ENHANCING FLEXIBILITY IN THE PROJECT SCOPE WITH THE HELP OF VALUE ENGINEERING enhancing flexibility in the project scope with the help of value engineering Does life always go as planned? Change in life is inevitable, so is the scope of any project. In project management, scope is the defined features and functions of a product. In layman language, what is to be built. Traditionally, the scope is usually based on the preconceived idea which remains unchallenged due to the attempt to have full predictability over the project scope. However, the unpredictable and dynamic nature of a project demands for changes in project scope. Consequently, the question arises about enhancing the flexibility in project scope to incorporate changes during the development of the scope. Auteur: Akash Singh - achtergrond over de auteur staat in de kadertekst. B ased upon my master’s graduation thesis at TU Delft, infrastructure projects consist of multiple stakeholders with different interest which are interdependent. A few of examples of potential stakeholders are members of a province, municipalities, shipping associations, environmental associations, bicycle associations and citizens. However, not often are the stakeholders brought at the table to discuss their respective requirements and issues before the development of the scope. At times, the client may be concerned that entertaining the requirements of the stakeholders can lead to overruns on the budget. It was observed during the literature review that the client usually tends to think about the product to be built rather than the problem which the product aims to solve. This simply means that the client has a tendency to leap towards the solution instead of going to the core need of the project and the stakeholders. This way of developing the scope leads to ignoring the needs and requirements of the stakeholders which may lead to hindrance during the implementation of the scope and limits the flexibility in the project scope. A project is a collaborative effort. Most projects are developed by negotiating and sharing of knowledge with the various stakeholders. Inadequate management can lead to conflicts and issues among the stakeholders. Implementing large change events during the life cycle of the project can be challenging as the stakeholders are not in the position to negotiate. It is important to be flexible on the attitude of the stakeholders and to create wiggle room in their expectations. It is important to bring the stakeholders at the table together and discuss the issues collectively. With effective communication one can come up with a negotiated and efficient solution which will not lead to any issue or friction among the stakeholders. Hence, flexibility of the project scope is dependent not only on the hard factors but also on the soft factors like high level of trust, involvement and collaborative relationship among the stakeholders. The research commenced with identifying the enablers for enhancing the flexibility in scope. The three identified enablers were broad task definition, embrace change and interaction among the stakeholders. The aim was to investigate the implementation of the three enablers for enhancing flexibility in project scope. The barriers for implementation of the enablers were identified from the literature. The identified barriers were categorised into four categories as mentioned in the table on the next page. 00: 37
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