Showing papers in "IEEE Engineering Management Review in 2008"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors point out the underlying theoretical foundation of project management as espoused in the PMBOK Guide by PMI and mostly applied in practice and show that this foundation is obsolete and has to be substituted by a wider and more powerful theoretical foundation.
Abstract: In prior literature, it has been generally seen that there is no explicit theory of project management. We contend that it is possible to precisely point out the underlying theoretical foundation of project management as espoused in the PMBOK Guide by PMI and mostly applied in practice. This foundation can be divided into a theory of project and a theory of management. We link theories to the body of
knowledge by comparing prescriptions derived from theory to prescriptions presented in the PMBOK. Secondly, we show, by a comparison to competing theories and by an analysis of anomalies (deviations from assumptions or outcomes as implied in the body of knowledge) observed in project management practice, that this foundation is obsolete and has to be substituted by a wider and more powerful theoretical foundation.
554 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
152 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept, foundations, research directions, and practice implications for System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) are developed and the nature and nature of the co-authors introduce the nature of co
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to develop the concept, foundations, research directions, and practice implications for System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) First, we introduce the nature of the co
126 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors collected, synthesized, and analyzed 167 articles on a variety of topics closely related to business intelligence published from 1997 to 2006 in ten leading Information Systems (IIS) journals.
Abstract: This research collects, synthesizes, and analyzes 167 articles on a variety of topics closely related to business intelligence (BI) published from 1997 to 2006 in ten leading Information Systems (I...
84 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
75 citations
TL;DR: The Learning Plan as discussed by the authors is a framework that enables companies to manage breakthrough innovation by explicitly recognizing that project teams are proceeding on the basis of assumptions, rather than known facts, and identifies four different types of uncertainties (technical, market, organizational, resource) that can hinder a project's long-term success.
Abstract: In new-product development, most management approaches presume a high ratio of knowns to unknowns, and most planning involves prescribed pathways through developmental stages. In fact, a byproduct of the focus on quality and operational excellence is that companies tend to avoid uncertain situations and resist market experimentation. Such approaches are counterproductive for any project that has the potential to produce real breakthrough innovations. In this article, the authors offer a framework, called the Learning Plan, that enables companies to manage breakthrough innovation by explicitly recognizing that project teams are proceeding on the basis of assumptions, rather than known facts.
The authors identify four different types of uncertainties (technical, market, organizational, resource) that can hinder a project's long-term success. Technical uncertainties relate to the completeness and correctness of the underlying scientific knowledge, the extent to which the technical specifications of the product can be implemented, the reliability of the manufacturing processes and its maintainability. Market uncertainties include the degree to which customer needs and wants are clear and well-understood, the extent to which conventional forms of interaction between the customer and the product can be used, the appropriateness of conventional methods of sales/distribution and revenue models and the project team's understanding of the relationship of the breakthrough innovation to competitors' products. Organizational uncertainties include organizational resistance, lack of continuity and persistence, inconsistency in expectations and metrics, changes in internal and external partners and changes in strategic commitment. Finally, resource uncertainties often can pose difficulties as project teams continually struggle to attract the resources they required.
After discussing these difficulties, the authors identify a plan that allows a team to deal with those uncertainties in a proactive way with the type of ongoing evaluation and redirection that characterizes any breakthrough innovation project.
73 citations
TL;DR: The "innovation" of having women compete for positions seen as belonging to males only has repercussions which are both positive and negative as discussed by the authors, and that is what innovation produces - both positive or negative responses to the change in the familiar.
Abstract: While this article is about Senator Clinton and the implications of her race for the presidency for not only women but for the country in general, it is mainly concerned with women in the workplace and the underlying difficulties they face as women in a male dominated society. The "innovation" of having women compete for positions seen as belonging to males only has repercussions which are both positive and negative. And that is what innovation produces - both positive and negative responses to the change in the familiar.
70 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of patterns of complexity, the minimal manageable "space" of complex projects, has been discussed, which is similar to the concept described in this paper.
Abstract: Projects are and have always been complex. However, complexity is hardly managed or influenced. This paper discusses the concept of patterns of complexity, the minimal manageable “space” of complex...
