This master’s thesis solving the issue of planning and management of Kaplan turbine modernization project. The first chapter deals with the basic definition of project management concepts, methods, techniques and tools used in project planning and management. This information forms theoretical basis for the following two chapters, which represent the company in which the turbine modernization project itself will be implemented in the future. The second chapter contains analyzes of external and internal environment of the company and the project. On their basis the third chapter creates a specific proposal for project solution. Results and conclusions of the master’s thesis will allow a better and more detailed understanding of Kaplan turbine modernization implementation project and all associated critical points or potential risks. The work can be beneficial not only for project managers, but also for company management, investors, other companies in the field of engineering and wide audience.

This thesis focuses on the issues of project management and the application of procedures, processes and methodologies of project management in a particular case of the implementation of the requirement to create a new branch abroad - Innovation Box in the Netherlands. The company focuses on software development in the area of data security. Innovative center should serve the research and development of new potential products and services. The main output of the design is the Project Management Plan.

<p>Generally, the trade supervisors are seen swapping stories about how they have done things differently in their previous projects that had resulted in saving man-hours and resources. Since most of them are doing repetitive tasks for years, they rely mainly on their judgments and intuition while making decisions and have developed a plethora of knowledge throughout their experience. They often find it difficult to articulate the knowledge they have acquired most of which is tacit. There is a need to identify this tacit dimension of knowledge to harness it effectively as tacit knowledge is one of the factors determining the competitiveness of a construction firm. The skills shortage in the industry is further aggravated by the growing workforce. Employee retirements and knowledge loss are compelling the specialty contracting firms to capture this tacit knowledge to prepare the future workforce. This study posits an instrument to gauge the reliance of the field supervisors on tacit knowledge and identifies barriers to knowledge sharing through case studies involving electrical contracting firms. The findings of this research clearly show that the experience level of an individual is related to the reliance on tacit knowledge. Most of the experienced field supervisors rely on the tacit dimension of knowledge to perform the major day-to-day routine tasks at the construction site. The education level of an individual seems to have no significant relation with the acquisition and usage of tacit knowledge. Findings also suggest that the viewpoint of the management and the field team are disparate regarding the barriers to knowledge sharing. Management feels that lack of formal processes prevents the trade professionals from sharing their knowledge among themselves whereas according to the field team lack of socialization is identified as the key barrier. Similarly, managers' resistance to change is identified by management as the key barrier that prevents supervisors or managers from sharing their knowledge with the subordinates whereas, for the field team it is the lack of encouragement from the management. Moreover, according to management, lack of formal processes is the key barrier at the organizational level but for the field team, it’s the silo mentality of the managers. The organizations must incorporate the feedback from the field team into the decision making related to knowledge management (KM). The developed framework will benefit the trade contractors to identify on what type of knowledge the field supervisors are relying to perform a particular task and eventually categorizing knowledge into explicit and tacit.</p>

The overall aim of  this thesis is create awareness about the importance of linking projects to their historical, organizational and environmental context. This dissertation concerns the analysis of a project contract developed by a new urban transport company in Bogotá, Colombia, with large and complex settings. The project was studied during 4 months, using and ethnographic research approach and different qualitative data collection methods, such as formal interviews, archival research and informal meetings. The study involves an inductive process from which discussion is developed from the observation of empirical reality of this particular case study. The main outcome of the study was to illustrate that tough the impact of contextual variables is difficult to foresee and translate into project management concepts, the analysis of sources of complexity, dynamics and uncertainty in different aspects of the context environment, e.g. legal, political, economical, and cultural, gives a good understanding about the influence of the context dimension in projects. Contextual parameters are often outside the scope of project management, and for this reason, high quality of project planning cannot always compensate for the possible negative effects of these external variables. In addition, the boundaries inside and outside the project’s organization increase the complexity inside the project, and tensions between these boundaries can be of great impact during the project--‐planning phase. This dissertation shows through empirical reality that “o project is an island, they are open systems, with permeable boundaries”(Engwall, 2003).

