Critical Success Factors in Construction Projects

This assignment delves into the crucial factors that contribute to successful outcomes in construction projects. It examines a range of research papers and studies to identify recurring themes and critical success factors. The analysis considers various aspects, including stakeholder management, risk mitigation, communication strategies, project planning, and execution methodologies. The goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the elements essential for achieving project success in the construction industry.

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PPROJECT MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS
In most cases, project managers would assume that their projects would be delivered on time and
on budget, unfortunately in reality statistics tell different story. Therefore is the project is
delivered on time and within agreed budget it does not mean that the project did not fail. When
project is finished, it is important to ask ‘Did the project deliver benefits, quality and results that
were expected?’ If project was successful can only be determined after project delivers benefits it
was supposed to. The following factors are not the only ones that affect the success or failure of
a project, but in this research, they appear the most. Lack of visibility of the project. All levels of
project team (executive management, project managers, and team members) need visibility of the
right information at all times. Using multiple tools for information like emails, PM software, and
spreadsheets means that the information is always floating around and it is not visible to the all
project team. As identified by project managers scattered information is a set towards disaster.
All projects differ from one to another, therefore reasons why they fail are different as well.
However there are factors that appear to be common when it comes to project failure, they
include some the following:
Poor preparation or planning
Before every project is begun, the project manager must ensure that they have a clear picture of
what they are supposed/going to do in advance. This includes ensuring that that all the resources
and project deliverable are all available, enough and functional (Haughey, 2014). In addition to
that, they should be sure of the stakeholder’s expectations, project scope, time period, budget and
the product quality. Poor preparation is contributed by lack of proper activity scheduling, poor
timing, failure to divide roles and responsibilities at all/as early as possible among other things
(Nassa and Yadav, 2012). Without proper preparation, the project manager and the team
members may find themselves loosing track of the project’s progress and focus.
Poor leadership
A project’s leader is always the project manager. Poor leadership can be contributed by aspects
like project manager’s lack of experience, lack of effective skills in leadership or management,
incompetency among other things (Garbharran et al, 2012). These are some of the aspects that
every manager should have to be able to succeed in their management role. Managers lacking

such attributes have higher chances of failing to achieve a project’s objective which will means a
project’s failure.
Poor Communication
In an organization, effective communication is a key aspect of success. This is also the case for
any project. Communication structure in a project should be clear, simple and easy. Whether it is
between the top managers, middle managers or the project team members, information sharing
should be open and smooth. Poor communication discourages information sharing, transparency,
opinion or idea sharing among other things (Beleiu et al, 2015). This means that the people
involved will not get the courage to give their suggestions and concerned as well as share their
knowledge with others. Furthermore, the stakeholders or business owners will not be ready to air
out their wishes for the project and the end product comfortably. With poor communication
channels, the project will be preparing a recipe for failure.
Underestimated timelines
Many project managers underestimate project timelines by arguing that the project is easy or
simple to complete and that the time period given is long. However, they fail to understand that
by underestimating their project timeline simply means missing a deadline on a calendar. These
types of managers often fail to plan effective and schedule their activities efficiently assuming
that everything will fall into place when the time comes (Solís-Carcaño et al, 2015). These
managers have higher chances for failure than those that manage their time well to be able to
complete the project on time.
Poor Monitoring and Risk Management
Project monitoring is a continuous process that involves evaluation and analysis of the project’s
success.It is done by managers to ensure that the project has achieved its objectives and that the
mistakes and problems involved are corrected using the right processes and procedures. Risk
management involves the identification and response of the risk involved during a project
implementation with the aim of getting it back to track to meet its objective. Therefore, besides
dividing roles and responsibilities to the team members, the project manager should ensure that
they are all kept accountable of their activities (Ramadan and Tu, 2012). By monitoring and

managing their actions the project manager will be motivating them into performing better and
producing better results in the end.
Before any project can begin main area to investigate is market analysis, to understand the gap
between what potential customers are demanding and what is already available. Once the
shortage is established it is much easier to understand projects purpose and benefits that is would
deliver after the project is complete. However, just like it is main area to investigate it is also one
of the reasons why projects fail – market analysis. When considering residential projects, many
organizations relay on estate agents advice and not valuations. In many cases expectations for the
project are unrealistic therefore in many cases projects fail as they cannot deliver required
objectives. Information that was gathered from the interviews conducted with project managers,
there are couple of aspects that seemed to be repeating:
Internal Factors
These are factors that an organization has control over. In addition to that, they are aspects that
the project managers and the team members can influence hence changing their effects in any
way they like. They may include aspects like:
Project implementation process
This aspect is concerned with organizations internal efficiency of project implementation
process. Technically, this is determined by the organization’s technology status. This is the
organizational aspect that will influence the project implementation methodology, materials and
equipment to be used as well as the quality and type of labor required by the project.
Client requirement
This refers to the customer’s demands or end product deliverables. Most of the customer’s
demand expect their products to be of high quality and modernized. This means that the project
manager must ensure that the resources to be used are of high quality to be able to produce the
expected product quality.
Budget
This is a limiting factor because it can determine how long a project can take and the quality of
the end product. When the budget is high, the quality should be high as well. In most cases, with

