After severe economic recession, at last a pause has come. Many enterprises are about to intend the innovation to the business model and process to adapted this situation. Pursuing the speed of market change is diffusing matrix organizations, enterprise strategies and goals force to coordination and cooperation with other companies. They exceed the enterprise boundary, industry boundary and even the border too, using IT support. Although most of the action plans are carried out as projects, for instance, scope management or stakeholder management is requiring a clearly new level of standards. Project management is the right fundamental competency, but from single project view point, it will be difficult to understand the project contribution and the strategy of enterprise achievement. This paper explains this sort of trend, and expresses the next level of management framework which project management should obtain.

View full abstract

In order to make a large-scale project involving many stakeholders a successful, the quality of a communication management becomes an important key factor. However, a quantification and a visualization of a project communication was hardly examined up to now. Recently, by the advancement of a sensor and analysis technology, a system that can automatically measure a team activity and visualize its result has been developed. In this paper, I will introduce some speculations about the contents of the measurement.

View full abstract

In general, agile type software development is aiming to make a workable function and outcome quicker. Whenever we deploy this methodology to department management, it is effective that the team is along with the Agile Manifesto. It is however circumstance is changed urgently and boldly, agile team is not able to track the shift. In case upper management orders directly to staffs as a water-fall development, an opinion-leader is essential to keep their communication network.

View full abstract

It is said that 85% of the project management must be spend on communication to make a project a success. It is said that the team exercises the highest performances, maintains mutual dependencies, and handles the issues smoothly and effectively during the performing period. This time, we have experimentally implemented two improvement measures with the aim of improving quality and quantity of the communication among team members and making passive members to voluntarily act and to make remark. To objectively and quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of these measures, we have used an organization activity measurement system, which can automatically measure the organization activity and visualize it. In this paper, we will introduce the speculation about each measure and their evaluation by the organization activity measurement system.

View full abstract

The mental health for people working on system development sites is a significant problem. In 2008, the Fujitsu PM community established a working group to research the problem. This paper describes the results of a one-year research effort and recommends both "prevention" and "preparation to tie with expert of mental health" for PMs.

View full abstract

It hears of "Said person defeat" climate of the word well on the site of the software development. In the office in such a climate, the information is not opened though the person in charge is perceiving the problem and the anxiety. As a result, a negative cycle and the outbreak correspondence's becoming a delivery date verge, exposing the problem, happening frequently, and covering by the overtime work is made a normal state, it decreases in the quality and productivity, and the situation like the down of motivation and the resignation, etc. of the person in charge is invited furthermore. It is important to do the team management so that the team member may accomplish the business autonomous to solve such a state, and information on the cause for concern and the problem may never never stagnate. The point is considered through the introduction of the case where such team management is achieved.

View full abstract

The purpose of this research is to clarify the characteristics of nonverbal communications in projects. The experiment on the non-verbal communication was executed with an airplane game simplified for project-based classes. As a result, the specific technique on the non-verbal communication in project was clarified. However, the effects of non-verbal communication in project may depend on the characteristics of project member. In the research, the relationships between the characteristics of project member and the non-verbal communication are examined. Additionally, the relationship between the experimental results and project management body of knowledge is examined to evaluate the effects of nonverbal communications method in project.

View full abstract

One way to make a project successful is an understanding the essence of past experiences. To develop a scheme for learning from the past experiences, it is important to accumulate valuable knowledge of organization. The knowledge is extracted by analyzing and interpreting it after information obtained from the experience is arranged again. But, it is difficult to derive an objective and profitable knowledge according to the following obstruction factor. (1) The analysis based on superficial or a local situational awareness is done. (2) The consideration of the buck-passing work. To solve the above problems, we developed causal analytical method including visualization technique of the decision sequence to support the knowledge extraction, and defined knowledge form to understand knowledge. We evaluate the analytical method and the knowledge form, and show the effectiveness of the knowledge extraction.