Background: Effort estimation is one of the cornerstones in project management with the purpose of creating efficient planning and the ability to keep budgets. Despite the extensive research done within this area, one of the biggest and most complex problems in project management within software development is still considered to be the estimation process. Objectives: The main objectives of this thesis were threefold: i) firstly to define the characteristics for a large project, ii) secondly to identify factors causing inaccurate effort estimates and iii) lastly to understand how the identified factors impact the effort estimation process, all of this within the context of large-scale agile software development and from the perspective of a project team.Methods: To fulfill the purpose of this thesis, an exploratory case study was executed. The data collection consisted of archival research, questionnaire, and interviews. The data analysis was partly conducted using the statistical software toolStata.Results: The definition of a large project is from a project team’s perspective based on high complexity and a large scope of requirements. The following identified factors were identified to affect the estimation process in large projects: deficient requirements, changes in scope, complexity, impact in multiple areas, coordination, and required expertise, and the findings indicate that these are affecting estimation accuracy negatively. Conclusions: The conclusion of this study is that besides the identified factors affecting the estimation process there are many different aspects that can directly or indirectly contribute to inaccurate effort estimates, categorized as requirements, complexity, coordination, input and estimation process, management, and usage of estimates.

Background. Effort estimation is today a crucial part of software development planning. However, much of the earlier research has been focused on the general conditions of effort estimation. Little to no effort has been spent on solution verification (SV) of the projects. It is not surprising considering that SV becomes more relevant, the larger the project. To improve effort estimation, it is key to consider the uncertainties from the assumptions and conditions it relies on. Objectives. The main objective of this study is to identify differences and similarities between general effort estimation and effort estimation in SV in order to find potential improvements to software project planning of large projects. More specifically, this thesis aims to identify what and how activities and factors affect effort uncertainty and what theory and methods can be applied to increase the accuracy of effort estimation in SV. Methods. An exploratory case study was conducted to reach the objectives. It was designed accordingly to the triangulation method and consisted of unstructured interviews, a questionnaire, and archival research. The analysis followed a four steps procedure. First, it aimed to identify each SV activity’s contribution to effort and effort uncertainty. Secondly, identify and analyze which and how factors impact the identified activities. Third, investigate the factors that impact effort uncertainty. Fourth and last, an analysis of how the factors and sources of uncertainty could be used to improve software project planning. Results. The result shows that the activities could be divided into two different groups, based on their difference in contribution to effort and effort uncertainty. The two activities showing a higher uncertainty than effort were trouble report handling&amp; troubleshooting, which is by far the most uncertainty-causing, and fault correction lead-time. The fault-related factors were both collectively and non-collectively found to be the most uncertainty-causing. Furthermore, it showed that the type of product and what type of objective the employee has influenced the cause of uncertainty. Conclusions. The SV process shifts from a proactive and