high budgets, the period of completion is usually less. The project manager should ensure that
the project is complete and successful by ensuring optimal utilization of the resources available
but should be within the budget.
Time period
This can be referred to as the project deadline. This is basically one of the key factors that
determine how a project will be managed, activities conducted, how the procedures will be done
etc. in a tight time period, the project manager should ensure that all hindrances are known and
addressed by all members. Time period is an influencing factor because the project should be
complete, achieve its purpose, meet the quality requirements and be successful in all areas within
the time period given.
In any project external risks are outside the control for the project manager and the team working
on the project. Therefore, external risks regardless their effect on the project are hard to forecast
and control. Key areas like politics, economy and technology can directly affect the project, its
budget, duration period and scope, there any many more external factors like financial crisis,
war, bank failure that can effect projects, but this research will only focus on political, economic
and technological areas.
External factors
The value of the project to client satisfaction
An organization’s stakeholders and business owners are the final determinants of the quality and
value of the project after completion. When the clients have analyzed and approved the project’s
end product and procedures involved, they will certainly deem the project successful. This means
that, their requirements and demand should be achieved in the end for them to value the project.
Political
These are external aspects that affect a projects progress and succession either directly or
indirectly. The political factors relate to the political differences between the parties involved in
the project, i.e. the stakeholders, business owners, project managers and project team members.
They usually have challenges in determining who has the final say and authority to do
something.

Government interference
These issues are related to things like government regulations and standard requirements.
Different countries have different laws and rules that govern the production or certain products
or services, especially issues to do with quality standards. Every project manager should
therefore be to identify and understand all the current laws governing the production of a
project’s end product (Alias et al, 2014). Additionally, they should be aware of possible changes
in the near future that can affect the product’s functionality.
Technology
This is entirely in relation to the availability of skills and experts a certain field that is involved
in the project. Improved technology produces more effective and efficient expertise and skills.
Also, it increases the chances of project success and completion. When the technology being
used in a project is outdated, the likely wood of the project failing to achieve its objective is very
high.
Economic factors
Relate to the economy status of the whole country, inflation rates and unemployment rates,
cultural differences, demographic composition among other things. The economic factors affect
project success because they are directly connected to any project. For instance, unemployment
rates is connected in terms of labor availability to the project, demography composition is related
in terms of product demand or demand from the users.
RESULTS
First results confirmed a significant positive association between economic factors and
construction risk management. Bumming economy is essential among the construction industries
during project execution. The results confirmed what Israelsson and Hansson has said that there
is a significant and positive connection among economic factors and risk management in
construction industry. Nevertheless, organization that is experiencing bumming economy will
hypothetically find less risks in their construction projects. In second question it was asked if
political factors are positively related to risk management in construction projects. As expected
finding confirmed that there is a negative connection between political factors and construction

risk management. Nevertheless, organizational control theory suggested an appropriate control
must be in place inside organization, therefore the study showed a basic negative relationship
between political and construction risk management which is not astounding as it has been
proven before in previous literature.
Relationship between technology and project risk management
In many cases, technology can smoothen the process of project management. Sometimes the
available technology may be exactly the one needed while other times the one available is not
compatible with the required equipment or technology. Risk management involves identifying
possible threats, assessing and controlling their effects. The use of technology can be very
effective when it comes to this, e.g. use of computers, computer hardware and software and other
networking tools. All of these can play an important role in assessing, analyzing and evaluating
data in a risk management plan.The use of devices like computers, mobile phones and social
networks for communication can greatly help in project risk management plans. However,
technology can also affect risk management in a negative way. For instance, the risks
accompanied by use of technology like software virus attack, loss of document, human error,
malicious attacks and natural disasters. These negative effects can cause a lot of damage if they
happened during risk management routine by use of modern technology. Therefore, there is a
positive connection amongst technological factors and risk management.
Impact of rules and regulations on relationship between economic factors and risk
management
There are rules and regulations that govern every project as well as its end product. For the case
of construction projects, there are rules that govern the project team members’ health (health and
safety standards), quality standards for the structure, environmental cleanness and safety etc. the
other rules relate to the structure designs and drawing plans (should include a credible architect’s
plan). These rules are directly related to the economic status of an organization and its project
because they will all costs the organization some money to license and approve. They also affect
a project risk management plan because possible risks in those sectors must also be recorded and
documented (Adeleke et al, 2016). Therefore is also a connection between rules and regulations
impact the relationship between economic factors and risk management in construction
organizations. The research exposed a substantial positive association amongst the variables, it

