Browsing by Subject "Productivity"
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Item A case study of lean software practices in an IT application support department(2011-12) Ren, Xiaofei, M.S. in Engineering; Perry, Dewayne E.; Krasner, HerbThe concept of lean manufacturing was formed at Toyota by Taiichi Ohno, who originated the system of “Just-in-Time” production with the goals of delivering high value and cutting down waste. These concepts were partially adapted to software development in an Agile development context [1] where the goal is to deliver value to the customers more quickly by eliminating waste and improving quality. However, we are not aware of any published attempt to adapt lean principles to IT maintenance work. The purpose of the case study reported here is to demonstrate that the principles of lean software development could be effectively applied to a specific IT application support department. It is an empirical study of lean practices in the maintenance department of a large organization. A comparison was made from the collected data from our release management tool before and after applying the lean principles to our IT group. Our analysis shows that the lean principles improved the developers’ focus on the given corrective or preventive task. Application quality also improved to a significant extent. More importantly, our customers did see more efficient support efforts that delivered good quality in a shorter time. All in all, the newly conceived support process adapting lean principles to our situation did, in fact, deliver more highly valued software to our customers more quickly while cutting down waste. On the other hand, we also learned that there were some challenges that arose from a conflict between the new lean practices and our previous practices. The most significant of these conflicts was revealed in developer work load imbalances and customer confusion due to having to communicate with different IT support teams for different type of maintenance requests. A future adjustment of how the lean principles can be applied to IT maintenance may be necessary.Item Advanced Work Packaging from project definition through site execution : driving successful implementation of WorkFace Planning(2013-08) Hamdi, Olfa; Leite, Fernanda; O'Brien, William J.Capital projects use work packaging to divide their projects' scope into manageable portions of work for planning and execution, all to achieve improved productivity and increased predictability. However, currently, no common industry standard for work packaging is widely and uniformly implemented within the North American capital projects industry. As documented by CII RT 272 Phase I (2009-2011), companies have been implementing a number of varied work packaging practices at different stages of the project lifecycle with emphasis on the construction phase. Due to the varied implementation, there is currently little evidence of the benefits of extending work packaging to the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) and the Detailed Engineering (DE) phases. To provide the best current evidence, this thesis describes new findings on Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) as an execution practice, with special emphasis on design activities. This research combines data collection methods such as interviews, observations and document review, as well as surveys. The reader will understand the current industry status on Advanced Work Packaging in terms of levels of implementation as well as evidence of benefits and implementation challenges across the project lifecycle. Documented benefits include productivity improvements on the order of 25% in the field, with corresponding reductions of 10% of total installed cost. Other significant benefits include improved safety, improved productivity, less rework, significant reduction in RFIs and increased stakeholder alignment. Documented AWP implementation challenges include lack of process formulization, persons’ resistance to change and lack of buy-in, stakeholders’ conflict of interest and working culture, incompatibility with some contractual scenarios as well as traditional change management practices.Item An examination of team reactions to negative performance feedback and their relationship to team performance(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Philo, Joel RichardDespite the abundant research regarding individual-level feedback, few studies examine team feedback, particularly the relationship between team feedback reactions and organizational performance. Through a field study and a lab study, this paper examines two reactions to team feedback, specifically blaming and strategizing, and their relationship to team performance. Study 1 showed that both blaming and strategizing occur in about 1/3 of team feedback meetings in an international sample of teams. Blaming was found to negatively correlate with productivity improvement (r = -.59), whereas strategizing was found to positively correlate with productivity improvement (r = .33). Study 2 was a lab study conducted to addresses several of the limitations from Study 1. The results from Study 2 were mixed. Although the manipulation failed to differentiate the experimental conditions in Study 2, post hoc correlational analyses showed a positive relationship between strategizing and viability, and a negative relationship between excuse making and viability. Correlational analyses also revealed a negative relationship between blaming or excuse making and team cohesion. These results suggest further research is warranted in this area.Item Effect of levels of irrigation on forage standing