structured way to a more reactive and unstructured way of working with the project life cycle. Moreover, size is not a cause of uncertainty of effort, but the differences in products create different causes. It was concluded that to most effectively address inaccuracy in effort estimation, one should address the activities that constitute a minority in effort but the majority of uncertainty. The most straightforward approach to increase the performance of effort estimation in SV would be to evaluate the inclusion of fault prediction and fault correction. Consequently, the implementation of uncertainty identification and prevention methods such as the six Ws framework and the bottom-up/top-down effort estimation practices. / Bakgrund. Ansträngningsuppskattning är idag en viktig del av planeringen avmjukvaruutveckling. Mycket av den tidigare forskningen har fokuserat på demgenerella förhållandena av ansträngningsuppskattning. Lite till ingen energi har lagts på lösningverifiering av projekten. Det är inte förvånande med tanke på lösningsverifiering (LV) blir mer relevant, desto större projekt. För att förbättra ansträngninguppskattningen så är det viktigt att ta hänsyn till dem osäkerheter som härstammar från dem antaganden och förhållanden som den vilar på. Syfte. Huvudmålet av studien är att identifiera likheter och skillnader mellan den generella teorin om ansträngninguppskattning gentemot ansträngninguppskattning inom LV i avsikt att identifiera potentiella förbättringar av mjukvaruutvecklings planering för större projekt. Mer specifikt, åsyftade studien till att identifiera vilka och hur aktiviteter och faktorer påverkar ansträngnings osäkerheter, samt vilken redan existerande teori och modeller som skulle kunna appliceras för att öka noggrannheten i ansträngninguppskattningen av lösningverifieringen. Metod. En utforskande fallstudie genomfördes för att uppfylla målen. Den designades i enlighet med trianguleringsmetoden och bestod av ostrukturerade intervjuer, ett frågeformulär, samt en arkivstudie. Analysen följde en procedur på fyra steg. Det första steget hade i avsikt att identifiera varje aktivitets, i LV proccessen, tillförande av ansträngning och osäkerhet. Det andra steget avsåg att identifiera och analysera vilka och hur faktorer påverkade dem identifierade aktiviteterna. Det tredje steget åsyftade att undersöka dem faktorer som påverkar ansträngningsosäkerheten. Och slutligen, det fjärde steget avsåg att analysera hur dem identifierade faktorerna och källorna till osäkerhet kan användas för att förbättra mjukvaruprojekts planering. Resultat. Resultatet visar att aktiviteterna kunde kategoriseras i två olika grupper baserat på differensen mellan ansträngningen och den relaterade osäkerheten. Dem två aktiviteter som visade en högre osäkerhet än ansträngning var felrapports hantering &amp; felsökning, som visade sig orsaka mest osäkerhet, samt ledtid till följd av felkorrigering. De felrelaterade faktorerna var både självständigt och kollektivt dem som skapar mest osäkerhetsgrundande. Samtidigt visade det sig att typ av produkt och vilken typ av arbete influerade grunden till osäkerhet. Slutsatser. LV proccesen skiftar med projekt livscykeln, från en proaktiv och strukturerad process, till en mer reaktiv och ostrukturerad process. Storlek är inte en grund för osäkerhet av ansträngning, däremot skapar skillnader mellan produkterna olika osäkerhetsgrunder. För att på ett så effektivt sätt som möjligt adressera felaktigheter i ansträngningsuppskattningarna, bör fokus lika på dem aktiviteter som utgör en minoritet av ansträngning och samtidigt utgör en majoritet i osäkerhet. Den mest självklara tillvägagångssättet för att öka prestandan av anstängningsuppskatningarna av LV är att evaluera införandet av fel deterktering och fel korrektion i modelen. Följaktligen, att implementera osäkerhetsidentifications och förhindrande metoder, till exempel "the six Ws framework" och "bottom-up/top-down" ansträningningsuppskattnings metoderna.

