Master of Business Administration in Infrastructure

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item: Thesis-Abstract
An Analysis of road safety effects of land use
(2014-08-06) Ravindralingam, K; Emmanuel, R
Road safety is a major part of the highway sector. Accident problems are very complex in nature as so many factors are involved in its occurrence. The purpose of this study is to find out the interrelationship between land uses and road accidents in the different kind of road sections and make awareness of knowledge to improve road safety activities. The study area of road sections were considered as highly developed (urban), moderately developed (suburban) and less developed (rural area) for this dissertation. Data about accident, traffic and field inspection data such as dimension of road section and building area for Floor Area Ratio were collected to study the road safety analysis in different types of land use of road sections. It was found that a significant amount of accidents occurred due to land use related accidents. The highest number of accidents occurred in urban road section due to access road influence. At the same time, accidents caused by on street parking and pedestrians are also considerably influenced in urban road section. However, the cause of land use related accidents is lower in rural road section than suburban road section. This clearly shows that road accidents depend on land use effects of road sections. Land use activities influence accidents. Accidents were prevalent where there were more activities in road sections. In this study analysis, most accidents occurred in urban road section where commercial activities were high. This study also reveals that more accidents occur where there are more road user activities which are influenced by the Floor Area Ratio of the road section. Therefore, Floor Area Ratio influences the road usage activities and the number of accidents.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Identifying infrastructure requirement for developing tourism in the Southern
(2014-07-11) Saparamadu, KD; Kumarage, A
The potential of Tourism in Sri Lanka was first recognized in the mid 1960's by the then Minister. The industry future was great to the extent that it could have been the largest foreign exchange contributor to the national economy. The growth of the industry was phenomenal but encountered many pitfalls due to the unplanned modifications to the existing infrastructure which was never developed adequately to accommodate the expansion of tourism. In order to develop the infrastructure many obstacles have and are being encountered. The research conducted has identified the existing and future barriers confronting the development of a planned and sustainable infrastructure in the Southern Province. Research conducted amongst tourists and industry personnel have revealed many deficiencies or inadequacies in the infrastructure that is the cause of the retardation and stagnation of tourism among other things. However most other factors that deter tourists from visiting Sri Lanka could possibly have been surmounted if the infrastructure was firmly in place to support the pace and volume of arrivals. Infrastructure deficiencies have proved a root cause of the stagnating tourism industry and these have been analysed with data retrieved through research conducted within the Southern Province. Samples were selected from customers and service providers in drawing conclusions. Statistical data obtained through the research project clearly indicates the relevance of infrastructure as an essential pre requisite for a sustainable and success driven tourism industry in the Southern Province. The evolution and history of tourism is sighted in this document to draw attention to the importance of the industry as a key ingredient for economic progress and prosperity, although focused on the Southern Province, for the entirety of Sri Lanka. The Southern Province of Sri Lanka is blessed with some of the most magnificent tourist attractions, some awaiting to be exploited to add to the glorious beauty of a paradise that would be more than a mere attraction but rather a temptation to visit.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Benchmarking performance of pipe borne drinking water supply industry in Sri Lanka
Ovitigala, OVTSP
Most of the economic and social infrastructure services in Sri Lanka provided by the government are in poor condition due to lack of financing for development. This is evident from the statement "Investment is expected to increase significantly utilizing improved savings by the private sector, external resources and funds saved through the gradually reducing budget deficit" (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2006). However, the government policy is to keep infrastructure services government owned and people also accept it as they have had bad experiences with the privatization of infrastructure services, mainly because of corruption. Due to this people do not appreciate better practices prevalent in developed countries (competition wherever possible, regulation where necessary is applied by the most of the developed countries. ex: European countries). The previous government took actions to improve the infrastructure provisions through establishing multi sector regulator Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) in 2002; however it was not implemented due to government change. The National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) has failed to achieve most of the goals and objectives (Coverage, NRW, Supply continuity, Human resource etc.) setout in the corporate plan for the period 2003-2007, thus indicating that the targets were not realistic and/or that effective action had not been taken by the board to review and set goals to match with the present situation as per the NWSDB Annual Report 2005. However, it is difficult to understand whether performance of the monopoly supplier is good or bad without comparing similar companies in other countries. If decision makers do not identify where they have been or where they are, it seems to be unfeasible to set targets for future performance. Information on operations, investments and outputs is essential for good management and oversight. Hence, this study was undertaken to identify and benchmark the performance and make recommendations to fill the gaps in performance of the NWSDB. The performance of Sri Lanka's Pipe Borne Drinking Water Supply Service is studied by using NWSDB's Regional Support Centers' (RSCs) data for selected Performance Indicators (PIs). Then external benchmarking and internal benchmarking are carried out by using international data and RSCs' own data respectively. This study utilizes the performance benchmarking or metric benchmarking method. Many factors such as population density, ability to pay (income levels), topography, and distance from bulk water sources affect specific indices or performance indicators. In this benchmarking study, all the above factors are considered except distance from bulk water supply as these data are not available. South East Asian Water Utilities Network (SEA WUN) benchmarking survey data are used for comparison, because it focuses only on Drinking Water Supply, the population density figures and questionnaires of the survey are available in their web site. The SEAWUN countries have socio economic conditions not dissimilar to those in Sri Lanka. In the SEAWUN study, the companies were ranked by calculating the Overall Performance Indicators (OPls) without considering the population densities. Therefore, this research is not based on their performance calculation, but uses their data. Even though they have considered 12 Performance Indicators (PI), 8 PIs are considered in this study due to lack of data available in the NWSDB. However, 7 PIs are used to calculate OPI as PI of Average Cost of Employment/Staff (% of per Capita GNI) seems to be problematic when it takes high values as good performance. The performance data of SEAWUN study, which were available only for 2003, were compared with the 2003 data of NWSDB. The same questionnaire of the SEAWUN with some modifications has been used for collecting data from NWSDB. The RSC of the North and East provinces are not considered for this benchmarking study, because developments have been hindered due to the civil war for more than two decades in this area. Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) is used for calculating OPI giving identical weights for all the PIs. External benchmarks are set based on the averages of the PIs in companies while internal benchmarks differ according to the situation. Though external and internal benchmarking is done, external benchmarking is the more illuminating as it compares population density which is one of the most important influencing factors. In this benchmarking of performance, it was found that service coverage is very poor in all the RSCs mainly due to lack of investments and inefficiencies. This should be addressed immediately by effectively utilizing the available funds. New investments are to be encouraged through greater accountability and improving efficiency. Only the Greater Colombo (GC) region is recovering their operational and maintenance costs mainly due to high cross subsidization from commercial and industrial activities. However, this is not sustainable; hence cross subsidies should be minimized, subsidized quantity of water reduced and proper tariff policy to be established at least to recover the cost. Non Revenue Water (NRW) is very high in GC and it is the worst in Colombo City. The main constraints are the investments and the practical difficulties. It is recommended to attend to Colombo city first due to high opportunity cost from high demand and high rates of commercial activities which are mainly present in this region, It is clear that staff allocations are very high in all the RSCs except in GC. No actions have been taken by management to follow their own corporate plan of reducing staff; instead additional carder vacancies were kept. A clear policy should be established and implemented based on number of connections, population density etc. The unit water cost is very satisfactory in GC because of economies of scale and lower pumping costs due to the topography in the region. However, it is unreasonably high in the Western RSC. The unit water cost increases when increasing the coverage because present coverage is mostly restricted to areas near the water source. It is recommended that studies and research be focused on finding appropriate technology and methods to minimize unit cost by NWSDB Research and Development section. Comparing the latest situation from NWSDB corporate plans of 2003-2007 and 2007- 2011, it was found that almost all of the targets set in 2003-2007 had not been met and some of the targets ( hours of supply, NRW) were lowered compared to those of 2003. So, it is questionable if the existing organization structure helps to achieve even their forecasted new smaller targets. It is strongly recommended to regulate the sector to improve the performance even if it is without private participation. This can be done by empowering the existing multi sector regulator PUCSL which will be the most convenient and the best solution to achieve the performance targets.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Business opportunities for the software industry outside the Western Province of Sri Lanka
Amarasekera, DD; Samarajiva, R
The use of computers has increased considerably all over the world. The computer is now becoming a part of the human life because it helps the human to do work quickly and efficiently. So an industry like software has to playa major role in the future as there will be more market opportunities in any country. A lot of opportunity exists even for Sri Lanka to participate in the software industry including software development, programming and business process outsourcing. There are many Sri Lankan firms which are offering IT based service and generating more revenue through the software exports. But most of these firms are located within the WP even though provinces like CP and SP have adequate electricity and telecom infrastructure. This research is mainly focused on the above situation. The following are the two main questions that have been addressed through this research. 1. Why do software firm not locate in provinces other than the WP? 2. Is the advantageous environment in the WP changing? A questionnaire which addressed the above two questions had been distributed among all the member firms of SLASI. The gathered data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods. Through the data analysis it had been concluded the following. Skilled & Educated People, Telecommunication, Electricity and Public Transport are the major constraints for not locating many software companies outside the WP. SP, CP and UP are the more suitable places with respect to each minimum requirement needed to start new software companies outside the WP. So the outcome of this research will be helpful to the investors who are going to invest their money to start new software companies in Sri Lanka, when they are going to select a location to start a new software company
item: Thesis-Abstract
An Analysis of issues pertaining to infrastructure for establishing BPO zones in Sri Lanka
Premakumara, KMW; De Silva, H
Sri Lankshas the potential to develop further its Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry as it has a greater low cost advantage than other South Asian countries. The availability of highly educated and easily trainable labour also contributes to the attractiveness of the offshore business in Sri Lanka than ever before. The improvement of the country's position in this industry, as reflected in the Network Readiness Index and the A. T. Kearney's Global Service Location Index for the last two years, highlights the fact that the relative attractiveness of offshore business opportunities in Sri Lanka has improved. Despite these positive signs on paper, the country's BPO sector is operating without creating any positive improvement to the industry and making no significant contribution to the country's economy. This is mainly due to non investment-friendly policies and the lack of government support for the sector. Moreover, the senior managers of BPO companies in Sri Lanka are not happy with the existing physical infrastructure, as it has created constraints for the growth of the industry. The non availability of quality infrastructure services and the high infrastructure cost has weakened the competitiveness of Sri Lanka's BPO operations in the global outsourcing market. This study takes a cross country approach to examine the industry practices in India, China and the Philippines, as these countries are among the top ten ranking BPO service providers in the A. T. Kearney's Global Service Location Index. The study then identifies necessary improvements to be made to the basic physical infrastructure services and some industry specific infrastructure services essential for the outsourcing industry in Sri Lanka. As a solution to the existing infrastructure Issues, the study proposes the establishment of several BPO zones in different parts of the country, which would enable the recruitment of qualified labor from different parts of the country and facilitate easy operations in terms of low cost structure. It concludes with policy recommendations that are essential for establishing the reputation of the country's BPO industry as a leading service provider in the global offshoring map.
