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students taking the high road
ACADEMIC ARTICLE
DANIELLE LESTER FRICS, A CHARTERED QUANTITY SURVEYOR AND PHD CANDIDATE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, EXPLAINS HOW THE ICARUS PROGRAM HELPS BUDDING YOUNG ENGINEERS MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS TO GET THEM ON THE FAST TRACK TO SUCCESS. Two billion dollars. That’s the combined amount of tax payer’s money lost due to cost overruns on just three of Brisbane’s biggest transport infrastructure projects1. As a quantity surveyor and commercial manager I have often asked myself why engineers make the decisions they do, that lead to these significant cost overruns. It should be noted at this point that I am not only referring to investment decisions made at an executive level, but also the dayto-day decisions being made in design offices, pre-contract departments and on site when deciding to schedule a concrete pour, just a few examples.
whilst over estimating the benefits; and Deception, or strategic misrepresentation, in principle fudging numbers (figure 1).
performance outcomes the norm, not the exception.
This and my own project experiences led me on a campaign to investigate the root cause of this behaviour, which naturally led to an evaluation of education.
Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg2 has proved that we consistently underperform in terms of cost, time and overall benefits, which he infers is due to two main behaviours3. Delusion, or optimism bias - the tendency to under estimate costs and time
After reviewing the courses on offer to Civil Engineering Students globally, it quickly became apparent that the majority of programmes available are very heavy with technical skills, offering students little to no exposure to
On every project I’ve worked I ask the question ‘OK, how are we going to manage this one’ and the response is always ‘well let’s not reinvent the wheel here’ unfortunately, that is exactly what happens, with no lessons being learned between projects. It’s the decisions behind statements like these that make poor project Engineering for Public Works | September 2016