The construction industry is among the least digitized industries, and the lack of innovation in construction project management practices has led to decreases in productivity. The European Directives for Public Procurement are pushing the entire construction supply chain towards more radical digital transformations over the next years, and project managers are left with the difficult task to harness ICT for the involvement and management of project stakeholders. Digitalization of various processes and practices used to manage stakeholders in construction projects is still low, and part of this problem lies in weak systematization of ICT systems which support these practices. Thus, this paper provides a systematic review of how digitalization and digital transformation affect the way stakeholders behave, engage, and communicate in projects. Following the PRISMA methodology, 73 sources from the literature were chosen for the final analysis. Results are presented through descriptive and qualitative content analysis. Six research topics were identified and thoroughly analyzed. Results show that BIM, social network analysis, and web-based applications as means to digitalize stakeholder management are more mature than social media and VR/AR. An important finding is the need to reengineer and digitally transform processes in construction projects and construction firms to enable further digitalization and effectiveness of digital technologies. Suggestions for further studies follow this line of thought.

Today, the world is experiencing a major cycle of investment in infrastructure, which is essential for the development and prosperity of countries and societies. Management failures in infrastructure projects are widely known, and some of them involve the weak engagement of project stakeholders. The importance of stakeholder involvement as a key factor in the success of infrastructure projects is widely recognized. However, the literature provides few answers to the question of how this process manifests itself in projects. Some scholars have concluded that it is a complex and under-researched management process. The research questions aim to find out how practitioners perceive stakeholder engagement, who conducts activities and processes related to stakeholder engagement and in what ways, what organizational aspects influence the process, and how success is achieved in infrastructure projects. Initially, eight experienced experts involved in a whole range of (complex) infrastructure projects were interviewed, and later, four additional interviews were conducted for verification purposes. During the interviews, all aspects of stakeholder engagement were discussed in detail and a thematic analysis was conducted. Based on the analysis, success and failure factors related to the stakeholder engagement process were defined. As a result, a framework model for stakeholder engagement and infrastructure project success is presented based on three levels of management and three levels of project success.

Today, the world is undergoing a major investment cycle in infrastructure, which is vital for the development and prosperity of countries and society. Management deficiencies in infrastructure projects are well known and some of them concerns weak engagement of project stakeholders. Importance of stakeholder engagement as the key success factors for infrastructure projects is recognized. However, the literature gives very few answers how this process manifests in projects. Some scholars concluded that it is a complex and undertheorized management process which necessitates more empirical research. The research questions seek to identify how practitioners perceive the stakeholder engagement, who implements activities and processes related to engagement and in what way, which organizational aspects influence the process and how success is achieved in infrastructural projects. Interviews were conducted with eight experienced experts who participated in a whole series of (complex) infrastructure projects. The interviews examined all aspects of the engagement of stakeholders in detail, and a thematic analysis was carried out. Based on the analysis, success/failure factors related to the stakeholder engagement process were defined. As a result, a framework model for engaging stakeholders and achieving success in infrastructure projects is presented, which is based on three management levels and three levels of project success.

Even though horizontally linear projects have low complexity schedules, they are still not successful in meeting planned time. The deadlines are mostly based on estimations done in front-end project development when limited data are available. Early time estimation models in literature rely on few variables and, almost in all cases, one of them is the estimated cost. Early cost estimations can significantly deviate from actual costs and thus lead to unreliable time estimation. Time estimation models based on neural network and other alternative methods require databases and software, which complicates the process of time estimation. The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap of scarce time estimation models and unreliable time estimates by developing a new method for time estimation. This research has been done on one large sewer system project. The case study shows how to extract several continuous activities for a pipeline project chosen from a sewer system. Moreover, a new algorithm for the calculation of project duration is devised based on the existing equation related to the linear scheduling method, and this algorithm works with continuous activities. The new method for construction time estimation is based on the extraction of linear continuous activities, usage of the algorithm for identification of minimal buffer between activities, and calculation of the project duration. To verify the algorithm, this method is used on another pipeline project from a sewer system. The limitation is that this method can be used only for base estimation. Further research needs to be done to include uncertainties and risks in the method.

The role of projects in the transition of organizations towards sustainability is addressed in a growing number of studies, and sustainable project management (SPM) is considered one of the most important project management trends today. Organizations have shown a great interest in incorporating sustainability into managerial concepts but there are not many studies investigating the adoption of sustainable project management. Furthermore, an important issue to drive the transition to sustainability is a matter of personal stimuli factors to adopt SPM. As the topic of SPM is most pressing for the younger generation professionals, we explored their experiences with SPM and questioned what stimulates them to implement SPM. Survey was deployed within the network of young project manager (PM) professionals. Results show that sustainability is personally important to them, but they don’t implement it so broadly. There seems to be the lack of knowledge on SPM and their companies do not share the same level of enthusiasm towards the SPM adoption. The most important stimuli factor is ‘future generation can live a normal life’ but there are also some noticeable differences among respondents in stimuli factor rankings. As this is the first survey of this type, verification of the revealed trends on a larger sample would be beneficial as there is a need to understand how young project managers can be trained to become future leaders of sustainable transformation.