item:
Identification of competitive regime for water industry in Sri Lanaka
Hemachandra, MG; Rameezdeen, R
National Water Supply & Drainage Board, under Ministry of Water Supply & Drainage, functions to provision of safe drinking water and facilitating the provision of sanitation in Sri Lanka as a state owned monopoly. The Organization evolved up to the present status from 1965 as a sub department of the public works department. Presently as the principle organization for Water Supply and Sanitation to the nation, the NWSDB operates through eleven Regional Support Centers. Currently NWSDB employs around 8950 staff and operates 308 water supply schemes. Pipe borne water coverage is 32% of total population. Hand pumps and tube wells gives a further coverage of8%. Water sector reforms were initiated by successive governments in Sri Lanka in the last thirty years focus on improving Water Supply and Sanitation Services. Over the world, reforms are undertaken to help deliver better and more efficient services and to protect consumers against potential abuse of monopoly power by public or private operators. This includes creation of regulatory agencies, open up market for private participation or public private partnerships, institutional reforms etc. However, evident suggested that there is no single fit best practice model for Water Supply Sector reforms. A check box approach to introduce regulation has often failed. A better approach might be to incorporate country-specific sector characteristics and make room for politics and pragmatic design features in reform in considering institutional evolutions. Regulatory initiatives often should occur simultaneously with organizational reforms or reshaping the monopoly to fall in line with regulation. Reform or reshaping of state owned NWSDB can take place gradually with different forms in regulation and maturity. Water sector reforms have often sought for decentralized service delivery to introduce operational efficiency and regulatory monitoring. Related literatures show the importance of analyzing the institution under perspectives of the institutional environment and the internal functioning of the NWSDB. Institutional environment looks into external autonomy and accountability. The internal functioning of utility looks at factors such as corporate culture, customer orientation, internal accountability for results, and the ability to delegate within the organization. Public Private Partnerships as reform tool have three motives to attract private capital investment (often to either supplement public resources or release them for other public needs); to increase efficiency and use available resources more effectively; and to reform sectors through a reallocation of roles, incentives, and accountability. Two questionnaires to analyse the institutional environment and to assess the management and other sector specialised stakeholders view converge to derive Competition Regime for Water Industry in Sri Lanka. Based on the findings, it is recommended that Water Supply Sector reforms in Sri Lanka should start with regulation by contract. This shall initiate having pubic vs. public contracts with each Regional Support Centres (RSC) so called Independent Service Units (ISU) with decentralised service 'delivery. However some function should remain in NWSDB central unit to be developed them as commercially oriented businesses.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Assessment of post-tsunami housing construction in Sri Lanka
Majeed, MR; Dias, P
The tsunami of26 December 2004 struck two thirds of Sri Lanka's coastline and the damage was distributed from the north down the entire eastern and southern coast and covered the west coast as far as north of Colombo. The disaster killed 35,322 people and completely destroyed more than 50,000 houses. Each district was affected by tsunami assigned a certain number of houses to be constructed. After a reasonable construction period had elapsed and the progress evaluated, a significant difference was observed between the progresses in different districts. The objective of this research was to develop a model to explain the above difference in construction progress among districts. Progress was compared among the districts and the difference was analyzed. This analysis was based on the number of houses assigned around a year after the tsunami. Four districts, namely Hambantota, Galle, Matara and Ampara were selected for further analysis. Factors that would contribute to the progress of housing construction among the districts were identified through a literature survey and interview survey. Contributing factors were short listed according to the importance and six factors were chosen as model inputs. They are; land, finance, infrastructure, raw material, human resources and political leadership / administration. These factors were assigned a common importance rating that would be the same for any district. Importance of the factors was expressed as weights, the total' adding to 1.0. Thereafter scores for each district corresponding to the availability of the identified factors were obtained from the interviewees. The sum of weighted scores for each district could then be obtained. The relationship between weighted scores and the construction progress (in terms of houses constructed and also percentage constructed/assigned) was established, and the slope and coefficient of determination of the trend lines calculated. Coefficient of determination and slope of the trend line were very high one year after the tsunami. These measures gradually reduced at two and three years after the tsunami. In conclusion it was identified that the differences in the rate of construction progress among districts was due to the level of contributing factor availability as reflected by the weighted scores for the districts. Land availability had the greatest importance among all the factors and also showed a marked difference in the four districts studied.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Cost effectiveness of non revenue water reduction in greater Kandy area
Ranasinghe, CJ; Halwathura, R
