Bjørn Andersen

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Introduction: This study aims to create an expert system questionnaire and assess the potential impact of delays and project cost changes after disasters. These are important considerations for achieving sustainable development goals and restoring normalcy to communities affected by natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and fires, environment...

Remote driving, a well‐matured technology in various industries, is relatively new to the railway sector but appears to be a promising solution for achieving advanced automation, especially for conventional trains. The shift from traditional in‐cab driving to automated train operation, especially remote operations is a complex and ongoing process,...

Purpose In the project initiation phase, an appraisal is needed to clarify the strategic problem and alternative solutions. Full-scale construction projects and simple solutions ( do-minimum alternatives) should be assessed. The do-nothing alternative is the baseline for the appraisal and an option in itself. The paper explores the role of do-nothi...

With the increasing popularity of collaborative project delivery models to deliver infrastructure projects, there has been a growing interest in the possibility of integrating contractors in the preconstruction phase of the project using Early Contractor Involvement (ECI). However, previous studies on the impact of ECI did not consider whether the...

Focusing on business cases in the context of portfolio management, we investigate how to build a business mindset in the frontend of projects. By applying theory on practical knowledge, in this study, we propose an approach to create business opportunities by developing a business mindset in the front-end of projects. A main research contribution f...

Purpose This paper proposes a progressive, multi-level framework for diagnosing maintenance performance: rapid performance health checks of key performance for different equipment groups and end-to-end process diagnostics to further locate potential performance issues. A question-based performance evaluation approach is introduced to support the se...

Growth in facilities management (FM) and project management (PM) have been remarkable over the last decade. Simultaneously, the adoption of sustainability principles among organisations has also increased. The purpose of this study was to determine the connection between sustainability in PM and FM. Specifically, this research study aimed at unders...

Growth in facilities management (FM) and project management (PM) have been remarkable over the last decade. Simultaneously, the adoption of sustainability principles among organisations has also increased. The purpose of this study was to determine the connection between sustainability in PM and FM. Specifically, this research study aimed at unders...

The world needs to transform in sustainable ways, in large part due to the environmental hazards caused by and negative effects of the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. The AEC industry, including facilities management (FM), is a key stakeholder in sustainability issues and responsible for a large part (40% on average) of c...

Rapporten ser på håndteringen av null- og nullplussalternativene i konseptvalgutredninger (KVU). Vi finner at nullalternativet ofte ikke utredes som et valgbart alternativ, men kun tas med som sammenligningsgrunnlag. Videre at analysen av nullalternativets konsekvenser over levetiden er lite transparent, og at usikkerhet og opsjonsverdier i nullalt...

Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) in infrastructure projects has been a recent focus in the construction industry as it aids in enhancing constructability as well as allowing the integration of societal and sustainability-focused objectives. The existing literature on ECI mostly focuses on the potential benefits and challenges of ECI but does not...

Knowledge on sustainable development goals (SDGs) interactions has a bias toward global perspectives and lacks regional or country‐specific differentiation. This paper takes a biosphere‐based sustainability approach and assesses SDG interactions in a local governmental context. We start by addressing how the SDGs promote a biosphere‐based sustainab...

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Razan-Alqassabi/publication/356260139_Iraq_conflict_Security_issues/links/6193b22607be5f31b78a1443/Iraq-conflict-Security-issues.pdf

The purpose of this study is to examine how artificial intelligence (AI) can help reduce waste on construction sites. An explorative, mixed-method research design is deployed. Qualitative methods were utilised, including an extensive literature search, 32 interviews, a project visit, and participation in chosen seminars. Additionally, quantitative...

Graphical representation of the ANN model and program

Purpose The front-end phase plays an important role in achieving project success, and establishment of performance measurement systems considering project challenges or pitfalls is a way of keeping track of this phase. Early warning signs, a type of proactive performance indicators, may serve as means for improving decision-making and project proce...

