Current societal and construction challenges, combined with limited time and the scarcity of people and resources, require solutions in the construction industry. This research focuses on repetitive tasks and contributes to that. Furthermore, this research is necessary because the literature on repetitive tasks is limited and needs to be supplemented. The research objective was to increase the understanding and knowledge of the design elements aimed at exploiting the potential of repetitive tasks in assignments where public clients and contractors collaborate. Based on the literature review, repetitive tasks and associated potential were defined and a theoretical framework was established. The empirical research consists of studying three cases, the programmes WL, IPS Schoolgebouwen and WOUW, using case documents and eighteen interviews conducted with public clients and contractors. This provided a picture of repetitive tasks in different construction sectors (residential, utility and infrastructure construction) and at different phases of the asset life cycle (new construction, maintenance and renovation). Separate analysis of the three cases, combined with cross case analysis and the established theoretical framework, then formed the basis for the "Innovative approach to repetitive tasks" framework. Through an "innovative approach to repetitive tasks", consisting of a cross-project inventory of repetitive tasks and the application of the design elements and advices proposed in the “Innovative approach to repetitive tasks” framework, the forces of the public client and the contractors are combined and the potential of repetitive tasks is unlocked.

Building upon a conceptual framework of elements that play a role in the management of uncertainties, an empirical study was performed to learn about the uncertainties in the energy transition. For this, interviews were held and an expert panel was organized.

It was found that uncertainty is an unavoidable element of project management. It is a lack of knowledge about something and its probability of occurrence and potential outcome are usually unquantifiable and immeasurable. Uncertainty is a dynamic concept of which the magnitude decreases over time as more information becomes available. Its presence complicates the management of projects as this means choices need to be made without all relevant information. Literature further showed that uncertainty management consists of different core elements: identification, classification and the act of dealing with uncertainties.

The interviews showed that currently uncertainties are not purposely handled. Based on examples and context, it could however be concluded that elements of uncertainty management are subconsciously applied. Unknowingly in the sense that they are often not used to tackle uncertainties specifically, but risks instead. The empirical study also aimed to identify the differences between the conventional energy industry and the energy transition industry. This was done to determine whether these differences would lead to necessary adaptations in the project management approach.

The final conclusion of the research is that first and foremost, the management approach should be complemented with an uncertainty management plan that extends current risk management practices. The management of uncertainties should include an identification and classification procedure before deciding on the way of dealing with uncertainties, accompanied by an appropriate response. As uncertainty develops over time, monitoring of uncertainties should be done on a regular basis throughout the duration of a project. The overall management approach thus requires a flexible attitude so that changes in the management process of a project can be made if deemed suitable or necessary.

Construction projects are filled with uncertainty. Such projects are becoming more complex: Many different interrelated aspects that are subject to change play a role in the delivery of construction work. This makes it interesting to know what exactly is uncertain in these projects, and what can be done to manage uncertainty. The aim of this research is to explore what aspects of complex construction projects are uncertain and what project management teams of public clients do to manage uncertainty before it impacts projects. Four complex construction projects were studied at two large public clients in the Netherlands: Rijksvastgoedbedrijf and Rijkswaterstaat. A total of 17 interviews were carried out across the project teams of these cases. A literature study was conducted to provide a theoretical basis of uncertainty in complex projects and approaches for the management of uncertainty. Uncertainty can be present in eight aspects: Objectives, methods, market, resources, stakeholders, contract, technology and environment. And managing uncertainty can be done in three ways: Learning, representing complexity and selectionism.
The results show a variety of uncertainties present in those projects: all eight aspects were found to involve uncertainty in the cases. What especially appears as a challenge is the state of objects in renovation projects. This was a significant uncertainty that played a role in three renovation cases. Interestingly, project teams know before the start of the project that this is an uncertainty, but still face surprises during the execution phase. In addition, objectives, stakeholders and environment were uncertain in most of the cases. Given this broad spectrum of uncertainties, what do project teams do to prepare for this? Public clients mainly use approaches that represent the complexity of the project. They do this mainly by using organizational structures that focus on collaboration and integration. Organizational structures are utilized to facilitate joint risk management between the contractor and the public client. In addition, other approaches are used to represent complexity. Uncertainties are identified and discussed in a
project development process to develop new project-specific knowledge. Decision-makers are often involved to increase the decision power of the project team or to escalate matters that are beyond influence of the project team. And lastly, project teams often focus on financial reserves and creating cohesion between project parties to prepare for unforeseen situations. learning is the second most used approach to prepare for uncertainty. It is mainly used in the renovation projects that were studied, where experiments at the site, use of mockups off site and pilots are introduced to learn about the interaction between the construction method, the object and the environment.
The findings show that public clients manage a variety of uncertainties through the representation of complexity in the project organization and by learning. Selectionism was not used in the cases, and it is not clear to which extent selectionism is viable in complex construction projects. Based on the literature, it is recommendable for public clients to use integrated project teams to manage complex construction projects.