revealed that every construction organization that accepts rules and regulations there is
possibility that these organizations will notice lower risk rate in the projects.
Impact of rules and regulations on political factors and risk management
Just as mentioned earlier, political factors are aspects that determine power and authority in an
organization. In the case of a project, they are aspects that determine who has a say where during
the project execution. Political factors also refer to government regulations on a product or
services. However, in the case of a project, they refer to the effect of the managers to the
project’s progress. In most case, the project managers and the top management teams of an
organization have more authority and say when it comes to airing out concerns about the project.
The situation in many projects is that, the project managers and other top managers are
responsible for coming up with the rules and regulations, code of conduct and roles and
responsibilities to govern the whole project team. In such a scenario, the project members are left
out with no say which become very risky for a project to fail in communication and information
sharing. Additionally, political factors have an effect on risk management plan because the
people with more are considered the leaders hence leaving them to carry out the risk
management plan on their own (Adeleke et al, 2016). By doing this, most projects are deemed to
fail in the end.
Therefore, it is clear that rules and regulations would have an impact on connection among
political factors and risk management. The results showed that rules and regulations did not have
a negative effect on the relationship between political factors and risk management.
Impact of rules and regulations on technological construction and risk management
In a construction project, rules and regulations directly affect the technology to be used in the
construction of a certain structure. The technology to be used should be modernized, compatible
with the available technical skills, expertise and labor and can be used by the client or users once
the project completed (Torghabehand Hosseinian, 2012). In addition to that, rules and
regulations also affect the quality of the end product which means that the technology to be used
in production or construction should be developed and improved to be able to produce the
required quality (Karim et al, 2012). The quality standards of most construction projects are
determined by the government or country’s authorities.

It is important to note that technology and risk management are two aspects that are connected in
a way that if technology is developed further, risk management techniques and methods improve
and become more effective (Gupta and Sharma, 2015). This is because with the use of modern
technology, the project managers are able to collect and analyze data at valid, reliable and clear
data at a faster rate. In that case, it is clear that rules and regulations could possibly impact
connection between technological factors and construction risk management. When analyzing
the results, a negative relationship what identified between the variables.
Impact of rules and regulations on risk management
Risk management in construction projects is a continuous process that aims at ensuring possible
threats are identified and solutions found. Rules and regulations have an effect on risk
management because they are the aspects that set the standards of a project and its end product.
When the rules are strict, the standards seem to be strict and difficult to achieve as well.
Therefore, the risk management team in a project must be extremely vigilant and keen in
identifying the possible risks that cause a failure in the achievement of the project standards.
Their main aim is to identify the risks that can affect the quality of the project/product and find
solutions to those risks (Mohammed and Knápková, 2016). In construction projects, the rules act
as a guidance to the project members towards attaining certain set standards, e.g. quality
standards. Therefore, it is true that rules and regulations could impact risk management in
construction organization in a positive or negative way.
CONCLUSION
As expected there is a strong association between rules and regulations and risk management, as
construction project (or any projects) have to oblige to governments rules and regulations. The
research that has been done verified that rules and regulation have a moderating role in
relationship between economic, political and technological factors and construction risk
management. Previously done studies concerning this relationship has found unpredictable
findings. Considering previous researches haven’t been able to find consistent data, therefore this
study has included rules and regulations as a variable to progress to understand how these three
factors influence risk management in construction projects. Project failure factors project risk
management is an important part of project management and it is dominant to an undefined event
that if does occur, would have a positive or negative effect of the project and its objectives. The

challenging part is defining project failure, also understanding that that all cancelations should be
considered as project failure. The research has identified that project managers in many cases
have good reasons for cancelling project if projects original purpose and usefulness are no longer
valid. Therefore there is a different clarification whether the project failure has failed or not, and
usually clarifications are different from various project stakeholders. From the research
conducted for this study respondents identified that number of risks increases significantly when
external contractors are added to the project. Therefore, outsourcing and flexibility that
contractors provide come with extra risks that project manager has to consider. Risks that
respondents recognized especially in complex multi-million projects included financial risks,
legal, scope and requirements of the construction project, risks involved in planning and
controlling the project and also execution of the construction project.
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