Search

Companies face new challenges needing to find ways to stand out from the competitors. All companies face new projects, which need to be managed assertively and faster, launching new products on the market ahead of competitors. This strategy requires enormous dexterity and agility within teams, which are increasingly multifaceted, multidisciplinary, and multifunctional. However, teams need to conciliate apparent freedom for creation with the sustainability rules, which are increasingly demanding, such as legislation and image that companies want to pass on to the market in terms of corporate social responsibility, ensuring a sustainable development of the companies. The goal of this work is to investigate and correlate agile project management and sustainability, taking into account that there are strong relationships, as well as to learn how agile project management affects organization's social, environmental, and economical dynamics from the triple bottom line standpoint. The research examines how agile project management ideas are connected to the triple bottom line concepts based on the literature. The framework was based on the theoretical assumptions underpinning the present research. The basic structure of the developed framework is based on the framework of a matrix-based method for ordering and synthesizing data. Thus, network diagrams have been developed reproducing the links existing in the literature, both explicitly and implicitly. However, they were deeply expanded considering links not previously referred in the literature. An explanation about these new links is also provided, justifying their inclusion. Hence, the new diagrams offer a more complete landscape about how the adoption of agile practices in project management can improve sustainability in its different aspects, and vice-versa. The findings reveal that implementing agile project management induces direct effects on an organization's social, economic, and environmental dynamics of the companies, as well as in their teams, with a favorable effect on all of them

Isomorphic pressures are thought to stimulate change and adoption of best practice in risk management (RM). Although this certainly occurs in most industries, it is not occurring in the construction industry. This research investigates institutional isomorphism in the Australian construction industry. In-depth interviews and surveys about the use of current risk tools and techniques (RT&T) by 25 experienced construction project managers (CPMs) were used to examine existing practice. A Delphi survey was conducted to validate these interviews using 11 experienced CPMs. These CPM reconfirmed that coercive and normative pressures created institutional isomorphism and a common approach in managing occupational health and safety (OH&S) risks. In contrast, for other categories of risk, CPMs have decoupled their practice from stipulations in standards by adopting a limited range of predominantly qualitative risk tools and techniques. CPMs, consider it more efficient and effective to rely on accrued experience, teams and external experts because of the unique constraints in construction projects. This research challenges the notion that CPMs are deficient in adopting new paradigms and opens an academic discourse on whether industry-specific project RM standards should be developed. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the underlying factors that give rise to the set of sustainability indicators which are used for the implementation of sustainable construction projects and eventually the production of sustainable built assets.Design/methodology/approachTo accomplish the purpose of this research, an online questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of 200 experts. By employing the statistical method of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), five distinct dimensions (factors) of stakeholders' attitudes were revealed.FindingsThe findings indicate that the sustainability indicators are based on five underlying factors, namely (1) sustainable competitiveness; (2) stakeholder engagement; (3) sustainable economic growth; (4) social sustainability; and (5) resource conservation and environmental policy.Research limitations/implicationsMore studies would be welcome to verify the underlying factors revealed in this paper.Practical implicationsThe knowledge of the underlying factors enables senior management to maintain a balance of choices during the project management (PM) phase in order to implement and deliver sustainable construction projects. Furthermore, the findings deepen the understanding toward sustainable PM practices by providing insights on its core attributes.Originality/valueAs a theoretical contribution to knowledge, this study enhances the body of knowledge by revealing the underlying factors that give rise to the predefined set of the 82 sustainability indicators which are used to enable sustainable construction projects. In practice, the findings aid senior management in adopting strategies that enhance the delivery of sustainable construction projects.

Sustainable project management practices constantly gain importance over the last years. Relevant indicators constitute a means of leading modern projects to sustainability. Hence, it is necessary ...

