Young Hoon Kwak

An Open Government Maturity Model for social media-based public engagement

Abstract Social media has opened up unprecedented new possibilities of engaging the public in government work. In response to the Open Government Directive, U.S. federal agencies developed their open government plan and launched numerous social media-based public engagement initiatives. However, we find that many of these initiatives do not deliver the intended outcomes due to various organizational, technological, and financial challenges. We propose an Open Government Maturity Model based on our field studies with U.S. federal healthcare administration agencies. This model is specifically developed to assess and guide open government initiatives which focus on transparent, interactive, participatory, collaborative public engagement that are largely enabled by emerging technologies such as social media. The model consists of five maturity levels: initial conditions (Level 1), data transparency (Level 2), open participation (Level 3), open collaboration (Level 4), and ubiquitous engagement (Level 5). We argue that there is a logical sequence for increasing social media-based public engagement and agencies should focus on achieving one maturity level at a time. The Open Government Maturity Model helps government agencies implement their open government initiatives effectively by building organizational and technological capabilities in an orderly manner. We discuss challenges and best practices for each maturity level and conclude by presenting recommendations.

Assessing Project Management Maturity

The principal goal of this study was to determine the financial and organizational impacts of project management. This study began with the development of a project management maturity model and an analysis methodology to assess the maturity of project management processes. The project management maturity analysis methodology consists of 148 multiple-choice questions that measure project management maturity, and cover 8 knowledge areas and 6 project phases. The maturity model and methodology were then applied by benchmarking 38 different companies and government agencies in 4 different industries. This assessment methodology provides solid and comparative studies on project management practices across industries and companies within an industry. It also provides a set of tools for organizations to use in identifying key areas of opportunity for improvement in project management.

Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of Public Private Partnerships for Infrastructure Development

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) have emerged as one of the major approaches for delivering infrastructure projects effectively. This article develops a PPP framework for infrastructure development. It discusses examples of worldwide applications, as well as benefits and obstacles of PPP through a literature review on PPP-related research over the last 20 years. The syntheses of the knowledge present foundations from which the laws, regulations, and guidelines for effective and successful PPP implementation can be established. This analysis reveals that PPP can create new and long-term business opportunities with a chance to deliver infrastructure services of higher quality and efficiency. However, these benefits will only be materialized when a PPP project is properly planned and managed and both the public and private sectors work together successfully.

Project risk management: lessons learned from software development environment

Abstract The challenges and realities in applying effective software risk management processes are difficult, in particular integrating the risk management processes into software development organizations. However, the benefits of implementing effective risk management tools and techniques in software development project are equally great. Current perceptions and emerging trends of various software risk management practices are reviewed and risks specific to software development projects are identified. Implementing effective risk management process will succeed by changing the organizational culture. This paper addresses lessons learned from implementing project risk management practices in software development environment.

In search of innovative techniques to evaluate pharmaceutical R&D projects

Abstract This paper is a conceptual paper that examines a new integrative evaluation approach for pharmaceutical R&D projects. It describes recent changes in the health care economy and the underlying scientific and technological revolution that has markedly altered the business environment in which the pharmaceutical industry operates. Changes in cost and technology resulting from managed care organizations, marketing, generic drugs, new drug development risk, and scientific and technological evolution forced us to think of a new way to evaluate R&D projects in the early phase of the project. These changes have placed increased emphasis on the need for improvements in technology management methodologies. A real options approach, especially when combined with other project risk management processes, offers a significant improvement in project selection and review, and resource allocation decisions.