58 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the expanding use of empirical indicators across all the major sports and argue that research managers still reach decisions based largely on intuition, and that they can do much better by incorporating a richer base of empirical information into their R&D management processes.
Abstract: Reflect back briefly on what was considered good manufacturing management circa 1960 and what we expect today. Prior to the quality movement, manufacturing operations were based heavily on intuition. Experienced shop floor personnel knew their machines and generated a certain level of efficiency and quality-few suspected that anything better was possible. Then came the quality movement-collecting performance data along with statistical analyses enabled supervisors to discern much finer performance tolerances. And, lo and behold, production processes improved dramatically, leading to far fewer flaws in automobiles, integrated circuits or whatever. And that provided tremendous competitive advantage to the Japanese and others who implemented successful quality management (1). Managers in most fields are exploiting data to enhance performance. Finance, logistics, marketing, and sales depend heavily upon empirically based knowledge. Even sports management is being made over. The headline in a Sporting News article reads: "Playing the numbers game: now more than ever, the sports world is looking to statistics for performance-enhancing insight, fueling the quest to devise perfect predictors of success" (2). The article discusses the expanding use of empirical indicators across all the major sports. This notion gained popular notoriety with Moneyball-the tale of how Billy Beane, as general manager of baseball's Oakland A's, gets more bang for his limited bucks by using a variety of telling player statistics (3). For instance, CERA-catcher's earned run average-incorporates a catcher's talent for handling pitchers together with other defensive skills. Data convey valuable intelligence. How about R&D management? I assert that research managers still reach decisions based largely on intuition. For example, the cornerstone in allocating federal research funding by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health is peer review. When the government confronts difficult science and technology ("S&T") issues, it turns to the National Academies (Science, Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine) for eminent expertise. This use of expert opinion is certainly laudable, particularly when compared to the alternative of uninformed, arbitrary choices. But, the point of this article is that we can do much better by incorporating a richer base of empirical information into our R&D management processes. The data and the tools to analyze them are available now. It's time to augment expertise with empirical knowledge. In so doing, we should be able to enhance our effectiveness at least as much as has been proven possible in manufacturing and other arenas. I see payoffs in R&D management from the introduction of carefully targeted mining of R&D information resources. These range over the spectrum of R&D and innovation processes. The researcher contemplating a new project can position this work against what others are doing to identify novel approaches, locate potential collaborators, and exploit the most promising opportunities. The portfolio manager can optimize resource allocation to target the timeliest opportunities and take full advantage of his or her assets. The intellectual property manager, new product developer, and other technology managers can similarly enhance their positioning and payoffs (4). Managers who comprehend the research landscape, backed up by explicit information, have a major competitive advantage over counterparts driving solely on intuition. Let's consider how exploiting R&D information resources can make a difference now. Tech Mining Concepts The analogy to production and sports management understates the challenge. Empirical knowledge in those domains derives mainly from numerical data. For S&T, the data are a mix of numerical and text. "Tech Mining" is my shorthand label for text mining of technical information resources (5). It depends upon an understanding of what matters in technological innovation processes, text mining tools to get at the pertinent intelligence, and effective delivery of findings to users. …
47 citations
TL;DR: Thongpapanl and Linton as discussed by the authors surveyed what had been learned about the management of human resources during the previous 50 years since the Industrial Research Institute's founding in 1938.
Abstract: OVERVIEW:2007 is Research-Technology Management's 50th year of publication. To mark the occasion, each issue reprints one of RTM's six most frequently referenced articles. The articles were identified by N. Thongpapanl and Jonathan D. Linton in their 2004 study of technology innovation management journals, a citation-based study in which RTM ranked third out of 25 specialty journals in that field (see RTM, May–June 2004, pp. 5–6). The article reprinted here was originally published in 1988 and has been updated with its author's “reflections.” It surveys what had been learned about the management of human resources during the previous 50 years since the Industrial Research Institute's founding in 1938. The focus is on the effective utilization of technical professionals, which the author breaks into four “distinct, yet, interrelated components or subsystems”: an effective human resource planning, reward, performance appraisal, and career planning system. After discussing the major research findings and les...