Proportion of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) measured as a percentage of the total water distributed to consumers varies from 10% to 55% in most of the existing piped water supply schemes. Loss of revenue due to NRW is enormous. Analyses of losses to the utility in the above aspect and comparative studies on the cost of improving existing systems verses cost of construction of new systems may be useful for planners as well as for network system designers. It will also be helpful in reducing the substantial investment to build new water supply project to cater to the increasing demand. However, the time has come for planning, design and construction of systems with minimum operation and maintenance burden using the world's best available practices and also to have programmers for controlling water losses in existing systems. This enable to save the limited water resource, to have the maximum benefit from the money spent mostly out of foreign loans and to expand the pipe borne water supply facility to more than 50% of the population who are deprived of the facility. To analyze the financial viability of Construct ion of new water supply system Vs rehabilitation/augmentation of existing system, this research was conducted. This study is focused to select the most cost effective option in meeting increasing demand for drinking water by cost saving of reduction of NRW compared to investment in development of new scheme in Kandy Area. To attain this purpose, Harispaththuwa ,Akurana,and Ampitiya Schemes were considered to calculate the Cost of Rehablitation . Construction cost of Ulapane scheme was taken as the construction of new water supply scheme. Internal rate of return was calculated for both projects and compared each other. According to, the comparison Rehabilitation/augmentation of existing system was financially viable but NRW saving from rehabilitation is not sufficient to cater to the projected current and future demand
item: Thesis-Full-text
Work norm analysis for medium scale building projects : a case study
Udawatta, UKDLT; Ekanayake, LL
It is accepted that construction industry plays a vital role in an economy of a given country. In Sri Lanka, the construction sector was continuously growing at high rate in the pervious years and it has significantly contributed to the Sri Lankan economy. Material and labour components are the main inputs to the construction industry. Planning, controlling, and monitoring of material and labour components are the key factors to successfulness of projects. The standard norms were developed many years ago in order to assist to the above functions. With technology transferring to the industry, work norms for construction industry are to be reviewed; however, it was not touched during the last two decades. In Sri Lankan context, standard work norms are available and it is called as Building Schedule of Rates (BSR). In fact it is very useful in estimating different parameters. The main objective of this research is to develop the work norms for building construction activities. Further, it investigates the experimental and BSR standard norms on few construction events. This thesis also describes the productivity of the labour, material consumption in construction work. Moreover, daily work completed, material consumption and labour involvements were closely examined in two different sites selected and all the data were recorded on daily basis with respect to the construction events. The experimental data were analyzed by simple statistical techniques and compared with the standard norms available up to date. The research findings revealed that actual material consumption IS relatively high comparing to the standard BSR values which were previously developed. As per the findings of the research, cement and sand were excessively consumed in all construction events. In this research, daily labour outputs were also examined and it was found that productivity of the labour was higher than the BSR standard values. Furthermore, it is recommended to review the previous standards in order to adapt the current practices.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Evaluating risk factors affecting financing of mini hydro power projects in Sri Lanka
Rathnaweera, PHSB; Halwathura, RU
This research has been carried out to understand and evaluation of the risk factors affecting in financing the Mini Hydro Power projects in Sri Lanka. The risk factors selection and case study analysis have carried out to identify the most critical risk factors their impact. The central and South Western regions in Sri Lanka are characterized by mountainous terrain and moderate to high rainfall over most part of the year. Due to favorable geo-climatic conditions, the highlands of Sri Lanka offer excellent opportunities to harness hydropower to generate electricity. The capacity of the Mini Hydro Power Projects implemented by private promoters is less than 10 MW. There are number of opportunities still available in this sector. However most of the projects are not up to the expected performance levels due to high risk factors. With the substantial investment the investors seek bank financing and most of the banks are reluctant to lend to MHP projects due high risk nature. Pilot Survey, and detailed questionnaire surrey was carried out and identified key critical risk factors out of 29 risk factors. Further four MHP projects were evaluated to understand the relevant risk factors specific to each project. Thereafter another 2 projects were evaluated to understand the impact due these major risk factors. Most projects are highly vulnerable to hydrology of the catchments area and it was observed the most financiers are highly concern about this aspect. Other than Hydrology, the cost overruns due to improper design practice carried out by the developers, unexpected natural disasters, influences by the politicians and disturbance from social environment, fluctuation on exchange and interest rates and contractor and supplier related issues are key risk areas affecting the industry. Therefore identification relevant risks factors and adopting risk mitigation methods is important to the prospective investors and financiers, which will mitigate risk in financing MHP Projects.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Project manager's level of satisfaction in construction logistics in ISO 9001 certified Sri Lankan construction companies
Munasinghe, MMD; Gunawardena, ND
Customer satisfaction and continuous improvement are the fundamental goals of construction logistics and ISO 9001 standard. ISO 9001 is a universally understood and accepted quality management system which comprises of a set of tools, when properly implemented; gives customer confidence that the supplier can continuously meet their requirement timely in the required quality. While much attention and much research has been focused on exploring the relationships of external customer satisfaction, researches on internal customer satisfaction is very few in number. Happy satisfied internal customer will improve the bottom line of an organization. So by this case, the paper is to identify the factors that are required to increase Project Manger's satisfaction (most important internal customer) especially on actions that are taken by the management in ISO certified construction companies. The purpose of this study is to extend the framework for construction material logistics in customer satisfaction from owner to project manager level. This paper examines how construction logistics affect a project manager's level of satisfaction. A survey established the general importance that a project manager must place on the construction logistics. Accordingly, the most significantly correlated factors in customer satisfaction were obtained from a project manager's point of view. Key important factors related to satisfaction were found through interviews with project managers and a literature review. These included project's personnel, material flow, schedule, contractor's organization, and information flow. The study results out of the key logistic factors material flow, information flow, schedule and personal found to be highly significant over total satisfaction of PM on construction logistics in ISO certified Sri Lankan companies. Out of significant factors suggest that material flow, information flow and schedule are worthy of the most attention. Satisfying the above factors will greatly improve the construction logistics that will, greatly increase the project manager's level of satisfaction over construction logistics. This paper also investigates the effect of logistics on, time, cost and quality of a project and also suggested the actions that have been practiced by the management of ISO9001certified construction companies in fulfilling their Project manager's satisfaction.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Improve the profitability of mono crop agriculture projects by developing as integrated agriculture in Sri Lanka
