Taming complexity in project organising through blockchain

Abstract

Digital technologies radically change the increasingly complex world of projects, and bring new opportunities and threats to the field. This chapter discusses the potential of blockchain technology for project organising, by looking at the three domains of project organising (Winch, 2014); (a) project-based firms (PBFs), (b) projects and programmes and (c) owners and operators and their interfaces; commercial, resourcing/es, and governance. Through a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS), we first review key applications of blockchain in project organising and afterwards, through a meta-review, we present use cases in project-based sectors. The conclusions are that the opportunities for the permanent interfaces of owners/operators and Project-based Firms (PBFs) abound, especially regarding financing, but without business model innovation, whereas the temporary resourcing interface can benefit from applications in logistics that reduce complex material flows. Although there are blockchain use cases in human resources and governance, these are not fully exploited yet in projects.