This research tries to quantitatively identify the relation between team composition, organization structure, communication and team efficiency. The study takes a model-based approach to reach its objective. This research stresses the utility of agent-based modeling as a tool to first replicate the environment of an on-going project in India and then systematically introducing organizational changes into the project team to quantify various impacts. ... Read more

The number of raw materials consumed and waste generated by the construction industry is no longer a viable solution in the future. It is required for the construction industry to move from a linear towards a circular economy (CE) by circular construction (CC). The unfamiliarity in actions that need to be taken for CC is still new terrain for many companies since the whole life cycle of a project needs to be considered and is plagued with technical, legal and cost issues that obstruct CC.
Contract forms such as Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) involve contractors in the design phase of a project, such as suppliers, builders, and demolition contractors, to engender a better design by sharing and creating new knowledge. There are, however, no sources directly indicating that the benefits of ECI also regard circularity. At the same time, issues that emerge with CC remain an obstacle for fully transitioning to a CE.

This research aims to understand better the issues regarding CC and if ECI would be beneficial in solving them due to the knowledge contribution of contractors and their collaboration with other parties in the design process. Therefore the research question is framed as follows: “How is contractor’s knowledge contribution improving circular construction in ECI context?”

The research consists of a literature study and an empirical study. First, the literature study was conducted to define the relevant concepts such as ECI, CC and knowledge processes. Next, to understand the knowledge contribution of contractors to CC in the design process, interviews with practitioners involved in CC projects were conducted according to the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). In CIT, research participants are asked to recall and describe a time when a behaviour, action, or occurrence impacted a specified outcome positively or negatively.

From the empirical study, there can be concluded that contractors' knowledge contribution plays an essential role in the feasibility of a circular design solution. However, the dynamics in collaboration between multiple parties can lead to better circular results. Since the collaboration can result in knowledge creation and sharing, developing a good work relationship between contractor and client and problems can be jointly solved when there is mutual support. This, however, also requires trust and transparency between the parties, and if lacking, it can obstruct CC.
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The problem defined in this research is that the concept “fit-for-purpose” does not have a widely accepted definition in the research field of PM (project management). Also, the link between terms “fit-for-purpose” and ‘project management” has not been conceptualized. The main objective of this research is to investigate the link between fit-for-purpose and project management and applications of FFP-PM (Fit-for-purpose Project Management) approach. The main research question is formulated as: How can the term Fit-for-purpose and its development be defined in the field of project management? This research adopted a coupling of bibliometric analysis and content analysis to comprehensively answer this question. The bibliometric analysis was conducted on the literature from recent 20 years to investigate the link from a theoretical perspective. This stage follows a three-step method, with Step I looking into term ”fit-for-purpose” in all management areas, Step II exploring different forms of adaptations in the PM, and Step III building the links between the previous two steps. FFP-PM was defined as a set of wisely selected adaptive methodologies, tools and expertise to manage project activities. To investigate the links from the practical perspective, a content analysis was conducted on 117 student essays of the course WB3501 Fit-for-purpose Project Management from the past 8 years (2013-2021). Many PM practices that are fit-for-purpose in nature were identified and included in the key findings of this analysis. These practices cover many aspects in PM and it was further concluded that FFP-PM consists of a broad set of PM methodologies that can manifest their ways in many aspects throughout the life-cycle of the projects. To validate the results, the preliminary findings from the previous analyses were brought across to be tested with external practitioners via two in-depth interviews, to check weather and to what extent these findings reflect the PM in the real world. The results suggested that the majority of the findings are recognizable based on their experiences. A few adjustments were made after discussing comments through revisiting the literature. The main research question was then answered by establishing a theoretical framework of FFP-PM, the components of which cover the need factors, enabler factors, characteristics and required skills and competences of the project managers under the framework of FFP-PM. Projects under FFP-PM are defined and shaped by specific values and strategies, and managed with conscious decision-making in light of learnings from history experiences, risk management conducted close to the stakeholders’ values, and a welcoming attitude towards uncertainties and changes. ... Read more