In this paper we look at four Norwegian manufacturers’ Information System and stages of Information Technology adaptation, explaining how practice of technology and actions/workarounds to IT systems, that enables, hinders, and drives change in wanted or unwanted directions. Four stages of technology and organizational integration is described: Plan...

Lean construction has inspired the AEC industry globally over the last decades, and this manifests within a wide array of contexts. The purpose of this paper is to provide a narrative-based qualitative analysis of the emergence and impact of Lean construction on a national level, notably in the Norwegian AEC industry. The analysis is based on the c...

Societal development is increasingly undertaken as major public projects in different sectors. Project governance is important for strategically successful outcomes; thus, a broad societal perspective should be kept throughout the governance process. State ownership exists in many forms, and major public projects’ governance arrangements differ. Qu...

Hospital projects, like other major projects, start with the front-end phase, which considerably affects projects’ strategic success. There is an expressed need for more knowledge of the front-end to improve and thus strengthen the odds for strategic success. Hospital projects are complex and challenging to run much due to multiple stakeholders and...

The total cost of a construction project involves both the cost of production and the transaction costs associated with managing the project. However, we know surprisingly little about the magnitude of transaction costs in construction projects. The purpose of this paper is to provide more empirical data as we study what proportion of the total cos...

In this article we present findings from an investigation into the influence of partnering success factors on multi-partner projects’ abilities to meet time schedule, budget, and technical specifications. Our findings are based on the analysis of nation-wide surveys within the engineering consultancy industry in Denmark and Norway, and the research...

In many countries, there is increasing interest in promoting relational PDMs to avoid the adverse objectives and conflicts that have characterized the industry due to the use of traditional forms. For countries that are new to this concept, deciding on and shifting from a traditional environment to a collaborative one is not easy while the set-up c...

Denne artikkelen diskuterer hvordan ulike virkemidler kan benyttes for å bedre samfunnsøkonomisk lønnsomhet i store prosjekter. Dette gjøres gjennom å drøfte resultater fra følgeforskning på veiprosjektet E18 Dørdal – Grimstad hvor selskapet Nye Veier har benyttet såkalt prestasjonskjøp, eller Best Value Procurement (BVP), til å kontrahere en rådgi...

The purpose of the study on which this paper is based was to conduct a performance evaluation of student learning for an introductory course in project management in a higher educational institution in Norway. This was done by utilizing performance measurement philosophy to evaluate perceived student learning after a project-based assignment was ap...

Development of healthcare services is a societal responsibility often appearing as major public projects. These types of projects often have a long lifetime expectancy and represent large investments and changes to established welfare systems with a considerable societal impact. This makes strategic project success depending on front-end planning p...

Despite an abundance of research on the topic, firms continue to struggle with integrating their value chains in order to create and deliver more value to customers. Silo-thinking (rather than systems-thinking) is a typical symptom of poorly integrated value chains. In this paper, we explore the enablers of better value chain integration, before de...

In 2018, the Construction giant Carillion went into compulsory liquidation costing the UK taxpayers an estimated £148m. According to our analysis performed on the case, the demise of Carillion was the result of accumulation of failures and normalisation of deviations from good practice. The purpose of this study is to better understand how deviance...

Existing research suggests a positive relationship between the level of collaboration in projects and project performance in terms of cost, time and quality. However, empirical data to support this are scant and this paper responds to the calls for more empirical research on this specific relationship. In this paper, we conducted bivariate analysis...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine people’s understanding and evaluation of uncertainty intervals produced by experts as part of a quality assurance procedure of large public projects. Design/methodology/approach Three samples of educated participants (employees in a large construction company, students attending courses in project ma...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore scenario development (SD) as a method for engaging known challenges in collaborative research projects, i.e. SD is the construct under investigation. Design/methodology/approach Criticism of the dominant, rational approach to project management (PM) and its underlying hypotheses highlights a consider...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of stakeholder dynamics and to show how stakeholders demonstrate their dynamic nature in the power/interest matrix. This, in turn, should assist project management and stakeholder management practitioners predict the behavior of different stakeholder groups in their projects, and strategiz...

