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Project success is widely covered, and the discourse on project complexity is proliferating. The purpose of this book is to merge and investigate the two concepts within the context of information system (IS) projects and understand the symbiosis between success and complexity in these projects. In this original and innovative research, exploratory modelling is employed to identify the aspects that constitute the success and complexity of projects based on the perceptions of IS project participants. This scholarly book aims at deepening the academic discourse on the relationship between the success and complexity of projects and to guide IS project managers towards improved project performance through the complexity lens. The research methodology stems from the realisation that the complexity of IS projects and its relationship to project success are under-documented. A post positivistic approach is applied in order to accommodate the subjective interpretation of IS-project participants through a quantitative design. The researchers developed an online survey strategy regarding literature concerning the success and complexity of projects. The views of 617 participants are documented. In the book, descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis pave the way for identifying the key success and complexity constructs of IS projects. These constructs are used in structural-equation modelling to build various validated and predictive models. Knowledge concerning the success and complexity of projects is mostly generic with little exposure to the field of IS project management. The contribution to current knowledge includes how the success of IS projects should be considered as well as what the complexity constructs of IS projects are. The success of IS projects encompasses strategic success, deliverable success, process success and the ‘unknowns’ of project success. The complexity of IS projects embodies organisational complexity, environmental complexity, technical complexity, dynamics and uncertainty. These constructs of success and complexity are mapped according to their underlying latent relationships to each other. The intended audience of this book is fellow researchers and project and IS specialists, including information technology managers, executives, project managers, project team members, the project management office (PMO), general managers and executives that initiate and conduct project-related work. The work presented in this first edition of the book is original and has not been plagiarised or presented before. It is not a revised version of a thesis or research previously published. Comments resulted from the blind peer review process were carefully considered and incorporated accordingly.

agile --- structural equation modelling --- information technology --- success --- models --- strategic alignment --- complexity --- waterfall --- project management --- quantitative --- Agile software development --- Change management --- Deliverable --- Exploratory factor analysis --- South Africa

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Project success is widely covered, and the discourse on project complexity is proliferating. The purpose of this book is to merge and investigate the two concepts within the context of information system (IS) projects and understand the symbiosis between success and complexity in these projects. In this original and innovative research, exploratory modelling is employed to identify the aspects that constitute the success and complexity of projects based on the perceptions of IS project participants. This scholarly book aims at deepening the academic discourse on the relationship between the success and complexity of projects and to guide IS project managers towards improved project performance through the complexity lens. The research methodology stems from the realisation that the complexity of IS projects and its relationship to project success are under-documented. A post positivistic approach is applied in order to accommodate the subjective interpretation of IS-project participants through a quantitative design. The researchers developed an online survey strategy regarding literature concerning the success and complexity of projects. The views of 617 participants are documented. In the book, descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis pave the way for identifying the key success and complexity constructs of IS projects. These constructs are used in structural-equation modelling to build various validated and predictive models. Knowledge concerning the success and complexity of projects is mostly generic with little exposure to the field of IS project management. The contribution to current knowledge includes how the success of IS projects should be considered as well as what the complexity constructs of IS projects are. The success of IS projects encompasses strategic success, deliverable success, process success and the ‘unknowns’ of project success. The complexity of IS projects embodies organisational complexity, environmental complexity, technical complexity, dynamics and uncertainty. These constructs of success and complexity are mapped according to their underlying latent relationships to each other. The intended audience of this book is fellow researchers and project and IS specialists, including information technology managers, executives, project managers, project team members, the project management office (PMO), general managers and executives that initiate and conduct project-related work. The work presented in this first edition of the book is original and has not been plagiarised or presented before. It is not a revised version of a thesis or research previously published. Comments resulted from the blind peer review process were carefully considered and incorporated accordingly.

Information technology: general issues --- agile --- structural equation modelling --- information technology --- success --- models --- strategic alignment --- complexity --- waterfall --- project management --- quantitative --- Agile software development --- Change management --- Deliverable --- Exploratory factor analysis --- South Africa

