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The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore alternative coping strategies that may compensate for the limitations of weak governance structure in a product development project.

The findings are based on a single case study, including interviews and documents, of a product development project that consists of two interlinked projects in a large multinational company.

Two distinct procedures are identified to cope and manage effectively when there are weak project governance structures. The first procedure is a horizontal process of operational consensus-seeking where conflicts between projects are negotiated and resolved through communication between independent actors such as two project managers who are at the same hierarchical level within the same organization. The second process is a vertical process of strategic escalation where issues that have failed to be resolved are shifted upwards to a new hierarchical level where a new round of operational consensus-seeking is attempted.

This paper complements the existing understanding of project governance with a project-as-practice perspective. Based on the findings the authors suggest that project governance needs to be nuanced in its understanding since a too-structured approach may in fact increase tensions in an organization.

Practical insights include how organizations may work with its project governance structures in order to avoid tensions. The authors suggest that, in particular, politically sensitive situations may be avoided by weak rather than strong governance structures.

The authors find that weak governance structures may be efficient for the organization, but harmful to personnel, who become too focused on the task at hand.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge very little research has been attributed to project governance from a practice approach. Moreover, most attention has been given to strong structures, thereby not examining the positive implications of weak structures.

The practice of the defects liability period (DLP) is a risk management strategy meant to secure durable and high-quality works. However, construction products continue to malfunction even after the expiration of DLPs. This study seeks to determine the adequacy of DLPs existing in the construction industry and propose appropriate DLPs for construction projects in the Ghanaian construction industry.

Applying quantitative research strategy, 124 questionnaires were retrieved from construction professionals surveyed. The data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics, Cramer’s V and the significance test with the aid of Stata software.

It was found that defects start showing in both buildings and roads within 12 months after being handed over for the client’s use. The significance test and Cramer’s V analysis indicate low concordance amongst respondents that the 6–12 month DLPs existing in Ghana are adequate. It is found that the existing DLP practice does not provide sufficient security to clients.

Construction project clients will need to include the tenderer’s proposed DLP as part of the tender evaluation criteria with the objective of picking up a signal of the quality of work to be delivered.

This paper is one of the pioneering studies addressing the issue of the adequacy of DLPs in the construction industry in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The findings trigger policy and regulatory changes in conditions guiding construction contracts procured in most developing countries that have adopted and adapted to the World Bank Public Procurement Guidelines.

Projects often present specific difficulties for the Records Manager. Records are created in a manner which is fast and furious — with many records being generated in a short space of time. These records are created by different organisations — by the project team, by contractors and by sub‐contractors — and are circulated between them. Different types of document are produced: drawings are often particularly important, as are parts lists. Complex computer applications are now used in many projects, and the records generated by the system should ideally be retained in native format, rather than printed on paper. Change control is important both for hard copy documents and computer based material: documents may go through many revisions, and it is essential that these revisions are managed effectively. The hand‐over of documentation from project to operator can be problematic if the views and requirements of both groups are not considered at an early stage. In this programme, the opportunity was provided to meet with both project and operations personnel: it was significant that both groups were aware of the importance of the documentation generated during the project and were concerned that important records series should be identified and retained. Project staff were aware of the importance of retaining material as a basis for new projects while operating railway personnel require items such as as‐built drawings and manuals to provide an effective ongoing railway service.

Design management plays a significant role in value creation in a construction project. Within the last few decades, new design tools such as building information model have been introduced, which supposedly enhance design productivity and quality. However, no such revolution of design quality has emerged. Therefore, more research on how design management affects the quality of construction project is needed. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the connection between design management procedures and quality.

This is a case study with a mixed-method approach. The data collection strategies used are quantitative user satisfaction survey and qualitative analysis over the documentation of the case project.

A deductive analysis was conducted to four suggested indicators of beneficial collaboration. An explanation was found for how the quality of the project outcome can be forecasted from the management style and procedures.

The research was conducted as single case study, and therefore, greater data would enable further development of the indicators.

