Factors for Success of a Construction Project

Introduction:
 Large construction projects involve use of many resources and execution of many activities in which some can be executed with
high risks.
 As the construction projects involve high costs and use of millions of man hours, it becomes duty of the managers to see that the
project is successful and fulfils the intended purposes.
 There are many ways of measuring the success of the projects. It is necessary to identify various parameters and their evaluation
or measurement is carried out to arrive at the success measurement

Project Performance measurement

 Performance measurement has become a part of life.
 A company is always worried about the better performance of its products.
 A manager always thinks how he can improve performance of his subordinates.
 Measuring the performance of a project in terms of success or failure is in fact a difficult task. This is because the success or
failures has different meanings for different participants. Further, there is no universal definition of success.
 Mc Coy (1986) believes that there is no standardized definition of success of project and there is no accepted methodology for
project success measurement.
 Definition of success can change from project to project. Success for one participant may be failure for the other.
 The participants of a project are architect, engineers, contractors, customers, Human resource managers, accountants and
financial managers.
 It is clear that the view point of all may not be similar in all projects. There is disparity in point of view of these participants.
 The architect may consider success in terms of aesthetics, engineer may consider success in terms of strength and technical
competence.
 The accountant in terms of cost incurred within the budget provision.
 The human resource manager in terms of employee satisfaction
 The perception of success or failures is time dependent too.
 Example:
The Denver airport project in USA was viewed as failure during the construction and now it is considered as successful as it
fetches very high revenue due to improved life style of people.

 In spite of difficulties in defining the success of a project, several researchers have defined success of a project.
 “The project is considered overall success if the project meets the technical performance, specifications and or mission to be
performed and if there is high level of the project outcome among key people in project parent organization, key people in project
team and key users of project effort.”
 In common language, success is defined as the degree of achievement of intended goals and performance from the point of view
of technical, aesthetics, utility, economy, safety and benefits to those for whom project is executed.
 It is clear from the above discussion that the task of finding whether the project is successful or not is difficult but still there are
some criteria to assess the project for its success or failure.
Criteria for project performance evaluation:
 Criteria are the set of accepted principles or standards by which judgement is made and are considered to be rules.
 The success of the project or its failure can be decided from the accepted standards/Principles.
 Some of the criteria used for evaluating the project are as follows:
1. Budget or cost performance--- Project completed within the stipulated budget is successful
2. Schedule or time--- Projects completed within the specified time
3. Quality Performance---Projects that are satisfying the specifications
4. Safety--- Projects completed without any mishap or accidents leading to loss of lives and money.
Projects which honour the health and safety of workers and the public are successful projects.
5. Disputes--- These are undesirable because these leads to loss of time, disruption in schedule, increase in cost of projects
and sometimes loss of lives.
Those projects completed without disputes are successful, because such projects are away from litigations, differences of
opinions among participants, etc.,
Disputes can be measured in terms of money lost in settling disputes.
6. Stakeholder Satisfaction---This is one of the most important criteria because the ultimate aim of the project is to satisfy
the concerned stakeholders. Those projects which satisfy the stakeholders are successful.
 7. Miscellaneous Criteria--- Whether project has created any substantial effect on customers.
a) How much benefit the customer gets from the projects
b) Whether managerial and organizational goals are met during the project implementation.

Project Performance Attributes:

The project performance attributes influence the project outcome. The attributes can be people, resources, technology,
working environment and systems or tasks.
Success Attributes /Factors:
1. Project formulation related Factors
a. Properly defined goals and organizational philosophy
b. Accurate initial cost estimation
c. Clarity of goals among team members.
d. Proper allocation of work according to the expertize.
e. Active participation of all stakeholders during planning process
f. Proper assessment of liabilities
g. Identification and fixing of mile stone events.
2. Management related factors
a. Scheduling
b. Panning
c. Consideration to human factors in work environment
d. Proper control mechanism
e. Planning and control techniques
3. Top Management related factors
a. Delegate Authority
b. Selection of higher level officers in team, recruitment of officers of high caliber and their training, Morale
boosting activating.
c. Logistic requirement
 d. Financial support, fund raising policies
e. Facility support
4. Project manager related factors
a. Project managers previous experience effects current project management
b. Technical knowledge, competence, level of ethics, morale, behavioral skill
5. Resource related factors
a. Identification of scarce resources and their procurement plan
b. Decisions regarding purchase or hiring of equipment’s
c. Allocation of enough money
d. Motivating activities for manpower incentives for good achievement in performance efficiency, sufficient
care of safety of persons at projects
e. Planning of resources in advance.
6. Client related factors
a. Active involvement
b. Competence of client
7. Contractors characteristics
a. Highly experienced may be selected
b. Competency may also be given weightage in awarding contracts.
8. Monetary and feedback
a. Getting feedback from all stakeholders
b. Review received feedback
c. Decide future of action to implement positive suggestions received in feedback
9. Coordination
a. Politics should be discouraged if it leads to destruction
b. Develop better co-ordination between various teams during planning and execution stage.
Failure Attributes:
a. Poor contract management
b. Inadequate technical manpower
c. Lack of scientific management approach
 d. Human factor not considered in management
e. No prior management of scarce resources
f. Natural calamities
g. Price fluctuations
h. Subsequent change in design
i. Fraudulent practices
j. Poor morale of all members in team
k. Delayed decisions
l. Poor supervision
m. No training to the employees
n. Poor incentives, unfavorable work environment, leading to frequent absenteeism by employees
o. Mistakes in economic and financial analysis
Effects of other elements on Project Performance:
It is said that the Japanese people spend 70% time in planning of a project and only 30% time is spared for the
execution.
• Those who wish their projects to perform successfully, must take extreme care during the planning phase.
• Mr. Vijay Mahajan, a chemical factory manager gave his own ideas leading to successful management of work force and
development of morale in employees….They are---
A. Never rebuke any employee, for his mistakes, in presence of other employees.
B. Praise the employee if he/she does any outstanding work for company, it would be more effective when
he/she is praised in presence of other employees.
C. Develop report with the representatives of employees and create among them the feeling that the
company takes their care.
D. In case of rumors clearly specify the truth and never give false information to the employees.
E. Any outstanding achievement of the employee in his work, may be communicated to the family
members of the concerned employees.
F. Impart training to employees and allocate work as per their expertise.