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Purpose: This article focuses on conflict management as an important aspect of team management that may reduce the benefits of a given project. Due to the constantly changing business environment and the need for organisations to be flexible in their operations, traditional methods of project management are becoming less and less suitable. As a result, agility in management is gaining recognition. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research presented in the article was carried out using quantitative and qualitative methods. Expert interview techniques were also used, and quantitative research also involved the use of a questionnaire. The use of two research techniques was aimed at obtaining a broader view of the methods of agile conflict management used when implementing projects. Findings: The research pointed to conflict management styles and methods often used by agile project teams within small and medium-sized enterprises. However, it is not exclusively dedicated to the agile approach. In addition, the results highlight the relationship between team characteristics and problem-solving methods. the key to the success of the project is the selection of team members to meet an important condition of agile project management, i.e. self-organisation and team management. This is the starting point for making the right selection of tools and methods when solving problems. It is very important that it is a small, interdisciplinary team of professionals. In agile project teams, the most common cause of conflicts is communication errors. Teams prioritise conflicts and take action to resolve them as quickly as possible. Time and dialogue are important determinants of conflict management. Experts point out that the best way to deal with a conflict depends on the type of conflict. Research limitations/implications: An important question arising from the research is as to whether the existing conflicts can become an instrument of process and organisational innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises? Another prospect for continuing research is the possibility of involving a larger number of participants from agile teams. Originality/value: The article draws attention to the issue of agile project management within small and medium-sized enterprises, which is an issue rarely discussed. the article contains conflict resolution tips addressed to agile project teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The project approach is often used to implement projects in enterprises. Traditional project management becomes insufficient due to the changing environment and the need for flexible functioning of the organization. Hence, agility in management gains recognition. The article presents the results of the study, the purpose of which was to determine whether the assumptions of agile management are known and used in project management and to identify factors that sustain the involvement of project team members. Design/methodology/approach: The presented empirical research was carried out using the quantitative and qualitative methods. Techniques of expert interviews were used, and in the case of quantitative research - a questionnaire. The use of two research techniques was aimed at obtaining a broad view of the project management methods used, with particular emphasis on the conditions of the working environment of agile project teams. Enterprises from the small and medium-sized enterprise sector were invited to the study, the main variable in the selection of entities for the research sample was the location by region, i.e. the northern subregion of the Silesian Voivodeship, and cooperation with the Częstochowa University of Technology for the commercialization of knowledge in the region. The latter condition made it possible to include enterprises that implement projects. Findings: Research has shown knowledge of the assumptions of agile management among small and medium-sized enterprises, but less than half of the surveyed experts use this methodology in managing project teams. According to experts, the main condition for implementing agile management is a "good", i.e. primarily a self-organizing project team. Its members are required to have appropriate skills and competences, such as self-discipline or independence in making decisions. The research also identified work conditions that keep members of agile project teams engaged. They are strongly related to the intrinsic motivation of employees. On this basis, it can be concluded that the agile approach in shaping work conditions is stimulating to stimulate the expected behavior of employees. Originality/value: The article draws attention to the rarely discussed issue of implementing project management in small and medium-sized enterprises. The conditions for implementing agility in project team management were emphasized, among which the most important is the right selection of employees. They should have appropriate skills and competences, as well as an internal motivation system, which agile management methodologies will stimulate the activity and involvement of project team members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We present a solution based on blockchain technology and smart contracts for agile project management in light of the continuing transition in the software development industry. Due to the fact that these technologies are self-executing, customized, and impervious to tampering, they are considered to be crucial for the transition to a more efficient, transparent, and transactive payment gateway between major stakeholders. These major stakeholders will be able to communicate through smart contracts, which will act as a bridge between them. As part of their responsibility, they will make sure that all of the terms of the contract are met and acknowledged by all members of the team. As a result of our research, we propose a model in which payouts could be automatically enabled and penalties or grants could be introduced based on performance. If any changes were to be made to the contract in the future, all parties involved would be automatically