Rajakaruna, JMCK; Halwathura, RU
Agriculture sector is the most important sector among three economic sectors established in the world. Asian region is very important in world economy, mainly China and India with higher GDP growth. And also the Asian region plays vital role in agriculture sector as well as dairy farming. Agriculture will continue to play an important role in the economic development and poverty elevation in Asia. The economy of Sri Lanka is mainly based on agriculture sector and nearly 80 per cent of the population is lived in rural areas. The main source of income of nearly 90 per cent of the rural population is agriculture and animal husbandry. Hence, the profitability plays a major role in agriculture sector in Sri Lanka to develop the economy. In this research study the researcher has focused to find out the variables of profitability as well as to identify thatt which profit portion is attractive among mono crop farming and integrated farming. This study will give an idea to farmers to identify the variables of profitability and which type of farming to be used to earn more profit. Literature review on world agriculture, Asian Agriculture and Sri Lankan agriculture revealed that the economies of most of the countries are depending on agriculture, industry or services. Though, most of the countries have reported that the considerable percentage of human resources are engaged in agriculture, the income and , productivity are very low. Some of the-foreign studies have identified the variables of profitability as unit price of harvest, cost of production of harvest and unit yield. But others have determined that the cost of production and unit yield as variables. Further to that the profitability of mono crop farming and integrated farming are depending on the above variables. References on literature indicate that the productivity and yield of integrated agriculture is greater than primary agriculture and mono cropping. But most of the previous studies revealed that the profitability of mono crop projects are greater , than integrated projects in developed countries where more extent of farming is involved. The study has been carried out within a frame of area with selected districts and limited for the farmers who are engaged in coconut and paddy cultivation. Also it was considered only two types of agriculture namely, mono crop and integrated farming by conducting a questioner survey. In this study the cost of production, unit price and unit yield were taken as the variables of net profit. Several measures were considered under the above variables and were evaluated further in detail. Descriptive statistical analysis has done to test the strength of correlation of variables and the results showed that most of the variables are accepted. But the unit price is not accepted as a variable of net profit. There was a correlation among most of the identified variables of net profit and also among the variables of cost of production and yield. Apart from that a Statistical analysis was done to verify whether the profit of integrated farming is greater than mono crop farming or the other way. Though the previous researches on other countries indicate a larger extent of mono crop farming reported higher net profit than integrated farming, this research study revealed that the sample group has agreed on the profit of integrated farming is better than mono crop farming in SL. It is recommended to the farmers to implement the integrated farming activities to maximize the net profit, yield and minimize the cost of production. The selected group has agreed that the most of integrated farming activities can be carried out in coconut cultivation projects, but not with paddy cultivation. Also sample information revealed that the paddy cultivation does not much suitable for integrated farming activities in SL, than mono crop cultivation. Finally as a conclusion, the study determined that by considering the SL consists with limited arable lands and higher return net profit than mono crop cultivation projects, the integrated farming activities are the most suitable type of agriculture to SL.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Open source software project management from quality aspects
Ranaweera, YM; Fernando, S
The breakthrough of Open Source Software Development (OSSD) is not only evident when looking at the gradually rising interest in OSS related research but also when observing the software business. Clearly OSS provides many opportunities for companies to speed up their software development and lower its costs. However, there are risks involved in using products developed under Open Source Software model such as multitude of licenses, lack of liability in the quality of the products. The main characteristic of OSSD model is Internet based development in distributed environment. In this environment, the existence of project management practices is questionable or could differ from the commonly used styles. However, it is a known fact that project management plays the role of driving and sponsoring the quality considerations. Therefore, what level of weight could be put on quality related activities in OSSD environment through project management? This paper explores the quality management activities of open source software project management. This research uses 'The Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge', Edition 2004 as the standard guide in seeking the quality , management aspects of open source software development model. The main quality processes of quality planning, quality assurance and quality control are studied and compared with OSSD approach to identify the activities of similar concept. Outcome of the research recovered that Open Source Software project management considerations on quality management is un-negligible. The level of attention on Quality Management aspects is very high and surprisingly light weighted to match the OSSD model. However, it was also observed that there is a slight imbalance in the activities within quality management.
