Link to thesis - Concept - NTNU

4. Project stakeholdersmandatory quality assurance aims at defining the projects as precisely as possible, butstill provides project management with the freedom to decide how the specificationsare to be met and budgets to be upheld. In a similar way, Turner (2004) claims thatone of four necessary conditions for project success is that the project manager isempowered. The project owner should give guidance on how the project can be bestachieved, but allow project managers flexibility to handle unforeseen circumstances.Note that Williams (1997) claims that project risk management and empowerment ofteams within a project compete with each other in complex projects, because ofinterconnection between the tasks of different project teams.Project external flexibility has its roots in an effectiveness perspective. Based on whatis termed a social science tradition, an objective of the front-end phase is to align thecontent of the project to the objectives of the stakeholders. Objectives may beshifting; implying certain needs for flexibility. It is primarily the value of this type offlexibility that is quantified by real options (Amram & Kulatlaka 1999, Brennan &Trigeorgis 2000). This type of flexibility option appears particularly desirable to usersand project owners.Internal and external flexibility, on the one hand, and internal and contextualuncertainty on the other hand, are related issues. However, internal flexibility is notnecessarily a response to internal uncertainty, and external flexibility can, but does nothave to, be a response to contextual uncertainty. Figure 5 shows that all combinationsof the two dimensions can be found.The empirical data that this thesis is based on provide mainly information aboutexternal flexibility. In-depth analysis of project internal flexibility would requiredifferent empirical sources. The distinction between project internal and externalflexibility was made for two reasons. First, it is intended to clarify the flexibilityapproaches that have been the main focus in the thesis. Secondly, the distinctionbetween project internal and external flexibility is intended as a contribution to thegeneral framework for analysis of project flexibility.InternaluncertaintyContextualuncertaintyInternalflexibilityExternalflexibilityAdjustment ofplans due tonew projectinternalinformationScopeadjustmentsdue to newproject internalinformationAdjustment ofplans due tonew prerequisitesScopeadjustmentsdue to newprerequisitesFigure 5. Internal and external flexibility, combined with internal and contextualuncertainty.19