Expected Utility and Risk Management in Complex Projects

Much research has been conducted to the study of methods for managing ISD projects. This resulted in a large amount of literature on a variety of often normative ISD methods. The increasing projects\u27 complexity provide new challenges regarding management and development. In complex projects scenarios where the outcome is composed of several deployed components, guaranteeing specific contract requirements for the prime contractor of the project is a real challenge. The focus of this paper is to find appropriate methods to facilitate end-to-end contract parameters in complex projects environments by automated supply chain formation and to establish and enforce contract parameters between each pair of component consumer/provider. Communication between agents along the supply chain is done by message exchange and provides propagation of constraints between subcontractors in the supply chain. Our findings reveal that the proposed method is able to address the emerging issues arising in complex projects

Overlapping Boundaries of the Project Time Management and Project Risk Management

Based on utility function, milestones during project and/or the end of projects or programme may be categorized in what are called soft-deadline and hard-deadline. In contrast with the soft-end projects, the hard-end projects posses a decrease of utility function with a vertical asymptote character around the deadline for project completion. In extreme situations, the utility function itself may fall under zero (projects may generate losses to both constructor and customer). Existing risk analysis methodologies observe risks from monetary terms. The typical risks are correlated with an increase in final project costs. In order to estimate harddeadline milestones and/or end of projects or programme is critical to employ the time dimension rather than the typical cost-based risk analysis. Here, we comprehensively describe a structured methodology that focuses on minimizing and mitigating project specific delay risks. The method may supplement existing cost-based risk analysis in projects. We aim to elegantly combine moderation techniques to reveal the intrinsic risk of the projects. In addition to the technical risks, the moderation techniques are able to bring evidence of risks as the team efficacy, diverse un-correlations or miss-understanding about the roles of the team members in the team – most of the project soft risk. Described methodology encourages the common understanding of risks for participants, crystallizing the essence of what can go wrong in complex situations and where the opportunities can be unlocked.Project Management, Risk Management, Time Management, Deadline, Delays

From Comparative Risk to Decision Analysis: Ranking Solutions to Multiple-Value Environmental Problems

While recognizing that the making of environmental policy is sufficiently complex that no one method can serve all conditions, Dr. Kadvany urges that more attention be given to multiattribute utility and decision analysis. He suggests this can help, e.g., to illuminate stakeholder values and generate alternative approaches

Looking back to see the future: building nuclear power plants in Europe

The so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ in Europe is promulgated by the execution of two large engineering projects involving the construction of two European Pressurized Reactors (EPRs) in Flamanville, France and Olkiluoto in Finland. As both projects have faced budget overruns and delays, this paper analyses their governance and history to derive lessons useful for the construction of future projects. Analysis indicates that the reasons for these poor outcomes are: overoptimistic estimations, first-of-a-kind (FOAK) issues and undervaluation of regulation requirements. These pitfalls have the potential to impact on many other engineering construction projects and highlight fruitful areas of further research into project performance

Examining the complex relationship between innovation and regulation through a survey of wastewater utility managers

Despite pressures to increase performance and decrease costs, innovation has been slow to emerge in the municipal wastewater sector. The relationship between regulation and innovation in this sector is a particularly interesting aspect of this conundrum, given the degree to which public utility decision-making is influenced by regulation. Using a national survey, this paper examines US wastewater utility managers’ perceptions of how regulation influences the adoption of new technologies. Recognizing that the relationship between innovation and regulation is complex, we develop the concept of regulation as multifaceted and examine three interrelated aspects of regulation: (1) regulatory requirements, (2) regulators and relationships, and (3) the broader regulatory environment. Specifically, we seek to understand whether and in what ways wastewater utility managers perceive these aspects of regulation as hindering or encouraging the adoption of new technologies. We find that, although stringent effluent limitations are perceived to be a moderate barrier to innovation, most survey respondents did not identify weakening them as a way to encourage innovation. Instead, respondents generally identified factors related to regulatory relationships and factors related to the broader regulatory environment as barriers to innovation, and indicated that addressing these aspects of regulation would encourage innovation. We conclude that loosening or tightening regulatory requirements is not the most effective way to promote innovation in the municipal wastewater sector. Rather, those parties with an interest in innovation can focus on helping utilities and regulators build relationships and better navigate the processes that influence decisions about new technologies

Proposition structure in framed decision problems: A formal representation.

Framing effects, which may induce decision-makers to demonstrate preference description invariance violation for logically equivalent options varying in semantic emphasis, are an economically significant decision bias and an active area of research. Framing is an issue inter alia for the way in which options are presented in stated-choice studies where (often inadvertent) semantic emphasis may impact on preference responses. While research into both espoused preference effects and its cognitive substrate is highly active, interpretation and explanation of preference anomalies is beset by variation in the underlying structure of problems and latitude for decision-maker elaboration. A formal, general scheme for making transparent the parameter and proposition structure of framed decision stimuli is described. Interpretive and cognitive explanations for framing effects are reviewed. The formalism’s potential for describing extant, generating new stimulus tasks, detailing decision-maker task elaboration. The approach also provides a means of formalising stated-choice response stimuli and provides a metric of decision stimuli complexity. An immediate application is in the structuring of stated-choice test instruments

Is it time to rethink project success?

The notion of success and failure in software projects are confusing. Failure is often considered in the context of the iron triangle as the inability to meet time, cost and performance constraints. Yet, while there is a consensus around the prevalence of project failure, new projects seem destined to repeat past mistakes. This paper tries to advance the discussion by offering a new perspective for reasoning about the meaning of success and the different types of software project failures. The paper advocates rising beyond the fixation with internal parameters of efficiency. It begins by discussing the limited insights from existing project failure surveys, before offering a four level model addressing the essence of successful delivery and operation in software projects and considering the different measures required in order to utilise richer measurements of success

Barriers to industrial energy efficiency: a literature review

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