Assessment of critical factors contributing to construction failure in Yemen

Yemen construction industry faces immeasurable challenges which result to its deterioration. Almost all projects in Yemen face challenges to attain the preplanned outcomes. This paper aims to uncover and assess the critical factors causing failure to the construction industry. At initial study?s stage, a comprehensive literature investigation on academic articles was carried out to determine 62 critical factors causing failures to the industry. Then, a quantitative study was carried out using questionnaire survey as a method to obtain the data. 5-points Likert type scales were applied to assess the factors. Then, the factors were categorized into five different groups. Collected data from the survey was analyzed using SPSS software based on relative importance index (RII) and standard deviations for ranking purposes. The study found that, the top ten ranked factors among 62 factors are poor construction management, frequent change of design, continuous suspension of work, shortage of raw materials, hiring uneducated contactor, low salary for engineers and construction workers, cash flow and financial difficulty, delay of progress payment to subcontractors, financial difficulty faced by owners and poor financial control and management. Results from this study are recommended to the Yemeni government in improving the current state of its construction industry.