CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background of the study

The project schedule is the tool that communicates what work needs to be performed, which resources of the organization will perform the work and the timeframes in which that work needs to be performed. The project schedule should reflect all of the work associated with delivering the project on time.

Project schedules are invariably dynamic and uncertain. Various controllable and uncontrollable factors can adversely affect the project schedule and cause delays. As a result, the identification and analysis of delays become essential Finke 1999. They are however, onerous tasks. Contractors are prone to view most delays as the responsibility of the owner while owners frequently attempt to tag delays as contractor caused, third party caused, or concurrent Zack 2001. Consequently, delays may lead to some form of dispute resolution alternatives, from negotiation to litigation, which may be expensive and a crapshoot. Responding to such challenge, the industry has created and employed many schedule analysis techniques. The level of acceptability of each technique depends on its credibility and the court or board ruling the corresponding delay claims. However, resource-related issues such as constraints, availability, or in broader term resource allocation can cause delays yet their effects are typically neglected in those techniques. It should be noted that although a number of studies have focused on scheduling with resource allocation e.g., Wiest 1967; Davis 1974; Willis 1985; Fondahl 1991; Bowers 1995; Hegazy 1999; Kim and de la Garza 2003, 2005; Chua and Shen 2005, none of them addressed resource allocation in “after-the-fact” schedule delay analysis.

Resource management techniques also include planning, organizing, directing and controlling activities in addition to motivating team members, which is usually the most expensive resources on the project, (Harvey, 2002). There are two basic planning and control technique utilized in project management. These are Programme Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM). These techniques involve the combination of interrelated activities that must be executed in a certain order for its completion. These interrelated activities involve planning; scheduling and controlling (Clifford and Erik, 2003). These techniques are used in construction industry

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The resource management techniques on project schedule in construction industry can be considered as a dynamic engineering which is constantly facing uncertainties. These uncertainties and the many stakeholders in these kinds of projects, make the management of resouce difficult which consequently causes cost overruns and project delay. Therefore, project delivery and cost overruns are considered one of the most critical issues during the execution of construction projects (Chan, et al., 2004; Doloi, 2011).

As mentioned by Van Der Westhuizen and Fitzgerald (2005), the presence of cost overruns can be a reason for project delays or possible project failures. However this idea has been refuted by many authors who considered that project success depends on many other factors that should be assessed to conclude the success or failure of a project (Chan, et al., 2004). Moreover, there have been many studies that suggest that the success of a project depends on the presence of certain critical factors which can also change depending on the objective to be met (Iyer and Jha, 2005). In other words, some authors ascertained that there are some critical success factors that help to improve resource management techniques performance and prevent cost overruns.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of the study is to examine various resource management techniques on cost control techniques used in construction projects and the effect they have on project scheduling and delivery. Specific objectives of the study are:

·        To identify resource management technique on project schedule in construction projects delivery.

·        To examine problems encountered by resource management team and contractors in managing construction project cost.

·        To determine the effect of cost control techniques and project schedule on the duration of construction projects.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In-order to guide the study and achieve the above stated research objectives; the following research questions were formulated:

·        What resource management technique is used on project schedule in construction projects delivery?

·        What are the problems faced by resource management team and contractors in controlling cost in the construction project process?

·        What effect does cost controlling techniques and project scheduling have on the duration of construction projects?

1.5      RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

1.  Ho: Cost control and project schedule problems do not lead to project delivery failures.

Hi: Cost control and project schedule problems lead to project delivery failures.

2.  Ho: Resource management techniques affect to construction delivery timing and cost

Hi: Resource management techniques do not affect to construction

Delivery timing and cost

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will be of importance to Human resource management professionals and the general public because it would not only clarify but also create awareness of the extent to which inadequacies in cost control techniques can adversely affect project performance. The study will also help contractors, clients, consultants and all parties involved in construction projects about ways of improving their current method of cost management technique and control.

The study will also be of great benefit for other student researchers’ who may want to venture into the same subject matter. Having gotten results-both empirically and theoretically, the study will serve as a foundation for future research studies.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study will cover some selected quantity surveyors from Owerri. All findings and recommendations from the study may not reflect the true view of the traditional roles and changing roles of quantity surveyors as the researcher could not cover a wider area due to financial and time constraints.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

1.  Construction: In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking. Normally, the job is managed by a project manager, and supervised by a construction manager, design engineer, construction engineer or project architect.

2.  Deliverable: Deliverable is a term used in project management to describe a tangible or intangible object produced as a result of the project that is intended to be delivered to a customer (either internal or external). A deliverable could be a report, a document, a server upgrade or any other building block of an overall project.

3.  Project management: this is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavour with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables),undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value.

4.  Time: This is a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them.

5.  Cost: A cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost.

6.  Cost overrun: occurs when the final cost of the project exceeds the original contract value at the time of completion.

7.  Good cost performance project: Project in which the cost overrun of the project does not exceed 10 percent of the initial budget.

8.  Poor cost performance project: Project in which the cost overrun of the project exceeds 10 percent of the initial budget.

9.   Project schedule: Is the tool that communicates what work needs to be performed, which resources of the organization will perform the work and the timeframes in which that work needs to be performed. The project schedule should reflect all of the work associated with delivering the project on time

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