<p dir="ltr">Accurate traffic information plays a crucial role in developing appropriate pavement designs. However, the existing traffic design input module often falls short in accurately describing the real traffic conditions on Indiana highways. Furthermore, a range of issues related to vehicle classification, transit bus traffic characterization, semi-truck platooning, pavement friction assessment, and highway model representation have been identified. This study aims to improve the design, safety, and visual presentation of highways in Indiana. In the realm of design, real-world traffic data will be collected and processed, while a traffic database of urban buses will be established. Both an axle-based digital classification method and a model-based image classification method will be introduced to categorize unclassified vehicles. The updated vehicle class distributions and axle load distributions will serve as pivotal traffic inputs for pavement design. Regarding safety considerations, a model for two-semi-truck platooning will be developed to determine safe and optimal headways. Characteristics pertinent to semi-truck platoons will be outlined and discussed. Additionally, a series of laboratory and field tests will be conducted to assess the frictional properties and performance of aggregates and colored pavements, thereby refining roadway safety measures. In the realm of visual presentation, the Building Information Modeling (BIM) framework will be applied to convert, enrich, and extend a highway model. A BIM-centered repository will be created, amalgamating a wealth of information encompassing traffic specifics and project particulars into an integrated visual platform. Moreover, Open BIM processes will be implemented, streamlining the exchange of highway data and ensuring seamless compatibility of models. The results of this study can offer valuable insights to drive improvements in highway design, safety, and visual presentation throughout Indiana.</p>

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Byggnadsinformationsmodellering och byggnadsinformationsmodell (BIM), avser en genomtänkt och strukturerad hantering av information i ett digitalt byggnadsverk, som en 3Dmodell. Nyttan med BIM är att både produkterna i sig och processen bakom produkterna ökar i kvalitet, vilket bidrar till minskade kostnader och projekt som blir tidsmässigt effektivare. Inom husbyggnation har projektering med 3D och BIM förekommit i många år. Inom anläggning av fastighetsmark har det inte varit lika vanligt. Problematiken som uppstår när fastighetsmark ska projekteras med BIM är att fastighetsmark sällan är plan. Marken innehåller ojämnheter, lutningar och radier där måtten i 3D-modellens x-, y- och z-led måste vara korrekta. Detta är lätt att justera i en 2D-ritning men svårare att korrekt få till i en 3D-modell. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka vad det finns för svårigheter samt vilka möjligheter det ges av att detaljprojektera fastighetsmark, med BIM. Arbetets frågeställningar är följande: • Vad saknas i anläggningsbranschen idag för att kunna implementera BIM i större utsträckning? • Vad ger BIM för fördelar i projektering av fastighetsmark? • Vad efterfrågar beställare och vad ställer de för krav vid projektering av fastighetsmark? • Vad kan projektörerna leverera och vilka tekniska utmaningar anser dem finns i projekteringsprocessen av fastighetsmark? Arbetet har utförts på VAP VA-projekt AB i Örebro. Arbetet har avgränsats till att endast studera projekteringen av fastighetsmark i Sverige. De metoder som använts för att samla in data till arbetet är en litteraturstudie, en intervjustudie samt en enkätstudie. Resultatet visar att flera parametrar påverkar användningen av BIM och dess utveckling inom anläggningsbranschen. Bland annat har resultatet visat att användningen av och kunskapen om BIM inom företag påverkas av vilken typ av företag och vilken typ av yrkesroller de som arbetar på företaget har. Det har även visat sig att ”BIM-experter” kan ha en skev bild av hur BIM och 3D-modeller faktiskt fungerar. Även hur BIM ska implementeras, användas och tolkas i projekt är oklart i vissa fall. Trafikverket, som ett exempel, har haft BIM som krav för olika delar i projekt sedan 2015, men har ingen standard för hur en BIM ska se ut eller vad den ska innehålla. Majoriteten av respondenterna på enkät- och intervjustudien svarar att BIM är en fördel och att en utveckling av BIM gynnar branschen, trots att de inte anser att BIM ger fördelar i alla anläggningsprojekt. Det finns även en generell kunskapsbrist i branschen om hur BIM används och vad BIM faktiskt är. Slutsatsen är att det saknas lättillgängliga och användarvänliga programvaror samt en branschstandard kring hur BIM ska användas. Programvaror som används för att skapa 3Dmodeller idag kräver mycket tid och en 3D-modell tar längre tid att utveckla än en 2D-ritning, vilket är anledningen till att många fortfarande arbetar med traditionella 2D-ritningar. Det går att leverera 3D-modeller, men det görs främst på begäran av beställaren. Det efterfrågas ingen specifik programvara av beställarna, utan det ställs främst krav på filformat. / Building information modelling and building information model (BIM), refers to a thought out and structured handling of information in a digital building, such as a 3D model. The