Track: Construction/BIM/Sustainability

Evaluate Session

The transport sector accounts for a large share of global CO2 emissions. To mitigate the impact of climate change, several sustainability-oriented large-scale infrastructure projects have recently been on the policy agenda such as electric road systems and expanding rail systems. A parallel development that is expected to accelerate the transition of the transport sector is digitalization. Although ongoing for many decades, these initiatives have recently been augmented by virtual concepts such as artificial intelligence (AI) and smart city technologies. The integration of these digitalization tools at the organizational level poses both opportunities and challenges for the actors involved in infrastructure projects. An approach that is currently promoted in the infrastructure sector is Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM supports decision-making that leverages various digitalization tools and applications. Although the economic implications of BIM are widely discussed in the literature, the inter-organizational dynamics involving multiple actors in infrastructure projects are not fully grasped. Large infrastructure projects are sociotechnical endeavors embedded in complex institutional frames. The institutional norms, practices, and logics in them are significant. Responding to this scenario, the study conducted an institutional analysis putting the BIM approach in the inter-organizational context in infrastructure delivery. The presentation / paper, based on empirical data drawn from three organizations in infrastructure delivery in Spain, will share the analysis of the tensions among the key actors during BIM adoption and implementation.

Presentation participants will gain 1) an understanding of BIM as a decision support tool for infrastructure programs within an inter-organizational context, 2) insights from Spain infrastructure delivery scenarios [case studies] applicable to other national scenarios, and 3) an exposure to the multi-attribute decision making process addressing the PEESTLE factors – political, energy/environmental, ethical, social, technical, legal and economic.

PMI Talent Triangle: Strategic and Business Management

Evaluate Session

Everyone and every single industry has been affected by COVID-19. To manage a project without its consideration might be reckless for the workers and for the health of the project.

Scheduling, once upon a time regarded only as a good practice, has since become more and more of a requirement and the basis for claims. The best outcomes in any claim many times comes out of the best documentation. Since March, industry leaders have been monitoring closely the impacts of the pandemic- trying to quantify it- a risk that has no end in sight- an ongoing productivity delay, but by how much?

I’d like to touch upon various analysis that are already out there such as The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association in an article published on 29 July 2020 reported that there was a 17.9% of productivity impact. Electri International – a foundation founded in 1989 by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) released a report, quantifying the impact of pandemic on the construction industry. And the impacts of of COVID 19 Protocols.

Take- Aways: All stakeholders must understand that there is no one set of original durations that will be kept on time, and the more the specific and closed-in a project, those fitouts, those finishes will take longer. New schedules should carry a contingency for these impacts, current projects need to, more than ever document all productivity impacts and be timely communicating.

PMI Talent Triangle: Technical Project Management