Purpose
Projects that pose high risks to the funding or owning organizations, or those that require support, need oversight by senior managers. This is typically conducted through a Project Steering Committee (PSC). PSC members each have individual responsibilities stemming from the permanent and temporary (project) organizations. The PSC needs shared goals and mutual trust to balance those responsibilities. The relationship between PSC members acting according to individual responsibilities, shared goals, mutual trust and project success is unclear. This paper quantitatively tests these relationships and verifies the use of roles for members.

Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model of the relationship between PSC members acting according to individual responsibilities and project success is tested using a survey with 178 valid responses. Additionally, the survey gathers opinions of PSC members and project managers on PSCs.

Findings
PSC members acting from individual responsibilities positively affect project success regardless of the degree of shared goals and mutual trust. Four representation roles are generally covered: funders, user groups, suppliers and groups that maintain the project’s products.

Originality/value
The study is unique in including PSC members as respondents. PSC members are agents for their stakeholder group and, at the group level, for the funding and owning organization. The study confirms the value of four stakeholder-representation roles for members. It emphasizes the importance of defining clear and distinct individual responsibilities for members, rather than focusing solely on shared goals and mutual trust.

Phase change materials (PCM) are receiving ever-growing attention as a promising construction material for improving building energy performance through thermal storage and peak load shifting. The analysis of PCM performance and decision-making related to PCM implementation in building envelopes often relies on building energy simulation software such as EnergyPlus – a de facto standard in the academic world and the industry. For a precise modelling of the dynamic PCM behaviour, it is essential to correctly account for PCM hysteresis. This work introduces two new implementations of PCM hysteresis models in EnergyPlus. Further, it provides an in-depth analysis of four publicly available EnergyPlus-based hysteresis models, including the two newly introduced ones, and identifies the existing limitations for each of them. Finally, it explores the effects of PCM model selection on decision-making using the example of novel PCM-embedded material development. The results of this study show that the current built-in hysteresis model in EnergyPlus is not implemented correctly, and none of the other analysed models is completely free of limitations. Moreover, this work draws attention to the existing contradictions between different PCM modelling approaches, highlighting the critical impact the selection of a PCM model has on PCM-related decision-making. We conclude that while the existing hysteresis models in EnergyPlus are operable – albeit with great caution – they are not yet at the stage where they could be used as a reliable decision-making support tool. Practical real-world integration of PCM in building envelopes is hardly possible without having dependable modelling tools to back it up, and the development of such tools requires far more attention than it is given at the moment.

In recent decades, interest in project-based learning within organizational learning has grown significantly. This study synthesizes principles that facilitate learning at the project level. Through a cross-case analysis of the Gaasperdammer Tunnel project in the Netherlands and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in China, and validation via focus group discussions, we have identified five key principles: Owner Commitment, Social Environment Approach, Collaboration Vision, Value Orientation, and Open Mindset. These principles highlight the mindsets that guide the behavior and thinking of project practitioners beyond prescriptive processes and routines. Our research enhances the understanding of how project participants can learn from their involvement in unique, complex projects and improve their capabilities for future endeavors. We emphasize the critical role of learning in the development of project capabilities and suggest it be a focal point in future research on infrastructure development projects.

Empathy is receiving increasing attention as it can contribute to the collaboration and connectedness required for today's global challenges. A similar trend reveals itself at the scale of project management, given the change from technological to integration-driven challenges in projects. The necessary integrated approach affects the key competencies sought in project team participants. Since empathy enhances one's feeling for and understanding of the project participants’ interests, it could support the integration assignment. Therefore, focusing on the Dutch civil engineering industry, this study investigated whether the project team's empathic ability drives project performance. The results suggest a positive correlation between the team's empathic abilities and performance. Additionally, the study provides insights into the industry's current level of empathic ability, prompting the conclusion that there is room to improve performance by increasing the project teams’ empathic abilities.

In this chapter, obstacles and enablers for the implementation of sustainable project management are identified. Focus is given to the missing link between formulation of the sustainability strategy-corporate sustainable ambitions and vision-and the implementation on project level. Focussing on a large engineering company, the factors affecting the implementation of sustainability on six projects are studied. This exploratory empirical study suggests that the clients largely determine the level of sustainability and that there is a gap between ambitions and intentions of the engineering company and actual implementation. A more pro-active approach of the engineering company revolves around the alignment of sustainability ambitions with the client, the explicit discussion of sustainability in the company and in project teams to stimulate a sustainability mind-set and show casing earlier sustainability achievements. A framework is provided giving sustainability a more central role in the practice of the engineering company.