Studies reveal that drivers’ behavior is the most significant factor in road accidents worldwide. Regarding tunnels, which are the most critical element of road infrastructure, despite the significant efforts that have been conducted toward the enhancement of drivers’ education all these years, studies illustrate that there are still serious deficiencies need to be tackled. To address this issue, this research endeavor develops a virtual reality tool based on the serious game idea in order to inform and educate potential users about the specific rules and behavioral patterns that should govern their safe driving when passing through tunnels. To do so, the appropriate behavioral patterns are determined using applicable norms and guidelines while the specific educational requirements are identified. Following that, the novel tool for training users is developed. The tool consists of a virtual reality gaming environment based on the notion of serious games that simulates driving through a tunnel from a first-person perspective. Various scenarios are developed within this environment based on the knowledge gaps identified in the literature, with the aim of assessing users’ knowledge as well as educating them when required. The developed tool was tried by more than 50 drivers, professional and non-professional during tool’s launch activities. In particular, drivers who had recently obtained a driver’s license confirmed that such a tool would be especially useful in the context of their training. The ultimate goal of this study is to provide an efficient tool in order to support both practitioners and authorities to significantly improve the safety level of road tunnels by emphasizing on the driving behavior, since this is considered the most crucial component of each tunnel system.

During the last years, renewable energy strategies for sustainable development perform as best practices and strategic insights necessary to support large scale organizations’ approach to sustainability. Power purchase agreements (PPAs) enhance the value of such initiatives. A renewable PPA contract delivers green energy efficiently to organizations that seek sustainability benefits. Consequently, various approaches that define PPAs are utilized to motivate both interested parties to participate in such deals. Highlighting sustainability tactics during negotiations and identifying relative impacts during the projects’ implementation are both necessary. Following the methodological approach of this study, open-ended criteria are used to identify vital negotiation pricing patterns that permit practitioners to deliver win–win outcomes. The aim of this research is to introduce a multicriteria decision analysis-based method, namely PROMETHEE, to evaluate the implementation of sustainability-related strategies using PPAs. This paper proposes a method for ranking alternative sustainable energy strategies in order for decision-makers to be able to select the most appropriate PPA structure for an organization.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to identify the most impactful delay risks in Australian construction projects, including the associations amongst those risks as well as the project phases in which they are most likely present. The correlation between project and organisational characteristics with the impact of delay risks was also studied.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 118 delayed construction projects in Australia. Data were analysed to rank the most impactful delay risks, their correlation to project and organisational characteristics and project phases where those risks are likely to emerge. Association rule learning was used to capture associations between the delay risks.FindingsThe top five most impactful delay risks in Australia were changes by the owner, slow decisions by the owner, preparation and approval of design drawings, underestimation of project complexity and unrealistic duration imposed to the project, respectively. There is a set of delay risks that are mutually associated with project complexity. In addition, while delay risks associated with resources most likely arise in the execution phase, stakeholder and process-related risks are more smoothly distributed along all the project phases.Originality/valueThis research for the first time investigated the impact of delay risks, associations amongst them and project phases in which they are likely to happen in the Australian context. Also, this research for the first time sheds light on the project phases for the individual project delay risks which aids the project managers to understand where to focus on during each phase of the project.

Researchers have not studied the human side of project managers thoroughly. Decision-making mechanisms lie not only in technocratic knowledge but also in practitioners’ inner cultures and personal lifestyles. Highlighting the human (f)actor behind the strategic decisions made in projects reveals a new path for analyzing project managers. This article applies Bourdieu’s practice theory within the field of project management through a qualitative study into 17 successful and experienced Greek project managers. The results exhibit the common social characteristics of successful project managers and suggest that project managers must be viewed from a sociological perspective as well.

The multidimensional problems that archaeological sites and cultural heritage assets face demand effective multiple criteria decision-making, regarding risk impact identification and evaluation. Th...