item: Thesis-Abstract
The Effect of team integration in successful delivery of building construction projects in Sri Lanka
Wijesingha, WHMSJ; Sugathadasa, RAD
Sri Lankan building construction industry is growing rapidly and it can be seen that there is huge market competition among large buildings like housing condominiums. To achieve the best possible financial objectives as well as greater customer satisfaction, in these projects various stakeholders (clients, contractors and consultants ... etc.) have to get together and work towards common attainable goal. In the final analysis, sometimes it may be found that these projects would be unsuccessful as far as main project management objectives; time, cost and quality. The main purpose of this study was to find out how the effective team integration can be used to deliver the these building construction projects successfully in Sri Lankan building construction industry and to give stakeholders some recommendation for future construction works. To achieve the research objectives a questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the professionals in Sri Lankan building construction industry. Required data for this research were collected among the key three stakeholders in the construction industry; client, contractor and consultant. According to the responses main reasons for unsuccessful delivery of construction projects were delays due to bad weather conditions, inability of proper cash flow management by contractors and delay of decision making. Though, lot of stakeholders' believed that proper team integration would help to deliver construction projects successfully, when the question was asked directly and once done the hypothesis test that there is no positive relationship between them. As far as the successful delivery of construction projects are concerned, other than the team integration there are some other dominant factor as well such as proper cash flow maintenance, timely decision making, mitigation of delays due.to bad weather conditions ...etc. A factor like delay of decision making can be considered to be happened due lack of team integration among stakeholders. Some recommendation, which were drawn through the results of this research have been presented which will really help stakeholders to achieve successful deliver of construction project. These recommendations have been given mainly considering practical aspects of Sri Lankan building construction industry and finally some guidelines have been given for any future research work related the same topic.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Sri Lanka software export industry : an evaluation using the software export success model
Dharmawardhana, HMSN; Halwathura, R
The last twenty-five years have seen an explosive growth in the software industry. Annual growth in the global software industry has been above 15 per cent since the early 1990s and remains on rising trend. Many countries world-wide are becoming active or interested in software exports. The major software industries of the world are located in the world's richest economies; countries such as the USA, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Italy that have been building those industries since in the late 1960s. Those which developed a software industry after the 1970s were called 'followers' and the three largest software 'followers' are 3Is - India, Ireland & Israel. The local software export industry also elapses a period of steady growth. The key factor which contributes for the development of the software industry is the expansion of the outsourcing opportunities received from developed countries. The Software Lxponers Association (SEA) of Sri Lanka has targeted to achieve total exports of US$ 1.0 billion in 2012. To achieve this target Sri Lanka need to compete with \ industry giant such as first-tier countries - India, Ireland, Israel, etc and the countries in the second-tier China, Russia etc. The rationale of this research, is to focus on the first-tier follower countries that successfully built export-oriented software industries, to gain knowledge from their experiences and to then examine the status of 'second-tier' follower - 'Sri Lanka' in the light of those experiences. Further to identify strengths and weaknesses of the Sri Lankan Software Export Industry using Software Export Success Model. Even though the scope of this research is limited to the particular model, the methodology and the findings intend to broaden the Sri Lankan software export industry while enlightening the future research works. l.astly. in the thesis, accepting the research findings as baseline, it recommends various strategies clutched by analysing '3Is' using the success model.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Causes of delay in hotel refurbishment projects in Sri Lanka
Athapattu, ARCC; Gunawardena, N
Hotel industry is one of the major contributors of the income to the country. During the closure of the hotel for refurbishment, it defimtely loses its revenue as well as cost incurred in paying their staff. When refurbishment takes an additional time affects seriously to the income. market and regular customers.There is no previous study to identify causes aftecting the delaymg of hotel refurbishment proJects in Sri Lanka. Therefore analyzing of the delaying of causes for hotel refurbtshment proJects is vital to address these issues and to protect the hotel industry in Sn Lanka. This research was conducted to find out causes of delay in hotel refurbishment proJects in Sri Lanka by focusing on actions and inactions of project participants. which delay refurbishment projects. This research identifie,. a list of 75 predetermined factors in 5 categories i.e. causes pertinent to cltents, consultants, contractors. project condition, and external causes the principle factors contributed to construction delays in hotel refurbishment projects. In particular, a questionnaire survey with 52 representatives of cltents. contractors and consultants was conducted in order to obtain their professional Judgments about the relative importance of the factors of construction delay related to the hotel refurbishment projects.Respondents (52) included Hotel managers, Engineers, Contractors, Sub Contractors and Consultants (Electical and Mechanical Consultants). The relative importance index (RII) was calculated to indicate the relative importance of a contributing factor to the refurbishment delay . Delaying causes was categorized and ranked them in order to identify the most significant causes. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was calculated to get the correlation between the ranks of delay factors made by the two project parties i.e. consulting engineers and contractors.The results revealed that constdenng the overall perception of three responding groups the principle delaying causes were: (1) lneffective project manager in the relevant project (2) lack of coordination with contractors (3) financial problems of the contractor (4) incomplete project documents given by the consultant and (5) delaying of the Items supply by the client. Identification of those critical delaying factors and other findings of this research would help improvement in the efficiency and productivity towards a better implementation of hotel refurbishment projects in Sn Lanka.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Development of an effective and enforceable effluent control system for industrial estates in Sri Lanka
Jayawardena, B; Gunawardena, ND
As a result of rapid industrialization and the poor attention paid to control industrial pollution a remarkable increase in generation of pollutants and accumulation of wastes are observed in the country. Industries have conveniently ignored the treatment of industrial effluents due to weak or virtually non existent regulatory enforcement. Central wastewater treatment plants in many industrial estates are not functioning effectively and surface water bodies have become polluted and continue to create a threat to public health, aquatic life and sustainability of the environment. Therefore, the need for an effective and enforceable industrial pollution management system has been identified as a prime requirement in the country. The objective of this research was to develop an effective and enforceable effluent control policy and strategy based on a mix of market based incentives for environmental compliance combined with an element of command and control characteristics for industries in industrial estates in Sri Lanka. Biyagama Export Processing Zone was taken as the proxy for current effluent control system in industrial estates in Sri Lanka. The proposed effluent control system was was developed based on experiences of other countries and feasibility studies conducted in the Sri Lankan context on effectiveness of using economic incentives in controlling pollution. Efforts were made to address the present limitations in the public sector where the lack of accountability of the regulatory agencies resulted in poor effluent monitoring and weak enforcement, with a pragmatic system that transferred the burden of proof of compliance from the regulatory agency to the industrialist. Literature review includes experiences and similar case studies from countries like Germany, Japan, Indonesia, China, Australia and Sri Lanka. The research proposes a load based license fee scheme for the effluent generating industries in industrial estates in Sri Lanka. This system will make industries responsible for industrial pollution control through self monitoring and minimizes the involvement of the regulator in routine monitoring and passes the burden of proof of compliance to the industrialist. The regulator's role is limited to ad-hoc compliance monitoring to verify the self monitoring data from the industrialist combined with a effluent charges for ensuring compliance with national environmental standards. The environmental management policy proposed makes the polluter responsible for environment protection by offering economic incentives to reduce and control pollution. This is one of the strategies priorities outlined in the National Industrial Pollution Management Action Plan and is a long time need of the country. It is expected that adoption of the environment management system proposed as a result of this research will result in a significant improvement in compliance of national environmental standards.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Improving road safety by improved management of road infrastructure
Abdul Rasheed, SUL; Kumarage, AS
Poverty is the greatest challenge we ever face aftermath of the Tsunami tidal waves which hit two third of the coastal belt on 26lh December 2004, throwing normal Fishermen life into the dark. People who lived around the coastal areas were lost their lives irrespective of any status. People who escaped from the tsunami have lost their properties and the way of living, pulling them to the poverty of any measurement. A substantial part of the Northern, Faster and Southern coastal areas were devastated. It clearly showed that the nation is far below with the latest advanced technology and how poor economically to face with such situations. /80% of the fisheries sector damaged; in which 75 per cent of the fishing fleet were damaged which is more than 24,000 boats destroyed which comprising large number of fishing crafts, small-scale fishing crafts and the fishing gears. Of 12 harbors, 10 were severely damaged, including breakwaters, buildings, machinery and equipments. Generally hundred of small businesses and entrepreneurs were badly affected through damage to property, premises, stock; machinery as well as employees displaced injured or perished. Now it requires a clear mission to fight back poverty Fisheries Sector with a passion and professionalism, integrating every aspect of eradicating poverty, essentially a successful development of a comprehensive, multifaceted and properly integrated policy framework. It has identified the importance of the integration of global and local forces and technological advancement, which must be harnessed to improve the quality of poor people. and responsibilities of the key stakeholders and introduced a new conceptualized framework by identifying and integrating the key stakeholders to overcome the current barriers in developing the lives of the poor fishermen. According to the recent survey carried out by the DCS, 30 per cent of the people who are living in Sri Lanka are below the poverty line which Rs. 1423.00 on real food and