notified. To maintain the development cycle, they should accept these changes as soon as possible. Because of this, the product owner and client are able to concentrate their resources on more profitable and productive tasks, without the need to monitor this aspect of agile project management. Our proposed model brings together different partners with the objective of successfully developing different IT projects by leveraging software engineering solutions such as smart contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competition in the software market demands that the time required for any software product to reach the market be reduced if the product is to survive competition from other developers. The pursuit of this goal has led to the adoption of agile software development methodologies. While other agile methodologies provide guidelines as to the software engineering (SE) practices to be used during the development lifecycle, Scrum does not. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to identify the usage and level of importance of software engineering practices in the Scrum development environment; and second, to investigate how Scrum teams adopt an appropriate set of SE techniques and whether a hybrid Scrum/Extreme Programming (XP) methodology is an appropriate approach to take. This research was conducted by examining sample data from five organizations using the Scrum methodology. The sample included a range of industries including communications and embedded systems, financial asset management, software development houses and consulting firms in South Africa. The study employed a mixed method approach. A key finding was that, regardless of the fact that Scrum does not explicitly recommend engineering practices, there was extensive use of these practices by all of the participating organizations. The study also found that the lack of software engineering practices in Scrum does not constitute a barrier to a successful adoption of Scrum, provided the 'inspect and adapt' principle inherent in Scrum is properly followed. The study discusses the findings, explains the implications and suggests future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agile approach and tools are popular for the management of Enterprise Application Software (EAS) development. This article focuses on the issue of inconsistency between strategic business objectives and the functionality of the software developed. Agile management tools lack the functionality of EAS project activities coordination. This article aims to rethink Agile project management using the causal modelling approach. A causal model of Agile project management using a management transaction (MT) concept was developed. The notion of the space of processes was used to identify the MTs location along the axes of aggregation, generalization, and time and to formalize their interaction specifications. Taxonomy of the coordination meta-types and types was developed using the identifiers of the MTs. The modified Agile activities hierarchy was developed, and vertical and horizontal causal interactions between Agile activities were identified. This modified Agile management model helps to consistently track the integrity of EAS project content. Complexity indicators were introduced to evaluate the EAS project complexity and their average and normalized values are presented. Additional attributes in the Agile management tool Jira are proposed. Monitoring mismatch between strategic business objectives and development activities content helps to improve the success of EAS projects delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social revolution of the Web 2.0 is changing learning and management processes: In the field of learning, concepts like e-learning 2.0 and connectivism have emerged. Within the field of management theory, approaches like Agile Management have been developed. E-learning 2.0, Connectivism and concepts like Agile Management are based on a dialogical communication, which is a feature of the Digital Age. But at the same time these concepts share neoliberal implications. To provide a foundation for this thesis, the article provides, besides an introduction (1), a definition of the term Digital Age (2). Afterwards e-learning 2.0 and Connectivism (3) and Agile Management (4) are introduced as dialogical forms of digital based communication which emerged within the Digital Age. With reference to the neoliberal concepts of the subject it's possible to identify the underlying neoliberal structures of E-Learning 2.0, Connectivism and Agile Management (5). The dialogical and emancipative aspects of these approaches turn in to a repressive social dynamic which require a neoliberal self-optimization of the subject. This aspect is discussed within the conclusion (6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The presented results were used to design innovative mechatronic solutions: motion control algorithm of 5-axis feed drive "X-5" processing centre owned by the AVIA company, loading and forestry crane control system designed within the EU 7FP IAPP project called iLOAD. The paper presents the issue of metamodeling of Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) for the purpose of designing complex mechatronics systems. Usually, one of the problems during the development of such projects is an interdisciplinary character of the team that is involved in this endeavour. The success of a complex machine project (e.g., Computer Numerically Controlled machine (CNC), loading crane, forestry crane) often depends on a proper communication between team members. The domain-specific modelling languages developed using one of the two approaches discussed in the work, lead to a machine design that can be carried out much more efficiently than with conventional approaches. Within the paper, the Meta-Object Facility (MOF) approach to metamodeling is presented; it is much more prevalent in modern modelling software tools than Graph-Object-Property-Relationship-Role (GOPRR). The main outcome of this work is the first presentation of researchML modelling language that is the result of more than twenty ambitious research and development