Review

Towards developing an improved methodology for evaluating performance and achieving success in construction projects

Sherif Mohamed Sabry Elattar

Associate Professor, Architecture Department, Faculty of Engineering, Fayoum University, Egypt. E-mail: sherifelattar67@hotmail.com.

Accepted 28 May, 2009.

   Abstract

Success has always been the ultimate goal of every activity and a construction project is no exception. The construction industry has characteristics that sharply distinguish it from her sectors of the economy, causing the rate of failures to become very high. However, the prospect of business failure is not a topic that most businesses care acknowledges. Understanding the mechanism of failure is the key to avoid failure. Corrective action cannot be taken if trouble is not acknowledged or foreseen (Kangarl, 1988). By its very nature, the construction industry is contentious and filled with a wide variety of disputes. Even the best-managed project is likely to have one or more significant disputes which may imperil the successful completion of the project. If project participants can predict probability of success better, they can take steps to avoid unsuccessful projects; identify good projects worth pursuing; and identify problems on current projects and take corrective action. In this hostile and competitive environment it is critical to know and understand more about performance evaluation and success criteria and its impacts in construction (Halpin and Woodhead, 1980). The main objective of this paper is to define the critical factors that lead to project success and provide a forecasting framework to enable parties to rapidly assess the possibility of a successful project from their viewpoint. The previous objective was divided into the following secondary objectives: Providing background information on construction evaluation techniques. Distinguish factors influencing project success. Presenting a hierarchical model framework for construction project success. This paper provides a rational framework to further develop a conceptual framework to a substantive predictive model aiming to increase the likelihood of achieving more successful project outcomes through pre­dicting and subsequently preventing construction failure, and analyzing the effects of various conditions and fluc­tuating economic environments on the construction project.

Key words: Success criteria, failure, construction projects, framework, methodology.