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is undergoing digital transformation to improve project performance and Building Information Modelling (BIM) is helping to achieve this objective. BIM is a comprehensive digital representation of a built facility with great information depth. BIM fosters collaboration across the construction supply chain however the benefits of collaboration are realised only in a relatively small number of BIM-enabled projects. Poor collaboration continues to be one of the major risks affecting BIM-enabled projects with misunderstandings, misinterpretation of data and increased rework. This is especially high in the design phase of construction projects because of the high BIM usage. This research aims to explore the most critical barrier to collaboration in BIM teams in the design phase of infrastructure projects and provide strategies to avoid the barrier in future projects. The most critical barrier in this research is defined as “the main issue that causes the occurrence of problems resulting in undesired outcomes”. For this objective, the case-study method is preferred. Three large infrastructure projects are studied and interviews were conducted with BIM teams to identify the barriers to collaboration in BIM teams. The data collected are analysed by comparing among cases and with literature. Why questions were asked until the main issue that led to the occurrence of problems is found. From the analysis, it is found that lack of guidelines and standards is the most critical barrier to collaboration in BIM teams in the design phase of infrastructure projects. To avoid this problem in future projects, the existing BIM-based design process is improved to work with ISO19650 standards along with strategies to achieve better results. To enable better collaboration in BIM teams, the process is automated using Business Process Management (BPM) software. The proposed strategies are validated with BIM teams for applicability in practice. To conclude, the proposed strategies help in solving the lack of guidelines and standards. It improves the BIM-based design process in infrastructure projects and leads to achieving better collaboration in BIM teams. This research benefits researchers as well as BIM teams. Researchers can validate the proposed strategies in real-life projects and BIM teams can improve their work practices by implementing the proposed strategies. ... Read more

As part of engineering projects, turnaround maintenance (TAM) projects also still suffer the issue of reusing knowledge across projects. Although TAM projects have a recurring character, the TAM projects’ schedule performance is still frequently unmet. It is also revealed that rework is one of the causes of TAM schedule overruns. Hence, this research aims to make recommendations for reducing rework events by enhancing the knowledge reuse process. This research focuses on the TAM projects in Pupuk Kaltim, a petrochemical company in Indonesia. This research draws the data from 9 interviews and examines the company’s relevant documents. The data was then used to develop a fault tree to derive the causes of rework. Among five others, rework events are caused by knowledge issues, namely worker inattention to work instructions and employee knowledge gaps. Subsequently, the activity theory was used to describe the current practice of the knowledge reuse process. It is found that knowledge reuse occurs through both person-to-person and person-to-document ways. As boundary spanners, people may arrive in different communities in different TAM projects. Thus, knowledge reuse occurs through the employee’s network. On the other hand, the documents work as the boundary object. As a tool involved in every stage of the TAM project setting, it must be well developed and maintained. Nevertheless, this is not the case. Activity theory models are also helpful to discover the enabler and the barriers of the knowledge reuse process. Those enablers are (1) people found abnormality, (2) leadership and working environment, (3) familiarity among each other, (4) a need for specifics and details, (5) assistance from an expert/knowledge producer, and (6) work’s passive by-product to record the knowledge. On the other hand, the barriers to reusing the knowledge are (1) low explicit knowledge quality, (2) it is not correctly indexed, (3) the expert lacks props, (4) lack of incentives, (5) resources, and (6) standards for reporting and evaluation meetings to reintegrate knowledge. Based on these factors, it is proposed to use new web-based tools to capture the knowledge from the execution stage and update work instructions. Moreover, it is also suggested to develop guidelines to formally capture the knowledge at the closing stage and reuse it at the planning stage, which encompasses knowledge about equipment and failures, especially previous rework events. This solution is polished through expert validation, where it must also be reinforced by strong leadership and organizational support. Through this research, it is expected to broaden empirical findings on learning in project and maintenance management. Finally, this research is also likely to enhance the knowledge reuse process in turnaround project contexts for companies who similarly conduct their turnaround projects as Pupuk Kaltim. ... Read more

The process of execution of construction projects is subjected to multiple complexities which are highly dynamic in nature. Among several complex dynamic elements present in a project, the scope is one of the elements which is extremely important. The scope is adjusted multiple times during the definition and execution phases to add or remove a feature which is known as scope change. Whereas, there exists a situation where the scope of the project grows organically, uncontrollably and unexpectedly out of the desired scope during the conception, definition and execution phases which is known as scope creep. The scope creep activities find sources from multiple factors such as flaws in contract, poor scope management process, poor communication and so on. From the identified sources of scope creep Agile Scrum-ban and BIM 5D integrated scope management model for high budget projects and cost conscious solutions such as assigning case manager, including scope creep as risk in WBS etc. for low budget projects are proposed as a suitable recommendations to address scope creep in onshore wind farm projects and thereby improve the project delivery. ... Read more

