Türk yapım projelerinde çevik proje yönetimi araçlarından scrum'un uygulanabilirliğinin vaka çalışmalarıyla incelenmesi

Abstract

İnşaat sektörü, ekonomik krizlerden büyük ölçüde etkilenen sektörden biridir. Diğer sektörler kriz sonrasında yeni teknolojiler ve yöntemler geliştirerek gelişime geçebilmesine rağmen; inşaat sektörü doğru bildiği yanlışlarla süreçlerine devam etmektedir. Süre ve maliyet aşımları, düşük iş gücü verimliliği, israf, işveren ve paydaş gereksinimlerinin yeteri kadar anlaşılamaması, iletişim ve koordinasyon yetersizlikleri, planlama hataları, karmaşıklık, değişiklik, belirsizlik ve risklerle baş edememe sorunları neredeyse her inşaat projesinde tekrarlanmaktadır. İnşaat projelerindeki bu sorunlar nedeniyle yatırımcılar farklı yatırım araçları arayışına yönelirler. Yatırımcılar tarafından inşaat projelerine talep azaldıkça firmalar rekabet etmeye çalışır. Değişikliklere, belirsizliklere ve risklere adapte olarak rekabet avantajı sağlamak için yeni teknolojileri, yöntemleri ve yönetim yaklaşımlarını uygulamak gerekir. Bu nedenle, yazılım projelerinde benzer sorunlara yanıt bulmak amacıyla ortaya konulan ve karmaşık projelerde değişikliklere, belirsizliklere ve risklere yanıt verebilme gücünü sağlayan çevik proje yönetimi, inşaat sektörüne adapte edilmelidir. Çevik proje yönetimi bir iş yapış felsefesidir. Bu felsefenin uygulanması için bazı yöntemler tanımlanmıştır. Bu tez çalışmasında, bu uygulama yöntemlerinden biri olan Scrum'ın inşaat projelerinde uygulanabilir olduğunu, eğer uygulanırsa birey, proje, firma, sektör ve ülke düzeyinde pek çok avantaj sağlayacağını ortaya koymak ve sektörde farkındalığını ve bilinirliliğinı artırmak amaçlanmıştır. Bu amacı gerçekleştirmek için öncelikle çevik proje yönetimi ve Scrum, doğru bilgilere ulaşmak için doğmuş olduğu yazılım sektörü literatüründe araştırılmıştır. Yazılım ile inşaat projeleri hem benzer hem de farklı özelliklere sahip olduğu için yazılım sektörü literatüründeki kavramların inşaat sektörü için tam olarak bir karşılığının olmadığı anlaşılmıştır. Bu nedenle, inşaat sektörü literatürünün çevik proje yönetimi ve Scrum'ı ne şekilde ele aldığı, bu kavramların inşaat projelerinde neden uygulanması gerektiği, uygulanabilirliği ve uyarlanabilirliği, uygulanırsa sağlayacağı avantajlar ve karşılaşacağı kısıtlar konuları incelenmiştir. Literatür çalışması sonucunda yurt içi literatürünün, yurt dışı literatürüne göre epey geride kaldığı; yurt dışında 2006 yılı itibariyle çalışılmaya başlandığı ve 21 çalışma olduğu, yurt içinde ise 2019 yılı itibariyle çalışılmaya başlandığı ve 3 çalışma olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Çevik proje yönetiminin ve Scrum'ın, Türkiye inşaat sektörü uygulamaları ile ilişkilendirildiği literatür çalışmasına ihtiyaç olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Çevik proje yönetiminin ve Scrum'ın Türk yapım projelerinde uygulanabilirliğini incelemek amacıyla vaka çalışmaları yapılmıştır. Yapılan vaka çalışmalarında Scrum'ı projelerinde deneyimlemiş olan proje yönetim, yüklenici, tasarım ve cephe firmaları ile yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yapılmıştır. Görüşme soruları, literatür çalışmaları sonrası elde edilen bilgilerden hazırlanmış ve çevrimiçi toplantı aracı vasıtasıyla katılımcılara sorulmuştur. Görüşme soruları firmalar hakkındaki bilgileri, Scrum uygulanmasına karar verme süreçlerini, Scrum uygulanan projeler hakkında bilgileri, Scrum uygulanan projelerde Scrum uygulanması hakkında bilgileri, projelerde Scrum uygulanmasının avantajlarını, kısıtlarını ve dezavantajlarını, Scrum'ın Türk inşaat projelerine uyarlanması ve yaygınlaştırılması için önerileri içerecek şekilde yaklaşık 60 sorudan oluşmuştur. Vaka çalışmaları sonucunda firmaların Scrum'ı yazılım projeleri için tariflendiği şekliyle uygulamak konusunda zorluk yaşadığı, belli bir süre sonra kendi iş yapış yöntemlerine dahil ederek uyarladıkları tespit edilmiştir. Scrum'ı teorik olarak öğrenmek ve tüm disipliniyle uygulamak zor olacaktır. Scrum, deneyselliği ve sürekli iyileşmeyi destekleyen bir iş yapış çerçevesi olduğu için gelişimi ve verimi sağlayabilmek amacıyla çerçevenin sınırlarını aşmak gerekir. Önemli olan çevik zihniyeti kavramaktır. Elde edilen veriler, Türk yapım projelerinde Scrum'ın uygulanabildiğini, uygulamak için uyarlamaların yapılabildiğini, sağlayacağı avantajları, uygulanması yolundaki kısıtların çözümünün olabileceğini göstermektedir. Türk yapım projelerinde Scrum'ın uygulanması ve yaygınlaştırılması için ülke, sektör, firma, proje ve birey düzeyinde önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Bu önerilerin uygulamaya konması ile birey düzeyinde çalışan mutluluğu ve verimlilik artışı; proje düzeyinde verimlilik, iletişim, koordinasyon ve güven artışı; firma düzeyinde rekabet, verimlilik artışı; sektör düzeyinde üretkenlik artışı, kriz ve belirsizliklerle baş edebilme; ülke ekonomisini yüksek oranla etkileyen inşaat sektöründeki verimlilik sayesinde ülke düzeyinde ekonomide artış sağlanacağı öngörülmüştür. Çalışma, inşaat sektöründe faaliyet gösteren ve verimliliğini artırmayı hedefleyen firmalara, konu hakkında araştırma yapan araştırmacılara kaynak olabilecektir.

