Project Complexity and Construction Planning

Project Complexity and Construction Planning: An exploratory research into the influence of project complexity on the planning process of Dutch infrastructure projects

Atmar, Walid (TU Delft Civil Engineering and Geosciences)

Bakker, H.L.M. (mentor)
Lousberg, Louis (mentor)
Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor)
Viveen, Frans (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineering

2016-12-23

Researchers have devoted lots of words and pages toward causes of construction project failures and management efforts to achieve project success. The iron triangle, though not without criticism, is the traditional performance measure of projects and consist of time, cost and quality. Despite well documented reasons in literature why projects fail – and the existence of established project management handbooks – cost and time overruns are not uncommon. The nature of projects is changing: projects are becoming increasingly complex and this increasing complexity is another potential reason for failure of projects. Planning is one of the most important aspects of project management and it considers not only time, but also cost, quality, health, safety, design. Despite the importance of the planning process, the use of sophisticated scheduling software and the increasing interest in project management implementation, projects fail at a substantial rate in planning accuracy and adequate control of planning. The problem is that despite literature mentioning that project complexity influences the planning process and contributes to project failure, there is a lack of research what the influence of project complexity – inclusive of the softer aspects of complexity accepted in more recent publication – is on the planning process of infrastructure projects. Present literature that examines the influence of project complexity on the planning process focus on the quantitate aspects: the numeric optimization of scheduled activity duration. It is analogous to scheduling project buffers as a result of project complexity. This research is initiated on the belief that in order to adapt planning efforts to project complexity, it must be first understood what the effect of project complexity is on the planning process. The objective of this research is identify what the influence of project complexity is on the planning process of infrastructure projects by answering the main research question: “What is the influence of project complexity on the planning process of infrastructure construction projects?”

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:174053cb-0fb9-452b-b32f-e48c4c0ebad8

Student theses

master thesis

© 2016 Walid Atmar