An investigation of the factors influencing the success of construction planning for the 2012 olympic stadium: An ethnographic study

Adherence to the planned duration is one of the main criteria when judging whether a construction project is a failure or not. In addition, construction planning is said to be successful if the project completes within the planned duration; or if it identifies an issue well in advance, thereby alerting the project management team to solve the issue before it causes any impact on the completion date. This research investigates the factors that influenced the success of construction planning of 2012 London Olympic Stadium. An approach of participant observation was adopted which is informed by the principles of ethnography: one that reports the participants' view of their world rather than imposing an artificial theoretical framework upon it. As a senior planning engineer working professionally on the Olympic Stadium from pre-construction until final completion, key human-relations factors were observed and identified that had an impact on the management and execution of the construction planning. The success factors were identified and relate to, for example: the effectiveness of preconstruction planning; the inclination of top organization hierarchy towards construction planning; the inter relationship between the project participants; the influence of the client and contract; and the efficiency of planning team. It was found that a 'shadow culture' exists between the project participants which, it is argued, is only observable from the perspective of an embedded participant observer. This shadow culture acts to enable the management of the planning process and its efficacy relates to the 'quality' of human inter-relationships in the planning team and among immediate stakeholders. The research concludes by questioning the myth among project participants that construction planning is a mechanistic process that has to be conducted solely by the planning team.