benefit of BIM is that both the products and the process behind the products increase in quality. This contributes to reduced costs and projects that become more time efficient. In house construction, 3D-modeling and BIM has been used for many years. In the construction of real estate land, it is not as common. The problem that arises when BIM is being used in projects with real estate land, is that the ground contains irregularities, slopes, and radius where the dimensions in the x-, y- and z-direction of the 3D model must be correct. This is relatively easy to adjust in a 2D drawing, but harder to get right in a 3D model. The purpose of this work is to investigate what difficulties there are and what opportunities are provided by detailed planning of real estate land, with the help of BIM. The work’s main questions are the following: • What is missing in the construction industry today, to be able to implement BIM to a greater extent? • What advantages does BIM provide in the planning of real estate land? • What do clients ask for and what requirements do they have about the planning process on real estate land? • What can the planners deliver and what technical challenges do they believe exist in the planning process of real estate land? The work has been carried out at VAP VA-projekt AB in Örebro and has been limited to only studying the planning of real estate land in Sweden. The methods used to collect data for the work are a literature study, an interview study, and a survey study. The results shows that several parameters influence the use of BIM and its development in the construction industry. The results have shown that the use of BIM and the knowledge of BIM is depending on the type of company and the type of professional roles of those who work at the company. It has also been shown that “BIM experts” can have a distorted knowledge of how BIM and 3D models work. How BIM should be implemented, used, and interpreted in project is also unclear in some cases. Trafikverket, as an example, has had BIM as a requirement for various parts of projects since 2015, but has no standard for what a BIM should look like or what it should contain. Most respondents to the survey and interview study answer that BIM is an advantage and that the development of BIM benefits the industry, even though they do not believe that BIM provides advantages in all construction projects. There is also a general lack of knowledge in the industry about how BIM is used and what BIM is. The conclusion is that there is a lack of user-friendly software and a lack of a standard for how BIM should be used in the construction industry. Software used to create 3D models today requires a lot of time and a 3D model takes longer time to develop than a 2D drawing. This could be the reason to why many people still work with traditional 2D drawings. It’s possible to deliver 3D models of real estate land but this is mainly done at the request of the customer. No specific software is requested by the customers but their mainly demands are on which file format should be used.

This thesis follows the process of introducing natural gas in Sweden and the construction of a Northern European gas grid from 1967 to 1991. Natural gas is a relatively unnoticed fuel in Sweden today, but this relative anonymity stands in contrast to an extensive historical activity that has taken place behind the scenes of Swedish energy policy. The single pipeline constructed between Denmark and Sweden in the early 1980s was both preceded and followed by many other attempts to construct a larger natural gas pipeline in the region made in the last 50 years. Åberg traces these attempts while discussing the complex and messy process of constructing and managing a transnational energy infrastructure.Åberg follows actors in Sweden and other countries in their attempts to negotiate and construct a natural gas infrastructure, and puts this process into a national as well as transnational context. The perceived risks and opportunities surrounding natural gas are examined, together with factors that have influenced the development of natural gas in a broader sense. By seeing the changing and messy natural gas projects as arenas where different actors construct and negotiate risks and opportunities, as well as contexualize the projects, Åberg shows how the natural gas sector in Sweden has evolved and taken shape.The study shows that natural gas in Sweden has suffered from unstable actor coalitions on different levels, a difficult market situation, and a changeful political context, especially with regard to energy policy. The import status of the fuel and the consequential transnationality of the natural gas infrastructure have also made the process of constructing a pipeline more complex. However, natural gas was introduced in Sweden, showing that when a strong enough actor coalition agreed that there was enough reason to warrant a natural gas introduction and was ready to join this endeavor, a connection could be achieved. This puts into question to what degree general explanations in terms of finance and policy drive energy decisions, and makes a case for showing how these explanations are adapted into their social and historical contexts in sometimes surprising ways. / <p>QC 20130507</p> / The integration of energy markets across system and nation boundaries