38 citations
TL;DR: The statistics of project success suggest that most projects still fail and many projects... as mentioned in this paper, however, irony suggests that most project success suggests that very few projects still succeed, while many projects fail.
Abstract: Project management is one of the fastest growing disciplines in organizations today. However, ironically, the statistics of project success suggests that most projects still fail and many projects ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the nature of competitive intelligence as a key contributor to the process of organizational knowledge management systems, enabling faster more intelligible decision-making, which is the key to turning raw data into valuable information, turning that valuable information into strategy, and turning strategy into actionable items, thereby improving business performance and operations.
Abstract: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The key to competitive intelligence is the process of turning raw data into valuable information, turning that valuable information into strategy, and turning strategy into actionable items, thereby improving business performance and operations by maintaining an organizational advantage. This paper will set out to further explore the nature of Competitive Intelligence as a key contributor to the process of organizational Knowledge Management Systems, enabling faster more intelligible decision-making. INTRODUCTION Competitive Intelligence, which is defined as the purposeful and coordinated monitoring of your competition within a specific marketplace, plays an important role in Knowledge Management and the process of organizational decision-making. Competitive Intelligence is forward-looking and anticipates competitors' future activities. Management Information Systems vendors, such as SAP, go so far as to say that Competitive Intelligence, which is also commonly referred to as Business Intelligence, enables organizations to reach into their vast supplies of data and rapidly turn them into information for knowledge management (http://www.sap.com/solutions/bi/). In order to fully understand the role of Competitive Intelligence in Knowledge Management, it is important to first examine the properties of Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management as separate entities within organizational decisionmaking. Intelligence, as opposed to Competitive Intelligence, can be defined as "an analytical process that transforms tumultuously gathered competitor and market information into actionable knowledge about competitors' capabilities, intentions, performance, and position; as well as the final product of that process." Competitive Intelligence, conversely, involves the use of public sources to develop data on competition, competitors, and the market environment, transforming that data, by analysis, into [useful] information (McGonagle and Vella, 2002). Data developed under this context can be identified as Knowledge Assets (KA). Within competitive business environments, businesses must be effectively prepared to manage Knowledge Assets (KA) in order to remain viable. Knowledge assets are "the knowledge regarding markets, products, technology, and organizations, that a business owns or needs to own and which enable its business processes to generate profits, add value, etc." Competitive Intelligence is a type of Knowledge Asset. Effectively managing Knowledge Assets involves the process of Knowledge Management (KM). KM is defined as the "identification and analysis of available and required knowledge assets and knowledge asset related processes, and subsequent planning and control of actions to develop both the assets and the processes so as to fulfill organizational objectives." KM however, is not limited to managing Knowledge Assets, but includes the management of "processes, and the subsequent planning and control of actions to develop both the assets and the processes so as to fulfill organizational objectives" (Macintosh, 1999). Effective Knowledge Management is critical because "in today's information-driven economy, companies uncover the most opportunities and ultimately derive the most value-from (KA) rather than physical assets" (Santosus and Surmacz ,2001). Thus, companies should not solely focus on their tangible assets if they wish to remain competitive. Employing an effective Knowledge Management strategy requires overcoming some challenges such as unwillingness of employees to participate in Knowledge Management, allowing technology to dictate Knowledge Management within an organization, not having a specific goal as it relates to Knowledge Management, failure to recognize that Knowledge Management, alone, is not strategic, and the inability to distinguish useful knowledge from useless knowledge. In the end, an effective Knowledge Management strategy should encompass the following in order to prove successful within an organization (Santosus and Surmacz, 2001): * Foster innovation by encouraging the free - flow of ideas * Improve customer service by stream - lining response time * Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster * Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees' knowledge and rewarding them for it * Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary processes. …
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
TL;DR: In this paper, a diagnostic to determine whether a firm has a communications problem is asked: Does the firm endorse a collaborative inquiry that drives a strategy-intelligence linkage? Does intelligence about marketplace change stimulate strategic thinking and discussion? If the answer to either question is "No", two factors are likely responsible.
