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7. ConclusionsAs mentioned, the vast majority of the studied projects are Norwegian governmentalprojects, and all projects were in a ‘public sector context’. While some of theprinciples discussed in the thesis are likely to be relevant for non-governmentalprojects, other aspects are likely to be different in commercial projects.Stakeholder roles are likely to be different in projects where there is a close businesslink between investment costs and realised benefits. A close business link means bothin terms of short time horizon and accountability for investment costs. Such closebusiness links can be present in investments in new production facilities. Theinvestment cost will be compensated for by increased productivity and possiblyincreased production volume. In such situations, it is likely that more stakeholderswill be involved in balancing cost/benefit ratios regarding project scope andadjustments. However, the results from this thesis are likely to be more relevant tocommercial projects for which the business link is not so close. This is the case ifthere is a long time between a decision and the ‘moment of truth’ when theinvestment provides payback, or when accountability for investment costs is lessdirect.Only Norwegian investment projects have been analysed. The presentation ofprevious research has not been limited to Norwegian studies. During the literaturesearch, one possible difference was found between experiences from Norwegianprojects and general experiences in the project management community. In aScandinavian management tradition, user involvement is emphasised as a key successfactor in projects involving organisational change (see, for example, Trist & Bamforth1951, Emery & Thorsrud 1976). The degree of user involvement is likely to varybetween different countries and traditions. These variations may also influence otherstakeholder roles in projects. On a detailed level, Paper 5 includes a discussion aboutthe extent to which experiences from Norwegian railway projects are applicable toother countries.7.4 Further researchThis thesis has explored project flexibility in a general perspective. An analysis ofproject flexibility in relation to project types; including industry, uncertainty level anddegree of innovation is recommended. Industry-specific models and guidelines forproject flexibility are likely to appeal to practitioners within the project managementfield. Further research is needed to map the implementation and effects of differentapproaches to flexibility in different types of projects.Four approaches to flexibility management were proposed. A fifth approach can beimagined. With reference to Figure 18, this would mean to lower the ‘desired roomfor manoeuvring’-curve. In practice, this means to reduce the number and size ofdesired changes. To reduce user initiated changes, alignment, collaboration andcommunication in the front-end phase are likely issues. Computer-based visualisationtools can contribute to earlier and increased understanding of project deliveries. Toanticipate and reduce owner initiated changes, selecting proper project concepts are akey issue, and it has to a certain extent been addressed in the thesis.44
7. ConclusionsThere appears to be a gap between the resistance to flexible projects among projectmanagement practitioners on the one side, and the promotion of flexibility byacademics and stakeholders with no incentives related to project efficiency on theother side. This calls for increased emphasis on active use of present and developingknowledge of project flexibility. In addition, the project management filed can benefitfrom a pragmatic convergence of an idealistic promotion of project flexibility on oneside, and experience-based hesitation to flexibility on the other side.Regarding change management, analysis of which types of scope changes can bemanaged without severe reductions in project efficiency is proposed. There exist somedeveloped simulation tools and methods which can be used to illustrate the effect ofchanges. Further use of such models is suggested. In order to calibrate the models,and gain additional understanding, it is interesting to simulate well documentedprojects ex post, so that simulated and observed results can be compared for the sameprojects.The thesis has discussed flexibility relating to selected aspects individually, and intwo-dimensional combinations. With larger samples, this type of analysis wouldbenefit from regression analysis along the different aspects.Further research is also called for to investigate the connection betweenmodularisation of infrastructure investments and the realisation of anticipatedbenefits. This was especially discussed in Paper 5 in relation to railway investments.One question that arose was whether relatively limited investments in transportationinfrastructure, and railways in particular, should be evaluated based on the actualreduction in travel time, or rather the potential travel time.Finally, continued use of a combination of qualitative and quantitative research in theproject management field is desirable. Such designs have the possibility to contributeto enhancing the credibility of project management as a research field. Whilestructured qualitative research designs have been successfully applied, there is apotential for the increased use of quantitative research designs.45
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ISBN 82-471-8121-5 (printed ver.)IS
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Preface and AcknowledgementsThe wor
Page 7 and 8: Table of ContentsPreface and Acknow
Page 9 and 10: Paper OverviewThe following papers
Page 11 and 12: AbstractTraditionally, projects ten
Page 13 and 14: alternative use. There are indicati
Page 15 and 16: 1. Introduction1. IntroductionThis
Page 17 and 18: 1. IntroductionFlexible projects ar
Page 19 and 20: 1. IntroductionA literature review
Page 21 and 22: 2. Study design2. Study designThe r
Page 23 and 24: 2. Study designInformation Content
Page 25 and 26: 3. Flexibility in different project
Page 31 and 32: 4. Project stakeholders4. Project s
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Page 35 and 36: 4. Project stakeholdersBased on res
Page 37 and 38: 5. Effectiveness and efficiency5. E
Page 39 and 40: 5. Effectiveness and efficiencyconf
Page 41 and 42: 5. Effectiveness and efficiencyDegr
Page 43 and 44: 6. Project flexibility categorisati
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Page 51 and 52: 7. ConclusionsProject phasesFlexibi
Page 53 and 54: 7. ConclusionsEnablersThis thesis r
Page 55 and 56: 7. Conclusions16, Figure 17, and Fi
Page 57: 7. Conclusions4. AbsorptionAbsorpti
Page 61 and 62: ReferencesAbbot, A. & Banerji, K. 2
Page 63 and 64: Gareis, R. 2004. Maturity of the Pr
Page 65 and 66: Miller, R. & Lessard, D. 2000. The
Page 67 and 68: Part 2.
Page 69 and 70: Paper 1.Olsson, N.O.E. 2006. Manage
Page 71 and 72: N.O.E. Olsson / International Journ
Page 79 and 80: Paper 2.Magnussen, O.M. & Olsson, N
Page 81 and 82: 282 O.M. Magnussen, N.O.E. Olsson /
Page 89 and 90: Projects trapped in their freedom:
Page 91 and 92: 1. IntroductionThe purpose of this
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Page 97 and 98: 4. ResultsIn the following, the emp
Page 99 and 100: lowered the quality but the volume
Page 101 and 102: Percent ofproject onSize of remaini
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Page 107 and 108: ReferencesAndersen, B., Fagerhaug,
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Paper 4.Olsson, N.O.E. 2004. ‘Fle
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The concept of project flexibilityF
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3. CONCLUSIONSWhat seems to be impl
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Paper 5.Olsson, N.O.E. 2006. ‘Imp
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558 N. O. E. Olsson et al.ex-post s
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560 N. O. E. Olsson et al.Table 1.O
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562 N. O. E. Olsson et al.and actua
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564 N. O. E. Olsson et al.Table 3.
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566 N. O. E. Olsson et al.Table 7.S
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568 N. O. E. Olsson et al.with a wi
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Paper 6.Henriksen, B., Olsson, N. &
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In this paper we use the process an
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PROCESS ANALYSIS IN THE PLANNING OF
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final framework for expected patien
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User involvement also generated exp
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Paper 7.Olsson, N.O.E. & Samset, K.
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Project flexibility and front-end m
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uncertainty. External flexibility c
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5.2. Flexibility in decision proces
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Degree of redundancySlackPrecisionC
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