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IS
AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPLICABLE TO CONSTRUCTION? Bob Owen, SCRI, University of Salford Agile Project Management (APM) has evolved within the information systems industry as a response to its own shortcomings; it provides new opportunities for work and management organisation, based on the re-thinking of how value can be optimised through acceptance of change as an unavoidable ingredient of the project process. Metrics show dramatic changes in customer and business satisfaction through the use of APM, including significant improvements in productivity, quality, predictability, and both development personnel and managerial organisational skills. They also reveal a significant reduction in cost, though that is, in APM terms, a secondary effect. In terms of manufacturing, lean and agile are different, as pointed out by Sanchez & Nagi (2001): ‘Lean manufacturing’ developed as ‘a response to competitive pressures with limited resources. Agile manufacturing, on the other hand, is a response to complexity brought about by constant change. Lean is a collection of operational techniques focused on productive use of resources. Agility is an overall strategy focused on thriving in an unpredictable environment. …… Flexible manufacturing systems (offer) reactive adaptation, while’ agile manufacturing systems offer ‘proactive adaptation’. Against this background, the characteristics of APM have been explored, including its: philosophy, organisational attitudes and practices, planning, execution, and control and learning. A variety of project management methods (including lean construction) have been subjectively assessed in order to test their degree of agility, and to provide feedback to rationalise the final stage of this exploratory paper. The pre-design, design and actual construction phases of construction projects have been examined to assess their potential for the advantageous application of the various characteristics which describe APM methods. The provisional conclusion is that APM offers considerable potential for application in pre-design and design but that there are significant hurdles to its adoption in the actual construction phase. Should these be overcome, APM offers benefits well beyond any individual project. It is intended to present the full results of these analyses in a paper currently in preparation for IGLC 2007; a further iteration of the initial findings by the EGLC can only add value. Accordingly, the initial findings will be briefly presented in an EGLC Workshop and a blank matrix (current populated version shown over page) will be provided in order that attendees can contribute their own team’s academic and/or experiential assessments, these will then be used to iterate the initial findings, providing an incrementally more valuable paper, in the true spirit of agile processes. REFERENCES |
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