A pilot study of client complexity, emergent requirements and stakeholder perceptions of project success

Abstract

Construction industry reliance on performance metrics fixed at the project outset is being superseded by increasing use of emergent client judgements to characterise success. Clients may still consider a project that fails to meet formalised time, cost and performance goals successful if it satisfies emergent requirements not understood during initial briefing.Construction practitioners do not routinely recognise that client awareness of requirements improves as projects progress. Internal conflict among the client stakeholders and their reflections on the emerging project solution help client stakeholders to better understand their needs. Dissatisfaction results when these emergent requirements are not acknowledged. The need for practitioners to recognise and respond to these issues is explored by paradigmatic case study of an office relocation and refurbishment project. The role of the 'Project Sponsor' as a synthesiser of client requirements and reflections on the emerging solution was observed to be subverted by stakeholders in a client body who found their emergent requirements were not acknowledged by construction practitioners. By characterising the harmful effect of pluralistic client complexity and emergent requirements on perceptions of project success, the rationale for a revised project sponsor role to better address these influences on perceptions of project success is contributed.

Stakeholder Value Evolution, Capture and Assessment in AEC Project Design

“…However, value and cost are not linearly related and returns of the cost expended on design are usually intangible (MORI 2002). Unlike product design, design brief in AEC is not limited to initial requirement definition but includes a constant dialogue between stakeholders (Thomson 2011).…”

“…Moreover, the iterative, explorative and reflective nature of design suggest limitations in effective applications of the existing tools in managing design requirements (Thomson 2011). In order to develop a strategy for value assessment, the emergence of stakeholder requirements through the design process needs to be studied.…”

“…Product design and development in general is getting more customer focused (Boztepe S. 2007) with growing impetus on definition and measurement of client satisfaction. However, in the AEC industry the definition of client requirements in itself is challenging due to the presence of diverse perspectives of project 1 performance of multi stakeholder client bodies (Thomson 2011). A study on the design process for residential and commercial projects in India revealed that the strategies and the durations of the design of a particular organization was dependent on its design objectives (Joe et al 2017).…”

Making sense of stakeholder values emergence

“…Some, such as Emmitt et al (2005) and Thomson, et al, (2011) (Kelly, 2007). Thomson et al (2013) (Kirk and Spreckelmeyer, 1988) and 'collaboration' (Thiry, 2001).…”

Project Management Yinyang: Coupling project success and client satisfaction

“…More often than not project management practitioners consider their projects to be successful when they can demonstrate quantifiable performance against metrics that have been predetermined at the outset of the project (Thomson:2011, Atkinson:1999. Traditionally, project managers have used the constraints of the Iron Triangle such as time, cost, and quality as the key metrics by which the success of their project is evaluated (Atkinson:1999, Winter and Szczepanek:2008, Thomson:2011.…”