20 research outputs found
Creating public value: Optimizing cooperation Between public and private Partners in infrastructure Projects
No full textInfrastructure projects - such as the construction of tunnels and bridges or the (re)construction of roads and highways – are always performed to add quality to society. In The Netherlands, these projects are most often financed by the government, from local to national level, and constructed by private contractors. Public and private partners increasingly recognize the importance of cooperation to ensure successful execution of projects. However, the partnership arrangements made at strategic level are still difficult to ensure at tactical level, where the project is controlled. This study focuses on the tactical level and specifically on the perspective of the public project managers. It is investigated what they consider project success and how the project management team operates to control the project processes. The main result of this study is the public Value Chain in which the processes of the combined project organization are captured. Recommendations are made on the primary and secondary processes that binds the partners to each other. The public Value Chain will help collaborating partners to position their specific contribution to the project outcomes more clearly. Practitioners are encouraged to use the public Value Chain to organize their project activities and discuss the contribution of both public and private parent organizations to an efficient process. It can help partners to execute their specific contribution to the value they are creating. This will further optimize collaboration between public and private partners.Integral Design & Managemen
Is project success a coincidence or can it be enforced? A comparative study on the critical success factors of the Stadsbrug Nijmegen project and similar civil engineering projects in the Netherlands
No full textConstruction Management and EngineeringStructural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Classifying the contextual dependency of critical quality factors: A study towards the identification of critical quality factors in the field of project management
No full textCivil Engineering and GeosciencesStructural EngineeringConstruction Management and Engineerin
Evaluating the procurement documents of Dutch water boards portfolio: A step towards more reliable public clients
No full textAlthough a considerable amount of literature has addressed the public procurement in the construction industry, still little is known about procurement in small and repetitive activities. In practice, however, public clients are often involved in repetitive tasks such as maintenance activities. Dutch water boards, regional governmental bodies responsible for providing water management services, are the focus of this study. For this research, three main procurement documents of the water boards were performed using content analysis. The aim is to evaluate these documents and to identify the typology of the repetitive activities and the procurement volume of these tasks from a portfolio perspective of the public client. Most of the contractors/suppliers involved in these activities are local Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The findings of the study indicate that insights into the typologies of these repetitive works and their expected volume over time delivers crucial value for the public procurer. Given the amount of repetitive works procured by public clients, creating such an insight to both clients as well as contractors can ultimately increase efficiency and improve investment opportunities.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Design & Construction Managemen
Public project manager's perspective on project success: A research into the success determination of construction projects by project managers of the public party
No full textParties working together on a project usually have different interests in executing that project, but they all aim at achieving project success. This project success has been widely discussed in literature since reaching it is the main goal of each party; but what project success actually is and how it can be determined differs per party. In project success a distinction is made between success criteria, the set of standards by which the measurement of success occurs, and success factors, those aspects that directly or indirectly influence project success. In this research success criteria are studied. Currently there is a lot of literature on project success and also on its criteria, but it only very limitedly relates to the public sector. Which is remarkable since researchers agree that project success is dependent on the perspective taken to look at it: an architect may have a different view on when a project is a success than a contractor. The proposition is that, due to the difference in nature of organization between public and private parties, each uses its own set of success criteria for the judgement of its project success. This research focuses on the public project manager: the operational manager of the public party who is commissioned within his own organisation to carry out the assignment; in this role he represents the ‘client’ to the contracting parties with which he has contact in executing the project. As mentioned project success perception depends on the perspective taken to judge it; and if there is indeed a different success perception for a public party than for a private party this discrepancy will become most clear at the operational level, where they work in close contact. This research aims at closing the now existing knowledge gap and identifying the success criteria relevant for the public project manager. By means of Q-methodology, a method used for studying subjectivity, the view on project success of 28 interviewed public project managers was assembled and analysed. The first step in using this method was to determine the Q-sample: the complete list of criteria relevant for the public project manager. To determine the public project manager’s view on success the 28 managers were asked to rank these criteria in relation to their importance in determining project success. This list of relevant criteria was formulated through studying literature and executing five test interviews; firstly 25 criteria were distinguished of which the representativeness for the public sector was checked. Eventually a number of criteria were combined, a number of criteria was left out due to lack of relevance for public project managers and a few other criteria were added, leading to a final list consisting of 19 criteria. In determining this Q-sample, two important conclusions were drawn. Firstly, since literature focuses mainly on the private sector, many criteria are too commercially oriented to reflect the public organisation’s nature; in these cases the public equivalent of the private sector criterion is determined. Secondly, a number of criteria presumed to be relevant for public sector success determination are not found in literature. These new criteria were added to the Q-sample and their relevance can be determined after the research has been conducted.Construction Management and EngineeringStructural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Effectieve informatie-uitwisseling binnen Nederlandse DBFM weginfrastructuurprojecten