crop and quality of WW-B.Dahl (Bothriochloa bladhii) pasture under summer grazing(2006-05) Ortega-Ochoa, Carlos; Villalobos, Carlos; Wester, David B.; Britton, Carlton M.; Ethridge, Don E.; Willis, David B.Incorporation of Old World bluestem grasses into the forage/beef production system on the Texas High Plains promises acceptable results, but information on grass responses to different moisture conditions and grazing is lacking. This study investigated the effect of three levels of irrigation on forage standing crop, forage quality, and steer performance on WW-B.Dahl [Bothriochloa bladhii (Retz) S.T. Blake]. Forage utilization and economic analysis on the beef production capabilities of this grass were also evaluated. The study was conducted in Lubbock County, Texas during consecutive summers, 2003 and 2004, in a 54 hectare of WW-B.Dahl pasture. Three irrigation levels were established: no irrigation (NI), low irrigation (LI) applying 25.4 mm of water every 20 days, and high irrigation (HI) applying 25.4 mm of water every 10 days. Three grazing periods of 28 days also were arranged. Steers with initial average weight of 198 kg were used for the grazing trial. Steers were fed with a whole cottonseed supplement (S), (0.454 kg/head/day fed three times a week) and no supplement (NS). Forage standing crop in both years was affected by irrigation. Higher forage standing was observed for LI during the first year with 1,650 kg ha-1. For the second year HI produced the higher amount of forage with 2,211 kg ha-1. Irrigation affected crude protein (CP) content during 2004 and the highest CP value (7.3%) was detected in LI. In vitro dry matter digestibility, neutral digestible fiber, average daily gain, and average gain per hectare were not affected by irrigation in either year. Supplementation had an effect in ADG in 2004. Forage utilization was no affected in 2003 and 2004 neither by irrigation nor by supplementation. The economic analysis showed that beef production was more profitable in dryland-no supplement scenario in 2003 and dryland-supplement scenario in 2004. Profit in dollar/ha in 2003 and 2004 under these scenarios was $306 and $223 respectively. Overall results for this study suggest that WW-B.Dahl has potential to improve beef production under dryland conditions in the Texas High Plains.Item Enhanced work packaging : design through workface execution(2011-12) Meeks, Sarah Elizabeth; Leite, Fernanda; O'Brien, William J.All projects employ work packaging to divide the project scope into manageable portions of work for planning and execution. Enhanced work packaging, however, provides an organized and structured approach to planning through the project lifecycle in order to provide the construction work face with everything they need to successfully execute their work. This approach leads to increased field productivity and project predictability in terms of cost and schedule. Construction Industry Institute (CII) Research Team (RT) 272 developed a lifecycle execution model that encompasses recommendations for implementing enhanced work packaging throughout the project lifecycle. The model provides work packaging steps and considerations for each project phase from project definition through construction to system turnover. The model was founded upon industry practices as recorded in literature, team experiences, and through case studies and expert interviews. These recommendations were validated in conjunction with the case studies and through expert review. When properly implemented, enhanced work packaging improves field productivity, cost and schedule predictability, safety performance, and reduced rework, amongst other benefits.Item Essays on international trade(2010-05) French, Scott Thomas; Corbae, Dean; Abrevaya, Jason; Freitas, Kripa; Ramondo, Natalia; Ruhl, KimThis dissertation consists of three essays pertaining to the causes of the levels and composition of the international trade flows of nations, and the consequential implications for the levels of per capita income and welfare of their populations. The first of these documents a pattern of comparative advantage in product level, bilateral trade data that conventional quantitative trade models have difficulty explaining. It goes on to develop a theory of product level productivity differences based on endogenous differences in the allocation of research and development into product and process innovation across countries over time, and it shows that, when fitted to cross-country manufacturing wage data, the predicted product level technology distribution is consistent with the observed trade pattern. The second essay shows that the distribution of technology levels inferred in the first essay can help explain the inability of both ad-hoc and theoretically based gravity models of trade to account for the observed positive correlation between the percentage of manufacturing output that is traded and countries' per capita income. It derives a modified gravity equation based on a Ricardian model of trade with deterministic product level technology differences across countries. It then uses estimates from a product level gravity estimation to compute the component of this equation that differs from a conventional gravity equation in order to determine the extent to which the observed concentration of comparative advantage in a common set of products for low-income countries explains the small percentage of their output that is exported. The final essay shows that a simple model of firm profit maximization in the presence of sunk costs of entering the export market is broadly consistent with the observed persistence of exporting behavior