Fernández-Solís, J L; Rybkowski, Z K; Xiao, C; Lü, X and Chae, L S (2015) General contractor's project of projects: a meta-project: Understanding the new paradigm and its implications through the lens of entropy. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 11(3), pp. 213-242. ISSN 1745-2007
Abstract
Why do Koskela and others argue that the underlying theory of project management (PM) is obsolete? Project management works for the manufacturing industry, and for the construction industry at both the physical production level and the subcontractor level. Stakeholders, including the owner (along with due diligence, and O&M teams), architect (and the design team), general contractor (and its subcontractor team) create, transmit, process, manage and use information. The boundary between information (creation and transmission) and physical production is where PM controls and predicts cost and schedule and where quality controls fail to work as intended. This paper argues that subcontractors give project numbers for the physical part of the project, while general contractors' project numbers are actually a project of projects (those of the subcontractors). The general contractor manages a meta-project (term and definition, as related to building construction, coined by Fernandez-Solis). The meta-project paradigm has significant consequences and is the key to a novel understanding of the general contractor role. Lean construction's percent (or promise) plan complete (PPC) gages the reliability of promises made, is a useful and viable indicator of the quality of the schedule, and serves as a surrogate measure of project flow – how smoothly or chaotically a project runs. The PPC is operationalized as an index that meta-project stakeholders can use to calibrate the reliability of work in progress and provide feedback on the predictability/variability of logistic plans. The methodology of this paper uses conceptual analysis, the metonymic mapping of key concepts from the thermodynamics domain to the construction domain and showcases the concepts through PPC case studies. Information entropy theories are discerned in the PPC reports. In conclusion, scientific information theories, principles and characteristics of flow, in contrast to managerial principles, provide a clearer background for visualizing a novel understanding of the state of the project flow at the meta-project level. It could be argued that this paper is about defining a reference discipline and construed as “construction science viewed through the lens of entropy” but this is not the focus of this paper but the topic of the next.,
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | asymmetric information; game theory; lean construction; meta-project; paradigm; percent plan complete; project management body of knowledge |
| Index terms: | case study, lean construction, entropy, game theory, general contractor, science, building construction, owner, manufacturing industry, design team, project stakeholder, architect, information theory, methodology, paradigm, PPC, mapping, percent plan complete, variability, project management, subcontractor, construction industry, quality control, body of knowledge |
| Subjects: | statistical analysis, thermal systems, industry analysis, sociology, building construction, project controls, project management theory and practice, research methods, spatial and geospatial analysis, education and knowledge transfer, decision models, project delivery, knowledge organization and systems, knowledge management, professional practice, practitioner, specialized education, standard forms of contract, profession, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Information Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Sustainability, Construction Technology, Procurement, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Quality Management, Design Practice, Site Management, Education, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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