In recent decades, project based work form has taken a dominant role of work for many companies. Developments in the field have progressed rapidly and research has contributed to more efficient working practices. This study describes the elements that a project manager should keep in mind when he leads a project without actually being physically present, complex factors occurred and the basic approach to encounter them. The aim of this report is to examine factors that arise in the context of coordination at a distance and how companies, in their daily work, surpass these obstacles. The study does not include cultural differences, time zone differences and language differences, all very common in project management at distance.

How projects are managed can have a big impact on the project`s result. There are different types of frameworks on the market whose purpose is to help project leaders to pursue a successful project. Those frameworks focus on larger product development projects and both the literature and companies have addressed that the frameworks are too comprehensive for smaller product development projects. They have therefore asked for a framework that is more suitable for those smaller projects. To complete a project on time and to the planned cost is important in both larger and smaller product development projects.

In most software engineering project, users are only involved in the beginning of the project as a help to design the requirements specification but users can be involved after this phase too, but is it effective to do so? With this report we would like to investigate how effective it is to involve users after the requirements specification has been written and approved. To find out how effective it is to involve the users we try some fast and simple involvement techniques on a quite far gone project. These techniques include ethnographic studies, prototypes and surveys. We also interviewed a couple of people who work with usability and finally delivered a report with our results to them to find out if they found our result relevant. By also documenting how much time we spent involving users we will show to which degree user involvement is effective. We found out that a couple of fast techniques could get very much result in the form of usability enhancing suggestions to the developers.

The purpose of this Degree project was to build laboratory equipment for a new course in power electronics that starts this autumn 2010 at Uppsala University. The equipment is intended for student labs and it covers the most important areas of the course including rectifying, buck-/boost-converters and PWM-modulation. It is built as one sealed unit where all the electronics are built-in but visible and it has a connection board where students safely can connect the different circuits. The project has advanced from theoretical studies of circuit design, choosing of components and simulations to drawing the printed circuit board (PCB), soldering, case building, final testing and troubleshooting - basically most steps from an early idea to a final product. Measurements on the final product gave about the same results as the earlier simulations of the circuits and the result is overall satisfying..

The purpose of the study was to examine how teachers and children interpreted the project and understood its values. To this end, it was necessary to focus on four defining parameters which affect the investigation: structure of pre-school project work, content and delivery, the methods used by teachers during the project, which pedagogical documentation was used (and how), and how the project determined the approach, the curriculum goals and values. Using a qualitative approach, regular unsystematic observations were made over five days, during which three teachers, two pedagogues, two pre-school teachers, and one nanny from the same kindergarten were interviewed regarding children in three age groups: 1-2 years old, 3 years old, and 4-5 years old. The results of my investigation showed that the teachers were divided on how to apply the project as a working method. Children's active role in the pre-school project varied depending on the extent to which teachers adopted children perspective in everyday practice.

This thesis suggests an explanation for how it is possible for individuals living in an unsafe neighborhood to expressa highlevel of security. Araby is the district in Växjö municipality withthe highest level of insecurity. Within the district, there is acategory of individuals in security-measurements showing a high degree of security. Inhabitants living in house in Araby also seem to show a higher level of security than inhabitants in the same accommodation in other neighborhoods in the municipality.The study's purpose is to understand how individuals belonging to an unsafe neighborhood can experience a high degree of security.Qualitative data were collected from an observation in Araby and from interviews with individuals living in house in the district.Previous research has shown that security in the surrounding area depends on several factors, such as disorders, the degree of social control and personal opinions. Thestudy shows how a distinction to places and people in the district can explain the degree of security.

This Degree project concludes the Innovation and Design Engineering programme at Karlstad University. The project was carried out by David Brocker, Erik Hallberg and Andreas Hertzman during the spring of 2006 and corresponded to 15 weeks of work per student. Assigner was Martin Larsson at Arexor and instructor at Karlstad University was Monica Jakobsson.Arexor has a patent to a construction of an electrical skirting board with moveable wall sockets, called Electrical Track System. The lowest parts of the interior walls along the floor are today almost always covered by a conventional skirting board. Arexors patented product replaces that with the possibility to move and increase the number of wall sockets by choice along an electrical skirting board.