The construction industry is one of the sectors that has been heavily affected by the economic crisis. Although other sectors can survive by developing new technologies and methods after the crisis; the construction sector continues its processes with the wrong it knows. Time and cost overruns, low labor productivity, waste, inadequate understanding of employer and stakeholder requirements, communication and coordination deficiencies, planning errors, inability to cope with complexity, change, uncertainty and risks are repeated in almost every construction project. Due to these problems in construction projects, investors tend to seek different investment sources. As the demand for construction projects by investors decreases, firms try to compete. It is necessary to apply new technologies, methods and management approaches to gain competitive advantage by adapting to changes, uncertainties and risks. Therefore, agile project management, which is put forward in order to find answers to similar problems in software projects and provides the power to respond to changes, uncertainties and risks in complex projects, should be adapted to the construction industry. Agile project management is a business philosophy that creates the highest value by ensuring customer satisfaction, increases feedback by increasing communication between stakeholders, and increases the commitment and interaction of the Project team. Agile project management is efficient to apply in projects with high levels of uncertainty and complexity. It focuses on rapid response and adaptation in an uncertain business environment. Large work packages break down into manageable small jobs. With iterations and increments, the process is improved and the requirements are clearly understood. Some methods have been defined for this philosophy to be applicable. The most used of these methods is Scrum, which takes its name from a sport that requires teamwork called rugby. Scrum is a business framework that supports teamwork, continuous learning, improvement and experimentation. In this thesis, it is aimed to reveal that Scrum can be applied in construction projects by making adaptations within the framework of doing business, if it is applied, it will provide many advantages at the level of individual, project, company, sector and country, and to increase its awareness as it is a new concept in the sector. In order to achieve this goal, first of all, agile project management and Scrum have been researched in the software industry literature where it was born to reach the right information. Since software and construction projects have both similar and different features, it has been understood that the concepts in the software industry literature cannot be exactly equivalent to the construction industry. For this reason, how the construction industry literature examines agile project management and Scrum, why these concepts should be applied in construction projects, their applicability and adaptability, the advantages they will provide and the constraints they will encounter if applied are examined. As a result of the literature study, it was found that the domestic literature is far behind compared to the foreign literature; it has been determined that there are 21 studies in the foreign literature since 2006 and there are 3 studies in the domestic literature since 2019. As a result of the literature study, agile project management and Scrum need to study in the literature on Turkish construction industry applications. Case studies were conducted to examine the applicability of agile project management and Scrum in Turkish construction projects. In 2017, Istanbul Project Management Association started a Project "Agile Transformation of Construction Industry" and provided the application of Scrum from different stakeholder groups as a pilot project in Turkey. In this thesis study, case studies of Turkish project management, contractor, design and facade firms which have experienced Scrum in their projects have been examined. Semi-structured interviews were held with these companies. The interview questions were prepared from the information obtained after the literature studies and were asked to the participants through the online meeting tool. Interview questions include information about companies, decision-making processes for Scrum implementation, information about Scrum applied projects, information about Scrum implementation in projects which Scrum was applied, advantages, constraints and disadvantages of Scrum implementation in projects, and suggestions for adapting and disseminating Scrum to Turkish construction projects. About 60 questions were asked about these issues. As a result of the case studies, it has been stated in the information about companies section that the contractor and the facade firm have a vertical hierarchical organizational structure, and the project management and design firm has an organizational structure with a horizontal hierarchy. It has been stated that team culture is supported in all companies and studies with different intensity in terms of organizational learning are carried out. It has been determined that the decision-making processes