Utilization of Project Management Tools for Construction Project Success

Author(s):  
Sihle Gogela ◽  
Ayodeji E. Oke ◽  
Clinton O. Aigbavboa

Companies try to use better techniques to deal with complex projects. The maturity of companies to apply these better techniques can guarantee project success or not. The environment, where the engineering and construction project is developed, also has influence over the success. The maturity of a company's project management processes is also a factor of success. This chapter aims to talk about concepts related to engineering and construction initiatives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Kärnä ◽  
Juha-Matti Junnonen

Purpose In a construction project, “participants’ satisfaction” is one of the main dimensions used for measuring the successfulness of a project. Designers perform a major role in attaining the project goals and managing project complexity during production. The purpose of this paper is to examine the designers’ performance as evaluated by the main participants: the client, the project consultant/manager and the main contractor, and to identify the main success factors of designer performance using the participants’ evaluation. The study also aims to examine how the economic size of a project affects the project participants’ assessment of the designer’s performance. It is assumed that as the size of a project increases, so does the complexity of the project, which will affect the scope of work and demands on the designers’ operational performance for the specific project level. Design/methodology/approach The Finnish project evaluation and benchmark database was used in this study as empirical data. The quantitative data consists of surveys on the project level and are based on a multi-dimensional standard evaluation wherein the main participants evaluate each other’s performances. The client, project consultant and main contractor evaluated the designer’s performance. The data of the study consisted of a total of 892 evaluations. ANOVA analysis was used to examine the differences between the project participants’ assessments based upon the different economic sizes of the projects. Findings Contractors were satisfied with the designers’ performance in small projects, whereas the client and the project consultant/manager rated the designers’ performance most successful in large projects. This result may be due to small projects are typically simple and less complex, in which case design solutions are generally well-defined. Nonetheless, the participants’ level of satisfaction follows the same factors. The main problems in the designers’ performance were related to the design content: the flawlessness and comprehensiveness, as well as the compatibility and consistency of designs. These factors were emphasized particularly in the client’s low satisfaction of the designer’s performance. However, project participants were satisfied with the collaboration with designers; however, room for improvement could be found in internal communication and collaboration within the design teams. The findings illustrated that the assessment of the success rate of a project was party-specific, which was clearly affected by the size of the project, as large projects appeared to be more complex than smaller ones. Practical implications The findings suggested that there is a need to develop project-specific practices in managing multidisciplinary design teams. Additionally, particularly in large projects, designers should focus more on solving problems and design requirements occurring at the construction site. However, this should be implemented in such a way that this does not interfere with the design activities conducted with the client and project management. While client satisfaction is low in the small projects, designers should focus more on customer-oriented methods to serve client needs better. Originality/value In construction project management studies, there is a need to measure the importance that various participants assign to different success factors. Since project success factors depend on project type, a more project-specific approach is suggested to identify the main parameters for measuring project success. This study provides a holistic approach of the designers’ performance, which contributes to the theory of project success and designers’ performance improvement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Zuo ◽  
Xianbo Zhao ◽  
Quan Bui Minh Nguyen ◽  
Tony Ma ◽  
Shang Gao

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify the soft skills of construction project management; and second, to investigate the influence of these soft skills on project success factors in the Vietnamese construction industry. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was conducted with 108 project management professionals from the Vietnamese construction industry. Partial least square structural equation modelling was employed in data analysis. Findings Four-dimensional structure of project success factors was confirmed in this study. Results also showed that soft skills of project managers significantly contributed to project success factors and hence the project success. Research limitations/implications There may be geographical limitation on the conclusions drawn from the findings. Similarly, the sample size was still small, despite a relatively high response rate. In addition, the majority of the respondents were contractors and clients as other project players were reluctant to respond to the survey. Practical implications This study provides an understanding of the relationship between soft skills and project success factors. Originality/value Although there have been studies focused on soft skills of project management and project success factors, few have attempted to analyse the effects of these soft skills on critical success factors. Thus, this study adds significantly to the existing research on both project management skills and project success factors.


2014 ◽  
Vol 501-504 ◽  
pp. 2676-2681 ◽  
Author(s):  
František Kuda ◽  
Eva Berankova

This paper focuses on the possibility of linking Project Management and Facility Management that would result in an operationally efficient design of a development project. Project management tools are used during a construction project when an investment plan is implemented from the idea all the way until it is put into operation. Adding facility management to a construction project leads to a new insight into the project development which works with suggestions of the future operator of the facility from the very first considerations of the investment. The paper aims to highlight the benefits that a project would gain by integrating there two management areas.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.32) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Ghanim A. Bakr ◽  
. .

Project success is what must be done for the project to be acceptable to the client, stakeholders and end-users who will be affected by the project. The study of project success and the critical success factors (CSFs) are the means adopted to improve the effectiveness of project.This research is conducted in an effort to identify which factors influence the success of project accomplishment in Jordan. This study has selected, through an extensive literature review and interviews, (83) factors categorized into (7) main groups that the questionnaire respondents were required to score. The responses from 66 professionals with an average of 15 years of experience in different types of construction projects in Jordan were collected and analyzed using SPSS and the most important factors for success for various success criteria are presented depending on the relative importance index to rank the categories. The research revealed the significant groups of factors are: factors related to Client , factors related to Contractor’s, factors related to Project Manager (PM), and factors related to Project management. In addition the top ten sub factors are: Assertion of the client towards short time of the project, availability of skilled labor, Assertion of the client towards high level of the quality, capability of the client in taking risk, previous experience of the PM in similar projects, previous experience of the contractor in similar projects, decision making by the client/ the client’s representative at the right time, assertion of client towards low cost of project, experience in project management in previous projects, and flow of the information among parties. The findings of this study might be useful to construction project participants in taking decisions leading to successful finishing of construction projects in Jordan. 


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