Opportunity discovery in initiated and emergent change requests
Journal article, 2019

When a change request is raised in an engineering project an ad hoc team often forms to manage the request. Prior research shows that practitioners often view engineering changes in a risk-averse manner. As a project progresses the cost of changes increases. Therefore, avoiding changes is reasonable. However, a risk-averse perspective fails to recognize that changes might harbor discoverable and exploitable opportunities. In this research, we investigated how practitioners of ad hoc teams used practices and praxes aimed at discovering and exploiting opportunities in engineering change requests. A single case study design was employed using change request records and practitioner interviews from an engineering project. 87 engineering change requests were analyzed with regards to change triggers, time-to-decision and rejection rate. In total, 25 opportunities were discovered and then 17 exploited. Three practices and six praxes were identified, used by practitioners to discover and exploit opportunities. Our findings emphasize the importance of the informal structure of ad hoc teams, to aid in opportunity discovery. The informal structure enables cross-hierarchal discussions and draws on the proven experience of the team members. Thus, this research guides project managers and presumptive ad hoc teams in turning engineering changes into successful opportunities.

projects-as-practice approach

engineering change management

uncertainty management

deviation management

Author

Peter Sjogren

Mälardalens högskola

Bjorn Fagerstrom

Mälardalens högskola

Martin Kurdve

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Supply and Operations Management

Thomas Lechler

Stevens Institute of Technology

Design Science

20534701 (eISSN)

Vol. 5 e5

Subject Categories

Other Mechanical Engineering

Work Sciences

Information Systemes, Social aspects

DOI

10.1017/dsj.2019.4

More information

Latest update

3/21/2023