The impact of disruption and delay when compressing large projects: going for incentives?

Demands by clients for earlier delivery after a project has started are increasing. This paper investigates the consequential disruption and delay that follows from the contractor accepting these demands. Explorations are carried out using a System Dynamics model based upon a large model constructed to represent the complexity of a claim for disruption and delay in relation to a specific mega-project. The model used for the explorations has been validated further using information gathered during work on other claim projects. The model enables the impact of disruption and delay resulting from the holistic and dynamic impact of a compressed delivery date to be assessed in relation to two specific and typical options. Use of the model suggests that the probability seems slight of finding the highly specific circumstances where there is any certainty in an outcome of early delivery at little extra cost.

[1]  J. U. M. Smith,et al.  Project Risk Management: Processes, Techniques and Insights , 1998, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[2]  Maurice Bonney,et al.  Production breaks and the learning curve: The forgetting phenomenon , 1996 .

[3]  John Mingers,et al.  Multimethodology : the theory and practice of combining management science methodologies , 1997 .

[4]  David N Ford.  The dynamics of project management : an investigation of the impacts of projects process and coordination on performance , 1995 .

[5]  Jamshid Mohammadi,et al.  Integrated System for Managing Owner‐Directed Project Acceleration , 1994 .

[6]  L. Argote,et al.  Learning Curves in Manufacturing , 1990, Science.

[7]  John W. Medcof,et al.  Why too many alliances end in divorce , 1997 .

[8]  Osama Moselhi,et al.  Schedule compression using the direct stiffness method , 1993 .

[9]  E. B. Roberts.  The Dynamics Of Research And Development , 1964 .

[10]  Kishore Sengupta,et al.  Coping with staffing delays in software project management: an experimental investigation , 1999, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part A.

[11]  C. Eden,et al.  Making Strategy: The Journey of Strategic Management , 1998 .

[12]  Samuel B. Graves.  Why Costs Increase When Projects Accelerate , 1989 .

[13]  Fran Ackermann,et al.  Modelling the management of complex projects: industry/university collaboration , 1996 .

[14]  Edward B. Roberts,et al.  A simple model of R & D project dynamics , 1974 .

[15]  Louis E. Yelle.  THE LEARNING CURVE: HISTORICAL REVIEW AND COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY , 1979 .

[16]  W. N. Jessop.  Management System Dynamics , 1978 .

[17]  Colin Eden,et al.  Cognitive mapping and problem structuring for system dynamics model building , 1994 .

[18]  Fran Ackermann,et al.  The Effects of Design Changes and Delays on Project Costs , 1995 .

[19]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  Electronic meeting systems , 1991, CACM.

[20]  Terence Williams,et al.  Analysing litigation and negotiation: using a combined methodology , 1997 .

[21]  J. Sterman.  Misperceptions of feedback in dynamic decision making , 1989 .

[22]  Fran Ackermann,et al.  Dismantling the learning curve: the role of disruptions on the planning of development projects , 1998 .

[23]  David N. Ford,et al.  Dynamic modeling of product development processes , 1998 .

[24]  Edward B. Roberts,et al.  Managerial Applications of System Dynamics , 1981 .

[25]  George P. Richardson,et al.  Introduction to System Dynamics Modeling with DYNAMO , 1981 .

[26]  Terry M. Williams.  Systemic project risk management - the way ahead , 2000 .

[27]  Keith Tizzard,et al.  Management System Dynamics , 1977 .

[28]  Stuart E. Madnick,et al.  Software Project Dynamics: An Integrated Approach , 1991 .

[29]  D. Sterman,et al.  Misperceptions of Feedback in a Dynamic Decision Making Experiment , 1989 .

[30]  J. Rodney Turner,et al.  The handbook of project-based management : improving the processes for achieving strategic objectives , 1998 .

[31]  Fran Ackermann,et al.  Vicious circles of parallelism , 1995 .

[32]  Kenneth Cooper.  Naval Ship Production: A Claim Settled and a Framework Built , 1980 .

[33]  C. Eden,et al.  Analysing and comparing idiographic causal maps , 1998 .

[34]  Fran Ackermann,et al.  The role of feedback dynamics in disruption and delay on the nature of disruption and delay (D&D) in major projects , 2000, J. Oper. Res. Soc..

[35]  Kenneth G. Cooper.  System Dynamics Methods in Complex Project Management , 1997 .

[36]  John Bowers,et al.  The role of system dynamics in project management , 1996 .

[37]  J. Forrester.  Industrial Dynamics , 1997 .

[38]  Fran Ackermann,et al.  Modeling for Litigation: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 1997 .