Despite the existence of previous studies on risks in Public Private Partnership transportation projects, there is still absence of an overall risk catalogue, common terminology and consistent risk structure. This research provides comprehensive risk inventory, harmonious language and taxonomy for risk classification. A systematic literature review was conducted that resulted in 72 recent articles. The Concept-driven and the Grounded theory approaches were combined for the qualitative data analysis. As a result, 86 unique risks were identified and grouped according to the phase of the project life cycle they are likely to occur. As obtained from the analysis, the most frequent risks in literature are ‘low traffic demand’, ‘escalation of operation-maintenance cost’, ‘inflation rate fluctuation’, ‘problems with land acquisition and compensation’, ‘change in laws and regulations’ and ‘interest rate fluctuation’. The proposed terminology and taxonomy appear to be appropriate and provide an overall understanding of risk identification and classification as well as improve the effectiveness of communications for both PPP practitioners and academics in this area. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Tunnels have a unique driving environment; thus, a small incident in a tunnel may result in severe consequences and a high probability of secondary crashes. Fortunately, studies have found that adopting safe driving behavior in a tunnel minimizes the severe outcomes of an incident. Therefore, implementing driver-oriented safety policies and conducting public awareness campaigns that emphasize safe behavior when driving through tunnels are essential. However, before devising policies and campaigns on the right issues, it is necessary to understand drivers' current level of knowledge regarding tunnel safety, their habits, behavioral intentions, and psychological condition while driving through tunnels. To achieve this objective, a sample of 841 responses was collected from China using a questionnaire survey consisting of fifty-two items. The results showed that several gaps exist in drivers' knowledge regarding tunnel safety and equipment. Drivers often adopt inappropriate habits and behaviors while driving through tunnels. Also, the tunnel environment has a significant influence on the psychological condition of the drivers. Moreover, drivers' demographic characteristics significantly affect their knowledge, reported habits and behavioral intentions, and psychological condition. The authorities and safety analysts could employ the suggestions highlighted in the present study for improving tunnel safety.

PurposeDespite the advent of sophisticated control methods, there are still significant issues regarding late delivery of information technology projects. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the common causes of scheduling problems specifically in the information technology projects context.Design/methodology/approachThrough a quantitative research, the importance of those causes, as well as the underpinning factors driving them, is explored. The causes are ranked according to their relative important index, and exploratory factor analysis is employed to reveal underlying dimensions (factors) of these causes.FindingsFrom the analysis, four factors were extracted, namely, “Dataless Newbie,” “Technical Newbie,” “Pragmatic Futurist” and “Optimistic Politician.” These factors explain the different latent conditions that lead to scheduling problems in information technology projects.Practical implicationsThe key contribution of this research is that it enlightens the latent conditions underpinning scheduling problems. Also, the evidence provides that schedule development for information technology projects is impacted by the same causes that impact engineering projects, and that applying a number of mitigation techniques widely used within the engineering area, such as reference class, would, no doubt, not only improve information technology schedules but also reduce the political pressures on the project manager.Originality/valueThis research provides a valuable insight into understanding the underlying factors for poor project estimation.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to systematically develop a delay risk terminology and taxonomy. This research also explores two external and internal dimensions of the taxonomy to determine how much the taxonomy as a whole or combinations of its elements are generalisable. Design/methodology/approach Using mixed methods research, this systematic literature review incorporated data from 46 articles to establish delay risk terminology and taxonomy. Qualitative data of the top 10 delay risks identified in each article were coded based on the grounded theory and constant comparative analysis using a three-stage coding approach. Word frequency analysis and cross-tabulation were used to develop the terminology and taxonomy. Association rules within the taxonomy were also explored to define risk paths and to unmask associations among the risks. Findings In total, 26 delay risks were identified and grouped into ten categories to form the risk breakdown structure. The universal delay risks and other delay risks that are more or less depending on the project location were determined. Also, it is realized that delays connected to equipment, sub-contractors and design drawings are highly connected to project planning, finance and owner slow decision making, respectively. Originality/value The established terminology and taxonomy may be used in manual or automated risk management systems as a baseline for delay risk identification, management and communication. In addition, the association rules assist the risk management process by enabling mitigation of a combination of risks together.

