Critical success factors influencing project success in infrastructure projects : a comparative case study

Abstract: When projects do not meet the objectives and purposes, it’s common to review the project after completion and find out why the project failed so that the same mistakes do not get repeated in future projects. However in some cases Project Managers would tend to ignore this issue because they find new projects that they are in charge of as more interesting than the completed ones. For this issue the research therefore attempts to identify critical success factors (CSF’s) that influence project success. A proposed hypothesis was developed to help set the tone of this research. The presence of critical success factors on infrastructure projects contribute to project success. Two case studies were performed in order to find the factors that influence project success in infrastructure projects. The hypothesis was tested and it confirmed that critical success factors do indeed influence project success in infrastructure projects. Therefore the research identified critical success factors that influence project success in infrastructure projects. In summary, the critical success factors discovered in this study are political influence, project manager competence, adequate planning, adequacy of plans, realistic goals and objectives, owners involvement, ability to carry out meetings, buy in of local chieftaincy, availability of stakeholders, adequate planning, community involvement, roster strategy, interpretation of contracts, relationship between contractor and project team, labour unrest and project team competence. Further comparison and analysis resulted in the identification of the six highest critical success factors for the construction industry. In descending order of importance, these are:..M.Phil. (Engineering Management