View full abstract

Agile development is a software development methodology which emphasizes individuals' collaboration and interactions, working software more than plan driven waterfall development. It is evolved in recent years compared with waterfall development, and said that more adaptive to changes (which frequently occur in system construction projects) than heavyweight methods. But to adopt agile development for mission critical system construction projects from now on, maturing quality management and getting customer satisfaction are needed. Most of agile development methodologies do not systematize quality management in the present. Therefore, verification and consideration which quality management practices for waterfall development are adoptable to agile development is necessary. This paper explains about quality management activities for agile development using real project example which is characterized by collaboration with offshore vendor. And evaluating the metrics of quality for agile development compared with its for waterfall development.

View full abstract

Action Learning was implemented to develop human resource working in the projects for adapting the environmental changes in the Public Service Corporation. The result of the meetings was recorded and analyzed through the methodology of field work and questionnaires. The analysis and evaluation of Action Learning is written in this paper.

View full abstract

While the globalization of business proceeds apace, the opportunities of offshore software development are increasing. But there are many risks and issues caused from differences of the culture, the language between countries. This case shows a real case that the writer had experienced in China. And this case analyses the offshore software development issues from both Chinese and Japanese view points and shows the approach to overcome these issues in cooperation.

View full abstract

In the order-receiving business that the company provide the duct and the system based on the customer request, it is important to sophisticate the decision-making before signing the contract for preventing the project trouble. Then, we develop the prediction method of project earnings variation based on the project risk factors in order to detect early the trouble projects. The feature of this method is to extract the similar past projects based on the project evaluation about risk factors, and to predict the project earnings variation based on the actual project earnings variations of the similar past projects by parity of reasoning. We verified the predicting performance of this method by real data of the system development project, and confirmed that the algorithm of this method is effective.

View full abstract

In order to improve project quality and to prevent project failure, NTT DATA has been implementing risk assessment process. Sector PMOs implement risk assessment to prevent project failure. Since quality improvement is essential for an efficient risk assessment process, not only the assessor's ability but also cooperation of the project is required. PMOs aim to "establish and improve risk assessment processes and procedures" with emphasis on "assuring a swift and reliable assessment process" and "delivering clear and acceptable assessment." This paper presents our approaches to risk assessment process improvement (visual control and sharing of process through process standardization) and future tasks.

View full abstract

In the project in which various members participate, situation (=context) agreement of recognition of the project status is important and difficult, and this is one of the causes that the problem is caused in the project. This study focuses to recognition of team situation between the leader and members. And I will analyze the data of the team bldg. theory in real project. In additions, I propose to assign for the communications facilitators as remedial measures of the recognition discrepancy, and the effectiveness is evaluated from the application result in a real project.

View full abstract

It is not heard that the standardization of development process has succeeded. I arranged why the development process standardizing project does not work to three points. I think that the plan based on these three reasons drives the project successful. In this paper, I propose the practical planning method, corresponded to the process groups and the knowledge areas in PMBOK. And this method is effective also in the proposal activities of the project above, since it is relevant to the initiating and planning process group. Although there are still several projects which applied this proposal, the effects have shown up in them.

View full abstract

Advancements in Information Technology and the diversity of user needs make commercial application more complex ever then before. Large enterprises face the challenge of non-functional quality issues, such as performance and availability. For those project assumed to have mission critical goals, vast amount of resource are invested on testing, while the others are rarely tested even if they are need. They are incapable of justifying how much testing should be made after all. On the other hand, for many application development projects, testing is mainly carried out in the downstream process because there are more testing tools downstream to help them to carry out the test, and application developers are more familiar with them. In this paper, we are going to introduce FLT(Full Lifecycle Testing), which is one of the capability pattern described in the IBM UMF(Unified Method Framework). We also discuss on how to carry out static testing, and how to optimize the testing process throughout the project lifecycle by adding this capability pattern to the project.

View full abstract

In order to apply Earned Value Management(EVM) on a test phase of software development project, the number of removed defects should be referred as Earned Value(EV) rather than counting the number of completed test cases. The number of defects in a software can be estimated by quality control techniques, which can estimate the remaining days to the test completion, and remaining number of defects in the software. With an example of a project, this article describes how quality management in test phase should be from a perspective of EVM, by comparing indexes of quality control techniques and EVM.