Developing and delivering a project to an agreed schedule is fundamentally what project managers do. There is still an ongoing debate about schedule delays. This research investigates the development of schedules through semi-structured in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that half of the respondents believe that delays reported in the media are not real and should be attributed to scope changes. IT project managers estimating techniques include bottom-up estimates, analogy, and expert judgement. Impeding factors reported for the development of realistic schedules were technical (e.g. honest mistakes) and political (e.g. completion dates imposed by the sponsor). Respondents did not mention any psychological factors, although most were aware of optimism bias. However, they were not familiar with approaches to mitigate its impacts. Yet, when these techniques were mentioned, the overwhelming majority agreed that these mitigation approaches would change their schedule estimate. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

International audience; Exploring aspects of how innovative methods can truly attain a sustainable society is necessary for the future of our planet. This study focuses on serious games, and how users can increase their understanding of sustainability issues and their familiarity with sustainable development strategies. “Users” of serious games consist of all possible target groups that are interested in attaining knowledge of sustainability through the use of games that are designed for a purpose beyond entertainment, in this case for sustainability education. This paper follows the systematic literature review method to deliver a study of serious games featuring sustainable development practices and policies. In order to provide a thorough analysis of their dynamic features, 77 games were explored in this study. The findings show the growing number of serious games that seek to educate in sustainability and the categorization of these games according to the triple-bottom line of sustainability, giving clarification hints to users wishing to select the relevant tool that offers an understanding of specific sustainability issues. The purpose of such research is to reveal the contribution of serious games as effective tools in facilitating sustainability education and to group them according to their nature and direction in relation to sustainability. Limitations in their effectiveness are also identified and a research agenda for new, relevant serious games is proposed that will enhance holistic knowledge and make it easier to clarify their pedagogical basis. The recipients of the findings will be all those future users and trainers who are interested in accessing sustainability education patterns through the use of serious games. This study will enable them to select the serious game that best serves their needs.

Safety and security in road and railway tunnels are of utmost importance. The concern about safety of road tunnels has increased in recent years, mainly due to their rapid growth and some disastrous accidents that have occurred in the last two decades. Despite renewed prescriptive requirements, there are significant deficiencies in managing complex socio-technical systems, such as tunnels, if design and operations are based on them alone. Therefore, the use of overall risk assessment including both qualitative and quantitative methods is proposed. This paper presents an overview of the current risk management approach in road tunnels. Specifically, scenario-based and probabilistic approaches related to the transportation of dangerous goods are discussed. Also covered are the areas that should be qualitatively taken into account such as human behavior, organization of safety at the tunnel manager's side, potential system degradation over time, and the phenomenon of varying standards of safety among different countries.

Purpose Despite the fact that extensive studies on public-private partnerships have focused on risk identification and classification, research still lacks concentration on studying the latent structure of risks in build operate transfer (BOT) transportation projects, especially in developing countries. The research was carried out in Vietnam and this paper aims to explore the underlying relationships among risks in the context of BOT transportation projects. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the perception of stakeholders regarding the probability of occurrence and the severity of the impact of risks related to BOT transportation projects. Factor analysis was performed based on a total of 40 risks. Findings Seven risk groups were formed as a result of factor analysis, namely, “projects’ viability and political-regulatory risks”, “macroeconomic risks”, “projects’ feasibility study and market risks”, “financial risks”, “organization/coordination and force majeure risks”, “tolling, contractual, approvals risks” and “media and land expropriation risks”. Originality/value The research contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing deep insight into the structure of risks in BOT transportation projects in Vietnam through exploring the underlying relationships among risks, to form a latent risk structure from practical viewpoints. The findings are beneficial for involved stakeholders and policymakers to set up and propose suitable management strategies and related policies.

