CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT …

1 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR BRUNEI CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: IMPROVING PROJECT PERFORMANCE Rohaniyati Salleh A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Principal Supervisor: Professor Stephen Kajewski Associate Supervisor: Professor Jay Yang School of Urban Development Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering Queensland University of Technology 2009 iSTATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP DECLARATION The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

2 Signed: _____ Date: _____ ii This research is dedicated to all the people who inspired, supported and encouraged me To my late father, late sisters and late brother, May Allah have mercy on them To my mother, thank you for her love and support To my husband, thank you for his inexhaustible support and encouragement To my brothers and sisters, thank you for their continuous support To my children, I hope this will inspire them to pursue their education and lead successful lives To my friends and colleagues, thank you, thank you and thank you iiiACKNOWLEDGEMENT These acknowledgements attempt to thank people who in some way supported, guided.

3 And encouraged me along the way to completing this dissertation . I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the following people. Without their assistance, encouragement, suggestions and commitment this dissertation would not have been a reality. Firstly, from the depth of my heart I would like to express sincere gratitude and appreciation to my principal supervisor Professor Stephen Kajewski for his continued support, generous academic advice, discussions, suggestions, close attention, encouragement and his incredible understanding and capability to initiate guidelines without being overbearing. Also I would like to thank my associate supervisor Professor Jay Yang, for his comments and support.

4 As well, I would like to thank all the staff in the School of Urban and Development, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering and Queensland University of Technology for their most welcoming support and friendly environment. I would like also to express gratitude to all my friends and colleagues in Brunei for their enormous help in collecting the surveys and their participation in the questionnaires. Sincere gratitude and appreciation goes to all owners, contractors and engineers who participated in this research . A special thanks to the panel of experts for their contribution and valuable opinion. Finally, to my family, a very special thank you for all their sacrifices, patience, love and support throughout my research studies.

5 Iv ABSTRACT The problem of delays in the construction industry is a global phenomenon and the construction industry in Brunei Darussalam is no exception. The goal of all parties involved in construction projects owners, contractors, engineers and consultants in either the public or private sector is to successfully complete the PROJECT on schedule, within planned budget, with the highest quality and in the safest manner. Construction projects are frequently influenced by either SUCCESS FACTORS that help PROJECT parties reach their goal as planned, or delay FACTORS that stifle or postpone PROJECT completion.

6 The purpose of this research is to identify SUCCESS and delay FACTORS which can help PROJECT parties reach their intended goals with greater efficiency. This research extracted seven of the most important SUCCESS FACTORS according to the literature and seven of the most important delay FACTORS identified by PROJECT parties, and then examined correlations between them to determine which were the most influential in preventing PROJECT delays. This research uses a comprehensive literature review to design and conduct a survey to investigate SUCCESS and delay FACTORS and then obtain a consensus of expert opinion using the Delphi methodology to rank the most needed CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS for Brunei construction projects.

7 A specific survey was distributed to owners, contractors and engineers to examine the most CRITICAL delay FACTORS . A general survey was distributed to examine the correlation between the identified delay FACTORS and the seven most important CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS selected. A consensus of expert opinion using the Delphi methodology was used to rank the most needed CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS for Brunei building construction. vData was collected and evaluated by statistical methods to identify the most significant causes of delay and to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS and delay FACTORS in order to examine PROJECT parties evaluation of projects CRITICAL SUCCESS and delay FACTORS , and to evaluate the influence of CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS on CRITICAL delay FACTORS .

8 A relative importance index has been used to determine the relative importance of the various causes of delays. A one and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to examine how the group or groups evaluated the influence of the CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS in avoiding or preventing each of the delay FACTORS , and which SUCCESS FACTORS were perceived as most influential in avoiding or preventing CRITICAL delay FACTORS . Finally the Delphi method, using consensus from an expert panel, was employed to identify the seven most CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS used to avoid the delay FACTORS , and thereby improve PROJECT performance.

9 Vi CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT iv CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES xviii LIST OF FIGURES xxiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Background to the research 1 research Objectives 3 research Questions 4 Justification of the research 6 research Methodology 7 Outline of the research 7 CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW OF THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY 10 Construction Industry in Developing Countries 10 Difficulties faced by Construction Industries in Developing Countries.

10 11 Brunei Construction Industry 16 Introduction to Brunei 16 Brunei Construction Industry 19 Construction Classification: Brunei Construction Industry 26 PROJECT Parties: Brunei Construction Projects 27 PROJECT Development: Brunei Construction Industry 28 Common problems: Brunei construction Industry 29 Owners 29 Designers 29 Consultants 30 Contractors 31 Construction resource suppliers 31 Other sources 32 CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW INTO PROJECT SUCCESS FACTORS AND DELAY FACTORS 35 Delay FACTORS 35 Causes of Delay in the Construction Industry 37 Causes of Delay in Large Construction Industries 39 Causes of Delay in Large Building Construction Projects 40 Construction Delay: A Quantitative Analysis 44 A comparative Study of Causes of Time Overruns 46 Causes of Construction Delay.