Link to full article - https://www.emeraldinsight.com/eprint/ASHH3VDRXSIQBHURDFB7/full Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and complete the existing lack of quantitative data at the crossroads between organizational support (OS) practices and project management success in global projects (GPs) and discuss implication of the results...

Purpose Transaction costs in projects can be reduced through improved collaboration between contractors and clients. The purpose of this paper is to respond to the call for further research on the framework suggested by Li et al. (2015) who presented 26 factors that determine project transaction costs. The objective is to empirically test the frame...

The paper presents a method for the development of safety indicators for a process industry application based on a system engineering perspective. Traditional approaches use probabilistic risk assessment or linear accident models which assume that accidents are linear chains of events and do not consider complex systemic factors and interactions. A...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate an effective project management practice focusing on planning and control. By doing so, it contributes to the debate on rethinking traditional project management practices and accentuates the need for adjustments based on the project context. Design/methodology/approach This paper ext...

Purpose – Projects often face delays and unnecessary use of time due to various factors and reasons, and hence suffer from unfavourable consequences. The purpose of this paper is to identify the universal delay factors from an intensive literature review, complemented by delay factors in major Norwegian construction projects based on empirical data...

Purpose – With the aim of furthering the understanding of project speed and how to manage the urgent project, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the management challenges involved in delivering a telecommunications infrastructure project in a period of much shorter duration than a similar project. The authors wanted to understand the reaso...

Construction is one of the largest sectors that drive the global economy, yet it has failed to receive the necessary attention from the policymakers and investors. The existing construction statistics report the declining state of labour productivity. However, existing statistics often fail to reflect the true scope and economic impact of construct...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study public project governance frameworks in various ministries and agencies in Norway, following the introduction of such a framework on the topmost level (i.e. the cabinet) which applies to the very largest projects. Design/methodology/approach The study is methodologically designed as a qualitative asses...

Several projects encounter delays and unnecessary use of time as a result of to various factors and hence suffer unfavorable consequences. The Norwegian construction industry is no exception. There are factors causing delays in Norwegian construction projects which have many negative effects on all parties, including the projects' outputs and outco...

Clarification of what partnering is and its practical implications may help the construction industry to achieve the full benefits of this concept. The purpose of this study is to shed more light on how the partnering concept as practiced in real-life projects compares with the way partnering is described in the literature by exploring the hard (fo...

While there are many mathematical approaches to order acceptance (OA), the performance of OA in practice is overlooked. This paper assesses current OA methods and performance measures that could measure OA. The outcome is a conceptual performance measurement system for OA that measures performance through utilization of resources, output and flexib...

Purpose The construction industry is a labor-intensive industry, hence, the presence of labor with high productivity at each stage of the project plays a significant role in achieving project success. The purpose of this paper is to provide real-life empirical data about the current level of construction productivity, in this case electrical insta...

Purpose Due to observed problems in real-life projects stemming from the lack of a unified definition, the purpose of this paper is to formulate a new definition of project partnering (PP) through documenting the specific characteristics researchers attribute to this approach. Design/methodology/approach PP definition phrases extracted from a lite...

Purpose Many leisure boat manufacturers have thrived on designing and building highly customized boats based on longstanding traditions of craftsmanship. To achieve efficient value chains, it is not enough to optimize each process step, but also important to achieve a smooth flow through the dependencies between each process steps. The purpose of t...

Logistics processes in hospitals are vital in the provision of patient care. Improving healthcare logistics processes provides an opportunity for reduced healthcare costs and better support of clinical processes. Hospitals are faced with increasing healthcare costs around the world and improvement initiatives prevalent in manufacturing industries s...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate to which extent partnering practices observed in earlier research focussing on the construction industry are applied in offshore development drilling projects. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews earlier research on project partnering and the relationship-based procurement (RBP) taxonomy...

