Flexibility in project planning for managing design change in projects

Flexibility in project planning for managing design change in projects

Lukin Ragni, Natalia (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)

Chan, P.W.C. (mentor)
Leijten, M. (graduation committee)
Jalali Sohi, A. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering

2022-05-20

Nowadays, construction projects face cost overruns and delays on a regular basis, not being able to achieve the success standards expected. This is widely attributed to the fast changing and dynamic environment of construction projects. It is argued that the project management mostly used has a traditional and conservative approach which is incapable of dealing with contemporary projects and its constant changes, creating a growing need amidst practitioners to employ a flexible approach. Within the changes arising in projects the type being accredited as the one with most significant impact is design change. Thus, the purpose of this project will be to provide an insight on how the implementation of flexibility in project planning helps manage design change causes.

Firstly, a qualitative research will be carried out to create a theoretical framework and answer the first three research sub-questions. Firstly, an extensive literature review is conducted to gather information on flexibility in project management and planning, and changes in construction projects. Following, exploratory interviews with DPR’s practitioners is performed to complement the findings in the available literature. As a result of this first step the causes of design changes in projects will be established, as well as the different flexibility recourses to be used in the planning of projects. These two will act as the input for the next step.

Secondly, a quantitative research will be conducted to analyze the relationship between the causes of design change and the flexibility recourses already established. These two will act as two sets of variables and a correlation analysis will be performed. For this to be possible, the causes of design change and flexibility recourses are translated into statements and assessed by the use of a survey. In total 115 responses were used for the correlation analysis.

Furthermore, from this correlation analysis 10 significant correlations were found which were comprised by 3 flexibility recourses. As well, some open questions in the survey introduced the mindset of respondents about flexibility and its practices. From all this, two main conclusions were established.

The first one is that the use of the flexibility recourse “cross functional and multi-disciplinary teams” helps to reduce the appearance of design change causes in projects. It is recommended to explore the different ways in which this recourse can be used and improve. In the Implementation Roadmap are some suggestions that can be implemented in a practical way. This flexibility recourse used in the planning helps managing design changes in construction projects by reducing their appearance. The second one is that the use of the flexibility recourse “incremental planning” and “continuous locking” does not help reduce the appearance of design change causes in projects but evokes them. However, the possibility of using these recourses to manage the design changes once they arise in projects is still viable. This flexibility recourse used in planning helps in managing design changes as a reactive measure.

Flexibility
Construction Projects
Planning
Design Change
Change Management

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c4c69807-2535-4f7d-8d35-11cc0d4936a4

2024-05-20

Student theses

master thesis

© 2022 Natalia Lukin Ragni