Beyond Agile: Construction Cost Minimization – Hakob Avetisyan

Abstract:

Construction industry is in continuous need for improvement. Likewise, methods and techniques used for decision-making need improvement. Traditional approaches are not meeting the needs of fast-changing industry. In many cases issues start right from the contractual agreements and agreed terms that parties accept without truly understanding the feasibility aspects. These lead to multiple complications during the projects as well as towards the end of the project. To overcome such difficulties new approaches are developing as Agile with an expectation that targeting the project in smaller increments may help in reducing the possible negative outcomes. It works if the project can be delivered in smaller increments while for construction industry or others it may not always be feasible. Project Design-Build delivery method can be paralleled to some extent with Agile approach where the team works on the requirements and navigates over the phases of project development together. In practice even such approaches leave the stakeholders unhappy, because the terms and conditions of a project often change and lead to disagreements. In this paper an innovative modeling technique, which goes beyond agile approach, is proposed to help to deliver the project with its most efficient way from the given point on and especially for the conditions that may change in future. With proposed model the decisions to be made, terms and conditions to be agreed, risks to be avoided or transferred or accepted, terms to be negotiated can be analyzed and practiced for lowest cost project delivery.

PMI Talent Triangle: Strategic and Business Management