Determinants of success of public construction projects in Ethiopia

Public construction projects play a vital role in the economic growth of a country. The performance of these projects greatly depends on some critical factors which are responsible for their success/failure. Hence, understanding of the impact of these critical factors on public project performances is considered to be a means of improving their efficiencies and effectiveness. The study was conceptualized and implemented in two phases. In phase one, a list of 35 attributes responsible for impacting the performance of the projects was identified based on a detailed literature review and presented to construction professionals in public construction projects in Ethiopia in the form of a structured questionnaire. The responses were collected and analysed. Statistical analysis of responses differentiated them into distinct sets of success attributes and failure attributes. The significant success and failure attributes were then ranked on the basis of different project performance criteria. For better understanding and to reduce the number of attributes, the success and failure attributes were subjected to factor analysis separately. After factor analysis, multivariate regression analysis were used to explore the relative importance of the factors extracted from factor analysis on various criteria of the success of public construction projects. The factor analysis yielded the following success factors for overall performance: project manager's competence, owner's competence, management support and updates, scope clarity, interaction among project participants, and monitoring and feedback. On the other hand, the following success factors were obtained for schedule performance: project manager's competence, interaction among project participants, scope clarity, monitoring and feedback, owner's competence, understanding responsibilities, pre-qualification, and adequate plans and specifications. The success factors obtained for cost performance were project manager's competence, scope clarity, owner's competence, monitoring and feedback, interaction among project participants, top management support, and quality control and assurance. The success factors obtained for quality performance were quality assurance/control and scope clarity, top management support and resource availability, project manager's competence, owner's competence, and interaction among project participants. Finally, the success factors obtained for no-dispute performance were availability of resources and pre-qualification, project manager's competence, top management support, owner's competence, interaction among project participants, construction meetings, and schedule and budget updates. On the other hand, the factor analysis yielded the following failure factors for overall performance: project manager's ignorance and lack of knowledge, indecisiveness of project participant, project specific factors, conflict among project participants, socio-economic and climatic conditions, and owner's incompetence. For schedule performance, the failure factors were conflict among project participants, project manager's ignorance and lack of knowledge, indecisiveness of project participants, unfavourable socio-economic and climatic conditions, project specific factors, and poor human resource management. The factors responsible for poor cost performance were conflict among project participants, project specific factors, indecisiveness of project participants, project manager's ignorance and lack of knowledge, socio-economic and climatic conditions, and owner's incompetence. For poor quality performance: conflict among project participants, indecisiveness of project participants, project specific factors, project manager's ignorance and lack of knowledge, poor human resource management, and hostile social and economic environment. For no-dispute performance the failure factors were conflict among vi project participants, indecisiveness of project participants, project manager's ignorance and lack of knowledge, socio-economic and climatic condition, and project specific factors. The relative importance of identified success factors was established with multiple regression analysis for overall performance, schedule performance, cost performance, quality performance, and no-dispute performance. Accordingly, the most important success factor for overall performance is found to be 'scope clarity'. 'Owner's competence' is the most important success factor when the objective is schedule performance. The factor 'scope clarity' is the most important success factor when the objective is cost performance. The factor 'quality assurance/control and scope clarity' is the most important success factor when the aim is quality performance, and the success factor 'owner's competence' is the most important when the aim is no-dispute performance. The relative importance of identified failure factors was also established with multiple regression analysis for overall performance, schedule performance, cost performance, quality performance, and no-dispute performance. The most important failure factor for overall performance is found to be 'project manager's ignorance and lack of knowledge'. 'Conflict among project participants' is the most important failure factor when the objective is schedule performance. The factor 'conflict among project participants' is the most important failure factor when the objective is cost performance. The factor 'project manager's ignorance and lack of knowledge' is the most important failure factor when the objective is quality performance, and the failure factor 'conflict among project participants' is the most important when the objective is no-dispute performance. These results would be helpful to public construction project professionals in enabling them to take appropriate proactive measures for the successful completion of public projects. In phase two of the study, identification of success criteria for each phase of public construction projects was done. Based on an extensive literature review a list of eleven success criteria was identified for public projects. This was followed by a questionnaire survey employing the Delphi method. The results show that success criteria such as time, cost, quality, technical performance, satisfaction of key project participants, and social responsibility are the most important criteria for the pre- construction phase, while time, cost, quality, no-dispute, health and safety, satisfaction of key project participants, technical performance, and social responsibility are the most important criteria for the construction phase. In the post-construction phase satisfaction of end-users and outsiders, environmental sustainability, and satisfaction of key project participants are found to be the most important criteria. It is pointed out that the relative importance of different success criteria depends on the different phases of a construction project. Validation of the results is provided through case studies. The study offers valuable resources for the improvement of public construction project performance.