Starting from a large case project in Norway, a research gap was identified concerning analyses of experiences in the use of different relational contract models. This study explores the experiences with relational contracts in large infrastructure projects in selected countries. We looked at what types of contracts were applied, why these, what we...

Because research focusing on sustainability in a project context is still nascent and fragmented, we carried out a systematic literature review covering all research published in five leading journals in the fields of project management and sustainable production prior to 2016. Our analysis revealed two distinct perspectives in the project sustaina...

There is a clear link between the building design and the value creation by the businesses and users of the buildings. Measuring project success is a complex task and has traditionally been associated with criteria like time, cost and quality in the project society. However, modern project management literature has revealed that other objectives sh...

Although partnering is one of the preferred methods of project delivery to address adversarial behavior, there is still a lack of a thorough and descriptive definition over this concept. Certain requirements must be met if we want to classify a project in the partnering cluster. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to break down partnering into...

The paper focuses on the development of the ex-post conceptual holistic framework for Project Evaluation on Strategic, Tactical and Operational Levels, the PESTOL model, by reviewing different definitions of project success and/or failure and combining the findings with the logic framework. The model reflects the project life cycle by considering a...

Although partnering is one of the preferred methods of project delivery to address adversarial behavior, there is still a lack of a thorough and descriptive definition over this concept. Certain requirements must be met if we want to classify a project in the partnering cluster. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to break down partnering into...

Concurrent engineering and performance measurement are both manufacturing industry concepts that have coexisted and complemented each other for the manufacturing industry success. Construction industry has integrated manufacturing philosophies but still waits for the success manufacturing industry enjoyed. With the help from the literature, the pap...

A “Black Swan” is produced when the gap between what we know and what we think we know becomes dangerously wide (Taleb, 2007). This concept is closely related to uncertainty and learning. A Black Swan event is usually a surprise, at least to the observer. However the Black Swan event very much depends on the observer. What may be a Black Swan surpr...

Reducing project execution time is an important aspect in today's construction industry. In practice, most construction projects are delivered behind schedule. This creates an incentive to find methods, processes and techniques to deal with elements which steal time and bottlenecks which cause delays. This paper address the magnitude, frequency and...

The construction industry relies on time-to-delivery to gain competitive advantages and increase profit margins. The aim of this paper is to develop a framework for measuring construction project speed. This will be done by identifying a range of key performance indicators (KPIs). This identification of KPIs helps set a benchmark for measuring the...

Managing projects within ETO industry is a process that demands, among other things, a good planning and control system that can cope with the dynamic and challenging environ-ment, specific to this kind of industry. Views about what is optimal change, as the situation changes and new information becomes available. There is no way that a central pla...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to adopt an in-depth perspective on cost estimation, from the development of the initial idea until the budget is agreed, to obtain new insights into issues of underestimation at the front-end. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a small sample of projects with exceptional increases in cost estimates...

Utilizing time effectively and efficiently is one of the important factors that can determine the success of achieving desired results of projects. Nevertheless, several projects come across delays and unnecessary use of time due to various reasons, and hence suffer from unfavorable consequences. Construction industry is not exceptional. There are...

A " Black Swan " is produced when the gap between what we know and what we think we know becomes dangerously wide (Taleb, 2007). This concept is closely related to uncertainty and learning. A Black Swan event is usually a surprise, at least to the observer. However the Black Swan event very much depends on the observer. What may be a Black Swan sur...

Reducing project execution time is an important aspect in today’s construction industry. In practice, most of the construction projects are delivered behind schedule. This is an incentive to find methods, processes and techniques to deal with elements which steal time and bottlenecks which cause delays. This paper address the magnitude, frequency a...