The indicators have wide range of applicability: the clients can forecast the quality performance by evaluating the management procedures already during the project instead of waiting until the end of project. The indicator system also provides societal impact as it guides the clients to use the kind of managerial practices that improve the ability to create value in projects that are difficult to evaluate in money terms.

The research provides a novel way to gain a holistic view with analytical indicator tools. The research contributes to lean design management literature by providing insight to the underlying mechanism of beneficial collaboration.

The aim of this study is to establish a framework with which process plants can evaluate the performance of their turnaround maintenance (TAM) projects at the end of the event without making reference to previous events.

This is a case study. The study involved the case studies of six process plants in the UK. Three sources of evidence were used in this study including; interviews, direct observation and official documents.

The case studies show that TAM projects can be evaluated by assessment of the management performance and the resultant benefits realised. The uses of generic project success measures are not very adequate for TAM.

The study developed success measurement criteria for TAM projects. Instead of comparing performance of TAM projects with previous ones to assess how successful the outcome is, organisations can evaluate their TAM project's performance based on the current TAM using the criteria developed in the framework. In addition, these success criteria will enable the organisation to evaluate the benefits expected from the TAM project outcome at hand‐over of the plant from the TAM project management to the operations management.

Operators of process plants and hence engineering facilities still measure the outcome of TAM using measures that are generic for EPC projects. Considering the peculiar nature of TAM, this study has developed success measurement criteria for TAM projects specifically.

The era of digital construction, including building information modelling (BIM), has placed a high demand for a seamless collaboration of people, technology and processes in meeting a project delivery. The project actors involved in a BIM process must ensure compliance with all regulations and contractual requirements from inception. While many studies have disclosed the various contractual implications arising from BIM implementation, little has been examined on the current state of BIM in contract administration practice, particularly in the Malaysian construction industry. This study aims to explore the current state of BIM implementation with specific reference to a design-and-build construction project.

The exploratory case study involved the construction of a public complex. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with the project actors, and document analysis was performed on the project’s contractual guidelines to derive the findings.

Findings from the thematic analysis revealed the following five sequences of activities that guided the contract administration practices, particularly during the pre-contract and post-contract stages of a BIM-based construction project: project inception, tendering phase, detailed design, construction and preparation for the handing over phase. Most of the activities were conducted to deliver the final BIM outputs successfully. Nevertheless, some shortcomings were noted in the project monitoring, the validation process of the BIM deliverables and the BIM players’ competency level in fulfilling the specified BIM contractual requirements.

The study contributes to a practical understanding of how BIM can affect project administration and how a public client can improve contractual risk allocation in future BIM implementation.

This paper discloses the current practices of contract administration to better understand the impacts of BIM management during the pre-contract and post-contract stages of a BIM-based construction project.

The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the reasons why Construction Operation Building Information Exchange (COBie) has not become mainstream across the construction industry despite the significant attempts to promote it.

This paper framed and compared the normative model of COBie to a descriptive model of COBie. The normative model was based on the assumptions and planned procedures outlined in the COBie documentation. The descriptive model was developed through a case study of COBie implementation, with ethnographic observations, interviews and artifact analysis as the data collection methods and thematic analysis as the data analysis method.

The comparative analysis of the normative and descriptive models showed that the underlying normative assumptions of COBie can be challenged in its implementation. In the case study, implementing COBie disrupted the conventional practice of few participating firms as the data requirements and the expected sequences and timelines of tasks were not aligned with the industry norms for exchanging data. Furthermore, the normative model of COBie could not account for the unanticipated variability in the internal routines of firms for submittal production.

COBie, as an instruction-based model, may not provide enough flexibility for some firms to adapt to its requirements such that COBie tasks become integrated with their existing workflows. COBie tasks may become additional efforts, and at times, conflict with the industry norms and firms’ routines, and therefore, disrupt the efficiency goals.

This paper provides empirical evidence to clarify why implementing COBie has not been as efficient for all industry players as expected.

Adopting a qualitative research design and following a single case study research methodology 21 semi-structured interviews with asset integrity project managers (PM), project sponsors (PS) and members of the project management office (PMO) were conducted. These were complemented with company’s project management framework documents and tools and direct observation by the researcher’s observation.