This essay looks into the concept of self-efficacy and its implications for work performance. The participants in this study work for a call center company situated in the southern part of Sweden. The hypothesis is that a high degree of self-efficacy exerts a positive effect on work performance. Furthermore, the study seeks to identify the factors that give rise to work satisfaction among the participants. The results of the study show that there is a negative correlation between high self-efficacy and work performance.

A project exploring the boundaries between 2D and 3D. What is surface and what is substance? A countinuation of previous projects where I?ve examined the journey from two dimensional paper to three dimensonal objects. This project deals with the journey from three dimensonality back into a flat two dimensional surface, and the question if something can be both 2D and 3D at the same time. I decided not to center the project around a specific item, but rather let the project itself be in focus.

AbstractThe concept project is today used in several contexts and has different meaning in different contexts. Lately, projects have been seen as a form of organization and more companies convert from traditional organizing to organizing in a project form. The purpose and focus of today?s project is not only to increase quality and competence development for management but also to integrate different actors in order to e.g. increase customer value.LänsTeknikCentrum AB (LTC) in Jönköping is running different projects in order to support companies in Jönköping County.

This thesis is a study of the indicated connection between degree of market orientated solutions and range of formal actions against corruption in Swedish municipalities. The indicated connection points in the direction that municipalities with a high degree of market orientated solutions have a higher range of formal actions against corruptionthan municipalities with a low degree of market orientated solutions. In this thesis the indicated connection is studied by analyzing documents fromand interviewing representatives of two Swedish municipalities with differentdegree of market oriented solutions; Botkyrka municipality representing a lowdegree and Nacka municipality representing a high degree. The results of analyzed documents and interviews show the range of formal actions taken against corruption by the municipalities.The empirical results of this thesis is that Nacka municipality have a higher range of formal actions against corruption than Botkyrka municipality has, a result which corresponds with and confirm the indicated connection between high degree of market orientated solutions and high range of formal actions against corruption..

AbstractThis Degree project focuses on the questions how teachers´ within the four socially oriented subjects? history, geography, religion and social science use the textbook, and their attitudes towards textbooks. The method used in this project was interviews with teachers. Previous research shows that teachers use the textbook to a great extent. Studies also show that teachers? way of educating depends upon their individual educational attitudes.

AbstractOur bachelor degree thesis was carried out in collaboration with Ivar Petterssons Järnmanufaktur AB in Smålandsstenar. We were asked to replace their wedge housing, used to fasten the wires to the power lines, with a similar structure in a plastic material. The idea for this project started with Ivar Petterssons Järnmanufaktur AB having problems with the casting quality that forced them to perform expensive tests on each of the wedge houses to ensure the quality. They are currently produced in China which is also a major drawback because it requires expensive long delivery times.The method we used is Fredy Olsson's Princip- and Primärkonstuktion (1995). We have consistently been in the project on so-called "broad front", which means that you create several sketches, ideas and changes in parallel, and then evaluates all.

In a global economy it is important to understand what project management is and how it functions in a contemporary company. This report includes an empirical case study of a project flow, which was conducted in the department Packaging Concept (PC) which is a part of Stora Enso. As all of PC´s customer enquiries are unique and must be considered an individual project, PC continuously works in projects. An analysis of the project flow was conducted based on interviews at and visits to PC as well as relevant documents distributed by the department. The report gives an understanding and analysis of how PC works in projects.

This Degree project was conducted in collaboration with Husqvarna AB, the headquartersof which are located in Jönköping. The aim was to further develop the filler cap found onmore or less the whole of the company?s range of chain saws, in order to make it moreuser friendly.The present filler cap is not easy to open and close, especially when wearing gloves, andunder difficult conditions, which creates problems and prolongs filling time.On the basis of market surveys, different prototypes and tests, we have created anergonomically improved cap of a new shape, which can be moved in the axial direction,thus making filling easier..