in firm level data. It uses this simple model and moments from data on US manufacturing firms to estimate the value of the sunk export entry costs faced by these firms using an indirect inference strategy. These costs are shown to be substantial relative the revenue stream of a typical firm.Item Extension of activity analysis methodology to maintenance, shutdown, and turnarounds in petrochemical facilities(2016-08) Shounak, Goodidar Hemmanoor Arjun; Caldas, Carlos H.; Borcherding, John DStudies show that construction productivity has been stagnant for decades. Interestingly, other industries like manufacturing, automobile and agriculture have witnessed a steep increase in productivity, nearly twice, over the same period of time. It has been the norm for many continuous improvement methods, employed by these industries, to claim credit for this trend. While inadequacies in a range of parameters like management practices, organizational behavior, contractual differences, and other planning functions affect poor productivity, the first step towards any improvement program is to measure the existing condition. The importance of measuring and improving productivity has become increasingly critical and significant with raging project capital costs and complexity, especially in the petroleum industry. This research focusses on providing a productivity language for petrochemical owners and contractors. The developed methodology helps them to communicate improvement strategies with each other and within their organization beyond construction leading into maintenance and shutdown turnarounds. Activity Analysis is a productivity assessment and improvement method developed by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) in 2010. This thesis describes the adaptation of activity analysis methodology that was developed to measure productivity indicators at petrochemical facilities on construction, maintenance and shutdown turnaround activities between 2015 and 2016. It also provides an overview on the activity analysis software developed for data collection, which is a byproduct of this research. This study also provides a summary of expected trends and challenges in petrochemical industries, and strategies that could be implemented to enhance the direct work rate in both construction and maintenance environment.Item The impact of cluster drilling technology on well productivity and profitability : a case study of the Fayetteville Shale play(2015-05) Hwang, Allen Thomas; Tinker, Scott W. (Scott Wheeler); Ikonnikova, SvetlanaHorizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in shale formations have led to a boom in the U.S. production of natural gas. After the commercial viability of the resource was proven, producers have been focused on innovative completion techniques to increase production and profit. While locations with high resource density and original gas in place can produce sufficient natural gas to make wells economical at relatively low prices, locations with low resource density appear non-viable. The objective of this study is to present an analysis of a new technology--cluster drilling--in the Fayetteville Shale development, highlighting the effect technology may have on well profitability. Inspired by the Fayetteville Shale-Production Outlook performed by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this study uses production history data, separating wells drilled as a cluster from analog non-cluster wells, to investigate changes in costs, production, and profitability. The study's well economics were analyzed with a discounted cash flow model that reflects how a change in a well production profile and drilling and completion costs will affect its profitability. The study uses individual well estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) projected using methods and well economics parameters reported by earlier studies of the play and investor presentations. The analysis produced several important results. First, on a per-well basis, non-cluster wells are, perhaps surprisingly, expected to recover more natural gas than cluster wells. Wells in the non-cluster drilling pattern outperform cluster wells in both productivity and profit. However, the well density of cluster drilling results in a higher recovery factor for a given volume of rock, thus a more thorough extraction of the resource. Second, while a cluster pattern produces more gas from a unit of volume, equating to a higher recovery factor, that production comes at higher cost. The analysis reveals the requisite reduction in drilling and completion costs for cluster wells to match profit levels of non-cluster wells in a given lease. Finally, the analysis suggests an operator may choose to forego monetary efficiency, measured by the present value index (PVI), for higher gas recovery factor provided by cluster drilling.Item Investigation of liquid loading mechanism within hydraulic fractures in unconventional/tight gas reservoirs and its impact on productivity(2013-05) Agrawal, Samarth; Sharma, Mukul M.One of the major challenges in fracturing low permeability/tight/unconventional gas formations is the loss of frac water and well productivity due to fluid entrapment in the matrix or fracture. Field results have indicated that only 15-30% of the frac fluid is recovered at the surface after flow back is initiated. Past studies have suggested that this water is trapped in the rock matrix near the fracture face and remains trapped due to the high capillary pressure in the matrix. Significant efforts have been made in the past to understand the impact of liquid blocking in hydraulically fractured conventional