The data on the value creation in the mining asset integrity and improvement project portfolio was collected through 21 interviews with PM, PS and members of the PMO and complemented by observational data and the analysis of the Australian mining company process documentation.

The study finds that establishing a culture of delivering value supported by functional governance is critical for effective value creation practice in asset integrity and improvement project portfolios. In addition, early engagement of the key stakeholders with clearly defined roles and utilisation of project value management artifacts, enables effective value delivery throughout the project lifecycle.

The research offers an empirically grounded framework to facilitate value creation throughout the project lifecycle in asset integrity and improvement project portfolios drawing on a benchmarking case of an Australian mining company.

Risk management has become an integral part in businesses around the world. In the construction industry, risk management has also been introduced and has been mainly entrusted in the hands of the project team to go through a laid down risk management processes to identify possible risk events, which may occur during the project execution and the impact they may have on the project deliverables should they occur. It is, however, believed that small construction firms do not take risk management as a serious exercise even though most of the project risks are transferred to them as subcontractors. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate risk management processes in the small construction companies and the impact of risk management on their project deliverables.

A case study of a single construction company was used for this study. Data were collected through structured questionnaire to 16 respondents who are involved in the project execution in the case study company. Two managing directors of the case study company were also interviewed. In total, 11 project site meetings were also attended to observe meeting proceedings and to record issues discussed. In total, 15 monthly project reports and project close-out reports were also studied. In total, One hundred and five completed projects of which 58 per cent were renovation projects, 27 per cent were new projects and 15 per cent were civil/structural works were also examined. The data were then analysed using excel analytical tool and the content analysis method.

The findings indicate that small construction companies with respect to the case study company do not have a specific laid down risk management processes that project team are made to go through before and during the execution of their projects. There is, however, no conclusive evidence regarding the impact of risk management on project performance as a significant number of projects done were able to meet a successful project performance indicators even though risk management exercises were not done. Some of the identified risk events that caused project failures are payment delays, labour related issues, subcontractor/main contractor related issues, insufficient contingency reserves/plan, etc.

Only one construction company was used as a case study for this research and all sources of data were related to a single company. The results may, therefore, be not generalisable.

The research has discovered that projects outcome could have improved tremendously if proper risk management exercises were implemented before project execution as most of the causes of project failures could have been identified through the risk management processes. This study, hence, gives an insight as to why small construction firms like the case study company should take risk management seriously in their projects execution to improve on the performance of their projects.

The research has discovered that projects outcome could have improved tremendously if proper risk management exercises were implemented before project execution as most of the causes of project failures could have been identified through the risk management processes. This study, hence, gives an insight as to why small construction firms like the case study company should take risk management seriously in their projects execution to improve on the performance of their projects.

In this paper, the authors propose a new lens to examine international humanitarian organizations' responsibilities in the context of project closure, what authors call “an ethics of the temporary”. The authors offer this as an orienting ethical ideal to facilitate the moral imagination of humanitarian planners, practitioners and stakeholders.

The authors drew on recent philosophical work on responsibilities for global justice to analyze an ethical concern inherent to humanitarian practice, the proper scope of responsibility in the context of closure of humanitarian projects.

The ethics of the temporary includes four elements: situating humanitarian action temporally with attention to the past and how it shapes a current crisis and crisis response, focusing attention on anticipating and seeking to mitigate potential harm, promoting sustainability and greater equity going forward and emphasizing inclusive, collaborative approaches. The authors propose a set of questions that can foster discussion and reflection about the scope of humanitarian responsibilities at project closure.

Although the authors' work is primarily conceptual, it has many practical implications for humanitarian policy and practice. It can support critical reflection and offers a process for considering the scope of responsibility at project closure and decisions around how to close a given intervention in a manner that avoids causing harm and advances equity.

Very little work has been done on ethical closure of humanitarian projects. Most literature offers critiques. This essay contributes a new approach to closure, the ethical ideal and practice of an ethics of the temporary.