PurposeAdverse situations negatively impact project stakeholders’ engagement. Past research has sporadically investigated adverse situations affecting stakeholder engagement but lacks a thorough empirical investigation. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachA web survey was designed to address the knowledge gap of the identification of the impactful adverse situations during multi-stakeholder engagement. The research yielded 144 completed responses from multi-stakeholders engaged in globally distributed ICT projects.FindingsExploratory factor analysis revealed eight factors that underpin 26 adverse situations. The top factors, ranked in terms of importance according to their Relative Importance Index (RII) are: dysfunctional conflicts, dearth of reasoning, glitches in project governance, clash of personalities.Research limitations/implicationsThis research reveals the factors that can impact engagement in the form of meaningful clusters and dimensions and opens-up a future research agenda toward causation and mitigation studies related to adversarial stakeholder engagement. The study focuses on globally distributed ICT projects and has not explored generalizability in other sectors.Practical implicationsThis research enables project managers and stakeholder analysts to get an understanding on the importance of different dimensions of adverse situations in the way stakeholders think, act and emote.Social implicationsAwareness on the potential adversarial stakeholder engagement helps in effectively managing the sustained stakeholder relationships and mental well-being of project stakeholders.Originality/valueThis research contributes to project management practice, as it reveals the underlying factors of adverse situations occurring during multi-stakeholders’ engagement, provides clarity on their components and ranks them in terms of importance for their overall effect on stakeholders’ engagement.

The lockdown and social distancing policies to reduce COVID-19 spread and perceived safety threats of COVID-19 significantly affected people’s travel behavior. Greece has been suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and people’s mobility behavior has been greatly affected. This study aims at: (1) exploring the variations in individuals’ trip frequencies by mode and purpose before and after the COVID-19 outbreak; (2) understanding the effects of individual differences (i.e., sociodemographic details) and perceptions towards COVID-19 (i.e., the perceived threats of COVID-19) on people’s mobility behavior changes after the outbreak; (3) underlining the individuals’ perceptions of the COVID-19 threat on the willingness of public transportation usage. Overall, 403 responses were collected in late 2020. A series of random parameter Probit modeling results reveal multiple individual and perception factors affecting the changes in mobility behavior in Greece. The results from structural equation modeling indicate that perceived COVID-19 threats affect the attitudes and subjective norms towards people’s intentions to use public transportation. The results from this study provide valuable insights for transportation authorities to develop effective strategies to manage traffic during the spread of disease for a possible future epidemic.

With a view to enhance road network's safety, it is crucial to focus primarily on its critical infrastructures, one part of which is tunnels. Fire safety of tunnels concerned intensely the public opinion after the disastrous trans-Alpine accidents in Europe in the late 1990s. Therefore, risk assessment was officially introduced for ensuring the tunnels' level of safety. Bearing in mind that trapped-users' performance can strongly determine a tunnel's level of safety, this paper proposes an evacuation simulation model for increasing the efficiency of quantitative risk assessment. The model aims at acting as an add-in to the traditional computational fluid dynamics models by linking their results with trapped-users' evacuation. The model structure is twofold. Initially, through estimating potential losses among trapped-users, the effectiveness of important parameters for the safety of the tunnel system is measured. Subsequently, if needed, the performance of additional to standard safety measures is examined. The model AIDS safety analysts in making better-informed decisions regarding a tunnel's level of safety. An application example is presented to illustrate the utilization of the model. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The influence of infrastructure on driver behavior should be primarily examined for enhancing the level of road safety due to its impact on a significant number of accidents. Since tunnels are critical road infrastructure elements, they have to be at the forefront. Greece particularly has one of the highest number of deaths with 76 deaths per million inhabitants while the European average is 50. Meanwhile, Greece possesses the fourth place within the EU based on the number of road tunnels longer than 500m. Therefore, this survey aims at exploring road tunnel drivers' behavioral intentions in Greece. To do so, a questionnaire survey is conducted through which 306 responses are collected and analyzed. Initially, users' driving behavior is investigated in order to compare potential divergences between tunnels and open roads. Special emphasis is given in comparing respondents behaviors with the behavior of other drivers around them. Subsequently, the perceptions that affect users' driving behavior are investigated such as their perceived risk and control when passing through tunnels or their comparative optimism. Finally, the survey explores potential users' lack of education in dealing with emergency situations and how this issue impacts on their driving behavior. By investigating and recording drivers' concerns, this paper provides important information that can be deployed by tunnel managers and safety analysts in applying adequate safety measures and designing relevant information campaigns Refereed/Peer-reviewed