Purpose: Societies depend on interconnected infrastructures that are becoming more complex over the years. Multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills are essential to develop modern infrastructures, requiring close collaboration of various infrastructure owners. To effectively manage and improve inter-organizational collaboration (IOC) in infrastructure construction projects, collaboration status should be assessed continually. This study identifies the assessment criteria, forming the foundation of a tool for assessing the status of IOC in interconnected infrastructure projects.

Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature study and in-depth semi-structured interviews with practitioners in interconnected infrastructure construction projects in the Netherlands are performed to identify the criteria for assessing the status of IOC in infrastructure construction projects, based on which an assessment tool is developed.

Findings: The identified assessment criteria through the literature and the practitioner’s perspectives results in the designing and development of a collaboration assessment tool. The assessment tool consists of 12 criteria and 36 sub-criteria from three different categories of collaborative capacity: individual, relational, and organizational.

Originality/value: The assessment tool enables practitioners to monitor the status of IOC between infrastructure owners and assists them in making informed decisions to enhance collaboration. The assessment tool provides the opportunity to assess and analyze the status of collaboration based on three categories (i.e., individual, relational, and organizational).

In addition to the tools and techniques available, project risk management also depends on the attitudes of people in an organisation, how the available tools are used, and how the procedures are followed. Therefore, efforts to improve the project risk management capacity of organisations may fail if the diversity of people (characters, traits etc.) involved is neglected. Based on this argument, the aim of this study is to demonstrate that companies can improve project risk management using the perspectives of their key experts. In this context, an approach was proposed based on Q-Methodology and a case study has been conducted in a construction company in the Netherlands. The quantitative output obtained through Q-Methodology application was evaluated in conjunction with the qualitative data gathered from interviews conducted with the managers of different units within the company. As a result of this evaluation, three common perspectives were identified among the respondents under the names of ‘Experience and Belief’, ‘Procedures and Management’ and ‘Culture and Communication’, respectively. Then, a number of recommendations were made to the company. First, customized management approaches that integrate and balance the identified perspectives should be adopted. Second, a mature organisational risk management culture should be promoted. Project charters that specifically target risk management culture in projects can be used for this purpose. Third, risk management should be integrated into other activities, making it a normal part of employees’ daily work. Finally, but not exclusively, the employees should be instructed on the use of risk registers and guidance should be put in place on how often they are expected to update the risk registers. This study demonstrates the benefit of considering employee diversity and leveraging perspectives in unlocking the potential of construction companies in terms of project risk management.

Early project phases are crucial for the chance of project success, yet uncertainties stemming from the dynamic context of projects are difficult to manage in a pure waterfall approach. Marian Bosch-Rekveldt, Hans Bakker and Marcel Hertogh explore how the feasibility and planning phases could benefit from a more flexible approach, specifically focusing on interaction, collaboration and adopting a change mindset. The real-life example of the complex Zuidasdok project illustrates that uncertainties are part of the project manager’s job and these uncertainties have to be dealt with rather than reduced. This implies additional requirements for individual and team competencies. In addition to affinity with the content and more flexible project management tools, collaborative skills are becoming more and more crucial as ‘People are Key’. These skills create a pole position for the later stages of the project and allow us to act upon any changes in the context.

Facing circular transition challenges, building circularity should be evaluated in the early design phase to reduce the risks of circular and environmental performance problems found in later project phases. However, due to the current design workflow, such practice is hindered because there is not enough information to evaluate building circularity in detail in the early design phases. An improved workflow to emphasize circularity more in the early design phase is thus needed. This research explores the current workflow and designs an improved workflow by developing an automated decision support system to assess early design phase building circularity with limited available information, aiming to improve the working efficiency and efficacy. This automated system helps in data-driven decision-making by integrating different data sources and presenting the calculated results interactively with business intelligence interfaces. The interfaces involve different types of evaluations based on the data availability in both schematic design and detail design sub-phases. It also visualizes the data quality and future scenarios. This system has been designed based on interviews and literature studies, and verified and validated with practitioners. This study serves as a starting point to rethink the workflow to improve circularity with currently available technology.

Purpose:
The increasing complexity of civil engineering projects necessitates focusing on new competencies of project participants. Based on the research on team performance and design processes that are more closely linked to the relevance of the project context, it is hypothesised that empathic abilities could play an important role in the performance of civil engineering projects. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether performance can be improved by focusing on empathic abilities during the integrated design phase.

Design/methodology/approach:
Semi-structured in-depth interviews with experts were conducted to explore the relevance of empathic abilities and their interaction with performance in a real-life infrastructure project. The project team’s empathy level was measured by means of a survey using Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity Index method. Finally, differences between expected and measured levels of empathy were analysed.