View full abstract

To improve competitive edge with the other companies more than now, our company is doing the activity aimed at the continual improvement of the quality and productivity. In our organization, we introduced a quantitative management process based on CMMI level 4 for systematic quality improvement, and we have been improving the review process for the quality improvement of the software design we describe the implementation contents, evaluation and problem of the quality improvement process achieved by "visualizing the quality of the review".

View full abstract

As IT has proliferated and advanced, IT systems have become increasingly complex. It is believed that this has made it more difficult to guarantee the quality of IT system development. However, the method used in the development of software for computer operation remains unchanged for the most part, although advances in CASE tools have simplified the development process to some extent. Furthermore, many bugs are arising as a result of rudimentary errors and lack of basic programming knowledge. This paper describes efforts made in our banking system development a project that successfully improved the quality of system development by returning to the basics of the software development process.

View full abstract

The basic question is how to use Portfolio, Program and Project and Operation Management Model (PPP&O) in order to get reasonable profit after the investment and development products. But, a report says that in some business sectors (including Information and Communication Technology; ICT) the relation between the investment for new products (technology) and the return is negative or no relation. These results are so miserable to us. We would like to study new business and products in order to make reasonable profit with some risk before expanding the whole business area. We would like to make effort to break through the negative relation. In the effort, there are many problems to solve. In this paper, we focus on the management gap in the program. We study the business gap (so called Death Valley) and the inherent essential problem. After solving how to work through the management gap, we will set up the business metrics for using PPP&O in ICT business field and get profitable business development methodology.

View full abstract

I worked as a PMO staff in the renewal project of a main application system. Based on this experience, I will introduce the PMO activities at first, then present how to visualize time management, trouble management, and service-in criteria management.

View full abstract

Shortage of project manager has been going on. Many attempts to develop project manager skills has been tackled for many years, but the attempts bore poor result. Experience by practice is very important to develop project management skills. But it is inadequate of experience in variety and quantity to gain experience in real projects. It will provide adequate of experience in variety and quantity to applying technique of case study to developing project management skills.

View full abstract

The system development projects always face with risks which are, as well as difficulties for applying new technology, exposed by the rapidity of change in the client business environment and various splits or friction occurring during the project. The project that the author worked for fully renovating the mission-critical exchange system also carried the major risk items, for example, the feasibility of high-level system requirement for realizing the high-end, high-reliable system by fully adopting the open source software, the communication difficulty of the project with the new client and the outside pressure due to the splits in the client business field. Here, the author of the project manager introduces the cases for managing the above major risk items in order to bring about success to the project.

View full abstract

The client's satisfactions for system operation delivery phase in Strategic Outsourcing contract are influenced by success or failure of system changes. IBM and System operation department must improve the ratio of success to adequate level and keep it. This article is to provide the practical way to improve the ratio

View full abstract

Since different venders are assigned to different subsystems and phases in multiple vender projects, many Q&A about work products created by other venders are raised. In this paper, a method to find trend of defects, which are implanted in upper processes, by analyzing root causes of such Q&A items, and evaluate work products produced in preceding phases and development processes is proposed. Moreover, this paper provides sample results from pilot projects using proposed Q&A analysis method, and discusses its utility and challenges to be addressed.

View full abstract

There is a feeling of sacred area comparatively left from the world of management because R&D is research and development activities and creativity is requested. In the R&D type software development, the requirement changes as the process progresses and a new risk will be generated. The project management is described around the risk management in the R&D type software development project.

View full abstract

We report a result of our evaluation to the QSM SLIM Suite tool, which was based on our actual data from real projects in Japan. The tool has functions for application software development estimation, and it computes effort and duration corresponding to inputted system size. We show that this tool is helpful for our ballpark estimation in an upstream of development phases, and that, by using the tool, the system size and tool's parameters to be inputted have a big influence on the calculated result. We also report a calculation tendency, some tips, and restrictions on estimation by using the tool. As a calculation tendency for estimated effort, even if we apply default parameters to the tool before our tools calibration, we reach a conclusion that we can get appropriate values for effort rather than the one acquired from other estimation tools, which are often smaller than actual effort. Our conclusion also includes that inputs of Lines of Code (LOC) size and duration's constraint influence to its calculation result.