projects. It is effectively used within new enterprises and leads to improved traceability of the project goals. It enables for fully-featured automatic code generation which is one of the main pillars of the agile management within mechatronic system design projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose As Agile management thinking spreads to every part and every kind of organization, including their competitors, corporate leaders need to take steps to ensure they get and keep a good seat at the Agile table.Design/methodology/approach The author’s first hand research finds that firms are learning the hard way that software process and value innovation requires a different way of running the organization to be successful. The whole firm has to become nimble, adaptable and able to adjust on the fly to meet the shifting whims of a marketplace driven by dynamic changes in customer value.Findings The Agile way of working is provoking a revolution in business that affects almost everyone. Agile organizations are connecting everyone and everything, everywhere, all the time. They are capable of delivering instant, intimate, frictionless value on a large scale.Practical implications Examples of the new way of running organizations are everywhere apparent. It’s not just the five biggest firms by market capitalization: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. It’s also firms like Airbnb, Etsy, Lyft, Menlo Innovations, Netflix, Saab, Samsung, Spotify, Tesla, Uber and Warby Parker.Social implications A new kind of management was needed to enable this new kind of worker — a fundamentally different way of running organizations. Agile is economically more productive and a better fit with the new marketplace. And it had immense potential benefit for the human spirit. It could create workplaces that enabled human beings to contribute their full talents on something worthwhile and meaningful – creating value for other human beings.Originality/value Continuing the management practices and structures of the lumbering industrial giants of the 20th Century is no longer a viable option for today’s firms. To survive, let alone thrive, leaders today must recognize that Agile is not something happening in software alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fifth generation (5G) era, the radio internet protocol capacity is expected to reach 20 Gb/s per sector, and ultralarge content traffic will travel across a faster wireless/wireline access network and packet core network. Moreover, the massive and mission‐critical Internet of Things is the main differentiator of 5G services. These types of real‐time and large‐bandwidth‐consuming services require a radio latency of less than 1 ms and an end‐to‐end latency of less than a few milliseconds. By distributing 5G core nodes closer to cell sites, the backhaul traffic volume and latency can be significantly reduced by having mobile devices download content immediately from a closer content server. In this paper, we propose a novel solution based on software‐defined network and network function virtualization technologies in order to achieve agile management of 5G core network functionalities with a proof‐of‐concept implementation targeted for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and describe the results of interoperability testing experiences between two core networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business processes represent an important core component of the company's activities and should be therefore more considerate. It takes a long time until the processes modeled down to the smallest detail, analyzed and designed. When these steps have been completed, often the process will not be adapted. Here would be an agile approach interesting to be flexible on trends and enterprise decisions which will have any dependencies to the processes. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to develop a holistic approach, in which the advantages of the previous models can be optimally used and the current challenges such as the desired agility can be included. The research methodology used in the investigation consists of a combination of methods and tools of Business Process Management (BPM) and agile management. The aim of the research is to evaluate whether these methods can contribute positively to the process modeling improvement in the framework of the Enterprise Information System. The finding of this research consists of a holistic model for acting agile within BPM. This allows companies to act flexible to adapt or implement enterprise processes. The resulting added value can be seen in the model for flexible implementation with regular controlling which are set apart from the previous rigid waterfall models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of agile management, revealing multiple meanings for the term. Notable innovations and developments in Australian university libraries reflect conscious (or possibly not) applications of agile management techniques. As a case study, changes at The University of New South Wales Library are examined in the light of agile management concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this introduction to the special theme: Project Management in e-Science: Challenges and Opportunities, we argue that the role of project management and different forms of leadership and facilitation can influence significantly the nature of cooperation and its outcomes and deserves further research attention. The quality of social interactions such as communication, cooperation, and coordination, have emerged as key factors in developing and deploying e-science infrastructures and applications supporting large-scale and distributed collaborative scientific research. If software is seen to embody the relational web within which it evolves, and if the processes of software design, development and deployment are seen as ongoing transformations of this dynamic web of relationships between technology, people and environment, the role of managers becomes crucial: it is their responsibility to balance and facilitate the dynamics of these relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]