Approach of contract managers: A study on penalty points in the exploitation phase of DBFM contracts

Rijkswaterstaat is a governmental institution that is responsible for the management and development of the Dutch main roads, waterways and water systems. A DBFM contract is a contract in which the aspects of designing, financing, constructing and maintaining a construction project are integrated. The contract is long-term and based on...

Client-contractor collaboration in bouwteams: A contractor's perspective

Recently, the Marktvisie (2016) expressed the need for more collaborative relationships based on equality and lately, a shift from adversarial to collaborative relationships is observed. The use of collaborative contracting strategies is increasing of which the bouwteam is an example. The bouwteam is a collaboration agreement during the design...

Exploring the use of agile project management for infrastructure projects: Creating and using a serious research game to test the use of agile project management for infrastructure projects

This thesis researched the possible use of agile project management for infrastructure project through the use of a serious research game. The thesis showed that there are different serious games and created a serious research game. By playing the serious research game with agile and traditional project management experts a hypothesis was...

Evaluating the effects of planning decisions in repetitive construction projects using a discrete-event model

Repetitive construction projects allow for planning to be done systematically, but performance is hard to predict due to inherent uncertainties. The goal of this research is to evaluate planning choices in repetitive construction projects. In order to evaluate the planning of these projects to quantify the risk of overruns, an adaptable...

Managing Projects Agile: How Agile can contribute to successfully completing projects in high-tech organizations

In general, projects still fail at a high rate. New project management approaches have been found to try and do something about the high rate of failing projects. One of these promising modern approaches is Agile project management. It has been practiced increasingly since recent years in many sectors, most evident in the ICT sector. Though...

Process standardization in the construction industry: An explorative study into the right balance between standardization and flexibility

Today’s rising project complexity in combination with the changing economic environment has led to an increased interest in improving organizational business processes. Large multinational companies were always affected by those two factors in a greater extent than other smaller more localized competitors, rendering process reengineering an...

From cooperation to collaboration: Enhancing team collaboration in partnerships for construction projects

Today’s project complexity is constantly increasing leading to multidisciplinary project teams. Building a truly integrated team in projects where a partnership is necessary in order to achieve the desired outcome isn’t a one-off process that can occur automatically. It’s a procedure that has to be built up over a certain period of time (mostly...

Towards Information Integrated Design Management: A study on the effects of inter-disciplinary information dependency on design in construction design projects

This M.Sc. thesis is related to the use of Design Structure Matrix (DSM), a design process modeling technique, to model, analyze and improve design processes in Oil and Gas Construction Projects. DSM was used to model the design process of an engineering design section at an Oil and Gas Engineering Company using the information dependencies in...

Short-cyclic scheduling in construction projects: An exploratory study on finding the critical project factors for determining the appropriateness of projects for short-cyclic scheduling during the realization phase

To cope with the current problems in the construction industry, project managers and scholars seek new methods to turn the tide. Many scholars blame traditional management approaches for cost overruns and delays occurring in current projects. To find solutions, project managers introduce tools from various sectors that have coped with similar...

Best practices for effective implementation of project strategy

This graduation research is carried out to investigate the problem of effective implementation of project strategy. The problem description is the following: Companies executing EPC projects in energy and chemicals industry encounter bottlenecks in effectively implementing project strategy. Based on this a research question is formulated: How...

Applying Lessons Learned: How project-based organizations can apply lessons learned retrieved from past projects

Fit-for-purpose project management: An exploratory research into the practice of project management for infrastructure at three Dutch waterboards

The construction of infrastructure in the Netherlands is initiated by the Dutch government and performed in the form of projects. Yearly about €8 billion is spent on infrastructure and in the construction sector 50% of the projects are initiated by public clients. Project management methodologies are the working methods of these public clients....

Inducing change in a conservative industry: The effects of simulation gaming on behavioural change in the construction sector

Because in the past, assignments of infrastructure projects became less specific and increasingly complex over time, construction companies had to start joining forces and working together to be able to deliver these projects. This asked for a change in behaviour of the employees on these projects. According to literature, in other industries,...

Appreciation of project management by planning under uncertainties in a high-tech company

In the current era of cut-throat competition, companies carry out projects to support its business. However, studies show that these projects fail to provide the expected results. This is due to the fast-changing environment where the project is set-in. The planning of the projects is influenced by the presence of these uncertainties and hence,...