gas wells. Numerous remediation measures such as huff and puff gas cycling, alcohol or surfactant based chemical treatments have been proposed to reduce fracture face damage. However, when considering hydraulic fractures in unconventional reservoirs horizontal wells, the fluid may also be trapped within the fracture itself and may impact the cleanup as well as productivity. This study shows that under typical gas flow rates in tight / shale gas formations, liquid loading within the fractures is likely to occur. Most of the previous simulation studies consider a 2D reservoir model and ignore gravity, considering the high vertical anisotropy (or extremely low vertical permeability) in these tight reservoirs matrix. However, this study presents the results of 3D simulations of liquid loading in hydraulic fractures in horizontal wells, including gravity and capillary pressure effects. Both CMG IMEX and GEM have been used to study this phenomenon in dry and wet gas cases. The impact of drawdown, fracture and reservoir properties on liquid loading and well productivity is presented. Results show that low drawdown, low matrix permeability or low initial gas rates aggravate the liquid loading problem inside the fracture and thereby impact the cleanup and gas productivity during initial production. A clear understanding of the phenomena could help in selection of optimal production facilities and well profile.Item The path to timely completion : supply- and demand-side analyses of time to bachelor's degree completion(2014-05) Cullinane, Jennifer Page; Lincove, Jane Arnold; Treisman, UriTime to degree is a key factor in institutional productivity and managing the costs of college for students and families. While there is a robust body of empirical and theoretical work addressing baccalaureate degree completion and persistence, much less is known about the factors that affect time to degree. Most importantly, the institutional factors associated with time to degree have been largely unexamined, with a primary focus on the characteristics of students who delay graduation. As a result, it is unclear if students or institutions should be the target of policy interventions. This dissertation is comprised of three quantitative studies that examine supply- and demand-side factors that contribute to timely—or not so timely—completion using statewide longitudinal student-level data from Texas. The first study uses a discrete-time hazard model to analyze a rich set of institutional and student factors that influence the choice between on-time graduation, late graduation, dropout, and ongoing enrollment. The second explores the impact of student transfer on time to degree and one possible mechanism for delay using propensity score matching analysis. The third examines excess credit accumulation, specifically how the number of credits an institution requires for graduation affects student course-taking behavior using fixed effects analysis. Results suggest time to degree is a complex phenomenon and both student and institutional factors are significantly associated with time to degree. Student transfer and credit requirements are associated with excess credit accumulation and longer times to degree. Supply side policy strategies targeting institutional resources, transfer, and graduation credits are promising, although there is evidence that strategies aimed at improving efficiency can be in tension with strategies that improve equity in higher education and degree completion.Item Rapid and contextual activity analysis : a semi-automated activity category, time, location, and video data collection and analysis methodology(2015-08) Kim, Jung Yeol; Caldas, Carlos H.; Borcherding, John D; Leite, Fernanda; Grauman, Kristen; Zhang, ZhanminThe performance of construction projects is significantly impacted by on-site labor and the productivity thereof. Despite the benefits from technological advancements in recent decades, construction projects are still labor intensive, and labor is one of the most flexible and largest cost factors in a construction project. Thus, a major concern of construction project management has been labor productivity and its improvement. To improve it, labor productivity must be measured and analyzed. One way of doing so is through activity analysis - known as an extension of traditional work sampling. Activity analysis measures the efficiency of the workers' time usage at a construction site. Increasing labor efficiency usually has a positive relationship with higher construction labor productivity. Therefore, activity analysis is considered a major labor performance assessment technique in this research. The objective of this research is to develop a semi-automated data collection and analysis methodology to enable fast and contextual activity analysis. More specifically, this research focuses on the man-machine balanced on-site data collection and the automated data analysis with abundant contextual information to support the interpretation of analysis results for labor productivity improvement study. The prototype of the proposed methodology is implemented and validated with actual datasets from different construction sites. The prototype system proves capable of collecting data efficiently at construction sites and to analyze it in an automatic fashion. This system is shown to provide abundant contextual information related to the activity analysis results. A project manager can quickly and easily find issues related to their high or low labor performance with various scenarios. The indexed videos also successfully provide information about what/how construction workers were performing work at