The infrastructure industry is an industry that causes a severe threat to sustainability as it consumes a large amount of energy, resources and materials. The circular economy (CE) provides the opportunity to address this issue because CE is characterised by reducing the carbon footprint, using primary materials and protecting material resources. By recycling construction materials and use second-hand construction materials, it is possible to address this issue.

High reaching ambitions on circularity are created by the Dutch government and public organisations for the infrastructure industry. Researchers explain that public procurement can contribute to achieve these circular ambitions. Especially in the infrastructure sector, public organisations have a large purchasing volume. They can stimulate and create demands for a product that contributes to CE by including it in their procurement. However, because of the developing character of circularity, circular public procurement is a new challenging field that lacks empirical research.

To realise circular procurement in practice, ambitions need to be clearly formulated for a project. This is not yet explored enough, and the question of how to deal with the challenging ambitions in projects is still unanswered. In this research is discovered how public organisations strategize their organisational ambitions on the project level during the preparation of procurement. The strategizing of organisational ambitions on the project level is recognised as a process. Therefore, two real-life projects are analysed by using process research to explore the used strategies.

The research results show us that two public organisations show two different approaches of strategizing in which several contextual factors play a significant role. On the one side, a highly emergent strategy is preferred when it is acceptable to release the organisational boundaries and restrictions. On the other side, a partly deliberate and partly emergent strategy is preferred when it is a situation in which organisational boundaries play a significant role in the innovation process. Eventually, both strategies discovered in the case studies can be applied to determine how organisational ambitions can be strategized on a project level in other situations concerning new initiatives (like circularity in this research).

In the upcoming years in the Netherlands, the Dutch government will be focusing on renovating infrastructure assets. Moreover, a shift from organizing each project individually to a more program-oriented approach has been observed in renovating infrastructure, whereby synergy a prominent feature is. In addition, it is becoming increasingly apparent that non-functional goals that focus on adding value (secondary goals) are outlined for construction programs besides functional goals. However, minor studies have been conducted to examine how achieving diverse program goals can be controlled and how a synergy can be optimally utilized in infrastructure renovation programs (IRP). The method used to improve utilizing this full potential is twofold, it consists of a literature study followed by empirical research, which consists of conducting three case studies and their synthesis. The proposed solution to gain control over both the primary and secondary goals of IRP is to shift the focus of control on performance this in turn would take control of the process. Regarding obtaining interpretable information, careful and constant attention to the connection between which content is essential and how this is acquired is critical. Considering the program organization, firstly, stimulating a collaborative working environment when executing tasks and creating awareness of the beneficial collective program management approach is essential. Secondly, implementing a change management procedure has been suggested. Lastly, the program management team should prioritize what needs to be coordinated on program level and what should be organized for all projects individually. The empirical research performed has generated in new synergy benefits that have not been described in scientific literature previously. Those new synergies found are the opportunity of empowering political urgency, removing obstacles that are in the way of performing research, decision-making based upon broad knowledge and a comprehensive overview of risks. To utilize all forms of synergy, the equilibrium between making the program manageable and utilizing synergy should be found by a combination of working in departments on tasks and practicing an integral way of working. To utilize the advantages of conducting research collectively, the focus should be directed upon the developments of the application-oriented innovation by associating the innovation directly to the program goals and involve knowledge institutions in the process. In order to utilize the program’s potential, it is recommended to program managers to notice and understand the forms of synergy accessible. Also, it is recommended for program managers to be aware of the tension between project and program management. Besides, a recommendation to program managers is to focus on the attitude of the program team towards the collective program approach. Furthermore, it is recommended that program managers reflect on their program to find out what barriers occur in their problem. Hence, the program manager can use this research to concretize actions on how to achieve improvements of their program. In addition, enabling the power of the iterative process is recommended. Lastly, structuring the improvements in the light of the program management cycle gives footing.

