Research Project: Agile evaluation of building projects with established transfer of knowledge

Project briefing

• Status Completed
• Project duration November 2017 – September 2018
• Programme Future Building

The execution of many construction projects (new buildings, refurbishments, and extensions) according to the RBBau Guidelines is the main function of the federal building administrations. Currently there is no standardized or systematic procedure in place to evaluate federal building projects and to obtain and provide relevant expertise – thus facilitating a better execution of future projects. Therefore, a concept to had to be developed on how to gather operating experience gained by members of the federal building administrations – especially regarding aspects of project management and achieving the determined project goals – can be efficiently and systematically registered or measured, interpreted, and made available for other projects.

Project duration: November 2017 – September 2018

Background

The aim of this study was to develop a concept on how to implement evaluations of federal building projects, to obtain operating experience and to provide expert knowledge for the staff members of the federal building administrations (BBR and the federal-state administrations working on behalf of the federal government).

By conducting a systematic and objective assessment of ongoing and completed building projects during all stages (starting during project preparations until completion and putting it into service) the findings are meant to facilitate a better execution of future projects. The concept focused on major new buildings and refurbishments of existing buildings for civil uses (projects with construction costs higher than 10 million euros). The findings were also to be assessed for the possible use to evaluate other building types and sizes.

Objective

The term "agile evaluation of projects" in this study is used to describe a speedy and efficient project evaluation process with short reviews that can be conducted directly after each completed stage of building projects, which usually take several years to be planned and built. The research objectives were to develop an applicable, practical tool to perform agile project evaluations as well as to establish a standardized transfer of knowledge within the federal building departments.

The concept had to concentrate on how work experiences of members of the federal building administrations – especially regarding aspects of project management and achieving the determined project goals – can be efficiently and systematically registered or measured, interpreted, and made available for other projects. The study was to provide answers on how and when the evaluation of projects should be undertaken and how the assessed information could be edited and circulated within the federal building administrations. Therefore, several possibilities had to be identified and appraised regarding their respective advantages/usefulness, feasibility, and the additional need of resources.

As a result a viable and workable approach to collecting, appraising, and storing data regarding the know-how gained by managing and overseeing building projects had to be worked out in this study – while taking into account the existing conditions within the administrations in charge of federal government construction projects.

The project was carried out by the Öko-Zentrum NRW GmbH, Hamm.