PurposeThe Built Operate Transfer (BOT) model has been increasingly used in transportation investments in Vietnam. However, there is still an inadequacy of risk management applications in these projects and lack of research in this area. The study aims to improve the success of projects implemented through the BOT model in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThe study followed a sequential design including interviews and a questionnaire survey to investigate the perception of stakeholders from public and private sector regarding the probability of occurrence and the severity of impact of risks in BOT transportation projects in Vietnam. Quantitative data from the survey was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics to explore the priority of risks as well as the differences in the perception between the public and private sectors.FindingsThe results showed that the top five most significant risks in BOT transportation projects in Vietnam are: (1) problems with land acquisition and compensation, (2) inappropriate location of toll booths, (3) public resistance to pay, (4) high toll rate and (5) lack of cash flow. With the exception of “lack of cash flow,” there were no statistically significant differences in the rankings of individual risks between the public and private sector. In addition, there is a significant positive correlation in the overall rankings of all risks for both sectors.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring the probability of occurrence and the severity of the impact of risks in BOT transportation projects in a developing country like Vietnam which has not been extensively explored yet. Second, it provides an insight into the perception of stakeholders from the public and private sector regarding the level of risks which is very useful for potential stakeholders in making decisions when they intend to participate in such partnerships. Third, it enables the Vietnamese government to establish suitable policies related to such projects. These contributions are very important in improving risk management in PPPs in developing countries.

International audience; Managing successfully the risks in the transportation domain is a prerequisite in order to increase its safety and also to guarantee a high quality of operation. As far as road transport is concerned, upgrading its safety is in the forefront since roads have the largest share in the movement of both goods and people, worldwide. Among the various elements of road transport, tunnels particularly are considered the most "sensitive" part of the road infrastructure. Potential seriousness of accidents in road tunnels was justified in the consequences derived from past accidents, especially those resulted in fires. In order to prevent road tunnels from potential fire accidents as well as to minimize their consequences, if they occur, it is necessary to manage the safety of tunnels through a holistic approach by examining all the parts of these complex socio-technical systems. Therefore, this paper introduces the plan for the development of an intelligent system for managing holistically fire risks in tunnels by synthesizing new and innovative technical installations together with advanced human-related methods. The presented system aims to support control rooms of road tunnels to response adequately in case of potential fire incidents guaranteeing thus higher level of fire safety for these critical road infrastructures.

The events industry is a project-based industry where sustainable development has been of ever-increasing interest over the last decade. In this regard, the importance of managing risks and delivering quality outcomes in corporate events and the events industry in general cannot be overstated. This paper aims to contribute to the enhancement of project management processes and quality of corporate events, with a focus on risk management. For this purpose, a set of semi-structured interviews with event managers was conducted and thematic analysis was used to qualitatively analyse the research data gathered. Data analysis resulted in the development of a set of tools and methods that have the potential to assist corporate event managers in the project risk management process. This set comprises of a work breakdown structure (WBS) template, a risk breakdown structure (RBS), and a set of risk treatment and mitigation strategies for corporate events. These tools are innovative in the sense that they are based on and correspond to the phases of the event life-cycle rather than individual management domains, have not been developed in unison before, and can be utilized collectively for greater benefits realization.

This study analyses the practical application of risk management tools by project managers in their construction projects. Using a grounded theory approach we applied purposive sampling to select 25 Australian construction project managers to identify tools utilised to analyse risk and tool preferences. Themes were developed though analysis of the in-depth interviews usingQSR-NVivo11. The results indicate that the most common methods are within the look-up and supporting methods categories, followed by the evaluation and scenario methods. There is poor utilisation of statistical methods, due to the uniqueness of projects, the lack of data and time pressure on projects. The results were consistent across project managers; irrespective of project size, type of organisation or experience. However, more experienced project managers rely lesson evaluation tools. The research provides evidence that many of the tools promoted by the risk standards/associations do not seem to reflect current project manager practice. The implication is that more effort should be given to appreciating the risk tools that are appropriate for projects and the importance of transferring and spreading experience among PMs. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Fire incidents are considered serious events for road tunnel safety because they can evolve into catastrophic accidents. Bearing in mind that tunnels constitute critical infrastructure elements of road systems, risk assessment has been employed to prepare tunnels to deal with such incidents. However, if an incident occurs, an adequate response is also related to the information about the particular event. To this respect, a novel risk-based method is proposed to support tunnel operators in assessing the criticality of potential fire incidents by using real-time data. The structure of the proposed method is as follows. Initially, the backlayering that determines the criticality of an incident is examined and the stochastic parameters of the system that affect backlayering are identified. Subsequently, multiple simulations are performed by changing the examined parameters randomly and thus the relation between backlayering and those parameters arises. As a result, the developed relation provided with real-time data can estimate the potential severity of any incident occurring in real time. The outcome facilitates tunnel operators to predict promptly the potential severity of fires and make better-informed decisions. This will allow a more efficient operation of the control room of the tunnel. An illustrative case is presented to showcase the utilisation of the proposed method.

