Hallgrim Hjelmbrekke defended his doctoral theses at NTNU 3 November 2017:

“Aligning AEC Projects with Corporate Strategy. Project Governance as a Mean for Strategic Effect”. 

Supervisors:
Geir K. Hansen, Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, NTNU
Ola Lædre, Ass. Professor, Institutt for building and environment, NTNU

In the thesis Hallgrim Hjelmbrekke raise the main question concerning how Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) projects can be better aligned to business strategies from an owner perspective.

In general, any investment in a new project is made in order to solve a problem, to change something into a more preferable situation and, in the end, to harvest the benefits. According international research, projects in general tends not to deliver the intended benefits. This seems also to be valid in the Norwegian AEC-industry. Characteristics of projects are of a lack of productivity, budget overruns, defects on the final products and dissatisfied users generating a tail of legal proceedings. Together, these factors indicate that the projects´ intended value for users and benefits for the owner frequently gets lost along the way in construction project processes. 

The intuitive understanding of these challenges, guiding the research presented, has been that all of those involved, including owners/clients, project suppliers and users, appear to lack what the author denominates as a holistic approach to their business activities.

The main findings and conclusion of this thesis are:
The discrepancy between the general needs of the organization and the projects carried out to improve performance consists mainly of a lack of project objectives grounded in general strategy, a lack of alignment between clients and suppliers, a lack of understanding of success (project management success vs. project success), and a lack of project strategy definition.

The research reveals a poor comprehension of the business context of projects within architectural and engineering companies. Implications for improved practice: Architecture and engineering companies need to create and deliver value, and a good starting point is to work more intensively with the client’s business objectives and to understand the causal relationship between design and the client’s benefits. More research should focus on the preparatory project management practices – e.g. the strategic approach to project success.

Scientific assessment committee:
Aaron Shenhar, Professor, Diamond Leadership Institute, USA
Kalle Kähkönen, Professor, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Siri Hunnes Blakstad, Professor II, Department of Architecture and Planning, NTNU

Administrator:
Tore Brandstveit Haugen, Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, NTNU

Hallgrim Hjelmbrekke's PhD was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and Rambøll as.