Managing Project Complexity in The Smart Building Environment: “A Proposal of how to overcome the challenges in project management in the Real Estate industry”

Abstract

This thesis address how landlords and property managers work with smart building technologies by examining the barriers and challenges property managers experience when implementing smart building technologies in commercial real estate (buildings). This study used a qualitative research design and collected data material from 11 interviews. The majority of informants are property managers and similar roles such as operations managers, project managers, and others. In order to better understand the barriers and challenges this research interviewed other parts of the value chain, including a technology vendor (supplier), a system integrator and two international consultants, as well as a proactive researcher in the field of smart building. Information gathered from the interviews provided insight about project management, also a changed and new role of the property manager, and several challenges related to making a building smart. Chapter 1 provides the background of the thesis and an introduction to the next chapter, the theoretical framework in chapter 2. The relevance of the theoretical framework is related to the findings made in this study. Chapter 3 presents the choice of methods and research design. Chapter 4 presents findings made in this study that points to human and technological factors to barriers and challenges of implementing smart building technologies. Chapter 5 discusses key findings with relevant theories and previous studies. Themes such as property managers are given a new role, project management, involvement in projects, and the complexity of projects. Chapter 6 summarizes the thesis and draws a conclusion based on the study's findings and discussion.