Leijten, M (2017) What lies beneath: Bounded manageability in complex underground infrastructure projects. PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
Abstract
Complex underground infrastructure construction projects tend to develop in a state of "bounded manageability". Various types of uncertainties are inherent to these projects and put the project manager in front of serious challenges, risking budget overruns, delays and sometimes even technical failure. Managing such a project is a matter of considering the options to keep ambitions and means in balance, without losing control. In practice this means that project managers, when confronted with these uncertainties in their projects, have to make trade-offs that have strong "double-bind" characteristics. With every advantage come serious downsides. This disables them to make optimal decisions. Moreover, a chosen path pre-defines conditions for later trade-offs that were often not considered explicitly when choosing this path. This research provides a new framework for understanding uncertainty in the management of projects. It maps out the typical manageability dilemmas that evolve in complex underground infrastructure projects and comes with suggestions to improve this manageability.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | project management; underground construction; infrastructure; complexity; uncertainty; decision-making; manageability |
| Index terms: | maps, project management, underground construction, complexity, budget overrun, underground infrastructure, project manager, construction project, decision-making, option |
| Subjects: | profession, infrastructure and transport systems, production management, spatial and geospatial analysis, financial and cost management, decision analysis, geotechnical engineering, systems engineering, project management theory and practice |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Risk Management, Cost Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here