PROJECT SCOPE DEFINITION AND PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN KENYA
Abstract
Background: Construction project failures are increasingly reported around the globe and achieving success in construction projects is becoming extremely difficult in today’s turbulent environment. Despite the current developments in project management processes and tools, the project success rate has failed to significantly improve due to poor scope definition which have to lead to cost overruns and schedule overruns. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between scope definition and performance of government construction projects in Kenya.
Methodology: The study was pegged on the theory of constraints. The study adopted a combination of cross-section design and descriptive design. The target population was the construction projects undertaken by the key government agencies within the ministry of transport, infrastructure, housing, and urban development. There were 320 construction projects a sample of 178 projects was used. The unit of analysis was the construction projects while the unit of observation was the project managers. The primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and it was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics using SPPS version 24.
Findings: The coefficient of determination showed that scope definition explained 38.4 % variation in the performance of government construction projects. The study found that scope definition had a positive and significant effect on project performance.
Recommendations: The study recommends that project managers ought to embrace scope definition at the initial stages of the project by deriving well-articulated project objectives, clear project deliverables and scope creep mitigation measures this will ensure that the project management team has a pathway of what needs to be achieved and this reduces the cases of schedule and cost overruns in a project.
Keywords: Scope definition, government construction projects, Project performance
References
Banda Jr, R. K., & Pretorius, L. (2016). The effect of scope definition on infrastructure projects: A case in Malawi’s public and private implementing agencies. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 27(4), 203–214.
Bwisa, H. (2015). What is a theoretical framework. Retrieved from professorbwisa. com.
Emmett, G., & Langston, C. (2019). Comparative construction cost data for industry: A case study of Turner & Townsend’s experience. In Accounting for Construction (pp. 181–193). Routledge.
Fageha, M. K., & Aibinu, A. A. (2013). Managing project scope definition to improve stakeholders’ participation and enhance project outcome. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 74, 154–164.
Gregory, E. (2020). Methodological challenges for the qualitative researcher: The use of a conceptual framework within a qualitative case study. London Review of Education, 18(1), 126–141.
Gupta, M. C., & Boyd, L. H. (2008). Theory of constraints: A theory for operations management. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
Lukhele, T., Botha, B., & Mbanga, S. (2021). Exploring project complexity relations to scope changes in construction projects: A case study of NEC projects in South Africa. Construction Economics and Building, 21(2), 18–33.
Mirza, M. N., Pourzolfaghar, Z., & Shahnazari, M. (2013). Significance of scope in project success. Procedia Technology, 9, 722–729.
Mkuni, M. (2016). An assessment of the planning cycle in Zambia’s road construction projects. University of Zambia.
Orouji, M. (2016). Theory of constraints: A state-of-art review. Accounting, 2(1), 45–52.
Townsend, T. &. (2018). International construction market survey 2018. Turner & Townsend Leeds, United Kingdom.
Verzuh, E. (2015). The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.
