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The most up-to-date edition of the bestselling text on megaprojects In the newly revised second edition of Industrial Megaprojects Revisited: Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success, 2nd Edition , veteran megaproject valuator Edward Merrow delivers an accessible and authoritative discussion of why megaprojects frequently go over budget, past their deadlines, or result in safety compromises. You’ll explore project management deficiencies, destructive team dynamics, weak accountability systems, short-term biases, and technical expertise gaps and, more importantly, learn how to avoid or address these pitfalls in the real world. This latest edition offers extensive new material on rene...
Avoid common pitfalls in large-scale projects using these smart strategies Over half of large-scale engineering and construction projects—off-shore oil platforms, chemical plants, metals processing, dams, and similar projects—have miserably poor results. These include billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once finally completed. Industrial Megaprojects gives you a clear, nontechnical understanding of why these major projects get into trouble, and how your company can prevent hazardous and costly errors when undertaking such large technical and management challenges. Clearly explains the underlying causes of over-budget, delayed, and...
Quantitative analysis of outcomes vs PMs at the individual level Leading Complex Projects takes a unique approach to post-mortem analysis to provide project managers with invaluable insight. For the first time, individual PM characteristics are quantitatively linked to project outcomes through a major study investigating the role of project leadership in the success and failure of complex industrial projects; hard data on the backgrounds, education, and personality characteristics of over 100 directors of complex projects is analyzed against the backdrop of project performance to provide insight into controllable determinants of outcomes. By placing these analyses alongside their own data, P...
A real-world framework for driving capital project success Capital Projects provides an empirically-based framework for capital project strategy and implementation, based on the histories of over 20,000 capital projects ranging from $50,000 to $40 billion. Derived from the detailed, carefully normalized database at preeminent project consultancy IPA, this solid framework is applicable to all types of capital investment projects large and small, in any sector, including technology, life sciences, petroleum, consumer products, and more. Although grounded in empirical research and rigorous data analysis, this book is not an academic discussion or a conceptual dissertation; it's a practical, act...
This report analyzes the costs, problems, and operations of megaprojects (projects requiring huge physical and financial resources) by examining 52 civilian projects ranging in cost from $500 million to over $10 billion (in 1984 dollars).
This Handbook provides state-of-the-art scholarship in the emerging field of megaproject management. The 25 chapters cover all aspects of megaproject management, from front-end planning to project delivery, including how to deal with stakeholders, risk, finance, complexity, innovation, governance, ethics, project breakdowns, and scale itself.
Reviews literature on cost-estimation errors in weapons acquisition by the Department of Defense and in large public works and construction projects, and analyzes cost-estimation practices in the chemical and process industries. The report inquires into the causes of large estimation errors found in energy process plants, e.g., coal gasification and liquefaction, oil shale, and tar sands. Principal factors in estimation errors common to all types of systems examined include the degree of system definition when the estimates were made, scope and system changes, and the level of technological innovation embodied in the system. The results of this review have formed part of the basis for an empirical investigation of cost-estimation errors and performance problems in new process plants for the Department of Energy.
Megaprojects and Risk provides the first detailed examination of the phenomenon of megaprojects. It is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multi-billion dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, how the formula for approval is an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects. This results in projects that are extremely risky, but where the risk is concealed from MPs, taxpayers and investors. The authors not only explore the problems but also suggest practical solutions drawing on theory, experience and hard, scientific evidence from the several hundred projects in twenty nations and five continents that illustrate the book. Accessibly written, it will be the standard reference for students, scholars, planners, economists, auditors, politicians and interested citizens for many years to come.
In any serious engineering discipline, it would be unthinkable to construct a large system without having a precise notion of what is to be built and without verifying how the system is expected to function. Software engineering is no different in this respect. Formal methods involve the use of mathematical notation and calculus in software development; such methods are difficult to apply to large-scale systems with practical constraints (e.g., limited developer skills, time and budget restrictions, changing requirements). Here Liu claims that formal engineering methods may bridge this gap. He advocates the incorporation of mathematical notation into the software engineering process, thus su...
Joining Processes is aimed at scientists and engineers who need to specify effective means of joining metals and ceramics, and also for undergraduates whose studies encompass joining processes. Joining Processes provides a brief review of the spectrum of joining processes ranging from fusion welding to adhesive bonding, followed by a detailed introduction to brazing, diffusion bonding and their hybrid processes. This book also describes the scientific principles of the joining processes and provides practical information about the optimum selection of joining materials, joint designs and processing parameters. The effects of both similarities and significant differences of the processes on joint properties are emphasised and illustrated by descriptions of case histories of successful applications.