The Front-end of Large Public Projects

Terry M. Williams' background is in operational research, initially in the defence industry. He has worked in three business schools: Strathclyde, head of school in Southampton and Dean of the Hull University Business School. He has held a variety of consultancy posts, including supporting multiple $bn post-project arbitration claims, and managing risk, and multiple large research contracts, including with the UK Infrastructure & Projects Authority. He has around 100 journal articles with an h-index over 50, and a number of books. He sits on the PMI Academic Insight Team and is a PMP. Knut Samset recently retired as professor of project management at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where he founded the Concept Research Programme and was its Director for 20 years. He is also the founder and senior partner of Scanteam, an international consultancy based in Oslo, Norway. Samset’s academic background is in engineering and social science, and he holds a PhD in risk management. He has extensive experience in technology assessment, future studies, international development assistance, project management and evaluation. Gro Holst Volden is the current Director of the Concept Research Programme on Front-end Management of Major Investment Projects, at NTNU in Trondheim. She holds a Master’s degree in economics and a PhD in project management. Her areas of expertise are within project governance, public decision processes, and appraisal and evaluation of major public investments. Volden has prior experience from the consulting industry as well as government administration in Norway.

1. Introduction

Gro Holst Volden and Knut Samset

2. Project success

Terry M. Williams

3. The logic of the project front-end

Ofer Zwikael and Alicia Gilchrist

4. Undertaking the project front-end

Monique Aubry and Serghei Floricel

5. Estimation

Richard J. Kirkham

6. Incentives and politics: The perverse incentives paradox: root cause of many other paradoxes; the case of the Dutch Betuweroute

Bert van Wee

7. Closing the loop: Ex-ante and ex-post evaluation in order to learn from mistakes and successes

Knut Samset and Gro Holst Volden

8. Conclusions

Terry M. Williams

Appendix