Defining Construction Project Management Critical Success Factors Using the Business Excellence Model

The paper reports of an evaluation of a project management measurement framework that was used to cluster construction project management critical success factors. A review of literature suggests that there is a lack of agreement on what considered as critical success factors for construction project management. This in part is due to a lack of a common framework for the definition of critical success factors. The paper acknowledges the need to have a common basis for the definition of project management critical success factors and argues that the business excellence model provides a sound framework for this. A project management critical success factors (CSF) model was developed based on the business excellence model which to some extent can be looked at as a causal model between the management processes and the business or organisational results. The business excellence model was used to define constructs to which various critical success factors as identified in literature were mapped against. Data was collected using a questionnaire survey concerning various critical success factors. Results of a statistical analysis confirm that the project management CSF model is reliable and that the constructs used can be used to cluster construction project management critical success factors. Further examination of the data regarding the relative importance of the critical success factors is consistent with many other studies on critical success factors. The research concludes that the measurement model for construction project management critical success factors, as presented in the paper is a reliable scale and that such a model present a sound framework for the definition of factors critical to project management performance