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Software project success depends on effective people management; however, managers often rely on intuition rather than evidence-based practice. To bridge this gap, we compiled a catalog of good practices to assist managers in implementing people management practices, reducing resistance, and simultaneously collecting indicators that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of practices. We compiled the practices outlined in the literature from 63 selected studies conducted from 2016 to 2023. These studies were then categorized into 9 problem domains and 16 associated practices. Subsequently, through a survey, these practices were validated by 31 professionals, enabling classification based on overall relevance and problem-resolution efficacy. The results underscore the importance of interpersonal skills (soft skills) over technical abilities (hard skills) and highlight the significance of continuous feedback, open communication, and transparent management practices. This catalog is a valuable resource for managers to assess and customize practices for their specific project needs.

The Promise of Gene Therapy.

This study was conducted to assess the frequencies of 11 problems hampering the optimal utilisation of e-resources in two Nigerian Federal University of Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University. A structured questionnaire was adopted for data collection. A total of 480 lecturers were involved in the study with 240 per institution, 80 from each of the three faculties per institution and 20 lecturers from each of the four departments per faculty. Frequency counts (often, occasional and never) for each of the 11 problems were subjected to Analysis of Variance and Duncan’s Multiple Range Test. Results showed that all the six faculties studied indicated that frequencies of poor electricity supply and maintenance problem were significantly “often”. Five of the six faculties indicated that the frequencies of lack of internet connectivity and the problem of internet bandwidth to access e-resources were significantly “often”. These were followed by insufficient training of personnel and lack of awareness of the existence of e-resources in which four faculties indicated their frequencies to be significantly “often”. Three of the six faculties showed that the frequencies of frequent power outage, fluctuation in power supply and lack of technical expertise were significantly “often” while for lack of infrastructure (Software/Hardware) and frequent power changeover, two of the six faculties showed their frequencies to be significantly “often”. The higher the frequency of a problem, the more prominent the problem is in hampering e-resources utilisation. It is concluded that optimal utilisation of e-resources in the developing countries is beset with many problems and that the prominence of the problems varies from one to another.

This article studies poverty among self-employed businesspeople in a rich country, Belgium. Existing research on self-employment income, compared with income of employees, has made clear that self-employed have a higher probability of falling in the lowest income groups and that there is a distinct self-employment effect. Our findings for Belgium show that approximately one quarter of those who are self-employed in their main occupation are living below the poverty line. We also confirm findings reported in the literature that income distribution among self-employed people is very unequal. It appears from our qualitative findings that poverty among self-employed businesspeople is something distinct from other forms of poverty. Several factors can cause self-employed businesspeople to end up in poverty. As a result, poverty is a multifaceted problem. Policy recommendations are formulated to prevent and combat poverty among self-employed businesspeople.

Contemporary national development policy in many parts of the world is focused on the promotion of entrepreneurship. This is because policy makers see entrepreneurship as an important driver of economic development. Drawing on in-depth research in Ghana and Uganda, this paper provides a comparative analysis of the characteristics of entrepreneurs and their enterprises, their motives for choosing self-employment and the constraints to their businesses in Ghana and Uganda. Using a sample of over 1,000 micro and small entrepreneurs in each country, we found that Ghanaian entrepreneurs are much more motivated by necessity-driven motives while Ugandans are motivated by a combination of opportunity- and necessity-driven motives. Specifically, the factor analysis indicated that whereas Ghanaian entrepreneurs are significantly motived by “Work-family consideration” and “Low opportunity,” entrepreneurs in Uganda rated “Career consideration” and “Survival consideration” as their main motives for engaging in self-employment activities. On success, a much higher fraction of Ugandan entrepreneurs are found to be more successful than their Ghanaian counterparts. Comparatively, we found that Ghanaian businesses are significantly challenged with access to finance or credit; however, their counterparts in Uganda significantly face problems related to institutional weaknesses. Thus, from the factor analysis, “Financial problem” and “Institutional problem” were found to be significantly higher for Ghana and Uganda respectively. Hence, among others, Ghanaian policy makers can stimulate entrepreneurship by taking steps to reduce the level of financial constraints facing its entrepreneurs while in Uganda, much effort should be geared toward improving the business institutional environment.