The construction industry is active within its environment. The desirability to deliver construction projects within the schedule or even ahead of it is examined. Nowadays, this industry relies on time-to-delivery and time-to-market to gain competitive advantages and increase profit margins. This has created an increased demand for a high performan...

The project delivery method (PDM) greatly influences the project outcome. Design-Build, Construction Management and Design-Bid-Build represent the three main methods. Each PDM comes up with its own advantages and disadvantages which suit different projects in different circumstances. A general literature review and a case specific document study we...

In this study we aim to understand how performance indicators should be designed and implemented across various phases and levels in materials management in the order fulfilment process under engineering changes. The paper address questions such as how can such systems help managers to handle and manage materials management under engineering change...

Ship design and construction involves numerous activities that have to be effectively performed, coordinated and integrated. Various elements can influence the effectiveness of the process due to projects’ large number of stakeholders and the high level of uncertainty. One of the most challenging issues is the delay in product delivery. However, th...

Uncertainty management is one of the important aspects of project management. Uncertainty may conceal positive or negative surprises for a project – opportunities and threats respectively. However, studies show that many projects focus much more on avoiding or mitigating threats than exploring and exploiting opportunities. Opportunities can contrib...

It is a major challenge for project organizations to react sufficiently quickly to the identified early warning signs of project problems in order to avoid the occurrence of those problems. This article investigates project and project organization specifications that influence the effectiveness of responses to early warning signs in projects. Base...

Clients want to improve the innovation and efficiency in infrastructure projects, and thereby reduce time and money spent on construction and maintenance. The purpose of this paper is to present and compare experiences with new implementation strategies in infrastructure projects, and to identify how the different strategies contribute to innovatio...

This paper treats tolerance engineering from an organizational perspective. It examines the efforts an industrial company undertakes to understand their current Tolerance Engineering (TE) practice and its improvement potential. Organizational aspects of TE represent a scarcely researched area beyond the traditional focus on tolerancing tools and me...

Considerably less research is found on tolerance specifications compared to research on tolerance analysis and synthesis. Where tolerance analysis and synthesis often can be completely understood based on technical input we argue that an extended research approach is needed to understand tolerance specification complexity. We have aimed to understa...

Knowledge from multiple sources is required for defining tolerances in new product development (NPD). Successful outcomes in product development (PD) depend on the collective ability to integrate this knowledge into the product. Assessing variability and tolerance capabilities are essential parts of PD-knowledge as they represent limits of specific...

The globalized business and organizational environment is creating a growing need for project managers that can operate in a variety of cultural and socio-economic settings and are capable of handling the complexities that arise while working in an international context. It is of course a very important aspect to be considered by project managers t...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an overview on the concept of early warning (EW) signs in projects, briefly introduce the project health check (PHC) tool, and evaluate the level of efficiency of this tool as a source of data for an EW approach signaling that a project is about to experience problems in the future. Design/methodol...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore a selection of projects to understand how conceptual appraisals and choice of concepts are handled, and to which extent the conceptual opportunity space is exploited. Design/methodology/approach – The study is essentially case based, and rooted in a number of in-depth studies of single-project case...

This is not a research article but an opinion paper that shares insight into the field of performance measurement from both our direct observations and the views of several manufacturing and service companies from the UK and Norway. Data was collected through a survey on the adoption and utilisation of performance measurement systems. Originally st...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to complement the research that has been done in global projects so far and has two objectives: to study organizational challenges in global projects, compared with those of traditional projects; and to define and analyze the main organizational challenges the project team members and project managers meet whe...

In this paper, we attempt to provide an overview of the full extent of early warning detection approaches, which are directly or indirectly addressed in the literature. These approaches can aid project managers in taking corrective actions timely enough for preventing failures. The study is based on a review of the current literature within the fie...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the concept of early warning signs in projects and explain how a performance measurement system can be utilized as a source of data for an early warning approach signaling that a project is about to experience problems at some stage in the future. Design/methodology/approach Combinatio...