Findings:
The results provide insights into how empathic abilities interact with performance. The measurement indicates that, on average, professionals in the civil engineering industry score relatively low on empathy. In addition, differences were identified between the expected distribution and the measured empathy levels of the team, implying a potential for improvement, in particular by increasing the empathic abilities of the project management and increasing gender diversity.

Originality/value:
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate a relationship between empathy and the performance of civil engineering projects. The results provide initial insights into the empathic ability of civil engineering project teams and the potential of empathy to improve performance. Furthermore, from an empathy perspective, this study advocates increasing the gender diversity of project teams to improve performance.

This study aims to identify which factors affect inter-organizational collaboration (IOC) in interconnected infrastructure projects to enable practitioners to establish a collaborative environment at the project level. This specific form of inter-organizational collaboration (IOC) is characterized as “horizontal” and has received limited attention in the literature. To this end, a systematic literature review and Q-methodology were conducted. The Q-methodology involves practitioners from various infrastructure organizations in the Netherlands gaining insights into their perspectives on IOC in interconnected infrastructure projects. The study identifies two perspectives: a “holistic, goal-oriented” perspective that recognizes various dimensions of IOC and a more “people-oriented” perspective that emphasizes the value of individual factors for IOC. The findings suggest that multiple perspectives on collaboration exist among practitioners, potentially affecting collaboration in interconnected infrastructure projects. Awareness of the need to manage practitioners’ perspectives, and addressing and discussing these differences, can stimulate inter-organizational collaboration and contribute to improved project performance.

In today’s construction projects, which are getting more complex as a consequence of especially technical, organizational, and external aspects, complexities are considered a major source of risks. Moreover, risks may turn to complexity-creating elements and propagate additional risks through a bidirectional interaction. Complex construction projects, typically large-scale dynamic endeavors, require the realization of a high number of interdependent tasks through the consumption of various resources such as time, money, labor, and materials. In such projects, while complexities are usually assumed to be given or embedded, due to the subjective and dynamic characteristics of complexities, a tailored approach is required in order to manage them holistically without ignoring their interactions with risks. In this context, the aim of this study is to propose a practical approach that could be utilized to incorporate project complexities in the risk assessment of complex construction projects. The proposed approach entails the integrated usage of risk registers, risk breakdown structures, and complexity-incorporated risk-influence diagrams along with the utilization of a previously developed complexity assessment framework. The underlying basic assumption was that the complexities could directly or indirectly trigger risks, while the risks in turn affect the project objectives. The implementation of the approach in the case of an airport expansion construction project showed that linking the risks to project objectives starting from complexities based on this assumption is possible. In this way, it was shown that multidimensional cause-effect relationships between the complexities and risks, among the risks themselves, and the impact of this interaction on project objectives could be detected and diagrammatically evaluated. Furthermore, it was observed that incorporating complexities in the earlier stages of a project would lead to improvement in the assessment of risks. Considering the results of the case study, the proposed approach has the potential to contribute to improved risk management.

Purpose: Civil engineering projects around the world have been underperforming for a long time. While the complexity of these projects will continue to increase, there is an urgent need to perform better. Although the integrated design process is critical for project success, the literature lacks studies describing the link to project performance. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the dominant variables that affect the integrated design process and consequently project performance. Design/methodology/approach: A multiple case study was conducted to determine the dominant variables that affect the integrated design process and project performance. The research included four projects. Semi-structured interviews were the main source of data. Findings: The cases indicated that the extent to which an integrated approach is achieved in the design process is essential for project performance. This applies to the integration of stakeholders’ interests as well as the integration of disciplines. Above all, it was concluded that the project team participants’ competencies for integration are a dominant factor for project performance, as the integrated design process has changed from a technical challenge to an integrative one. Originality/value: This study provides insights into the dominant variable of the integrated design process that affects project performance, which is underexposed in the literature. The study results reveal the importance of competencies related to integration and adoption of the design problem context, which are not yet included in civil engineering design methods. In this respect, empathy is introduced as a new and critical competence for the civil engineering industry, which needs further research.

A close collaboration between infrastructure owners is crucial to address challenges in the design and execution of next-generation infrastructure projects for sustainable development. Managing and sharing data among parties involved in infrastructure projects, particularly the data required at the early stages of a project to design and develop an interconnected infrastructure project, appear to play a critical role in inter-organizational collaboration (IOC), but are often overlooked. In the present work, the status of collaboration and data sharing between infrastructure owners in inter-organizational infrastructure projects is studied to enhance our understanding of the relationship between collaboration and data sharing in horizontal IOCs. Explorative semi-structured interviews with practitioners were conducted at organizational and project levels in the infrastructure sectors in The Netherlands. The outcomes revealed that the theoretical benefits of IOC are not realized in practice and that managing and sharing data between infrastructure owners in inter-organizational projects (IOP) face many challenges. The findings suggest that collaboration and data sharing are interrelated in horizontal IOCs and are deemed crucial for the execution of IOPs. The findings of the present study demonstrate the importance of the bilateral relationship between effective collaboration and data sharing and provide an enhanced insight into horizontal forms of IOC and practices of next-generation infrastructure development.