The purpose of this research was contributing to better understand the drivers of public authorities in the Dutch infrastructure sector to change their contract strategy. In the awareness of the complex multi-layered phenomena of change in the public sector, this deductive research adopted the theory of Kuipers et al. (2014) and implemented it for a holistic multiple case study. For the concretization of the holistic multiple case study, a total of three cases over different time periods, from Rijkswaterstaat and the Water Authority Delfland have been reviewed. In this, the multi-method qualitative research strategy has been adopted, where both secondary and primary data have been gathered with respect to these three cases. At length, both types of data have been analysed using the concept-driven analysis procedure, modelled accordingly to the five-factor framework of Kuipers et al. (2014). Substantively, the conclusion of this research is two-folded; that public authorities are driven by extrinsic as well as intrinsic drivers. Firstly, in two of the three cases, the effects of the (external) contextual factors could be seen as direct triggers in the process of change. The significance of extrinsic drivers was already traditionally known and corresponds primarily with the institutionalist perspective. Essentially; the predominate presumption that changes are ‘made to’ organizations. Be it that this research found that the conjunction of these triggering factors was less intricated than priorly expected, only one or two macro external factors per case. Secondly, in the remaining case - the intrinsic motivation of the organisation could be seen as the principal driver of the change. This finding is in accordance with the change management perspective. A perspective with its roots in private sector research, that only recently emerged as a theory for public sector research. Principally, this rational-adaptive theory places significant attention on the intentional actions of agents. Herein, the main attention is focused on the roles, activities and behaviours of individuals, rather than an orientation that highlights the personality, character or traits of the leader (Burke, 2017). In view of this, however - this research found that for one case - the intrinsic drive from an organisation was predominately based on the personal believe system of an individual leader. Therefore, for future research, the objectivistic-based positivism philosophy that underlies both previously mentioned perspectives - should be complemented with more a subjectivistic-based research philosophies such as the social constructivism theory. In sum, future research that aims to identify driving factors for specific changes at public authorities, specifically for first and second order changes – should focus on both the macro level and micro level, in order to minimize the possibility of drawing unintentional preclusions. Therein, striking a balance between subjective and objective (primary) data.

Project failure rate is astonishingly 70%. This cause for the failure can vary from poor project management, to poor engineering, external factors like environment etc. This research particularly aims at identifying the competencies needed by project managers, with a aim that it will eventually reduce the failure rate.
This research was carried out to investigate the relevance of competencies with respect to contract type, specifically cost reimbursable and lump sum contract and its variations with the project phases. Eventually also identifying the effect of competencies on project success. This will cater to the problem definition what kind of competencies can project managers adapt to execute a lump sum contract. In order to understand lump sum, we also need to study cost reimbursable that is the extreme opposite of lump sum contract. Encompassing all the above the following research question was formulated:
“What are the critical competencies of a project manager needed at different phases of a lumpsum project to ensure project success?”
The main research objective is to understand the importance of competent project managers. The research was divided into three phases.
In the first phase a thorough literature review was done to get insights on competencies, yielding a set of fifteen competencies that will be studied against the phases of a project. FLUOR B.V., has five stages of a project, which will be considered for the research purpose. Two sets of project success factors were identified through literature, one being at macro view point and the other being micro view point.
The second phase was all about data collection and analysis. Survey was conducted to identify the variations in competencies through different phases of a project. Interviews were conducted to recognise the relationship between contract type and competencies, and competencies’ impact on project success. Since both the methods addressed different hypotheses. Data collection is followed by the analysis. Frequency charts were made to identify the most preferred competencies.
The final phase was to put the results to use. A competency-based scorecard was designed to suitably hire and appoint project managers. This was based on phases of a project. Only the top eight competencies per phase was chosen for the scorecard. Competencies that are most affected during a lump sum contract are added to an existing leadership model, it’s a matrix of leadership levels and competencies. The competencies affecting the project success can also be useful in allocating project managers to different projects. This could be directly implemented in projects.