Even though recent studies designate that sustainability should be integrated in project management, this integration remains a complex issue. Hence, there is a need to develop a new approach that would assess the organizational sustainability and reveal to what extent sustainable project management practices are effective. The aim of this research is to propose a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis-based method to assess the integration of the sustainability philosophy in large-scale organizations via the utilization of sustainable project management-related indicators. By utilising the proposed approach to compare internal organizational structures, the researchers aim to reveal the sustainability integration level within different business units, in order to allow organizations to make decisions toward sustainable practices. The indicators used in the proposed model are related to key aspects of organizations and they measure how the departments’ staff utilize sustainable project management processes in their construction projects. The case study was conducted in a market-leading design, engineering, and project management consultancy organization. Evaluating organizational sustainability can help organizations target their efforts in certain areas (enhancing sustainable outcomes). It can also facilitate data collection, analysis, and future projections.

Purpose One of the major challenges for any project is to prepare and develop an achievable baseline schedule and thus set the project up for success, rather than failure. The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate research outputs in one of the major causes, optimism bias, to identify problems with developing baseline schedules and analyse mitigation techniques and their effectiveness recommended by research to minimise the impact of this bias. Design/methodology/approach A systematic quantitative literature review was followed, examining Project Management Journals, documenting the mitigation approaches recommended and then reviewing whether these approaches were validated by research. Findings Optimism bias proved to be widely accepted as a major cause of unrealistic scheduling for projects, and there is a common understanding as to what it is and the effects that it has on original baseline schedules. Based upon this review, the most recommended mitigation method is Flyvbjerg’s “Reference class,” which has been developed based upon Kahneman’s “Outside View”. Both of these mitigation techniques are based upon using an independent third party to review the estimate. However, within the papers reviewed, apart from the engineering projects, there has been no experimental and statistically validated research into the effectiveness of this method. The majority of authors who have published on this topic are based in Europe. Research limitations/implications The short-listed papers for this review referred mainly to non-engineering projects which included information technology focussed ones. Thus, on one hand, empirical research is needed for engineering projects, while on the other hand, the lack of tangible evidence for the effectiveness of methods related to the alleviation of optimism bias issues calls for greater research into the effectiveness of mitigation techniques for not only engineering projects, but for all projects. Originality/value This paper documents the growth within the project management research literature over time on the topic of optimism bias. Specifically, it documents the various methods recommended to mitigate the phenomenon and highlights quantitatively the research undertaken on the subject. Moreover, it introduces paths for further research.

Stakeholder Engagement is considered a salient and ongoing challenge in globally distributed Information Communication Technology (ICT) Projects. This paper explores multifaceted aspects of stakeholder engagement from an ICT Vendor perspective using the empirical case study method. Qualitative data was gathered from two case studies from different ICT vendor organizations. The case studies involved 14 interviews with multistakeholders engaged in globally distributed projects. Qualitative data were analyzed using Nvivo® software and Associative Rules. The findings revealed the key ‘themes of interplay’ that influence stakeholder engagement during adverse situations and ‘antidotes’ to mitigate adverse situations. These findings inform a research model that can explain the phenomenon and contribute to project management practice within the ICT Vendor Community. Refereed/Peer-reviewed