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The purpose of this book is to shed light on the performance and personal competencies of information technology (IT) project managers in South Africa. Predictive models are built to determine what project managers consider the crucial competencies they should possess to deliver an IT project successfully. This investigation takes place in the context of poor IT project success rates globally and, in particular, in South Africa. This novel research seeks to extend the debate on project success beyond what merely constitutes success or failure, but seeks to find clarity in what IT project managers believe are the essential competencies in practice. This quantitative research gathered data by way of an online survey based on literature regarding the Project Management Competency Development Framework (PMCDF). The population consisted of IT project managers in South Africa. Four hundred and two respondents chose to share their insights. Through the use of descriptive and multivariate statistics, major competency factors were identified. These factors were used in structural equation modelling to build various validated predictive models. This book contributes to the current body of knowledge by uncovering the competencies that IT project managers consider themselves competent in. The structural equation models indicated predictors of perceived competence by IT project managers and where these perceived competencies differ from literature. Twelve managerial implications are highlighted in the final chapter that seek to draw the myriad of threads together into a coherent summary. It is apparent that IT project managers do not consider the PMCDF important in its entirety, but instead choose to focus on certain competencies. This book is intended for reading by fellow researchers as well as project and IT practitioners. These may include IT managers, IT executives, project managers, project team members, the project management office (PMO), general managers and executives that initiate and conduct project-related work. This body of work is original and has not been plagiarised, although certain concepts have been tested in peer reviewed academic work by way of conference proceedings. Instances of this have been referenced and cited. This book is in its first edition and has not been based on thesis work published previously.

Project management --- Industrial management --- Information technology --- IT (Information technology) --- Technology --- Telematics --- Information superhighway --- Knowledge management --- Business administration --- Business enterprises --- Business management --- Corporate management --- Corporations --- Industrial administration --- Management, Industrial --- Rationalization of industry --- Scientific management --- Management --- Business --- Industrial organization --- Industrial project management --- compentencies --- structural equation modelling --- information technology --- project management --- Cognition --- Correlation and dependence

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The book begins with an investigation of improved diesel generator flexibility and coordination via low-load diesel applications. Case studies for Australia and Hawaii are presented to conclude that low-load diesel is a natural precursor to storage due to its accessibility and also benefits low and high-penetration isolated power systems. The book continues with Structural Equation Modelling of building occupants attitude, knowledge and behaviour to propose the inclusion of motivational factors in a Building Occupant Environmental Behaviour model for sustainable building energy performance. The following section presents an analysis of different levels of renewable energy integration and energy storage to suggest the most suitable in terms of the reduction of CO2 emissions and expected earnings from a lower LCOE. Further on, a proof-of-concept heat pipe technology for passive cooling to improve the performance of photovoltaic panels in the hot climate of Oman is presented using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The application of an uncontrolled diode rectifier-high voltage direct current transmission system for the Jeju Island power system with an off-shore new wind farm is simulated to demonstrate cost reduction and increased reliability and stability. The book concludes with view factor computations of bifacial solar photovoltaic based on the finite element method using two programming languages to demonstrate that Python offers a better platform than Microsoft Excel-Visual Basic for Applications where computation time is a significant modelling challenge.

Research & information: general --- building energy exchange --- view factor --- Python programming language --- bifacial solar photovoltaic (PV) --- diode rectifier --- HVDC --- Jeju Island power system --- offshore wind farm --- CFD --- heat pipe --- temperature --- photovoltaic --- spanwise --- wind energy --- storage --- islanded systems --- energy consumption --- Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), occupant environmental attitude --- Knowledge and Behaviour --- battery storage --- hybrid power system --- low-load diesel --- microgrid --- remote area

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Nowadays, more and more people realize the importance of global sustainability. Also, there has been an increasing number of quantitative studies investigating the connection between climate change and human societies in academia. Given this background, the Atmosphere Special Issue “Climate Change, Climatic Extremes, and Human Societies in the Past” aimed to highlight the major aspects of the climate-society nexus in ancient and recent human history. There are eight papers based on quantitative approaches to illustrate different forms of climate-society nexus in ancient, historical, and contemporary periods. Regarding ancient periods, the interconnection among climate, agriculture, and human societies is focused. Regarding historical periods, the non-linear and complex relationship between climate change and the positive checks (wars, famines, and epidemics) in historical China and pre-industrial Europe is revealed. Regarding contemporary periods, the papers focus on weather-related phenomena that significantly affect human societies. The complexity of those phenomena is also highlighted. The associated findings can help human societies to mitigate the adverse impacts of weather extremes better. This special issue contributes to the field of quantitative analysis of the climate-society nexus, both theoretically and methodologically, which could facilitate a more fruitful discussion about the climate-society nexus.

Research & information: general --- soil moisture–temperature coupling --- heatwaves --- multiple time scales --- correlation dimension method --- Geogdetector method --- interaction effect --- multi-scale --- climate change --- war --- imperial China --- Global Moran’s I --- Emerging Hot Spot Analysis --- plague --- direct and indirect effects --- Structural Equation Modelling --- drought --- regional interaction --- North China Famine of 1876–1879 --- human diet --- hierarchy --- bronze age --- carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios --- decision tree --- random forest --- precipitation prediction --- machine learning --- Yangtze River valley --- Yellow River valley --- rice cultivation --- millet cultivation --- precipitation --- Neolithic China --- n/a --- soil moisture-temperature coupling --- Global Moran's I --- North China Famine of 1876-1879