Infrastructure mega-projects are highly important for economic and societal growth, but they are also extremely susceptible to a high degree of risks leading to massive delays. These delays affect not only the project schedule but also the cost and the quality. The delay events are present throughout the project life cycle but, according to the researcher’s observation, most of the delays were found to occur in the design-construction interface. In general, the problem of delay has been studied a lot by previous researchers; however, being one of the critical phases, delays in the design-construction interface have still not been investigated. Therefore, this research conducts a detailed study for developing mitigation measures for delays within the design-construction interface in the infrastructure mega-project. To achieve the above goal, the research investigates critical events in an infrastructure megaproject to develop measures with the help of the critical incident technique (CIT). CIT was used for the research because it helped in evaluating the success or failure of the adopted and recommended measures. Based on the evaluation the research proposed a preventive and corrective measure framework to minimize the delay's effect on the project schedule.
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It is no secret that (asset)managers are currently dealing with a difficult task to maintain and improve the quality of their assets. The main reason for this urgency is the change of use and the end of lifespan of these assets. This is especially the case regarding the inner-city quay walls. These quay walls are usually owned and managed by local governments. The city of Amsterdam in particular has a tough task ahead of them. Approximately 200 km of quay wall need to be maintained or renewed of which the technical state is unknown. A vast majority of these inner-city quay walls are retaining walls on wooden piles. The absence of this information makes it extremely difficult for the asset owner, to determine the current technical state of their quay walls. The combination of limited information and time have shown in practice that quay walls can fail at any moment. To prevent this from happening a variety of intervention measures can be deployed to ‘extend’ the lifespan of the quay walls (short-term). Thereafter a systematic approach can be applied to rebuild or renovate these quay walls (long-term). However, the implementation of intervention measures is an overall complex task due to the densely built area and the stakeholders with divergent interests. This study provides an objective conceptual decision-making model to determine which intervention method is best suited for a particular location while considering the impact on the city, stakeholders and organizations. The research revealed six important topics which need to be incorporated in to the decision- making model. The topics were determined based on literature review, a case study and interviews. These six topics are: the critical cases (1), failure mechanisms (2), intervention measures (3), characteristics of the physical surrounding and the intervention measures (4), decision- making criteria (5) and lastly mitigation measures (6). Additionally, three decision-making moments are identified. ... Read more

The paring of knowledge sharing and agile methodology has been explained by some researchers (Dissanayake, Dantu, & Nerur, 2013), most emphasize that the knowledge sharing enablers embedded in the agile methods (Dissanayake et al., 2013), seldom researches explain agile-induced knowledge sharing inhibitors. Besides, the existing researches are limited by industry. As agile methodology has been continuing spreading beyond software development projects (Dybå & Dingsøyr, 2008; Serrador & Pinto, 2015), little was known on whether the agile methodology is genuinely contributing to knowledge sharing in the non-software development environment. Based on an in-depth study in Philips Research organizations, by conducting semi-structured interviews with different roles involved in agile research projects, this study investigates how agile methods influence knowledge sharing behavior and its effectiveness. The inhibitors are clustered into environmental, individual and motivational factors based on Wang’s knowledge sharing factor framework (Sheng Wang & Noe, 2010). The outcomes indicate a paradox of agile-induced knowledge sharing factors, that with the overemphasis on the intra-team knowledge sharing in agile projects, there is the potential of sacrificing long-term learning and organizational level knowledge sharing. The agile-induced knowledge sharing enablers could transform into inhibitors ... Read more

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 can best practices related to strategy improve project strategy implementation in an EPC company? The main research objective is to explore the best practices to improve project strategy implementation within EPC projects. This research is divided into three phases. In the first phase, literature review is conducted to a) gain insight and understanding into the practices of implementation of project strategy, b) to understand the impact of the main aspects on project strategy and its implementation and c) provide a guideline for protocols for interviews in the second phase. The following ten aspects as influential in implementation of project strategy have been determined: communication, tools & methods, resources, recognition, benefits, structure, culture, leadership, decisions and actions. In the second phase, 7 project managers and project directors of Fluor Corporation, all subject-matter experts in project execution in the EPC industry, were interviewed. The interviews have been performed to understand the practice of implementing project strategy in an EPC project, resulting in the following list of main issues with implementation of project strategy; global office communication, shared understanding, strategy-operation alignment, and bottom-up ownership. In the ultimate phase (third) suitable best practices (tools and techniques) were selected to counter the main 4 issues based on an extensive literature study. These are as follows: planned communication, scrum, gamification, dialogue-mapping, balanced scorecard, informal leadership, and client-centric team development. ... Read more