that point. This information can support productivity improvement planning and expedite the continuous evaluation and improvement process of activity analysis to improve labor productivity.Item Reproductive Peformance of Great Egrets (Ardea alba) at High Island, Texas(2012-02-14) McInnes, AndrewDespite habitat perturbations and seasonal fluctuations in reproduction, many studies report no significant inter-annual variation in Great Egret reproductive performance. I examined the reproductive performance of Great Egrets (Ardea alba) for two breeding seasons (2009 and 2010) immediately following Hurricane Ike at High Island, Texas. Breeding success, productivity, and mean brood size did not differ between years (U-test, P > 0.05). Fledging success at 21 days showed no significant difference between years, however fledging success at 28, 35, and 42 days decreased significantly between years (~15% reduction at 42 days; U-test, P = 0.027). The number of deaths per nest also differed significantly between 2009 and 2010 (0.36 and 0.95, respectively) (U-test, P = 0.013). Brood-size dependent mortality was also a significant between-year parameter (H test, P = 0.003). Successful nests in 2009 had a brood size range of 2 to 3, and of these nests, 6% and 50% experienced partial brood reduction, respectively; whereas 2010 brood size range for successful nests was 2 to 4, and 0%, 57%, and 100% of these nests, respectively, experienced partial brood reduction. Other parameters examined were water level, temperature, precipitation, prey availability, and human disturbance. I rejected my hypothesis that habitat conditions would be less conducive to high reproductive success in 2009 than 2010, due to the impacts of Hurricane Ike. My results suggest that Great Egrets have bimodal occurrences of nestling death that are expressed as a function of brood size, hatching spread, and nestling age. Reproductive performance studies should continue through at least fledging age (42 days post-hatching for Great Egrets) to better document the reproductive performance, especially by incorporating the apparent behavioral plasticity of nestlings.Item REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS AND ANNUAL HABITAT PREFERENCE BY RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS IN SOUTHERN TEXAS(2011-05) Strobel, Bradley N.; Boal, Clint W.; Andersen, David E.; Haukos, David A.; Griffis-Kyle, Kerry; Blankenship, TerryIdentifying the vegetation characteristics resulting in habitat use by nesting raptors provides information important to species conservation and management. I examined nesting habitat preference of red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) using conditional logistic regression on characteristics measured at 27 occupied nest sites and 68 randomly selected unused sites in 2005–2009 in southern Texas. I measured vegetation characteristics of individual trees (nest trees and unused trees) and corresponding surrounding 0.04 ha plots. I evaluated the importance of tree and plot characteristics to nesting-habitat selection by comparing a priori tree-specific and plot-specific models using Akaike‘s Information Criterion corrected for small sample size (AICc). Models with only plot variables carried 14% more weight than models with only center-tree variables. The model-averaged odds ratios indicated red-shouldered hawks selected to nest in taller trees and in areas with higher average diameter at breast height (dbh) than randomly available within the forest stand. Relative to randomly selected areas, each 1-m increase in nest-tree height and 1-cm increase in the plot-average dbh increased the probability of selection by 85% and 10%, respectively. My results indicate characteristics of individual trees and the structure of the 0.04 ha area surrounding the tree, were associated with red-shouldered hawk nesting habitat selection. My results show red-shouldered hawks preferred taller nest trees (average 16.4 m) surrounded by larger diameter trees (average 25.4 cm) relative to the surrounding forest in southern Texas. Preference for taller nest trees by raptors is well documented and suggests an association with increased fitness. Further study is required to understand the mechanism responsible for this preference. Widespread alteration of forest communities combined with the well-documented preference for mature forests by breeding red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) has caused concern over the conservation of the species. Although habitat preferences of breeding red-shouldered hawks have been well documented, few data describe non-breeding-period habitat selection. I studied the seasonal habitat preferences of 12 adult red-shouldered hawks in southern Texas. I used radio-telemetry to collect >1,800 locations during 3 discrete phenological periods (winter, breeding-spring, and non-breeding-spring). I constructed phenological stage-specific discrete-choice models to compare the proportion of a 0.5-ha circle around each location (used and available) comprised of mature forests, young forests, brush, grass, wetland, and open-water cover types. I used general linear models to assess whether the amount of mature forest covertypes within used areas was dependent upon the sex of the individual, its breeding status, or the time of year the data were collected. During the breeding-spring-period, red-shouldered hawks preferred areas with greater amounts of mature forest cover types (selection ratio = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.16 - 1.69) and higher cover-type richness (selection ratio = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.04 - 1.21). Characteristics