The Tricky Boiler Case—Managing Scope Issues in Project Execution

This case study deals with three situations of unforeseen events disturbing the execution of a large-scale project. It highlights the many functions a contract has to fulfil under such circumstances, its impact on project management as well as the effects of its working environment on contract implementation. Since projects are highly dynamic, the contract’s main purpose is to organize an orderly progression of the project while maintaining the substance of the agreement reached by the parties. The contract thus serves as a manual for project execution under unexpected conditions, and the stakeholders’ potential course of action will largely depend on its content. The conflicting necessities and interests in cases of project scope issues are addressed in particular by the concepts of change, disruption, and additional order. Each of them entails complex processes: In terms of organization and communication, they cover a considerable number of fields of management and concern a variety of departments and management functions; at a material level, decisions will be made in a somewhat opaque interplay of explicit legal rules, implicit social norms, and business objectives. The linking parameter for the various processes, however, will be the construct ‘risk’ and considerations of risk management.