Societal challenges such as climate change and inefficiency of energysystems more and more crave for a sustainable environment. Research proved thatrestructuring energy systems into more sustainable forms, called “Energy Transition”, has faced challenges. How to deal with these challenges requires the cocreation between various actors with multiple disciplines, expertise, and perspectivesfrom different organizations. The research question to be answered here is whetherco-creation helps the interaction between different actors in an inter-organizationalproject for the sake of better project results. By doing case study research in theNetherlands, an example of co-creation project in its front-end phase was investigatedregarding the interaction among different actors involved in the project. The researchrevealed that in the case of a co-creation project the multiple actors collaborate acrossorganizational boundaries in order to unite. This leads to a better solution-findingapproach. Openness, trust and respect are valued more in co-creation. Moreover,the project team is better integrated to work towards a shared interest which aresocial benefits. The co-creation facilitated the data-sharing among the key actorsin the project which traditionally is influenced highly by the mother-organizations’culture. Further research will investigate the transition in organizations to supportthe co-creation approach.

Probabilistisch ramen van investeringsprojecten neemt onzekerheden over volumes van materialen en prijzen mee in de berekening. Dit geeft besluitvormers inzicht in de spreiding rond verwachte projectkosten en -baten. In dit artikel bespreken we de ontwikkelingen van probabilistisch ramen en de opschaling van projectkosten naar levensduurkosten. Dit opschalen houdt geen rekening met prijs(de)escalatie. Een andere kansverdeling voor prijsontwikkelingen, afgeleid van prijsindices, past beter bij hoe we omgaan met prijsfluctuaties en leidt tot andere uitkomsten.

Veel publieke organisaties in Nederland rekenen bij contante waarde berekeningen met een maatschappelijke discontovoet. Door de lage discontovoet ontstaat een methodisch probleem bij contante waarde berekening over de gebruikelijke periode van 100 jaar. In dit artikel stellen we drie rekenmethoden voor om tot een evenredige vergelijking te komen bij lage discontovoeten. De aanpak is ook geldig voor het vergelijken van alternatieven met een verschillende levensduur.

Purpose: Management of inter-organizational projects focuses on the collective benefits of a group of organizations on a shared activity for a limited period and the coordination among them. However, how learning is facilitated in the inter-organizational project remains under-developed in the literature. Design/methodology/approach: This research analyses the exploitative learning process in the longest tunnel project on land in the Netherlands realized in a densely populated area. Data were collected through archived documents, in-depth interviews, site visits in the ethnographic research to analyze the actors, the daily practices and social situations in projects. Findings: The empirical findings indicate that exploitative learning is promoted positively between the owner and the contractor and internally within the contractor. The most significant change that the exploitative learning process has led to is the change in mindset toward the collaboration. Project culture is considered to be shaped by exploitative learning in the inter-organizational project. However, there is a gap between the transfer of knowledge from the inter-organizational project to the parent organization. Originality/value: The findings have implications for understanding learning in the inter-organizational project setting.

Scheduling of a construction project using an activity network can be done using the Critical Path Method (CPM). CPM scheduling, since it was first developed in the USA in 1950’s, has been widely applied in various sectors including the construction sector. CPM, however, is incapable of reflecting the influence of uncertainty on schedules and modelling the stochastic character of projects’ real-life conditions. In order to achieve success in complex, uncertain, and dynamic conditions, today’s construction projects do show a need for methods that are more flexible from a managerial point of view. Therefore, this study investigates the expansion of managerial flexibilities of CPM scheduling in case it would be integrated with Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) through a schedule risk analysis method called the Correlated Schedule Risk Analysis Model (CSRAM). For this purpose, firstly, the subject is discussed conceptually, and next an example application on a project is introduced to illustrate the potential of CSRAM in terms of flexibility. The flexibilities have been investigated at three levels, i.e. activity, path and project level. The results have revealed that it seems possible to expand the managerial flexibilities inherently present in CPM, in case risk analysis capability is incorporated. However, the level of expansion of managerial flexibilities could change in adverse or favourable direction depending on various factors such as the project phase, project size, project conditions, contract terms, and stakeholder requirements. These factors could be subject of further research. Other scheduling methods used in construction projects such as the Critical Chain Method, Line of Balance and Linear Scheduling Method could be investigated in the same manner to go one step further on the way towards more flexible project management in construction from the scheduling viewpoint.