Uncertainty management of projects from the owners’ perspective, with main focus on managing delivered functionality

摘要

Purpose – This paper aims to report on the work on a doctoral thesis studying uncertaintymanagement of projects. The thesis was in particular studying uncertainty regarding the functionalitythat the project should deliver. The research also addresses how the project owner’s views andinterests are taken care of, and the relation between the project management and the project owner inthis uncertainty management. The purpose of the paper is not only to report the research findings andconclusions, but also to give insight into the research process – the researcher’s “journey” in his workwith the thesis is described and also some main issues regarding the context of the research.Design/methodology/approach – The research work that is reported on was carried out applyinga combined research approach utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data. The research wasmainly based on two case studies – one made up of two projects in the railway sector, and oneconsisting of seven projects in the energy sector. In both the studies, qualitative techniques wereapplied: interviews, observations and documentation studies. In the study in the energy sector, therewas also made a quantitative study using data from the risk registers of the seven projects, with a totalof almost 1,500 risk items.Findings – The study shows that the projects’ uncertainty management did not have a projectowner’s perspective, but was mainly focused on the success factors of the project management. In thequantitative part of the studies, it was found that a great majority (91 percent) of the risk elements inthe projects studied were operational risks, i.e. risks mainly concerning the projects’ operational goals.Also, most of the projects’ risk elements were threats (67 percent).Originality/value – There appears to be a paucity of similar studies of uncertainty management inprojects undertaken in the project management research literature. Developing a better focus onthe project owner and uncertainty regarding the projects’ effects was found to be the main value ofthe work.