The vital importance of innovation in today's competitive climate has been widely canvassed. But while the need for more innovation is intensively proclaimed, the response for some time now has been widely regarded as falling well short of what is required. In other words, there is and has long been a perceived "innovation problem" in the UK and of course in many other countries. There is a large literature exploring the barriers to innovation and this has identified a whole array of factors ranging from the macro-level (such as a tendency towards short-termism) to the micro-level (including personality traits and team characteristics). This article reports the results from a new extensive study which addresses the "problem" by attending to the perceptions, assumptions, interpretations and cognitions of managers — i.e. those actors who determine organisational priorities and who make crucial resource allocation decisions. These managerial ways of seeing have vital consequences for organisational innovation. This article reports on the marked variety of managerial interpretations of innovation; it presents new ways of classifying these and it describes the practical implications of these insights.

The classical Lie method is applied to a nonisospectral problem associated with a system of partial differential equations in 2 + 1 dimensions (Maccari A, J. Math. Phys.12 (1998) 6547–6551.). Identification of the classical Lie symmetries provides a set of reductions that give rise to different nontrivial spectral problems in 1 + 1 dimensions. The form in which the spectral parameter of the 1 + 1 Lax pair is introduced is carefully described.

The purpose of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to systematically, objectively, scientificly and comprehensively collect data, analyze infromation, predict and assess the potential environmental effects of a development proposed by a private organization or a planning strategy developed by government, to make environmental management decisions. EIA process should be transparent, reasonable and allow relevant organizations, groups, local residents and other stakeholder to participate and to make comments. The developer and competent authority should ensure that the suggestions, comments, conclusions and consensus in the EIA process be implemented in the actual construction/application stage. The Environmental Impact Assessment Act for Taiwan Region was formulated and came into force in 1994. The scope of this study is to introduce the background of formation of EIA system in Taiwan Region and the concepts and features of the EIA regulations and legislations. The problems encontered in the implementation are discussed and measures to improve EIA procedures and targets and strategies of EIA applications are suggested. The experiences and suggestions may beneficial to those developing countries in developing their own EIA system.

Renewable energy sources connected in distribution systems utilizing power electronics devices to interface lead to various power quality problems. This chapter presents a review on power quality issues associated with the grid-connected renewable energy systems and mitigation techniques. To mitigate the power quality issues, an effective role is played by power electronic devices and custom power devices such as active power filters (APFs) and flexible AC transmission systems (FACTs). This chapter also discusses IEC and IEEE standards for grid-connected renewable energy system.

Vehicles are an indispensable transportation tool in modern society. However, the air pollution and high energy consumption brought on by traditionally fueled vehicles are becoming an increasingly serious problem. Electric vehicles possess great potential for mitigating this issue. Yet, they have obvious disadvantages as well, due to the industry being an emerging one. This paper thus analyses the disadvantages and problems faced by electric vehicles in China, and puts forward some counter-measures. These include coordinating the relationship between competing enterprises, accelerating technological research and development, implementing supportive policies, and establishing a reasonable industrial chain, among others.

Water is essential for all creatures on the earth and the Water Environment Carrying Capacity (WECC) is a critical factor that extensively influences the pace and the scale of economic and society development. The preconditions and the foundation to protect water environment and utilize water resource include: Developing a WECC info system, analyzing the features of each factor and the interrelations among them, revealing the mechanism and condition of water environment sustainable carrying capacity, and implementing an accurate WECC assessment are. In this paper, the basic theory and the research background of WECC are firstly introduced, followed by the review and investigation on the state of the art assessment methods of WECC. Based on the systematic analysis on the features of various methods, the existing problems are proposed, and some suggestions for the further study in this area are given by the authors.