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are currently the desired project delivery method for big infrastructure projects in the Netherlands. PPPs contain a lot of contact moments between both organizations. Contractors encountered the problem that not all contact moments create public or private value, some might cause a loss of value. This thesis researched this phenomenon and looked for optimizations to these contact moments to create more (public and private) value. The thesis did so by doing a case study on three Dutch DBFM infrastructure cases. The thesis conducted interviews with high-ranked managers of both the clients and contractors of the three cases to gain insights from both sides. The results of the subsequent qualitative content analysis showed that contact moments can be optimized to create more value in three different ways. The first is by introducing so called 'collaboration programs'. This program contains deep and frequent meetings between both the public and private organization where discussions on personal matters and soft factors take place, as well as workshops on these topics. The second optimization is to improve the contact moment structure of DBFM projects. This can be done by: having daily informal contact moments and bi-weekly or monthly formal contact moments, have easy access to informal contact moments by being in the same or adjacent buildings, have frequent BOT-meetings, Project Start-Ups and Project Follow-Ups. The third optimization is to improve single contact moments. This can be done by doing good preparations, defining a goal and evaluate the contact moment at its end.

Problem statement: Organisations need real estate to enable them to perform their activities effectively and efficiently in a safe, protected and pleasurable environment. Typically, large organisations use many buildings to perform their activities. The relationship between a building (supply) and its users (demand) is constantly changing. This change is fuelled by technology and a host of economic and cultural trends. Because the supply - demand is changing continuously, most of the time there is a mismatch between what a building can offer and what an organisation requires. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges in Corporate Real Estate Management is reducing the gap between the high speed of business and the slow speed of real estate, i.e. between the so-called dynamic real estate demand and relatively static real estate supply.
Research objective: Based on the objective of Corporate Real Estate Management, the research objective of this graduation work is to develop and present knowledge of how the physical resource can be enhanced by implementing ‘Office as a Service’. Because the mismatch is dynamic and will change frequently, a strategic decision approach to managing the mismatch between the user organisation and the building is proposed in order to offer a suitable way of approaching these problems. Therefore the main research question is: “How can ‘Office as a Service’ be a strategic decision approach for an organization to optimize their physical resources in order to obtain maximum added value?” Research method: By conducting operational-empirical research, the research questions are answered. By means of operational research, a strategic decision approach is developed that can be used in the process of forming an accommodation strategy to align real estate to the needs of the core business. Empirical research was used to obtain input for the development of the operational model. This empirical research focused on the performance of ‘Office as a Service’ strategies in relation to both the presumed added values of real estate and the various typologies of occupier space demands. To obtain the required input, a method of a literature review, semi-structured interviews and a cross-case study was used. Key findings and conclusion: A strategic decision approach is developed based on the concept of a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) model. The development of this Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis model integrates the decision-makers criteria, which are based on the presumed added values of real estate as well as the five typologies of occupier space demand, with the alternative ‘Office as a Service’ strategies. Based on the model of Den Heijer (2011) to assess the added value of real estate decisions regarding the four stakeholder perspectives with their corresponding presumed added values, eight added values divided over all four stakeholder perspectives can be related to the concept of ‘Office as a Service’. Next to the presumed added values of real estate which contribute to the strategic goals of an organization, an operational aspect is added to the decision-criteria taking into account five typologies of occupier space demand of an organisation. Based on the Core-Periphery operational real estate portfolio space model of Gibson and Lizieri (1999) in relation to the alternative ‘Office as a Service’ strategies this results in the following interpretation: a stepped ascending relationship where the increase of flexibility is answered by a more external ‘Office as a Service’ strategy.