Quality management systems form an integral part of modern corporations. Acknowledging current socio-economic and environmental challenges, quality standards ought to be dynamic and flexible so as to cater for different markets and requirements. This book portrays a collection of international papers addressing current research and practice within the areas of engineering and technology, health and education. Amidst striving for "zero defects", "cost-effectiveness" and "tight financial budgets", quality management systems ought to embrace the creator of them all: humans; as the ancient Greek Sophist Protagoras said, "Of all money, Man is the measure" «Πάντων χρημάτων Μέτρον Άνθρωπος» (Plato, Theaetetus 166d).

This pocket guide explains the content and the practical use of ISO 21500 - Guidance on project management, the latest international standard for project management, and the first of a family of ISO standards for project, portfolio and program management. ISO 21500 is meant for senior managers and project sponsors to better understand project management and to properly support projects, for project managers and their team members to have a reference for comparing their projects to others and it can be used as a basis for the development of national standards. This pocket guide provides a quick introduction as well as a structured overview of this guidance and deals with the key issues within project management: Roles and responsibilities Balancing the project constraints Competencies of project personnel All ISO 21500 subject groups (themes) are explained: Integration, Stakeholder, Scope, Resource, Time, Cost, Risk, Quality, Procurement and Communication. A separate chapter explains the comparison between, ISO 21500 and PMBOK® Guide PRINCE2, Agile, Lean, Six Sigma and other methods, practices and models. Finally, it provides a high level description of how ISO 21500 can be applied in practice using a generic project life cycle. Proper application of this new globally accepted project management guideline will support organizations and individuals in growing their project management maturity consistently to a professional level.

Dealing with environmental issues should no longer be considered simply as a cost of doing business. Effective environmental improvements to a company’s products and services can be turned into business opportunities. This book was written with the express purpose of helping managers of companies, in particular of Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), to better deal with environmental challenges and address customer requirements, all in order to turn their environmental inve- ments into competitive market advantages. Several examples are provided throughout the book, but also warning signs (Alert Boxes). These “Alerts” are posted to help managers avoid typical traps when working with environmental considerations in business processes. The authors have many years of experience in the various aspects of impleme- ing Ecodesign. This experience includes working in industry for many years; le- ing the environmental departments in a multinational company; managing research projects in eco-product development; Life Cycle Assessment; and national and international environmental communication and marketing. This book is the latest in a series. The 2002 “Ecodesign Pilot” introduced a tool and software to help design more environmentally compatible products. It was directed specifically at designers. The 2004 book, “Ecodesign Implementation”, was written to help project managers optimize product development processes from an environmental perspective.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Systems and Information Sciences (ICCIS), held in Manta, Ecuador, from July 27 to 29, 2020, and was jointly organized by Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí “ULEAM”, in collaboration with GDEON. ICCIS aims to bring together systems and information sciences researchers and developers from academia and industry around the world to discuss cutting-edge research. The book covers the following topics: AI, Expert Systems and Big Data Analytics Cloud, IoT and Distributed Computing Communications Database System and Application Financial Technologies (FinTech), Economics and Business Engineering m-Learning and e-Learning Security Software Engineering Web Information Systems and Applications General Track

This encyclopedia serves as a tool to support universities across the world to implement sustainable development in higher education in a number of key areas, spread over 5 volumes:1. Policy-making, visioning, structures, management and strategies 2. Teaching, learning and competencies 3. Research and transformation 4. Campus greening, design, operations and carbon impacts5. Students and stakeholders ́ initiatives and involvement The encyclopedia will be of special interest to administrators and managers at higher education institutions; academic staff (e.g. lecturers, professors, researchers); technical staff and students. Also, other groups working outside higher education, but interested on the theory and practice of sustainable development, will find its contents useful.

This book, based on authoritative sources and reports, links environmental communication to different fields of competence: environment, sustainability, journalism, mass media, architecture, design, art, green and circular economy, public administration, big event management and legal language. The manual offers a new, scientifically based perspective, and adopts a theoretical-practical approach, providing readers with qualified best practices, case studies and 22 exclusive interviews with professionals. A fluent style of writing leads the readers through specific details, enriching their knowledge without being boring. As such it is an excellent preparatory and interdisciplinary academic tool intended for university students, scholars, professionals, and anyone who would like to know more on the matter.