Assessment of Project Management Tools in Construction Project Delivery; Case Study of Kaduna Metropolis in Kaduna State
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The objective of the study are;
- To ascertain the project management tools in construction project
- To identify project management practices peculiar to public projects.
- To investigate the level of construction management practice in Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
THE CONTEXT OF PROJECTS
Although it will be right to say that projects have been a long standing activity of human through many centuries and ages, it will be wrong to assume that projects just happened. Projects are not created by a Big- Bang theory of chances, they all have an initiator and a beginning. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (1988) stated that, a successful construction project begins with the owner‖, while the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) (1996) says that the client has to establish at the beginning a project-specific statement of need which would results in defining the client’s objective that will be to obtain a totally functional facility which satisfies this need.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT TODAY
Today, project management is gaining prominence and recognition in countries all over the world, although the level of awareness and utilization of project management skills, tools and techniques have been seen to vary from countries to countries all over the world. Terrence (2000) observed that there is an increasing pre-occupation with the competencies that successful project managers need to possess. Gadeken (1994) identified that the set of competencies possessed by outstanding project managers is different from that possessed by outstanding line managers, and many leading enterprises are now seeking to confirm this for themselves and for their own kind of projects. In a pulse report presented by the Project Management Institute (PMI) (2013) revealed that organizations undervalue project management and put inadequate focus on talent development. Only about half of respondents (54%) say their organizations fully understand the value of project management. It further revealed that Since 2008, the percentage of projects that project managers say have met their original goals and business intent has declined by 10% (from 72% in 2008 to 62% in 2012), which indicates a decline in project management practices in recent years. Also, the gap between ―academic knowledge‖ and actual ―industrial practice‖ is yet to be sufficiently bridged. Drucker (1989), explains a reason for this when he said that specialization is becoming an obstacle to the acquisition of knowledge and an even greater barrier to making it effective. Academia defines knowledge as what gets printed. But surely this is not knowledge; it is raw data. Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody- either by becoming grounds for action, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of more effective action… Who or what is to blame for the conservatism of the learned is beside the point. What matters is that the learning of the academic specialist is rapidly ceasing to be knowledge‖. It is at its best erudition and at its more common worst mere data. The PMI Pulse Report (2013), also indicated that training and development in project management has declined since 2010. Fewer organizations are providing training on project management tools and techniques (from 65 percent in 2010 to 59 percent in 2012). Less than half have a process to develop project management competency (45%, down from 52% in 2010) or have a process to mature existing project management practices (44%, down from 51% in 2010). It is therefore imperative to begin reinforcing the need for individuals to acquire the necessary project management skills, tools and techniques, and for organization to set in motion processes to train their staffs and incorporate the use of project management practices in their firms/ organizations. In Nigeria, the implementation of modern project management tools, methods and techniques is still not well established in public sector as well as in the private sector, this results into failure of public institutions and their contractors in performing their duties concerning the budget, specifications and deadlines of the projects awarded (Olateju et al., 2011). Studies have recognized social and political systems, cultural blocks and lack of financial support as barriers to successful project planning and execution in Nigerian public sector (Idoro & Patunola-Ajayi, 2009) Finally in considering project management today, it is important to indicate the increasing focus on identifying and defining Project Management Best Practices and Benchmarking.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to assessment of project management tools in construction project delivery
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Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information assessment of project management tools in construction project delivery. 200 residents at Kaduna metropolis, Kaduna state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
Sample and sampling procedure
Sample is the set people or items which constitute part of a given population sampling. Due to large size of the target population, the researcher used the Taro Yamani formula to arrive at the sample population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain assessment of project management tools in construction project delivery case study of Kaduna metropolis in kaduna state
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of project management tools in construction project delivery
Summary
This study was on assessment of project management tools in construction project delivery case study of Kaduna metropolis in kaduna state. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the project management tools in construction project, to identify project management practices peculiar to public projects and to investigate the level of construction management practice in Nigeria. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 residents in Kaduna metropolis. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up civil servants, men, women and youths was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
Having set out to investigate the use of project management practices in organizing and planning construction projects of government and private owned organization in Nigeria, and to identify project management practices peculiar to public and private projects, one can inferentially say that:
- Spreadsheets, Benefit/ Cost analysis and WBS, still remains the most widely used planning tools/ technique amongst client representatives in the creation of both private and public construction projects.
- An increase in the level of awareness causes a significant increase in the level of utilization of project management tools/ techniques.
- Professionals are yet to begin to explore the possibilities available from using the advanced and improved project management tools and techniques in the execution of their works. A recurrent example of such includes Pareto diagrams, Trend analysis etc
Recommendation
Professionals should explore more frequent use of some other project management tools/ techniques that are less likely used in other to see better improvements in the creation construction projects.
- The use Gantt charts surprisingly had a low level of use, but this can be ascribed to the fact that contractors are the ones who comes up with a Program of Work (POW). Consultants, should also make effort to also come up with their own POW, so that more consciousness can be put into the monitoring of time.
- The Deming circle for continuous improvement is a clear explanation of a routine practice that every organization should adopt. Therefore professionals should always and in a continuous manner, plan, do, check and act, throughout the creation process of construction projects, in other to see continuous improvement.
References
- Abassi, Y.G.and Al-Mharmah (2000): Project Management Practice by the Public Sector In A Developing Country. International Journal of Project Management. 10 (18): 105-109.
- Andy Field (2009): Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Retrieved October 20, 2014 from http:// hoangftu.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/andy-field-discovering-statistics-using-spss-third-edition-2009.pdf
- Arnaboldi M., Azzone G., & Savoldelli A. (2004): Managing Public Sector Project: The case of the Italian Treasury Ministry‘ International Journal of Project management, 22(3): 213-223.
- Association for Project Management (APM) (2006): Association for Project Management Body of Knowledge. High Wycombe: APM.
- Bennet P. Lientz, Kathryn P. Rea (2011): Project Management for the 21st Century. Routledge Publishers.
- Deborah S., Gary L. and Ronald B. (2013): Project Management Tools and Techniques: Practical Guide.
- CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton. Retrieved October 24, 2014, from Google books database.
- Ernest and Samuel (2014): Professional Project Management Practices and its Constraints in Developing African Countries: A Literature Review. Covenant Journal of Research in the Built Environment (CJRBE) 1(2).