of companies to implement Scrum started thanks to their openness to researching and experimenting with new methods and encouraging them to be implemented by senior managers with a leader spirit. All companies have received training before starting to implement Scrum. The project management firm came across agile project management and Scrum issues at a conference abroad. The contractor firm and the facade firm came across these issues thanks to their acquaintances who studied agile transformation in the construction industry. The design firm encountered these issues by conducting detailed research, thanks to its employer who wanted a method similar to the agile approach in the project it had previously done. In other companies other than the project management company have opposed the implementation of Scrum within the company. Since it is a suitable method for the project management firm establishment setup, no negative reaction was encountered. In other companies, there were employees who opposed innovation and did not want to leave the usual methods. It has been observed that those who oppose this transformation are more in the facade and the contractor firm. This situation is thought to stem from the vertical hierarchical organizational structure in these companies. In case studies, Scrum was implemented at the end of the implementation phase by the project management firm, in the excavation-shoring phase at the beginning of the implementation phase by the contractor firm, during the design phase by the design and facade firms. As a result of the case studies, it was determined that companies had difficulties in implementing Scrum as described for software projects, and after a certain period of time, they adapted it to their own business methods. It will be difficult to learn Scrum theoretically and to apply it with all its discipline. Since Scrum is a business framework that supports experimentation and continuous improvement, it is necessary to overcome the limits of the framework in order to ensure development and efficiency. The important thing is to grasp the agile mindset. As common advantages in case studies, thanks to the application of Scrum in companies, improvement in teamwork, team motivation, team responsibility, adaptation skills, communication and coordination skills, in transparency and trust, improvement by learning in the process, increase in efficiency and elimination of unnecessary work were achieved. As common constraints in case studies, it has been revealed that the project processes of Scrum are restricted due to the disciplined activities of the companies, the use of Scrum as a stand-alone method is insufficient for construction projects, and there is difficulty in measuring the effort required by work packages. These constraints are suggested in the conclusion section and it is stated that some constraints are specific to the project and some to the nature of construction projects. In case studies, some suggestions have been made regarding the implementation and adaptation of Scrum in construction projects. Some of these suggestions are; Scrum should be implemented by all project stakeholders, the project should have Scrum teams and product owners should prioritize the work to be done by gathering at the top level, a hybrid method should be applied by combining different methods, English words should be changed to Turkish in accordance with construction projects, the organizational structure of companies with a hierarchical structure should be arranged in association with Scrum. In case studies, some suggestions and practices have been made to generalize Scrum in construction projects. Three of the projects considered as case studies were described in seminars to introduce Scrum to the construction industry. It was stated that university students and sector employees should receive Scrum training. According to the facade company, it was stated that there should be a requirement in the contracts for the implementation of Scrum. The data obtained as a result of the literature and case studies show that Scrum can be applied in Turkish construction projects, adaptations can be made to apply it, the advantages it will provide, and the solution of the restrictions on its implementation. Suggestions have been made at the country, sector, firm, project and individual level for the implementation and dissemination of Scrum in Turkish construction projects. With the implementation of these recommendations; employee happiness and productivity will increase at the individual level; productivity, communication, coordination and trust will increase at the project level; competitive advantage and productivity will increase at firm level; productivity growth and ability to cope with crises and uncertainties will be provided at sector level; thanks to the efficiency in the construction sector, which has a high impact on the national economy, an increase in the economy will be achieved at the country level. The study can be a resource for companies operating in the construction sector and aiming to increase their productivity, and researchers who conduct research on agile project management and Scrum.