View full abstract

If a project team consists of members in multiple countries or areas, a project manager needs to consider differences of culture, custom, currency and time zone, etc. These differences not only become negative factors in the project, but also become positive factors depend on how to manage them. Negative factors have been discussed much with its management methods, but positive factors have not been discussed so much. This paper introduces positive factors of a global team, and motivates a project manager to lead a global team positively.

View full abstract

It is said that about 60 percent of projects that domestic IT companies hold are small-sized scale projects. However, risk monitoring and control is left project manager in his/her hands for small-sized scale projects because of cost restriction. Moreover, it is not being done so much in systematic way by third party in reality. However, there are a lot of failures in small-sized scale projects, too. Under a recent, extremely severe business environment, the influence of unexpectedly unprofitable small-sized scale projects is not small at all. Therefore, we reports in this thesis about the outline of the approach and the evaluation of the monitoring and control to the small-sized scale IT projects based on the practice among our company.

View full abstract

We developed a checklist based on facts and a risk identification support tool focused on the risk drivers. It supports to identify risks for project managers with a little skill or experience. We applied the tool to real projects and evaluated. As a result, the coverage of the identified risks and usage were sufficient. However, we have recognized the problem that the check items didn't fit the project scope. We consider the tool allows to reduce the failure of projects or low yield projects.

View full abstract

Recently, Japanese companies have a lot of opportunities of making contracts in English due to globalization of business. It is very hard work for Japanese people to evaluate English contract documents because they have a lot of pages. Therefore, we have risks of missing critical portion in the documents. To solve such problems, we developed an evaluation system of English contract documents. The system extracts critical portion in the documents finding critical words, evaluating dimension of design parameters and so on. We collected knowledge of English contracts based on some past cases and made rules of extracting critical portion. Using the rules, we evaluated effectiveness of the system and the result showed expectation of extracting 70% of critical portion in the documents.

View full abstract

In a company-wide change project, the stakeholder's mental interests differ variously. The project management persons concerned and experientially understand project status would be confusion and spot, stagnation, and eventually leading to failure in such a situation. When promoting such a change project, effective role and function which Change agent achieves perform experiment and consideration with the technique of Agent simulation in order to obtain implication of what kind of thing. Although I could develop a beta model of a simulation in this time, some implications are obtained. Present my model is fundamental hypothetical model. Persuasive result could be was obtained and considered in a future. So I would like to report the contents of trial by the present.

View full abstract

Innovation and productivity in services has become a topic of interest to researchers due to the shift to service economics. This growth of services encourages us to study basic business system changes from product-based to service economies. In service economies, values are co-created by service receivers and service providers. In this paper, we studied service activities of value co-creation by focusing on service interactions and customer satisfactions. We found that service relationship activities have a key role to improve customer satisfactions.

View full abstract

In recent years, for developing professional engineers, many corporations have started to adopt Mentoring program besides the conventional OJT system. Our company plans to introduce Mentoring system to support independence and long-term career development for new emploees and mid-career engineers. Prior to that, we carried out Mentoring program in 2008, in which PM Community members served as a mentor and new recruits became a mentee. In the article, we summarize this Mentoring program and show the approach toward the introduction of hierarchial Mentoring system in the future.

View full abstract

In a project, the technique how the outside consigns the part of the service scope to is used routinely. When it considers diversification and a complicated technical trend, the solution offered only by IBM is not realistic anymore, and it is required to utilize the skill of the outside a company building effectively. However, it is needed smooth communication with a worker having different corporate culture, and it is to have to improve teamwork with them. In this paper, ways of running projects stably with maintaining good communication among subcontractors are explained from three points of view; (1) defining common words, (2) motivation for performance, and (3) interactive communication.

View full abstract