No full textSince ten years contractors receive another question of public clients (government, local authorities) in the Dutch Civil Engineering sector. This question is in the form of integrated contracts, in which design, construction and/or maintenance are clustered. In projects contracted with the contract form Design (D), Built (B), Finance (F) and Maintain (M) the contractor is responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of the asset in question. This market approach results to freedom and responsibility for contractors. Firstly, a contractor has the freedom to make LCB considerations. Secondly, contractors become responsible for the delivery of performance during construction and maintenance. Currently, several Dutch DBFM infrastructure projects are in the pipeline. The government intends to spend the upcoming years more money on projects with the contract form DBFM. The construction has high failure costs with costs are 8-10% of the total contract value (SBR, 2013). A study by USP Marketing (2011) indicates that the failure costs consist in 21% by limited exchange of information. The information exchange is with 2% of the total contract value the biggest factor for failure costs. There is a freedom to make LCB considerations and responsibility for the provision of services for new contractors. This includes the exchange of information in order to make and give meaning to the agreed performance. How do contractors organize the exchange of information with freedom they get for LCB considerations and responsibility for delivering performance? The core issue in this research is that contractors make limited use of information for LCB considerations from various information carriers in practice which determine the life cycle costs. This information is available within the organization, but information on system characteristics and behavior are insufficient exchanged between the design team and the carriers during the design phase. The purpose of this study is to determine whether effective exchanges of information takes place when making design choices and to do recommendations for effective information exchange. The conclusion is that there is insufficient effective exchange of information (1) within Dutch DBFM infrastructure projects. Therefore there is enough untapped potential (2) for a more effective exchange of information. Contractors in Dutch DBFM infrastructure projects do not work according to Systems Engineering (SE) as ideally prescribed by literature. SE is an approach in which information is created by through processes. Following the SE standard leads to Structures in which information can be recorded, stored, shared and recalled Information is structured data that can be recorded on a computer. (Examples are) such as functions, risks, requirements and objects. To determine whether this information exchange is effective, there are conditions established where information must meet. In this study the conditions are based on the problems of LCC analyses. This study defines effective information exchange when information is relevant (1a), available (1b), punctual (2), explicit (3) and traceable (4). To test the conditions for effective exchange of information in practice, the conditions are processed into questions. These questions are part of interviews. Another part of the interviews are the DBFM contract requirements. Within a DBFM contract the requirements should be central to several teams of a contractor. For the interviews are relationships between Requirements and Functions (a), Requirements and Organizations (b), Requirements and Locations (c), Requirements and Stages (d), Requirements and Objects (e) and Requirements and Risks (f) tested. The results show the candidates find information relevant, but the information is not always available. In addition the information available is not on time, not explicitly or not traceable. The differences between theory and practice in information exchange have been identified for five of the six tested relationships. Only the relationships between the Requirements and Organizations (b) are in accordance with the criteria that more than 50% of the respondents are satisfied with all conditions. This relation satisfies the conditions for effective exchange of information, but is debatable. This is debatable, since this relation is the only satisfied relationships between requirements and other Structures. Therefore there is missing information for context and coherence. Contractors think that by allocating requirements on parts of the organization is sufficient for working with SE. Contractors experience SE in practice as a form of managing the requirements, imposed by public clients. In addition, in practice, the focus is located on the requirements of the design and the construction and not in the maintenance. This does not in accordance for LCB considerations. The main recommendation is to send in information exchange, whereby one central information management system (ON-1) is needed that addresses the processes of employees in the project. A second recommendation is a change of working and vision of contractors. SE is contractually obliged for contractors by a client. A contractor should see SE more as a chance. SE can be used as a tool for information exchange. A contractor should do SE as an opportunity. To take this opportunity the different recommendations need to be done for effective exchange of information: execute the processes (ON-2), interpret the ISO15288 together (ON-3) and capture the generated information in Structures (ON-4). Then information can become more timely, explicit and traceable. With these changes effective information exchange can take place and contractors can make LCB considerations according to the agreed performance. Upholding the freedom and responsibility can lead to a reduction in failure costs through more effective information exchange.Construction Management and EngineeringStructural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
How to allocate risks? Research into the allocation of risks between public and private organisations for large infrastructure projects in the Netherlands
No full textConstruction Management and EngineeringStructural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Samenwerking in beheer en onderhoud: De rol van het mkb als partner