non- food consumption expenditure per person per month (DCS 2002 survey report). It has been studied the historical development in Sri Lankan and studied the technology available, specially the Information Communication Technology which the Sri Lankan Fisheries sector can use to overcome the current pressing issues. All the key stakeholders in the Fisheries sector must work towards clear objectives such as to assist in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of affected people to enable them to recommence operations immediately with the improved technology, training, accessibility to the world market with improved quality of products. Total fish production has marginally dropped by 0.1 per cent in the year 2004 (Statistical Unit Ministry of Fisheries 2004). The main causes for the above drop are the price increase in world oil. instability of the government, lack of proper integrated policy implementations system, human diversification for other jobs, lack of latest technology and lack of access to the available technology, the waste of the production, lack of economic value for the product and the lack of proper resources management to introduce a value added product to the market apart from the Tsunami catastrophe. Therefore it requires a sustainable development to the fisheries sector having a new- framework integrating all the stakeholders in the industry aiming for the objectives to eradicate poverty of the bottom level of fishermen in the hierarchy. A mechanism, which will really impact on the livelihood of the fishermen, is required. It shows the importance of such integration and share expert's knowledge and the funds for the future research and development in the industry through monitoring such large investments in the industry. The implementation of new technological innovations within the framework for the beneficial of fishermen who are marginalized and application of technological policies within the framework for sustainable development.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Feasibility of including natural gas in Sri Lanka's energy supply, including the design of market parameters
Jayasinghe, JAKS; Samarajeeva, R
Sri Lanka's commercial energy supply is overly dependant on oil and oil related energy. Therefore, the economy is vulnerable to price fluctuations in the international oil market. This thesis seeks to explore the viability of adding Natural Gas to the Sri Lankan energy mix to reduce oil dependence. It has been argued by some that Natural Gas is not an option for Sri Lanka because the size of its energy market cannot support an economically viable Natural Gas industry. In response, three possible future market scenarios are developed in this thesis. Based on international best practices this thesis also proposes an ideal market structure for the Natural Gas Industry, including demarcation of roles for ex ante and ex post regulation. As a greenfield industry, Natural Gas provides unique opportunities for market design. The final conclusion is that there is potential for Natural Gas in Sri Lanka in high economic growth scenarios of 8 -10 per cent of economic growth per annum. The last chapter discusses the importance of regional cooperation in South Asia for fulfilling the energy needs of the country.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Role of village hydro projects in rural economy
Dheerasinghe, CJ; Jayasekara, AD; Gunawardana, N
Poverty and poor life standard of the rural community are some of the characters that\ could show the under development of the rural economy of the Island. The Governments had tried to eliminate the poverty from rural communities with the assistance of donor agencies through out many decades, but the success of these attempts is still doubtful. Donor agencies, as well as the Government have identified "Lack of energy supply to the rural areas" is one of the major obstacles to achieve the goals of these attempts. Government with the assistance of the donor agencies such as World Bank has introduced village hydro electrification projects as an option for rural electrification. The main objective of the Government is to eradicate the poverty and up grade the life standards of rural community by the growth of rural economy as a result of electrification in rural areas. This research is an attempt to evaluate whether the objectives of the village hydro projects (objectives of the Government, objectives of the Funding Agencies and expectation of the rural community) have been achieved or if not identifies the drawbacks of village hydro project industry. Finally an attempt has been made to give recommendations to develop village hydro projects as a faceable industry while guarding its social aims up to the standards. For the purpose of data collection, three case studies have been done base on three village hydro projects, which have been funded by Sam path Bank. The reasons to select these three projects are availability of resources and easy access. Data were collected by literature survey on three projects, using a questionnaire and face to face interviews conducted with selected samples of villagers in these areas. Questionnaire was given to three samples of (minimum 30 each) villagers of above three projects. Data of social impact and drawbacks of these projects were collected by face to face interviews with selected samples of villagers. At these three case studies, economic and social impacts of the village hydro projects have been identified. But in these case studies, an attempt hasn't made to do test the technical feasibility of village hydro electrification projects. Observations have done in business angle rather than technical. As such more qualitative data has been collected and analyzed rather than quantitative data. There is an opportunity in future to do a research on technical feasibility of village hydro electrification projects. Collected data have been analyzed by using the methods of SWOT analysis and PEST analysis. Cost- benefit analysis has been used to identify the acceptability of the projects and level of satisfaction of the consumers. The recommendations and observations to develop village hydro electrification projects as a faceable industry have been given in the last chapter based on the findings of data analysis.