The Strategic Management of Large Engineering Projects: Shaping Institutions, Risks, and Governance

Roger Miller; Donald R. Lessard

ISBN 10: 0262122367 / ISBN 13: 9780262122368

Published by The MIT Press, 2001

About this Item

Cloth hardcover, xxi + 237 pages. Foreign library markings on endpapers & prelims (1 stamp, 2 barcode labels). Book is clean and bright throughout with unmarked text and firm binding. Bright untorn dust jacket with a blank label glued to the rear flap. -- Large engineering projects (LEPs) - such as dams, power plants, and transport networks - frequently suffer from massive cost overruns and delays. This study, based on the International Management of Large Engineering Projects (IMEC) research programme, moves away from traditional project management techniques like scheduling and cost-estimation. Instead, it focuses on the strategic choices made during the 'front-end' phase, showing that the success of a megaproject depends on how its sponsors shape the institutional environment, risks, and governance structures before construction begins. The text examines sixty global projects, including the Boston Harbor cleanup, the Ankara subway construction in Turkey and offshore oil platforms in Norway, to illustrate why some succeed while others fail. It identifies that LEPs exist in 'turbulent' environments where political, economic, and social shifts can derail even the best-engineered plans. The authors explain that risk should not merely be avoided but actively managed through a "layering" model that balances direct allocation with indirect risk management through financial and governance structures. A major theme is the importance of institutional framing - building a stable network of laws, regulations, and stakeholder agreements that protect the project from external shocks. Governance is presented as a dynamic process of managing relationships between private firms and public entities, ensuring that incentives are aligned throughout the decades-long lifecycle of an enterprise. In a contemporary landscape defined by the energy transition and the rollout of massive digital and transport infrastructure, these insights remain highly practical. The shift toward public-private partnerships and the increasing complexity of global regulations make the focus on front-end shaping and institutional governance particularly relevant. The volume provides a documented, evidence-based alternative to the technical optimism that often leads to infrastructure crises. This is an essential resource for engineers, policymakers, and business leaders navigating the financial and political complexities of modern megaprojects. A quarter-century after publication, the book remains required reading on university courses in strategic project management and continues to be cited in current research on megaproject delivery.

Seller Inventory # 013123

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Strategic Management of Large Engineering Projects: Shaping Institutions, Risks, and Governance
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262122367
• ISBN 13: 9780262122368
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

As the number, complexity, and scope of large engineering projects (LEPs) increaseworldwide, the huge stakes may endanger the survival of corporations and threaten the stability ofcountries that approach these projects unprepared. According to the authors, the "front-end"engineering of institutional arrangements and strategic systems is a far greater determinant of anLEP's success than are the more tangible aspects of project engineering and management.The book isbased on an international research project that analyzed sixty LEPs, among them the Boston Harborcleanup; the first phase of subway construction in Ankara, Turkey; a hydro dam on the Caroni Riverin Venezuela; and the construction of offshore oil platforms west of Flor, Norway. The authors usethe research results to develop an experience-based theoretical framework that will allow managersto understand and respond to the complexity and uncertainty inherent in all LEPs. In addition tomanagers and scholars of large-scale projects, the book will be of interest to those studying therelationship between institutions and strategy, risk management, and corporate governance ingeneral.Contributors Bjorn Andersen, Richard Brealey, Ian Cooper, Serghei Floricel, Michel Habib,Brian Hobbs, Donald R. Lessard, Pascale Michaud, Roger Miller, Xavier Olleros.

About the Author

Roger Miller is Jarilowsky Professor of Technological Innovation and Competitiveness in the Department of Mathematics and Engineering at the École Polytechnique Montréal