Construction Project Management
Identifying Issues of Concern Early

 

Project Overview

This report was commissioned by the United Kingdom Construction Research and Innovation Strategy Panel (CRISP) process group with the aim to better understand the nature of the issues that cause concern in the early stages of construction projects in the UK. This was to enable CRISP to focus research to overcome these problems, which in turn, should improve the effectiveness and efficiency of construction project management.

Research Purpose

The aim of the research was to focus future resources where real understanding of practice and problems could be established. The objectives of the commission were:

• To identify areas of particular concern arising from the early stages of project development, common to many projects and contractual approaches.
• Place them in order of importance.
• Consider research that will address them.

Research Methodology

This research programme used Kelly’s personal construct theory (PCT) and repertory grid to elicit and gather the data used in the analysis. The strength of this technique was the avoidance of ‘observer bias’. Enquire Within^® was used as the research software to aid the grid analysis.

A combination of half-day workshops and questionnaires were used to gather practitioner opinions and beliefs about issues in the early stages of projects. The responses were analysed using grounded theory techniques and cluster analysis to converge on key themes.

Research Findings

It became apparent very early in the study, that the set of issues were very broad in nature, indeed much broader than was suggested in the briefing document, with soft issues surfacing throughout the responses. What was surprising to the researchers was the narrow set of themes that developed through the prioritisation process. Perception of other roles, relationships, communication and resistance to change were the most pronounced themes. The common thread through these issues is, what was described as client-defined processes (selecting the team, integrating processes, controlling value, cost and risk and managing the business case).

Key Recommendations

The key recommendations were:

• The industry needs to move, as quickly as possible, towards a much more outward looking, customer-focused, high added-value position. The critical point to initiate this change is at the pre-project and project development stages.
• Research should focus on the priority concerns in the client-defined processes, which are team selection and development of the whole team to have excellent co-operation and communication capability.
• Other Constructors and Suppliers need to be involved much earlier in the project process, as it appears this group can help the team to understand better the needs of End Users.
• Mechanisms and processes need to be developed to effectively and efficiently engage End Users, Financiers and Owners in the whole process, but particularly at the early stages.
• There needs to be improved communication, commitment and shared values between the construction players. Research should focus on where blocks to co-operation and misconceptions exist and how these can be eroded.

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The Report

The full report is available for downloading in Adobe Acrobat pdf format here.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader™ here (free).

We are indebted to Neil Allan, Engineering Management Group, University of Bristol and Patrick Godfrey, Business Solutions Director, Halcrow Godfreyps@Halcrow.com who participated in the research and supplied us with the report.

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Two Other Examples of Working With Soft Issues

1) An exploratory study of `close' supplier - manufacturer relationships

Keith Goffin, Fred Lemke and Marek Szwejczewski, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK

Abstract

Close relationships with selected suppliers can enable manufacturers to reduce costs, improve quality and enhance new product development. Although the advantages of close co-operation are widely acknowledged in the literature, the specific attributes of such relationships are not well understood. To address this gap, 39 managers responsible for purchasing were interviewed using a technique from psychology, which is particularly effective at uncovering the characteristics of relationships. This approach is innovative in the context of supplier management research and gave insights into how manufacturers expect more from their suppliers than just reliable deliveries of high-quality, well-priced parts and components. The results of the empirical research enhance our knowledge of the attributes of manufacturer-supplier relationships and also indicate how manufacturers can establish close relationships with selected suppliers. Overall, the study has established the viability of a new approach for understanding the complex topic of manufacturer-supplier partnerships.

2) Challenges in enterprise software integration: An industrial study using repertory grids

Authors: Heidi J. Rognerud and Jo E. Hannay
Publisher: IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA

Abstract

To identify and systematize software practitioners' perceptions of a problem is an important first step toward analyzing and searching for a solution to the problem. This paper reports on an industrial study, in which the repertory grid technique was used to elicit practitioners' perceptions of key challenges in the company's software integration practices. The perceptions of a total of nine practitioners from three organizational groups (Developer, QA Manager, Project Manager) were elicited and analyzed. We found that perceptions differ markedly between groups, but that on some issues, there is a consensus across all groups. Three types of challenges were identified as critical, causes, and easy to handle, namely responsibility, requirements, and knowledge. The elicited information may be used to plan process improvement for integration projects in the company, and may also be used in building a general ontology for integration challenges and their solutions.

Link

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