Peter Weimann

Intelligent decision support systems

This paper explores the basic ingredients of intelligent decision support systems in partial contrast to approaches followed by expert systems.

Enhancing Team Performance Through Tool Use: How Critical Technology-Related Issues Influence the Performance of Virtual Project Teams

Research problem: The project management of virtual teams differs from that of traditional ones. Traditional project risks, such as complexity, the uncertainty of factors influencing the project, and the high interdependency of project tasks must be managed alongside changed temporal, geographic, and cultural dimensions. Only a few studies have investigated the effect of critical technological issues, such as wrong tool selection or limited internet access on performance as well as team and team member satisfaction in virtual work settings. Research questions: How do critical technology-related issues concerning the selection and use of web-based tools influence the performance and satisfaction of virtual project teams? Literature review: Instead of categorizing virtual teams as a type of team that contrasts with traditional or face-to-face teams, the focus has shifted to virtualness as a characteristic present in all teams. Project teamwork is often integrated in university degree programs in order to prepare students appropriately for real-life projects. While these student teams are often not geographically spread across countries, they have a high degree of virtualness because of their diverse team composition, the necessity for working at different places, and the limited face-to-face meeting opportunities. Performance, effectiveness, and satisfaction are central issues in the evaluation and measurement of project teams: Team performance is often evaluated on the basis of acceptance of a specified output by a customer. Through specific mediating processes, team performance can alternatively be assessed by inquiring the teams perception on their performance. Effectiveness can be defined as the achievement of clear goals and objectives and it is often related to the teams performance. Finally, satisfaction can be defined as having three dimensions-satisfaction with the team, the satisfaction of meeting customer needs, and general satisfaction with extrinsic rewards and work. Technology use is substantial for distributed teamwork and can be assessed by the extent to which it supports communication, collaboration, and project-management tasks. Methodology: Fifteen teams were observed and interviewed over a two-year period. The resulting data were analyzed using a Grounded Theory approach, which revealed how the selection and use of tools for communication, collaboration, and project management in the different project activities influenced the teams performance. Results and conclusions: Our results contribute to practice by providing a number of guidelines for the management of virtual teams as well as knowledge required by companies wishing to launch projects with virtual teams. Differing performances of teams can, in many cases, be attributed to such conditions as: internet availability and bandwidth; lack of training for certain tools; the selection and appropriate use of tools; integrated tool support for task management; as well as the promotion of transparency about progress made. It was found that restrictions in internet access of even a single member within a team limited the teams technological choices, which affected the teams performance.

Ensuring Success and Quality through the Use of Standards in Team Projects: Students’ Perceptions

This paper reports on a study analyzing the factors that contribute to the success and quality of software development projects in an educational environment. Software development standards were reviewed to identify key project success factors, as well as measures of success and quality. Interviews with students then investigated the degree to which students implemented software development standards in their projects, and the perceived impact of these standards on project success and quality. Students generally viewed standards as the “proven” ways of doing something, and felt that the use of standards supported project success. The factors that were perceived to contribute most to the success and quality of their team projects were team composition, skills within the development team, and communication within the team.

Find the Best Staff and Develop Their Skills

Golas Which fundamental changes have taken place in hospitals over the past decade? Why is structured staff development important for hospitals? What are the typical features of hospitals? What is the ideal composition of a team? What would be the ideal fit for a team composition?

Face Your Competitors

Goals Why is benchmarking necessary? Why is it so difficult for hospitals to do the right things right? Which methods can improve processes? How can you ensure continuous improvement in your processes? How can Kaizen, CIP, Six Sigma, the PDCA cycle or the DMAIC cycle help you?

Manage Your Conflicts Professionally

Goals Why is a positive attitude towards a conflict resolution good for a hospital? Why does a hospital need an internal dispute culture? Why should you avoid discussions in the drama triangle? What are the golden rules for conducting conflict resolution?

Creating Positive Attitudes Towards Change

Goals Why are improvements associated with change? Which methods are used by change management? Which fellow campaigners do you need to cope with changes? How can you use tools such as CIRS and complaints management to make changes happen?

Improve Communication and Appreciation

Goals Why are appreciation, transparency and open communication so difficult to achieve in hospitals? How can you create a culture of open communication and appreciation? How can you ensure that the receiver understands the information ‘correctly’? How can you use the knowledge of the transactional analysis for your daily communication?

Develop and Communicate Your Strategy

Goals Which performance indicators can you apply to analyse and develop the various departments and the hospital further? Why do financial performance indicators have only limited relevance? What can you expect from the Balanced Scorecard? Why must the Balanced Scorecard cycle be repeated continuously?

Engage Your Nurses, Clinicians and Patients to Drive Your Hospital

Goals What can we learn from other health systems? What do the different stakeholders expect from their health system? How innovative is your hospital? Which managerial attitudes are not sustainable?