Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemThe Risk of Power Imbalance in Project Delivery: A Study of Large Victorian Public Infrastructure Projects(Atlantis Press, 2017)In large public infrastructure projects, political risks due to the power imbalance between central and delivery agencies are often overlooked or underestimated. The primary motive of the delivery agency in distorting information for political gains should be deemed a risk that creates uncertainty for large projects planning the outcome. In this study, seven large infrastructure projects in the state of Victoria, Australia are examined through a workshop involving key stakeholders who had played active roles in these projects. The findings revealed that power asymmetry between central and delivery agencies exist and would lead to optimism bias, which in turn creates uncertainty and risk of overpromising in the business case. Power asymmetry exist in large infrastructure projects because the central agencies usually only have the responsibility but not the skill set needed to measure the robustness of the business case. These types of political risks are difficult to quantify and even detect. This paper recommends a few managerial strategies that have referential values and/or can be used to mitigate and circumvent this risk.
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ItemWhy may public infrastructure projects over-promise likely outcomes?(Australian Institute of Project Management, 2016-11-01)The prevailing approach to measure project success compares an ex-post outcome with the ex-ante plan. Comparisons of project success are often questioned, and actual success is unlikely to realised if the initial plan is excessively optimistic such as exaggerated benefits, overlooked risks, and unrealistic assumptions. Published literature suggests that technical inadequacies of estimation models, psychology of human mind, economic obligation for risk, and organisational misrepresentation may be factors that can explain this planning fallacy in projects. Nevertheless, these explanations are considered lacking as they do not adequately address the complexity of infrastructure project decision process. This paper goes beyond planning fallacy in a quest for a better explanation. A workshop of project experts was convened to test the earlier understandings relating to behaviours exhibited during the initiation of an infrastructure. Importantly it framed much of the interactive dialogues among participants around seven case study projects that were considered in the 2012 Parliamentary inquiry of the committee of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) that explored the effectiveness of decision making in Victorian infrastructure delivery. It emerged that one of the key behaviours was considered to be the use of power in decision-making during project initiation. Power manifests as the ability to influence others’ intent. In projects, its root lies in information, expertise, authority, legitimacy, and reputation. The notion of power has been recognised as a fundamental concept to explicate the behaviour of actors in a collaborative environment. This paper focuses on the delivery process of public infrastructure projects and investigates the asymmetry of power among participants in an attempt to unravel the complexity of decision authorities and delegations. In a conceptual isolation of central agencies from delivery agencies, a new concept of informal authority is devised to provide a reliable explanation of how delivery agency’s optimism may pay off in the presence of an asymmetric distribution of power. The paper concludes that power asymmetry is a critical success factor in public infrastructure projects and makes suggestions for future improvements.he prevailing approach to measure project success compares an ex-post outcome with the ex-ante plan. Comparisons of project success are often questioned, and actual success is unlikely to realised if the initial plan is excessively optimistic such as exaggerated benefits, overlooked risks, and unrealistic assumptions. Published literature suggests that technical inadequacies of estimation models, psychology of human mind, economic obligation for risk, and organisational misrepresentation may be factors that can explain this planning fallacy in projects. Nevertheless, these explanations are considered lacking as they do not adequately address the complexity of infrastructure project decision process. This paper goes beyond planning fallacy in a quest for a better explanation. A workshop of project experts was convened to test the earlier understandings relating to behaviours exhibited during the initiation of an infrastructure. Importantly it framed much of the interactive dialogues among participants around seven case study projects that were considered in the 2012 Parliamentary inquiry of the committee of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) that explored the effectiveness of decision making in Victorian infrastructure delivery. It emerged that one of the key behaviours was considered to be the use of power in decision-making during project initiation. Power manifests as the ability to influence others’ intent. In projects, its root lies in information, expertise, authority, legitimacy, and reputation. The notion of power has been recognised as a fundamental concept to explicate the behaviour of actors in a collaborative environment. This paper focuses on the delivery process of public infrastructure projects and investigates the asymmetry of power among participants in an attempt to unravel the complexity of decision authorities and delegations. In a conceptual isolation of central agencies from delivery agencies, a new concept of informal authority is devised to provide a reliable explanation of how delivery agency’s optimism may pay off in the presence of an asymmetric distribution of power. The paper concludes that power asymmetry is a critical success factor in public infrastructure projects and makes suggestions for future improvements.
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ItemHow do we instil experience into Young Engineers? The Use of Posters as a Learning Tool in Engineering Project Management(School of Engineering, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, 2015)