Project complexity: The focal point of construction production planning

Construction production planning is a paramount preoccupation of contractors and the process is rapidly increasing in difficulty with a continuous loss in confidence by clients. Today, one of the difficult issues facing practitioners in planning is that of a continuous increase in the complexity of construction projects. There seems to be no available tool or technique for assessing project complexity; consequently practitioners tend to neglect or subjectively assume its effect on project managerial objectives. This paper proposes an approach that measures the ' complexity of the production process in construction. The approach enables the construction practitioner to focus his or her attention on the issue of project complexity from the beginning through to the end of a project. By using a literature search and structured interviewing of practitioners, the paper has defined project complexity and identified the factors that influence its effect on project success in relation to estimated production time and cost.