Analyzing Schedule Delay of Mega Project: Lessons Learned From Korea Train Express

In 2004, Korea became the fifth country in the world to own and operate a high-speed railway called Korea Train eXpress (KTX). Numerous uncertainties and challenges during planning and managing phase resulted in schedule delays and cost overruns. The delay causes of each activity along the 412 km Korea high-speed railway route were very difficult to identify because KTX project consisted of 11 141 different activities. This paper evaluates challenges, obstacles, and performances of KTX project. First, critical sections in the railway route that influenced significant delays to project completion were identified. Then, delay causes of these critical sections were investigated thoroughly. The analysis discovered five major delay causes for KTX project. They are lack of owners abilities and strategies to manage hi-tech oriented mega project; frequent changes of routes triggered by conflicts between public agencies and growing public resistance from environmental concerns; the inappropriate project delivery system; a lack of proper scheduling tool tailored for a linear mega project; and redesign and change orders of main structures and tunnels for high-speed railway, which is fundamentally different from the traditional railway construction. Based on the in-depth analysis of KTX project, through which a conceptual framework was established to identify the various facets of mega projects, this paper suggests lessons learned for engineers to better prepare and respond to potential causes of schedule delays for mega projects.

Open government implementation model: a stage model for achieving increased public engagement

The main objective of this research is to propose and present the Open Government Implementation Model (OGIM), which is a stage model that prescribes and guides government agencies on their journey to open government. The OGIM defines four implementation stages and describes the focuses, deliverables, benefits, challenges, best practices, and metrics for each stage. A thesis of the OGIM states that government agencies should advance their open government initiatives in a progressive and orderly manner by focusing on one implementation stage at a time, starting from increasing data transparency (Stage 1), and then moving on to improving open participation (Stage 2), enhancing open collaboration (Stage 3), and realizing ubiquitous engagement (Stage 4). We argue that, by following this sequence, agencies can minimize risk and effectively harness the power of social media in order to engage the public.

History, practices, and future of earned value management in government: Perspectives from NASA

The goal of this research is to explore the history, practices, and future of the earned value management (EVM) method in government, and seek opportunities and suggestions for wider implementation of EVM for managing, measuring, and controlling project performance and progress. First, this study reviews the historical background and evolution of EVM implementation in government. Then, current practices for implementing EVM are discussed through examination of EVM adoption and implementation at NASA. The research shows that NASA receives substantial project management value from its implementation of EVM, promotes consistent practices across the agency, and provides effective training on leadership, scheduling, EVM, and data analysis. This study also provides recommendations to improve and broaden the applications of current EVM and project management practices to other government programs and projects. Findings of this research contribute to the management of performance of future projects and programs and encourage the project management community to review and advance the application of EVM.

The Berkeley project management process maturity model: measuring the value of project management

The purpose of the Berkeley project management process maturity model and an associated assessment methodology is to help organizations and people accomplish higher and more sophisticated PM maturity by a systematic and incremental approach. It measures, locates, and compares an organizations current PM maturity level. The primary advantage of using this model and industries, whereas other maturity models have specific audiences like software development or new product development. The maturity model and assessment technique has already been used to benchmark PM practices and processes in 43 companies. With it, they have also identified relationships between levels of organizational effectiveness and actual project performance data. The model is continuously being refined to reflect advances in their PM knowledge. Some of the most recent improvements include evaluating replicability of project success, which is the focus of this paper and presentation.

Conceptual Cost-Prediction Model for Public Road Planning via Rough Set Theory and Case-Based Reasoning

Long-term transportation policies require government officials to predict the cost of public road construction during the conceptual planning phase. However, early cost prediction is often inaccurate because public officials are not familiar with cost engineering practices, and moreover, have limited time and insufficient information for estimating the possible range of the cost distribution. This study develops a conceptual cost prediction model by combining rough set theory, case-based reasoning, and genetic algorithms to better predict costs in the conceptual planning phase. Rough set theory and qualitative in-depth interviews are integrated to select the proper input attributes for the cost prediction model. Case-based reasoning is then applied to predict road construction costs by considering users’ difficulties in the conceptual policy planning phase. A genetic algorithm is also used to assist the rough set model and case-based reasoning model to obtain optimal solutions. The result of the analysis shows that the proposed conceptual cost prediction model is reliable and robust compared to the existing cost prediction model.