The 17th NETLIPSE Network Meeting took place in Vienna, Austria on the 24th and 25th of November 2014. First we would like to thank our partners, the Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB), the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien and Delft University of Technology, which have been so kind to cooperate with us in organising this Network Meeting for the NETLIPSE Network.
Day 1 – Project Management and Stakeholder management
A variety of topics were discussed during the two-day programme. The focus of the first day was on the delivery of the Vienna Main Station project, the Ilfov Multimodal Hub in Bucharest, stakeholder management and the IPAT (Infrastructure Project Assessment Tool).
Karl-Johann Hartig and Sigi Herzog from ÖBB, shared their best practices to overcome the specific characteristics and corresponding issues on the project management of large infrastructure projects. A critical review on these topics was presented, including a short list for improvements. Once more, the preparation phase of the project was presented as essential for project success, because ‘when the concrete flows, it flows.”
Prof. Dr. Martina Huemann, Dr. Daniela Andratsch and Prof. Pernille Eskerod took us along for an alternative stakeholder analysis in order to depict the stakeholder situation. With the slogan ‘no project is an island’, all participants of the Network Meeting joined in in the systemic constellation approach. In this approach two viewpoints were presented: management for stakeholders and management of stakeholders, where the latter approach was emphasized. Also in this game, the ‘project uncertainty’ changed the project situation for all stakeholders.
The IPAT-presentation gave us an update on the application of the Infrastructure Project Assessment Tool. Stuart Baker from the UK Department for Transport was happy to announce that 15 new assessors have participated in the assessor training and are ready to carry out IPAT assessments. Already five assessments are planned for 2015. For more information, please contact Pau Lian Staal (pst@atosborne.nl) or Stuart Baker (info@netlipse.eu) or visit the NETLIPSE website (www.netlipse.eu).
Day 2 – Partnering Approach and Project Success
The second day focussed on the Partnering Approach and Perspectives on Project Success. We were glad to invite Peter Fischer (STRABAG) and Prof. Konrad Spang (University of Kassel) to discuss the topic of partnering and alliances from both the client perspective as well as the contractor perspective. The discussion after the short presentations was very interesting. Especially cultural components were mentioned as a critical factor for success. For example contractor profit making, which varies over the different countries was discussed. In some cultures this is acceptable, in others its not. Also risk sharing is difficult to realise and culturally dependent. Finally the de-escalation structure was mentioned as very important. Conclusion after the discussion is that the challenge of successful partnering in Austria and Germany is client dependent. So the solution is on the client-side as well.
Tom Kremers, NETLIPSE Manager presented some interesting facts and figures concerning the NETLIPSE organisation. These give a clear overview of the status of the current NETLIPSE position and can be shared to promote NETLIPSE, so please feel free to use these figures within your organisation (click here for the figures).
Master student Laura Coman (Delft University of Technology) presented her research results on Project Success. Input for her interesting research came from project managers from multiple European countries and inspired the project managers presented on their shared and unshared behaviour. Main conclusion is that project managers seem to compensate the average masculinity or femininity in their culture and the cultural differences between project managers are bigger within a country than between countries.
Thank you all for joining our NETLIPSE Network Meeting in Vienna! On behalf of the NETLIPSE Board, we are very pleased to invite you to the 18th Network Meeting that will take place in Göteborg, Sweden on May 11-12th 2015. Official invitation will follow, but please save the date!
The Network Meeting presentations and photos are available on the Vienna Network Meeting page.
