Project Management Methodology And Its Impact On Construction Projects

Abstract

Even though globally the concept of project management has developed in the construction industry the maturity and attitude of construction industry in Sudan towards project management knowledge and practice is still needing more of concern. Therefore this study aimed to investigate the impact of project management (PM) methodology on project effectiveness in construction projects in Sudan. The study provided an empirical analysis of project effectiveness measures in terms of achieving customer satisfaction and improving project performance effectiveness. It quantified the needs for appropriate and correct project management knowledge, tools, and techniques to achieve higher quality results in projects. Also the study identified managerial, environmental, and work ethics practices factors affecting project effectiveness, and which of these factors are the most influencing factors on construction projects effectiveness within project management environment. This study is confined to private sector instead of public specific of seventy random selected construction companies in Khartoum state focusing on project managers and project operational management levels. The study depended upon two types of sources of information to collect its data: primary information sources, which included, the persons concerned from whom data will be collected through interviews, surveys and questionnaires tools, and the second source was the secondary information sources that included references, journals, reports, electronic sources, case studies, and pervious researches. The methodology of this study used both qualitative and quantitative methods through utilizing the information gathered from related studies about use of project management methodology and its tools and techniques, managerial and environmental factors affecting the effectiveness of construction project performance. The study used structured interviews with experts in project management to assist in questionnaire development to have set questions, also observations were used to give more detail information about project management practices. In particular, a questionnaire was developed for data gathering, and statistical methods were used for data analysis, to validate the research results and test the study’s hypothesis. The study intended to use two measure dimensions for project effectiveness as dependent variables; achieving customer’s satisfaction and improving effectiveness of project performance. On the other side, the study divided the independent Variables into three main groups and twelve sub factors that were identified as factors affecting the Sudanese construction projects effectiveness. The first group was managerial group that contained six sub factors. The second group was project management practices and tools that included a list of the twenty four project management tools and techniques used in construction sector, and the third group was ethics of work and environmental group that consisted of five factors. To reach findings of this study SPSS package, comparative analysis, quantitative methods such as graphs and tables in addition to correlation analysis were used. The findings of this study identified two main dimensions of project effectiveness; achieving customer satisfaction and improving project performance effectiveness. They found that using project management methodologies, managerial, environmental, and work ethics factors are significant related to project effectiveness. The results demonstrated that using project management tools and techniques factors have an impact on project effectiveness and can be as critical as the managerial, environmental and work ethics practice factors. The statistical results demonstrated that determining the project objectives before executing the project is the first most important factor related to both project effectiveness dimensions. Also the results found that managerial skills of project manager was ranked as the second most important factor for improving project performance effectiveness. While determining the priorities by top management was ranked as the second most important factor for achieving customer satisfaction. Regarding using project management tools and techniques, the findings showed that using project management tools and techniques is the fifth factor related to improving project performance effectiveness while it is the sixth for achieving customer satisfaction. Finally, this study suggested the following recommendations: increasing the project management concept awareness amongst project managers, construction project managers, supervisors, and project engineers in construction organizations by training them in how to use project management tools and techniques. It also suggested increasing the practical experience in project management methodology and correlating it with the scientific experience.