Identifying collaborative trends in a project team environment

Abstract

This research tries to provide a first direction in measuring collaborative trends. By being able to measure collaborative trends, more research can be done towards the effects of events and the timing of collaborative practices to implement in projects. This is done by providing an answer on the main research question: “How can collaborative trends be identified in a project?”
The RECAP assessment tool proved to be an elaborate tool to assess the collaboration quality on a project. However, the main issue in using the tool more frequently is the large amount of questions. By reducing the number of questions of the RECAP and making them more comprehensible for both managers and team members, the ACT tool is developed. The ACT tool measures collaborative practices, relational attitudes and team working quality over time using 20 variables. An added dimension in assessing the client and Fluor differently proved a useful dimension in assessing the alignment of both parties in terms of collaboration. By discussing the results of the tool during a workshop, joint action points are formulated to maintain and improve the collaboration quality.
One of the starting points of this research is that collaboration is an often-underestimated topic where companies are searching on how to implement it right. This survey is a first step in evaluating collaborations more frequently making it possible to identify variables impacting the collaboration and their effect over time. This tool is able to provide direct feedback to managers and team members on collaboration on the project and showing areas of improvement.
Statistical data analyses proved that the tool is able to measure several collaborative trends during the SELECT phase of the project. Time related trends as well as non-time related trends can be identified using the ACT tool. Evidence shows that while no significant changes over have been measured using a weekly interval, the collaboration did improve when comparing data from week 1 and week 7. During the seven weeks the client and Fluor became more aligned in their perceptions towards collaboration, showing that both parties achieved a better mutual understanding of the collaboration between both parties. Larger differences have been found in the between the management teams and team members, where the management teams were always more positive towards the collaboration than team members. Especially towards the ending of the SELECT phase differences became bigger.
The tool can be used for any project with a client-contractor relationship. When there are multiple (sub-)contractors involved in a project, the survey should be adapted to include them in the mirroring questions. The mirroring questions are useful to identify gaps between client and contractor in the beginning of a collaboration and aligning both parties in mutual understanding and expectations. In more advanced collaborations, questions could be changed to “one team” instead of the difference between client and contractor. The questions have been developed specific to this project in terms of applicability. When used on other projects without colocation or direct use of counterparts the option of “Not applicable” or “Do not know” should be included to remain a high reliability of the responses.