Key project role-players’influence on project success or failure-A South African built environment sector project management perspective

Abstract

The concept of project success within the built environment sector has many facets. The study explores the literature on project success and associated factors, and determines the degree of influence that key project role-players have on critical success and failure factors. The Project Management Institute (PMI) Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) is a benchmark for the research. A five-round Delphi survey was undertaken to firstly agree on success or failure criteria, critical factors and groups for typical built environment projects. The critical factors were subsequently allocated to typical project life cycle phases and each of the critical factors rated to determine the degree of influence of each key role-player. Consensus was achieved among the 8 expert participants. The 17 critical factors distributed over the project life cycle resulted in 48 critical factors rated. The project manager was ranked as most influential on 29 occasions, contractor on 11 occasions and the client on 10 occasions. The results of this research provide a better understanding of the key project role-players’ degree of influence on project critical success and failure factors. In this way responsibility can be apportioned to the appropriate role-players.