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Project Activities (project + activity)
Selected AbstractsRobust Resource Allocation Decisions in Resource-Constrained Projects,DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 1 2007Filip Deblaere ABSTRACT The well-known deterministic resource-constrained project scheduling problem involves the determination of a predictive schedule (baseline schedule or pre-schedule) of the project activities that satisfies the finish,start precedence relations and the renewable resource constraints under the objective of minimizing the project duration. This baseline schedule serves as a baseline for the execution of the project. During execution, however, the project can be subject to several types of disruptions that may disturb the baseline schedule. Management must then rely on a reactive scheduling procedure for revising or reoptimizing the baseline schedule. The objective of our research is to develop procedures for allocating resources to the activities of a given baseline schedule in order to maximize its stability in the presence of activity duration variability. We propose three integer programming,based heuristics and one constructive procedure for resource allocation. We derive lower bounds for schedule stability and report on computational results obtained on a set of benchmark problems. [source] The Challenges and Successes of Developing a Literacy Community in a Minority Language in Western Canada: An Action Research StudyFOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 3 2002Olenka S. E. Bilash ABSTRACT: This article describes a community action research study in the spirit of Carr and Kemmis (1983) and Elliot (1991). Language leaders in the Ukrainian community undertook a complex literacy initiative to investigate and improve Ukrainian-English bilingualism/biliteracy in Western Canada and throughout the diaspora. In the context of the long-term absence of research funding for developing and maintaining literacy in nonmajority or nonofficial languages, this article documents project activities over several years, presents the findings of student/teacher needs assessments, shares the approach to reading preferred by participating teachers, and reveals some of the transformations teachers experienced in their own thinking about bilingualism and biliteracy as a result of their involvement in this initiative. [source] Paradox of participation: giving or taking part?JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2004Kerlijn Quaghebeur Abstract In this article we address our experiences with a so-called participatory approach in a Vietnamese-Belgian water management project. This project aimed, in its social science component, at stimulating and studying processes of reflexive social learning and of participation and negotiation on local water management issues and on project activities. In this article we intend to show how specific project-related strategies and attempts towards facilitating participation fail and how other initiatives seem to succeed or at least to elicit valuable processes of negotiation and learning. We start from the commonly held view on participation as committed to reverse or subvert power relations. However, our research experiences indicate that participation is always part of an operation of power, governing people to behave themselves in a particular determined way. From this Foucauldian governmental perspective, we are able to reconsider the success and failure of participatory approaches, not so much in terms of the effectiveness of their application, but rather in terms of the possibility to refuse ,participatory' government. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Developing interdisciplinary maternity services policy in Canada.JOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2010Evaluation of a consensus workshop Abstract Context, Four maternity/obstetrical care organizations, representing women, midwives, obstetricians and family doctors conducted interdisciplinary policy research under auspices of four key stakeholder groups. These projects teams and key stakeholders subsequently collaborated to develop consensus on strategies for improved maternity services in Ontario. Objectives, The objective of this study is to evaluate a 2-day research synthesis and consensus building conference to answer policy questions in relation to new models of interdisciplinary maternity care organizations in different settings in Ontario. Methods, The evaluation consisted of a scan of individual project activities and findings as were presented to an invited audience of key stakeholders at the consensus conference. This involved: participant observation with key informant consultation; a survey of attendees; pattern processing and sense making of project materials, consensus statements derived at the conference in the light of participant observation and survey material as pertaining to a complex system. The development of a systems framework for maternity care policy in Ontario was based on secondary analysis of the material. Findings, Conference participants were united on the importance of investment in maternity care for Ontario and the impending workforce crisis if adaptation of the workforce did not take place. The conference participants proposed reforming the current system that was seen as too rigid and inflexible in relation to the constraints of legislation, provider scope of practice and remuneration issues. However, not one model of interdisciplinary maternity/obstetrical care was endorsed. Consistency and coherence of models (rather than central standardization) through self-organization based on local needs was strongly endorsed. An understanding of primary maternity care models as subsystems of networked providers in complex health organizations and a wider social system emerged. The patterns identified were incorporated into a complexity framework to assist sense making to inform policy. Discussion, Coherence around core values, holism and synthesis with responsiveness to local needs and key stakeholders were themes that emerged consistent with complex adaptive systems principles. Respecting historical provider relationships and local history provided a background for change recognizing that systems evolve in part from where they have been. The building of functioning relationships was central through education and improved communication with ongoing feedback loops (positive and negative). Information systems and a flexible improved central and local organization of maternity services was endorsed. Education and improved communication through ongoing feedback loops (positive and negative) were central to building functioning relationships. Also, coordinated central organization with a flexible and adaptive local organization of maternity services was endorsed by participants. Conclusions, This evaluation used an approach comprising scoping, pattern processing and sense making. While the projects produced considerable typical research evidence, the key policy questions could not be addressed by this alone, and a process of synthesis and consensus building with stakeholder engagement was applied. An adaptive system with local needs driving a relationship based network of interdisciplinary groupings or teams with both bottom up and central leadership. A complexity framework enhanced sense making for the system approaches and understandings that emerged. [source] Connecting school and community with science learning: Real world problems and school,community partnerships as contextual scaffolds,JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 8 2001Lisa M. Bouillion A challenge facing many schools, especially those in urban settings that serve culturally and linguistically diverse populations, is a disconnection between schools and students' home communities, which can have both cognitive and affective implications for students. In this article we explore a form of "connected science," in which real-world problems and school-community partnerships are used as contextual scaffolds for bridging students' community-based knowledge and school-based knowledge, as a way to provide all students opportunities for meaningful and intellectually challenging science learning. The potential of these scaffolds for connected science is examined through a case study in which a team of fifth-grade teachers used the student-identified problem of pollution along a nearby river as an interdisciplinary anchor for teaching science, math, language arts, and civics. Our analysis makes visible how diverse forms of knowledge were able to support project activities, examines the consequences for student learning, and identifies the features of real-world problems and school,community partnerships that created these bridging opportunities. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 878,898, 2001 [source] Using appreciative inquiry to evaluate project activities of a nongovernmental organization supporting victims of trauma in Sri LankaNEW DIRECTIONS FOR EVALUATION, Issue 100 2003Mette Jacobsgaard Appreciative Inquiry was used to highlight the successes of a donor-supported project of working with victims of trauma in an environment of civil war and high security risk, and thereby also to honor the work of dedicated staff who often face extremely difficult situations. [source] | ||||||||||