Explore the vast range of titles available.

Over half of large-scale engineering and construction projects (off-shore oil platforms, chemical plants, metals processing, dams, and similar projects) have miserably poor results. These include billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once finally completed. This book gives a clear, nontechnical understanding of why these major projects get into trouble, and how to prevent hazardous and costly errors when undertaking such large technical and management challenges. Companies worldwide are rethinking their large-scale projects. This book offers the tools and principles that are the true foundation of safe, cost-effective, successful megaprojects and is an essential guide for engineers, business directors and project managers.

In the engineering project management process, through the use of computer technology, can improve the enterprise management of the comprehensive benefits of engineering projects. This paper first describes the connotation and status quo of project management and the important application advantages of computer technology in project engineering, and discusses the application strategy of computer application technology in project management for the reference of readers.

In the current context of economic globalisation and intensifying market competition, refined management of construction projects is crucial, particularly regarding economic performance management, which directly impacts the stable development of construction companies. Most existing studies evaluate performance using a single research method. This paper combines qualitative and quantitative research methods and integrates a comprehensive, scientific, rigorous economic performance analysis system with multi-criteria decision-making. First, utilising numerous journal articles, interview data, book materials, and 407 questionnaire responses, a preliminary economic performance analysis system for engineering project management was developed through three-level coding using grounded theory. Subsequently, a factor analysis was employed to select indicators for the analysis system, resulting in an evaluation framework for the economic performance of engineering project management with eight core assessment indicators. Finally, based on the evaluation system, the relationships between the indicators and the calculation formulas for the three-level indicators were summarised, culminating in a closed-loop, systematic, and multi-dimensional analysis framework. This study enhances the evaluation framework for the economic performance dimension in engineering project management within construction enterprises. It provides robust methodological and data support for assessing economic performance in engineering project management.

Zhang, D. and Liu, X., 2020. Dynamic control method and application of coastal engineering project construction cost based on rough sets. In: Bai, X. and Zhou, H. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 115, pp. 7-9. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The traditional cost analysis method of construction engineering has low operation efficiency and poor convergence performance, which leads to inaccurate cost analysis. With the increasingly fierce competition in the construction market, construction enterprises must strengthen the control and management of project costs in terms of systems and measures in order to continuously find profit space in low-cost and low-profit projects. Due to the complexity of the construction process and the uncertainty of many influencing factors, it is difficult to formulate a scientific cost control strategy, predict the degree of influence of various cost factors and reveal the correlation between them and the total cost before construction. Construction cost management of engineering project is the most concerned topic in coastal engineering project, and also the basis and key point of cost control of coastal engineering project. In order to judge the importance of cost factors and find the relationship between cost factors in coastal engineering projects so as to realize scientific cost control decision-making, it is necessary to objectively judge the main influencing factors of cost based on as many cost data as possible.

This hugely informative and wide-ranging analysis on the management of projects, past, present and future, is written both for practitioners and scholars. Beginning with a history of the discipline's development, Reconstructing Project Management provides an extensive commentary on its practices and theoretical underpinnings, and concludes with proposals to improve its relevancy and value. Written not without a hint of attitude, this is by no means simply another project management textbook. The thesis of the book is that 'it all depends on how you define the subject'; that much of our present thinking about project management as traditionally defined is sometimes boring, conceptually weak, and of limited application, whereas in reality it can be exciting, challenging and enormously important. The book draws on leading scholarship and case studies to explore this thesis. The book is divided into three major parts. Following an Introduction setting the scene, Part 1 covers the origins of modern project management – how the discipline has come to be what it is typically said to be; how it has been constructed – and the limitations of this traditional model. Part 2 presents an enlarged view of the discipline and then deconstructs this into its principal elements. Part 3 then reconstructs these elements to address the challenges facing society, and the implications for the discipline, in the years ahead.  A final section reprises the sweep of the discipline's development and summarises the principal insights from the book. This thoughtful commentary on project (and program, and portfolio) management as it has developed and has been practiced over the last 60-plus years, and as it may be over the next 20 to 40, draws on examples from many industry sectors around the world. It is a seminal work, required reading for everyone interested in projects and their management.

The efficiency of the construction organization can be seen if the organization manages the encountered construction risks efficiently. The opportunity to increase efficiency and profitability in the construction industry is demonstrated by good risk management. The construction industry is well known for its risks and uncertainty, which can possibly have negative outcomes for the construction projects. This paper aims to identify the common risk factors in risk mitigation for civil engineering projects in Malaysia. Quantitative methodology which involved survey questionnaires were sent out to 250 respondents including Grade G7 contractors registered under the Construction Industry Board Malaysia, engineers, project managers, architects, quantity surveyors and others, with 47% responded. It appeared that construction delay, late payment by client, unavailability of funds, poor communication among construction parties and coordination of works among construction were the common risk factors in risk mitigation and have significant impacts on their projects. With extensive risk assessment procedures conducted and a rigorous process with regular meetings among all members of the team, it will keep track those changes and update the mitigation plan.

