Print Email Facebook Twitter Critical Front-End Development Activities for Engineering Projects Title Critical Front-End Development Activities for Engineering Projects Author Smith, J. Contributor Bosch-Rekveldt, M.G.C. (mentor) Bakker, H.L.M. (mentor) Veeneman, W.W. (mentor) Rodenburg, P.P. (mentor) Dimos, M. (mentor) Faculty Technology, Policy and Management Department Section of Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Programme Management of Technology Date 2010-08-30 Abstract Putting effort into the early project phases in order to prepare optimally for project delivery is labelled Front-End development (FED). For projects, an optimum has to be found where FED is performed in a way that it increases the chance on successful project delivery, without losing cost competiveness. The results of this research can be used to reduce the amount of activities that have to be performed without missing the critical FED activities. Therefore the predictability and the value of the project outcome will be increased. In this study the relationships between activities performed in the FED phase and project success were investigated. For the current research a data set from previous research was used to perform a new multivariate analysis. This data set included the results of surveys that were distributed to project managers in the member companies of the NAP network, a competence network of the Dutch process industry. Data were obtained from 67 projects performed in the NAP network. These data were analyzed using multivariate statistical techniques. The multivariate analysis identified important correlations between FED activities and project success. But more importantly, the second step in this research was to get hold of the identified FED activities and what they entailed. Therefore scientific literature was explored and hypotheses were derived. Thereafter five cases were selected and subsequently 11 interviews were conducted. Based on the interviews case summaries were made and compared by means of a cross-case analysis. The results of this analysis were used to test the hypotheses. In the studied cases, the activities team design (collaborative project teams), goal setting, monitoring and OIP were implemented according to the best practices available in literature. Collaborative teams beneficially contributed to project success as it increased efficiency and were therefore directly related to the increasing chance of a project being successful. Based on the findings of this research it seems likely that trust and the composition of a team based on competencies also have to be taken into account when designing a team. Applying OIP is directly related to an increased chance of delivering a project successful. The benefits due to the involvement of other parties such as Operations and Maintenance early in the project, are a higher standard of preparations and installations. Operators are prepared and equipment is installed correctly, resulting in reduced start-up time and steady state production. Clearly defined business objectives and involvement of the project team in the process of defining, resulted in acceptance and alignment. Monitoring of project goals was an important means to keep on track. In conclusion the above findings reinforce the suggestion that these activities directly increase the chance of a project being delivered successfully. Two activities were implemented to a lesser extent than described in the literature: risk and stakeholder management. Regarding stakeholder management, it appeared that success was gained by use of an informal form of stakeholder management. The same issues (identifying, prioritizing and engaging with stakeholders) are addressed there although not formally put in a procedure. Successful informal practices were the integration of stakeholders in the project governance structure and the facilitation of frequent meetings with them. Both practices enabled alignment and reduced delays and conflicts. Implementing formal stakeholder management procedures provides opportunities to improve them. Organizations are obliged to pay attention to the stakeholders involved and therefore reduce even more conflicts and delays; especially in dynamic project environments with a long duration, many stakeholders, and when young project managers are involved. Regarding risk management it seems that companies have various tools and methods in place. Some implicitly implement risk management practices within the various processes, especially when defining the business case and user requirements. From these processes the subsequent allocation of actions and the implicit identification of risk owners followed. Others had more systematic formal risk management procedures in place. It appeared that the successful application of risk management likely depends on choosing the right risk management method/procedure dependent on the project environment. Furthermore a reflection on the available data resulted in the following finding: it is more important to obtain alertness, in order to be truly able to anticipate on project dynamics than to codify risks formally. However formally codifying the risks is recommended when many job movements occur during a project lifecycle. External benchmarking significantly contributed to project success according to the statistical analysis. Although not many cases applied external benchmarking, we are able to conclude that benchmarking has the potential to increase projects success. The reason for this is that benchmarking makes it possible to anticipate early in the project on unexpected occurrences. During the course of this research, it became clear that people are the most critical elements of delivering a project successfully. It interrelates with all the FED activities. When taking a helicopter view, it appears that trust (between the team members and between the contractor and project owner), alertness (to anticipate on the alternations in the project environment) and acceptance (towards organizational change) are important human factors, which can influence successful application of the FED activities and have a high chance of influencing project success. This research recommends having integrated project teams with the same contractor during FED and project delivery, Global Framework Agreements and less job movements during a project life cycle as this can influence trust and alertness. Furthermore it is recommended to actively share experiences and information. Possible solutions to share information are to appoint mentors, to launch educational and development programs and, maybe more important, organize lunch and learn sessions. This research concludes with recommendations for future research. Important for future research is to explore different contracting strategies that support collaboration during the FED phases between contractors and project owners and to identify cost savings as a result of long term collaboration. Subject front-end Loadingproject successteam designgoal settingexternal benchmarkingOperation Implementation Planningmonitoringstakeholder managementrisk managementfront-end developmenttrustacceptancealertnesscontractingknowledge sharingGlobal Framework Agreements To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:77a719bb-9e9e-49bc-8ef1-f3055ed32c11 Embargo date 2010-08-18 Access restriction Campus only Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights (c) 2010 Smith, J. Files PDF Thesis_JS_Final.pdf 1.2 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:77a719bb-9e9e-49bc-8ef1-f3055ed32c11/datastream/OBJ/view