Abstract: I n many companies, it’s urgent that a more productive dialogue about strategy making take place between the executive leadership and the team responsible for creating critical marketplace insights – a team composed of the competitive intelligence professionals and the managers in other functional areas who work with them. As a diagnostic to determine whether your firm has this communications problem, ask yourself two questions: Does your firm endorse a collaborative inquiry that drives a strategy-intelligence linkage? Does intelligence about marketplace change stimulate strategic thinking and discussion? If the answer to either question is ‘‘No,’’ two factors are likely responsible.
TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal study was conducted of transformational leadership and the performance of project groups in three industrial research and development organizations, and it was found that transformational leaders predicted higher project quality and budget/schedule performance ratings at time I and one-year later at time 2.
Abstract: A longitudinal study was conducted of transformational leadership and the performance of project groups in three industrial research and development organizations. As hypothesized, transformational leadership predicted higher project quality and budget/schedule performance ratings at time I and one-year later at time 2. A moderator effect was hypothesized and found for type of research and development work. Here, transformational leadership was a stronger predictor of project quality ratings for research projects than for development projects. Initiating structure, however was a stronger predictor of project quality ratings for development projects than for research projects. Theoretical and methodological issues for transformational leadership research in professional organizations are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a framework to guide team building activities in the context of team building. But, to be successful, managers require a framework that can guide their activities.
Abstract: Managers must recognize that they play a central role in effective team building. However, to be successful, managers require a framework to guide their activities. The purpose of this paper is to ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify two distinct personality types that are vital to successful technological innovation, but whose mindsets often clash. And they suggest eight guidelines for managing steward-creator conflict more successfully.
Abstract: Many technology-intensive companies today depend on employees with specialized technical skills, and managers may not fully understand the work these employees do. Moreover, managers and technical employees may have very different worldviews, and their worldviews may conflict during the process of business innovation.
After researching the movement of Internet and computing pioneers among various organizations during a period between the early 1960s and the mid-1990s, the authors identified two distinct personality types that are both vital to successful technological innovation ? but whose mindsets often clash. The authors dub these two types stewards and creators.
An organization?s stewards are usually managers; their goal is the careful allocation of the organization?s resources, with an aim of achieving an optimal return on investment. Creators, on the other hand, are often skilled, specialized employees, and their focus is on a grand vision and mission; they frequently view business concerns as secondary. According to the authors, conflict between stewards and creators is, to some extent, inevitable. However, when such conflict is managed poorly, the organization?s capacity to innovate effectively may be impaired.
The authors suggest eight guidelines for managing steward-creator conflict more successfully. These guidelines include (1) Keep talented creators around, although they can be difficult to manage; (2) balance the influence of stewards and creators in the organization, so neither group always wins; (3) cultivate people who have credibility with both creators and stewards and can help resolve conflicts; (4) use peer review to more accurately evaluate creators? specialized technical work; (5) structure the innovation process so that creators produce tangible artifacts regularly; (6) realize that there will always be some conflict between an organizations? creators and its stewards; (7) avoid overly prescriptive control mechanisms that may alienate creators; and (8) ensure that closure on projects is achieved neither too quickly nor too slowly.
TL;DR: Very operationally specific, “down in the trenches” competitive intelligence can help inform and contribute to a much higher‐level view of the competitive arena that can inform company strategy.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this article is to show how operationally specific, “down in the trenches” competitive intelligence can help inform and contribute to a much higher‐level view of the competitive arena that can inform company strategy.Design/methodology/approach – The article presents a practical application based on various tactical intelligence methodologies, such as win/loss analysis, primary intelligence collection, etc.Findings – By analyzing it at a higher level, CI practitioners and strategists can use tactical intelligence to help support strategy development, not just day‐to‐day company operations.Practical implications – The article shows managers how to use tactical intelligence to help inform strategy.Originality/value – This article takes very operationally specific, “down in the trenches” intelligence and shows how it can help inform and contribute to a much higher‐level view of the competitive marketplace. Many people tend to think of tactical intelligence as low‐value data or inform...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a set of reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles, but full text can be found on the Internet Archive.
Abstract: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.