Conflict Prevention in Project Management

This handbook is about the handling of external conflicts in international technical projects written for Project Managers and Engineers, Sales Managers, Executives and Legal Managers as seen from the client's as well as from the contractor's side. It is also for students seeking to become leaders in these disciplines and not to reproduce mistakes that others have made before them. The book does not try to give legal advice, but it helps engineers and project managers how to plan and execute their project in order to avoid major conflicts during the project.

Contractual disagreements between the acting parties evolving into conflicts and litigation are very frequent in international projects. This handbook therefore describes and analyzes how disagreements and conflicts between client, contractor and subcontractors can be avoided or should be handled if they occur.

The book thus covers the contract negotiations between the parties and the contractdrafting which are in many cases the roots for conflicts in a project. How to prevent or to solve conflicts using a psychological approach is presented thereafter, followed by a discussion on how to handle direct negotiations - the preferred method - before resorting to soft resolution methods. If these methods do not lead to success or are intentionally not pursued, then arbitration or litigation in front of state courts has to be applied. How to best prepare such litigation, how to handle the case and how to act, when an expertise is asked for by the court, are subsequently discussed. Finally the basic tools of project management are presented as a help to avoid conflicts.

Special emphasis is given to case studies, procedures, guidelines, project management tools and check-lists as used in international projects to help the responsible project manager in solving his difficult task to bring the project to a successful end.

Auteur

Dr. Wolfgang Spiess, Engineering Degree (Dipl.-Ing.) at Technical University Berlin, Germany, Doctor´s Degree in Systems Engineering, Lecturer at Technical University Berlin for Planning and Management Systems. CEO of Trapp Systems Engineering, developing computerized planning systems and simultaneously Head of Organisational Division of F.C.Trapp Construction Company. Head of International Division of RWTÜV one of the leading companies for quality and safety supervision. Senior Executive VP of SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) world leader in quality and safety inspection. Major experience in arbitration for the ICC (Paris).

Finn Felding holds a Master Degree in Economics at University of Copenhagen. Post Graduate studies at Technical University of Denmark. He has 30 years experience in international engineering contracting in line positions from Assistant Project Manager to Managing Director in FLSmidth A/S, Copenhagen, APV Danish Turnkey Dairies Ltd., Aarhus, Denmark and the Christiani & Nielsen owned M&E Contractor in Thailand. He has managed or appraised projects in Asia, Europe, Americas and Austral Asia from a value of EUR 100.000 to 300 millions. Since 1997 he has operated as independent Project Advisor with assignments for international engineering and contracting companies. Furthermore he has developed and implemented international project management courses at Maersk Training Center etc.

Résumé
Tis handbook has three primary objectives : (?) to give the project managers gu- ance to avoid con?icts in project execution and to understand the procedures in case of legal proceedings, (?) to give lawyers the understanding of the technical problems in project management, and (?) to give students an introduction into the technical and legal aspects of managing big international projects. Te case studies and qu- tions at the end of each chapter are especially directed to the student and the young project managers, who try to enter the ever more complicated world of managing international projects. Tis book does not try to give legal advice, but it tries to help engineers and project managers how to thoroughly plan their project in order to avoid con?icts during execution. In this way it also helps lawyers to better understand their clients, when they have to defend them in con?icts regarding big international projects. Te authors' many years of experience in managing international projects on one side and in assisting as experts and monitors of litigation on the other side have led them to write this book and thus to help other project managers avoid the mistakes that they themselves and other project managers have made in the past.

Contenu
Parties, Roles and Interests in International Projects.- Engineering, Supply and Construction Contracts.- Preventing Conflicts by Application of Psychology.- Negotiations Leading to Conflict Resolution.- Litigation, Arbitration and Mediation Contributing to Conflict Settlement.- Expertise Contributing to Conflict Solutions.- Project Management Tools to Help Avoid Conflicts.- Conclusions and Recommendations.