Construction costs comprise not only production but also transaction costs, which can be categorized as ex-ante (pre-contractual) and ex-post (post-contractual) costs. No evidence has been found in the literature of research about transaction costs in industrial construction engineering projects. The objective of this paper is to identify ex-ante and ex-post transaction costs in industrial engineering construction projects. To accomplish this, empirical research with 4 case studies was conducted with a large engineering firm in Brazil. This research not only identified transaction costs already found by others, dividing them into ex-ante and ex-post, but also identified that travel, RFP clarification, support to strategic decisions of the owner and knowledge transfer are transaction costs not previously identified in the researched literature but that are very relevant to the respective subject. Therefore, this research confirms that transaction costs should be considered ex-ante and ex-post by owners and contractors in industrial construction engineering projects and enlightens academics and practitioners on ways to achieve the reduction of such costs.

PurposeThis study evaluates the implementation of ISO 9001 using total quality management on the engineering, procurement and construction phases in the Jordanian construction sector.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative design has been employed with a total of 132 project team members selected from 5 construction organizations working in Jordan. A close-ended questionnaire was used to gather data which was later evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics.FindingsThe results show a significant role in project performance, customer satisfaction, project quality, cost-effectiveness, time effectiveness, shared cooperation and motivation of employees. It emphasizes the role of engineering in achieving the ISO 9001 standard. Quality standards in the construction project were also endorsed by 46.2% of participants, while 33.3% responded neutrally. The time effectiveness aspects of ISO 9001 endorsed by 38.5% participants 33.3% participants disagreed. Majority of the managers (61.5%) agreed that poor planning is a major barrier in the engineering phase (p-value, 0.011), followed by the incomplete design (56.4%) as the prime impeding factors linked to the decline of the quality in the construction sector.Originality/valueWith the integration of the ISO 9001 quality standard, project managers can improve the project quality and make it cost-effective. The successful adaptation of the ISO 9001 certification allows the company to not only market its product/service but also internally audit itself for the possible deficits in its work capacity.

This paper develops a model, introduced in software, namely Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model (MCDMM). The model helps decision makers selecting the most suitable alternative based on the customer requirements and preferences. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (Fuzzy TOPSIS) form a package that covers most available data types in construction projects. In MCDMM, AHP produces criteria relative weights according to their influence on the discussed problem, while Fuzzy TOPSIS is applied to rank the available alternatives. The model consists of two modules, first one uses AHP only to deal with precise, qualitative alongside quantitative data, while the other module combines AHP with Fuzzy TOPSIS due to the importance of linguistic variables to cover undocumented data. MCDMM is verified using two real case studies. The model is applied to a real case project for constructing solar power plants at Saudi Arabia. A decision required to select the most suitable surveying technique for producing Digital Terrain Model (DTM) among four alternatives (Total Station, Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry, and Global Positioning Systems). This issue is studied and key points are identified for prioritizing among them. Total Station is selected based on the model results.

Purpose Stimulating innovation in projects can contribute to achieving policy goals, addressing societal challenges and meeting objectives within programs and projects. Despite their potential, innovations are rarely included in tender assignments and evaluated in the award of civil engineering projects. One explanation for this is the perceived difficulty in triggering and objectively assessing innovations in the awarding of projects. The aim of this paper is to develop, implement and evaluated a method to encourage and assess innovations in the awarding of bridge construction projects to address this problem. Design/methodology/approach A design science research (DSR) approach is used to develop, implement and evaluate a method to trigger and assess innovations in tenders for bridge projects. DSR approaches are used to develop “well-tested, well-understood and well documented innovative generic designs, dealing with authentic field problems or opportunities” (van Aken et al., 2016). Findings The findings show that the application of the developed method in a bridge project led to the inclusion of a broad range of innovations in the tender offers. Despite the broad support for the defined criteria, there were some differences in the way the criteria were interpreted by the public procurement team and by the tenderers. Despite these differences, no legal claims were filed in court. Practical implications Further development and wider adoption of the method is likely to have a positive impact on the application of innovations in bridge projects. With some adjustments, the method would also be appropriate for other civil engineering and construction projects. Originality/value This paper contributes to the discussion on how the terms innovation and innovativeness can be operationalized and used in the literature and practice. The developed method provides definitions for assessing the degree as well as the level of innovations in tenders for bridge projects. Further, it provides a way to rank innovations and determine the additional value of the offered innovations in terms of a notional reduction in tender price. Finally, it provides insights into how to encourage innovations through public procurement in civil engineering projects.