Nils O.E. Olsson

Categorizing risks in seven large projects—Which risks do the projects focus on?†

In a hierarchy of project objectives, strategic objectives will often be principally different from the operational ones. Operational objectives concern the project outputs/results, and strategic objectives concern the project goal and purpose. In this study, risks are categorized as risks to operational, long-term, or short-term strategic objectives, and, by studying a dataset of some 1,450 risk elements that make up the risk registers of seven large projects, we examine how operational and strategic risks are distributed in the projects. The study strongly indicates that risks to a projects strategic objectives rarely occur in the projects risk registers, though project success and failure stories indicate their importance.

How Project Manager–Project Owner Interaction Can Work Within and Influence Project Risk Management

Inherent interest conflicts between a project management team and project owner are often neglected in project risk management. Risk management by the project management team basically focuses on project short-term survival, or project success toward handover to the customer, while for the project owner, strategic success should be more important. To see how this takes place in and influences real projects, seven large projects were studied, and interaction in project risk management between the project owners and project management team was examined for each project. The study revealed that the main focus in the studied projects was on operational risks, even within the project owners set of high-priority risks.

Project ownership: implications on success measurement

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss measurement of project success in an ownership perspective.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a case study of owner structures in 11 projects. For each case, an analysis was made of which stakeholder that held six different roles related to project ownership. Multiple sources of information are used, including archives, interviews and observations.Findings – Results from the study indicate that owner responsibilities are not always concentrated to one individual stakeholder in a project. While a traditional owner can be identified for some projects, it is a more complex picture for many other projects.Research implications/limitations – This paper has primarily analysed project ownership on a macro level, between organisations. Challenges related to identifying owners can to a certain extent also be found on a micro level, within the most involved organisations, but this has not been the aim of the research.Practical implications – Meas...

External and internal flexibility – aligning projects with the business strategy and executing projects efficiently

Flexibility represents a challenge in project management. For an increased understanding of project flexibility, a distinction between internal and external project flexibility is proposed. Internal project flexibility relates to flexibility within a defined scope – how requirements are to be met. External project flexibility refers to the adjustments in the project scope – what requirements are to be met. An external flexibility perspective builds upon a growing interest in the project owner perspective, highlighting the continuous alignment of projects with the business strategy. An internal flexibility perspective draws on the emerging approaches for project efficiency. This paper elaborates on these two different perspectives on flexibility in project management. A combination of qualitative and quantitative information has been used. Two main sets of data have been used, including frontend assessments of governmental investments and the analysis of a number of private and public projects.

Flexibility at different stages in the life cycle of projects: An empirical illustration of the “freedom to maneuver”

Many textbooks on project management present illustrations concerning the relative size of project attributes during different project phases. The derived models all have attributes in common, such as uncertainty, significance of decisions, and degree of freedom to maneuver, that are typically high in the beginning of the project and low in the end. At the same time, variables such as the accumulated cost and available information begin at low levels and end up at a high level at the end of the project. Based on empirical data from projects, this paper illustrates and quantifies one of these attributes, the freedom to maneuver, in different project phases.

Layered Project–Layered Process: Lean Thinking and Flexible Solutions

This article elaborates on lean thinking in design management. Lean philosophy focuses on minimizing waste and maximizing value. We discuss how lean concepts can be understood and how this can affect the design process. In particular, we examine how flexibility can be achieved through the use of a layered design process and a layered building design. The design process has two main outcomes: input to the production and/or construction process, and input to the decision process. These two outcomes have a number of contradictory characteristics. Traditionally, production processes call for early decisions and control of cost, time and risks. Typically, this has been the engineers’ or the contractors’ perspective. In contrast, the decision process typically strives to postpone final commitments and design freeze in order to keep options open. Lean thinking shows that the two approaches do not have to be contradictory. Based on case studies of two hospital projects, we discuss flexibility in the design process and design in relation to lean principles. The article demonstrates the importance of seeing the design process and design model as two integrated parts. Lean thinking can serve as an enabler by focusing on reducing waste and increasing the customers value.

Use of big data in project evaluations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Big Data can be used in project evaluations. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on literature research and interviews with 15 professionals in IT, project and asset management and government agencies. The authors discuss and illustrate what data that can be used for project evaluations and discuss potential obstacles. Findings – New data is creating new opportunities to analyse a phenomenon based on different types of data. Interesting data categories include: internet traffic, movement-related data, physical environment data and data in organisational internal systems. The authors show how these data categories can be applied in project evaluations. Research limitations/implications – Big Data gives an opportunity to add quantitative data in ex post evaluations. Use of Big Data can serve as a step towards a stronger technology focus in evaluations of projects. Practical implications – There are major advantages in using Big Data, inc...

Norwegian cleaning research: an overview and categorization

Purpose – This article aims to summarize Norwegian cleaning‐related research to give an overview of the knowledge held today and to categorize the approaches used.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on an extensive literature search. Research contributions from 1814 until 2009 were studied, even though the main findings are from 1950. The different disciplines contributing to research are mapped and the contributions are categorized based on different research approaches, namely positivism, interpretivism, realism and idealism.Findings – Norwegian cleaning‐related research experienced a burst in publications from the 1990s. The majority of Norwegian cleaning‐related research has been positivistic, mostly based on realism. The least common approach used was interpretivism‐idealism and interviews were the most frequently used method in interpretivisitc contribution. The article indicates a need for further broadening in research methods.Research limitations/implications – Through categorizin...

Post‐project changes: occurrence, causes, and countermeasures

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to investigate the volume and background of changes done shortly after project completion.Design/methodology/approach – To ensure a consistent set of projects, selection criteria were related to project budget, time of completion, and executing institution. Data collection included an initial survey followed by interviews.Findings – The study identified frequency and extent of changes/alterations within a certain period after project completion as well as the dominating causes for such changes.Research limitations/implications – The study is based on a limited number of projects and from three specific Norwegian agencies. Future research should include a larger sample, possibly also covering other sectors.Practical implications – If acted upon, the suggestions for countermeasures can contribute to reducing or preventing post‐project changes. The findings indicate a need for new performance measures for projects, as the classical parameters provide motivation to proj...

An empirical illustration of public project ownership

This paper studies different aspects of project ownership in public projects. First, project ownership and project governance are discussed. We find that literature on project management tends to assume that one organisation has the characteristics of an owner. A review of seven public projects shows that the characteristics of project ownership are spread between several different organisations. Based on these results, we challenge the stereotype of a single project owner. In an attempt to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of project ownership, the paper introduces a framework for description and analysis of project owner roles on strategic and tactical levels. The descriptive model for project ownership offers an improved definition of the owner role, by defining the most important owner functions on both strategic and tactical levels. We also point out the interfaces with other project roles. We have tested the framework on public and private sector cases and conclude that the model can be applied on both types of projects. The model appears transferable to other countries and government models than the Norwegian one alone, even though some adaptations may be necessary. Some potential further developments are suggested.