Exploring the factors leading to project delays in major Maltese construction projects, how can these delays be controlled through project management techniques?

Abstract

The construction industry has been an ever-growing industry in Malta, especially during the last twenty years where a rapid increase in demand of properties took place. Due to this, Maltese professionals had to adapt to the sudden increase in projects on the island and successfully managed to improve materials and resource availability to be able to build more extensive structures in an efficient way. Professionals and developers have since taken advantage of this boom in the market and more large-scale projects are being built. This dissertation examines delays in the construction industry at all stages of a project and the causes of these delays in local projects as well as the ways in which efficient project management practices can minimise the impact of these delays. Ultimately, in the eyes of the client, project success is the main goal, where a project finishes on schedule, within budget and to a high level of quality. However, project success should be looked at holistically, throughout all stages of the project and should not just be the end result. Project success can be greatly hindered when faced with delays which are either in or out of the control of the stakeholders as they generally result in cost and time overrun which end up being faced by clients or contractors. Employing suitable project management techniques can minimise or mitigate these delays depending on whether they are adopted prior to project commencement or during the project. With regards to collection of data, a mixed methods approach was adopted, combining quantitative data from the surveys with qualitative data from the interviews. Statistical tests including the Friedman test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were also used to compare the different delay factors. The goal of this research project is to pinpoint and study the critical factors that contribute to delays in major Maltese construction projects, depending on different opinions and experiences. The research will also assess the role of the project manager and how different project management techniques, like project scheduling and building information modelling, can help to control delays and what is the appropriate stage to adopt such tools. The findings which resulted from the data collected indicated that the most common causes of delays locally consist of poor site management, excessive change orders from the client and inadequate planning at initial stages of the project. Cost and time overrun were the two factors which resulted to be most affected when project delays occur. The findings also highlighted the necessity of appointing a project manager in a large scale project at early stages of the project to be able to improve on project planning and scheduling early on. Amongst the project management tools which were studied, scheduling, building information modelling (BIM) and critical path method (CPM) emerged as the most effective tools used locally to reduce delays.