Moving towards integrated digital project management

Moving towards integrated digital project management: The transition to a new integrated digital project management system in a construction consultancy company

Baars, Kim (TU Delft Civil Engineering & Geosciences; Drees & Sommer)

Soman, R. K. (mentor)
Chan, P.W.C. (graduation committee)
van Nederveen, G.A. (graduation committee)
Plukaard, Boris (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering

2024-06-18

Empirical studies indicate an increasing inclination towards the adoption of integrated software systems that contribute to project management. To this moment, studies on the implementation of these integrated software systems tended to emphasise the benefit of such software. However, the analytical evidence to support such assumptions is relatively small. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate and analyse what is required to get the benefits when transitioning to an integrated software system to support project management in a construction consultancy company. As a result, the following research question has been formulated: ”What is required when making the transition to an integrated digital project management system in a construction consultancy company?”.

For the design of this research the framework developed by Purup and Petersen (2020) was used. The construction of this framework was based on the methodology of action research. The research was divided into three loops. Loop 1 identified the current knowledge regarding a fragmented or integrated system. Loop 2 investigated the use of the integrated system. Finally, in loop 3, all knowledge obtained from loop 1 and 2 was synthesised and developed into an answer to the research question. To answer the research question, a literature review and a case study for which semi-structured interviews were conducted among project managers, project leaders and experts on the implemented system.

A limitation of this study is that the interviews were conducted among users of the system with an age between 24 and 35 years. As a result, no statement can be made on the relationship between age and acceptance or motivation towards transitioning to a new integrated project management system. Therefore, the recommendation is to conduct the interviews in a follow-up study among users of the integrated system whose age distribution is more distributed.

The research revealed that transitioning to an integrated project management system affects the people, organisation, and process within a company. The users of the new system need to embrace the new system and learn to work with it. The transition phase requires a time investment before the benefits will be felt. In addition, an integrated system requires a standardised structure. With this standardisation, certain activities can be automated. This results in saving time. It can therefore be concluded that transitioning to an integrated project management system, after time has been invested for the transition phase, improves work efficiency and can save time.

This research can contribute to the organisations considering implementing an integrated digital project management system. Since more understanding has been generated on what to expect and what actions should be carried out to obtain the benefits of an integrated project management system.

Digital transition
Integrated project management system
Implementation
Thematic Analysis
Construction consultancy

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:22ebd908-ec5c-418c-9105-94cd7f644fd6

Student theses

master thesis

© 2024 Kim Baars