Models)