Publications

At present, many manufacturing companies face with the problem of setting their production plans taking into account existing liming factors that can be of both internal and external nature. This task is known as determining the product mix – the scope and volumes of products that should be manufactured and sold. Solution of this task is a decision making process: it is necessary to select an optimal (regarding one or several criteria) combination of products and their production volumes. The paper focuses on two approaches dealing with the product mix task. One of the approaches is based on management accounting calculations: the product mix is selected to maximize profitability, by ranking the products according to their contribution-earning ability per unit of the limiting factor. Certain limitations of the management accounting approach are the problems with forecasted assumptions, using only financial considerations, ignoring the degree of preference of one product in comparison with another, as well as missing information about possible states of the external environment. Another approach relies on multi-criteria decision making methods and expert estimates. This approach allows decision makers to take into account non-financial factors, including qualitative information, as well as to consider the power of distinction between products and environmental aspects. In the paper it is argued that combination of the two approaches may be used within common task of determining the product mix. The combined approach supported by appropriate information systems makes the decision making process more efficient and justifiable.

Introduction. Mitigation of risks concerning the project budget overrun becomes one of the key problematic areas of Russian companies in case of increasing competition on both the domestic and foreign markets, significant expansion of the investment program, including the large strategic investment projects, and lack and expensiveness of financial sources. The research is aimed at defining the approach that allows to develop the key risk indicators (KRI) system to decrease costs overruns of construction projects.

Materials and methods. Conducted the analysis of approaches, tools and methods used for development the KRI system, provided the classification of project risks performed using the Ishikawa diagram, proposed the methodical approach consisting of tools and methods of risk theory (risk, KRI identification and assessment) and correlation regression analysis.

Results. Authors presented core steps of the KRI system development, proposed the methodical approach to development the KRI system differentiated by significance of the project.

Conclusions. For more significant projects of the investment program the authors propose to develop KRI system considering the peculiarities of them and for the other projects it is suggested to use the basic set of tools and methods that require minimal human and time resources. Along with the development of the methodical approach authors provide a sample of KRI structured by risk factors.

It is presented results of a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of various approaches in forming an investment portfolio are presented on the example of portfolios consisting of shares of the leading IT and telecommunications companies for the period 2015-2020. It is presented the modified variant of the Markowitz portfolio optimization model using the indicator of stable growth of stock prices.

It  is proposed the model for constructing of flexible ratings by end-users and it is analyzed applying of special weights for indicating of consumer preferences by various factors depends on the considered object. There is developed an algorithm for the building of flexible ratings. Practical testing was carried out by applying of investment indicators. 

At present, performance management systems are extremely important for enterprises and organizations of different industries, as a tool for filling the gap between strategic planning and operational activities. Because of indirect and uncertain nature of economic benefits obtained from such systems, traditional investment appraisal methods are inapplicable for evaluating their development programs. Therefore, implementation and adoption of performance management systems require special measures characterizing both financial expenditures related with development programs and non-financial results. For this purpose, a system of measures of performance management systems development is advanced in this article. All the measures are subdivided into three groups – effectiveness (results obtained), economy (financing and resources used) and efficiency (relations between the results and resources). The measures characterizing development results are based on the performance management maturity model that expresses the systems’ maturity according to a set of pre-defined qualitative threshold levels. Various types of values of the measures are applicable on different stages of the management process. Particularly, targeted values are used as requirements to development programs on the stage of forming potential alternatives and their assessment. Modeled values are related with discrete-event simulation of potential programs, for their comparison and selecting one of them for implementation. Planned values are applied when launching the development program selected. Forecasted values are useful on different stages of the program’s implementation. Finally, actual values are used for summarizing consequences of the program that is partially or fully completed. The significance of the proposed measurement methodology is explained by its role in the general process of performance management systems development.

The article focuses on the application of decision support systems for prioritization of product backlog items in IT projects implemented using the Scrum methodology. The study identified the features of prioritization of different types of the product backlog items – user stories, epics and themes. It is justified that high-level product backlog items (epics and themes) require comprehensive prioritization, due to the following reasons. First, high-level product backlog items are particularly important because they determine the planning and implementation of detailed user stories within individual sprints. Second, any high-level item can be considered in terms of different criteria. Third, the implementation of epics and themes takes longer time compared to the implementation of user stories, so it is necessary to take into account possible future states of the project’s environment. Fourth, prioritizing epics and themes requires increased objectivity and validity, so group decision making with participation of several experts seems reasonable. Taking into consideration the aforementioned features the conclusion regarding limitations of existing methods of prioritization is made. It is argued that prioritization of high-level product backlog items (epics and themes) may be performed using multi-criteria decision making methods with availability of several problem situations (possible future states of the environment), as well as involvement of several experts. The idea of applying decision support methods and systems is illustrated on the appropriate example. It is also argued that increased consumption of time and resources related with setting and solving decision support tasks may be considered as acceptable for high-level product backlog items.

The aim of the monograph is presentation of copyrighted research materials on modern methods for assessing and analyzing the financial condition of a company, including the development of matrix analysis, analysis of capital structure, proposals for the application of some new ratios, their comparative analysis, proposals for classifying ratios used for analysis. The second objective function of this monograph is to conduct a systematic analysis of modern areas and methods for assessing various indicators of the financial condition of the company and provide recommendations on their practical use for decision-making in management.

The monograph includes many practical examples with evaluation formulas and analysis of financial indicators. The author’s developments are presented in conjunction with other well-known modern and classical methods for assessing the financial condition of a company. Since some of the classical methods in a number of papers and information sources are presented in a slightly modified form (in particular, for example, bankruptcy assessment methods), careful work was carried out to compare them with the primary sources and to verify the possibility of their application on the recent data (practical approbation) . Therefore, in the monograph, these classical methods are brought into line with the primary sources, have relevant information links and are provided with analytical author's comments on the possibility of their practical application.