High-rise building construction in Bangladesh: Experience of questionnaire development and on-site data collection

In Bangladesh, the growth in the building industry, particularly in residential high-rise construction, is having considerable influence on the country’s economic development. But this type of construction often suffers from time and cost overruns. To obtain first hand data, a field survey has been conducted among developers, consultants, project engineers and contractors in Dhaka, Bangladesh using structured interviews involving a questionnaire with a view to estimating the risks of time and cost overruns. The questionnaire has two sections relating to risks concerned with time and cost overruns and there were 110 respondents. This paper describes how the important parameters were identified for inclusion in the questionnaire and how a data collection strategy was developed to ensure the elicitation of maximum relevant information. It also describes the experiences of the data collection and amendments of the questionnaire that became necessary during the survey. The paper also describes the lessons, which have been learned from the survey, and guidance is given as to how such a future survey should be conducted.