associated with habitat use during the breeding-spring-period were different than those associated with winter-period or non-breeding-spring-period habitat selection. Habitat use during the winter was associated with greener vegetation measured using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and avoidance of grasslands, brushlands, and wetlands. My data indicate the amount of forested cover types preferred by individual red-shouldered hawks depends upon the sex of the individual as well as its breeding stage (i.e., breeding, non-breeding). Habitat quality is often evaluated based on relative resource preferences, usually by examining disproportionate use of available resources. Alternatively, the Ideal Despotic Distribution hypothesis predicts that given a suite of territories to select from, an individual will select the highest quality territory in regards to its perceived fitness benefit. Presumably, the long-term occupancy rates of specific territories will be positively correlated with their quality. However, the predictions of the ideal despotic distribution hypothesis hinge upon the individual‘s ability to accurately assess territory quality (perfect knowledge), a condition that is difficult to meet under temporally and spatially variant environments. Using a 5-year data set on a resident population of red-shouldered hawks in southern Texas, I examined the predictions of the ideal despotic distribution hypothesis. My results were consistent with the prediction of the ideal despotic distribution hypothesis that the proportion of years a territory supported a nesting attempt was negatively related to the relative nest initiation dates. However, in contrast to the predictions of the ideal despotic distribution hypothesis, my data show that proportion of years a territory supported a nesting attempt was unrelated to the average number of eggs laid and negatively related to the average number of young fledged annually. Whereas the proportion of years a territory supported a nesting attempt varied across territories, the annual reproductive success of breeding red-shouldered hawks varied markedly from year to year and was positively associated with the number of breeding pairs observed. Overall, my results suggest that red-shouldered hawk reproductive success is influenced heavily by stochastic characteristics that violate the ideal despotic distribution hypothesis‘ assumption of perfect knowledge by individuals.Item Usability and productivity for silicon debug software: a case study(2011-12) Singh, Punit; Krasner, Herb; Perry, Dewayne E.Semiconductor manufacturing is complex. Companies strive to lead in the markets by delivering timely chips which are bug (a.k.a defect) free and have very low power consumption. The new research drives new features in chips. The case study research reported here is about the usability and productivity of the silicon debug software tools. Silicon debug software tools are a set of software used to find bugs before delivering chips to the customer. The study has an objective to improve usability and productivity of the tools, by introducing metrics. The results of the measurements drive a concrete plan of action. The GQM (Goal, Questions, Metrics) methodology was used to define and gather data for the measurements. The project was developed in two parts or phases. We took the measurements using the method over the two phases of the tool development. The findings from phase one improved the tool usability in the second phase. The lesson learnt is that tool usability is a complex measurement. Improving usability means that the user will use less of the tool help button; the user will have less downtime and will not input incorrect data. Even though for this study the focus was on three important tools, the same usability metrics can be applied to the remaining five tools. For defining productivity metrics, we also used the GQM methodology. A productivity measurement using historic data was done to establish a baseline. The baseline measurements identified some existing bottlenecks in the overall silicon debug process. We link productivity to time it takes for a debug tool user to complete the assigned task(s). The total time taken for using all the tools does not give us any actionable items for improving productivity. We will need to measure the time it takes for use of each tool in the debug process to give us actionable items. This is identified as future work. To improve usability we recommend making tools that are more robust to error handling and having good help features. To improve productivity we recommend getting data on where the user is spending most of the debug time. Then, we can focus on improving that time-consuming part of debug to make the users more productive.Item Using to-do lists to infer knowledge workers' temporal perceptions(2011-12) Wilson, Ashley Lynae; Ballard, Dawna I.; Browning, Larry D.In today’s productivity-driven work culture, many knowledge workers use to-do lists to stay organized. In this study, workers from both the United States and Norway were interviewed about their to-do lists. The interviewees’ to-do lists communicate the various cycles to which they are entrained (non-work activities, colleagues’ schedules), as well as their respective views about the enactments and construals of time. These interviews also reveal how to-do lists serve as memory aids to knowledge workers. Additionally, to-do lists themselves appear to be living documents, changing and evolving as tasks are regularly completed and added. This study also provides suggestions for further research on these enormously popular organizational tools.