Link to thesis. - Concept - NTNU

22variety of sources. Furthermore, the sources described above may be regarded to be primary, asthey are original works of research or raw data with no interpretation. Primary sources areauthoritative because the information in them has not been filtered or interpreted by secondparties. Consequently, the authenticity of studies that rely on information from projects for whichother researchers in other studies compiled the data is not an issue in this work. It is also worthnoting that most of the sources from which information has been obtained are open to thepublic.Thus far I have described issues that may aid assessment of the reliability of data collected, butthe fundamental question remains as to whether the collected data is relevant to answering theidentified questions. Clearly, there are fundamental challenges in describing or measuring howdifferent approaches to improving projects may affect outcomes. Ideally, particularly because ofthe complex and interrelated issues involved in the assessment of project success, the entirespectrum of possible aspects of project planning and management should have been covered, butthat is beyond the scope of a single thesis. While the validity of each sub-study may bequestioned, the issues that emerged from the overall work came from a multi-year study of aselection of large public investment projects subjected to up-front assessment and qualityassurance. The research problem has been studied from various angles using differingapproaches. This comprehensive approach may help address the problems of validity.The outputs of the research, the papers attached in Part 2 have been validated by peer review.Clearly, peer review is no guarantee that research is not flawed, as the responsibility for errors ordeviation from professional norms or ethical standards lies solely with the researcher, but itensures that some basic requirements have been met. However, it is equally clear that the analysiscan be biased by the researcher’s values and beliefs. In general, beliefs usually are moreunintentional than values, but their impacts on the value of the research are the same. This workhas built upon readily available sources and papers reporting the research subjected to review byexperts, and subsequently made publicly available, which affords opportunities to assess whetherbasic scientific requirements have been met, to verify results, to check data for accuracy, and toreveal potential omissions, misinterpretations or obvious factual errors.To summarize, various theories and approaches have been employed in this work . Severalavailable methods, including document studies, case studies and semi-structured interviews havebeen used to collect data, and in the empirical investigations it has been possible to weighmultiple sources of information. Hence, I believe that the work is based on an extensiveapproach that may enhance the credibility of the research output.However, it is understood that the scientific requirements concerning reliability and validity areonly partly resolved and that further research and more extensive studies are needed. Therefore,the work presented should be regarded as a partial and preliminary report from an evolving areaof study. Despite these reservations, I believe that it will shed light on some key issues andanswer some basic questions that in concert may benefit research and practice.