No full textOndanks het grote aantal repetitieve, kleine activiteiten dat wordt uitgevoerd voor publieke opdrachtgevers, ontbreekt het zowel in de praktijk als in de wetenschappelijke literatuur aan inzicht in de succesfactoren van dit type opgaven. Dit beperkt de mogelijkheden tot het doorvoeren van relevante verbeteringen ten aanzien van de samenwerking en de eigen rol van de publieke en private organisaties hierin. Dit onderzoek heeft zich daarom gericht op de samenwerking van waterschappen en marktpartijen specifiek bij kleinschalige repetitieve werkzaamheden. Het onderzoek bestaat uit de analyse van portfolio's van waterschappen en interviews met zowel waterschapsmedewerkers als marktpartijen.Uit de analyse van inkooporders blijkt dat repetitive werkzaamheden kunnen worden onderverdeeld in vijf typen, waarvan werkzaamheden aan watergangen de meest voorkomende zijn. Het inzicht in deze activiteiten en hun financiële omvang is van cruciaal belang voor optimalisatie.Het onderzoek identificeert de elementen in de samenwerking tussen waterschappen en marktpartijen die bijdragen aan efficiëntere uitvoering van repetitive werkzaamheden: inzicht in de markt, bundeling door opdrachtgever(s) in relatie tot ondernemerschap bij de opdrachtnemer(s), communicatie, lerend vermogen, en formele en informele contractmanagement.Dit onderzoek draagt bij aan het optimaliseren van de samenwerking tussen waterschappen en marktpartijen in repetitive werkzaamheden, wat leidt tot efficiëntere en effectievere uitvoering van deze taken in de waterbouwsector.The research is funded by the Unie van Waterschappen (Dutch Water Authorities), six water authorities (Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier, waterschap Noorderzijlvest, waterschap Rivierenland, Hoogheemraadschap van Delfland, waterschap Scheldestromen, waterschap Hollandse Delta) and Hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma.Design & Construction Managemen
Adopting social network theory to understand how information flows during the different phases of the design process in inter-organizational projects: A case study
No full textProjects are becoming larger and more complex, resulting in work being done more in a team environment. Among other industries, the construction industry is project-based as well. For the successful completion of construction projects, inter-organizational teams consisting of representatives from the owner, designer, contractors and other stakeholders need to cooperate. Due to the numerous relationships between the various organizations, construction management faces great challenges. One of these challenges is the encouragement of information sharing. Thus, information sharing in inter-organizational projects has already concerned academia for a long time. However, knowledge of how information flows during the design life-cycle is still limited, and no study has been found to examine that by using social network analysis.Therefore, this research adopted social network theory to study information flows as its main research activity. By gathering data through a survey and analysing them by performing social network analysis, it was possible to map the communication network of the inter-organizational venture by creating sociograms and extracting some key metrics that would give meaning to these. In parallel with the social network analysis, some participant observations added a qualitative character to how information flowed between the teams. However, these two research activities were insufficient due to some limitations this study was subjected. Thus, the results from the already mentioned research activities were enriched by hosting an expert panel where the experts invited could provide further insights into the networks’ formation.This research concluded that in the predesign phase, there should have been more involvement from teams that were generating valuable information to balance the control that the most influential team, according to the SNA, had over the flow of information. The different design teams should have had the same degree centrality and probably the same betweenness centrality. However, it may also be the case that one area is more complex and more information-dependent, thus ranking higher in terms of influence in the network. In the definitive design phase, team Management Design & Integration should control the flow of information. However, other teams should also support it since being the only one to have control may become a bottleneck or even a single point of failure. Such teams could be teams of the same subculture regarding their roles and responsibilities in the organization. In the execution-ready design phase, many central figures concerning the construction-related teams exist in the network since many activities take place. There are multiple sources of information; thus, team Management Design & Integration should be able to absorb all of it. Attention must be paid to the various barriers that have been found to impact how information flows. Especially in how the information is being communicated and how to motivate employees to use the various technological developments available since they found to enhance information sharing.Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineerin
Understanding the internal commissioning role: An explorative study on public managers in Dutch public sector organisations in their role as internal commissioner involved in the realisation phase of infrastructure projects
No full textPrevious research assessing public organisations in the delivery of infrastructure projects mainly focuses on public project delivery organisations and their interaction with private parties. However, many challenges experienced by these project delivery organisations relate to the interaction with the public parent organisation. In practice, this interface mainly materialises as the interaction between the internal commissioner (Dutch: ambtelijk intern opdrachtgever) and the project manager. Internal commissioners are appointed to control whether project organisations adhere to the project assignment. Due to dynamic complexity emerging in infrastructure projects, causing deviations from the defined project assignment, more commitment of these commissioners to projects is needed by these public managers during project realisation. By qualitative research in diverse Dutch public sector organisations, more insight into the internal commissioning role during project realisation is created. The research suggests several ways of improving the efficiency of internal working procedures in public parent organisations. Furthermore, the research identified management recommendations for improving professionalism in the internal commissioning role during project realisation.Civil Engineering | Construction Management and Engineerin
