MANAGEMENT OF DYNAMICALLY COMPLEX PROJECTS (AN APPLICATION OF AGILE TECHNIQUES)

Abstract

Construction industry in Pakistan consumes almost 80 percent of the national development budget and pays highest tax per million turn over. Construction industry is heterogeneous and enormously complex in nature, so crying need of hour is to focus on development of construction project management. Projects within the construction industry are not managed to change significantly in recent decades. This has resulted in a gap between the managerial vision and the actual execution of construction projects conducted today. Competitive market forces and growing social needs have triggered the demand for rapid delivery of construction projects. As projects become increasingly complicated, delays arise in a more unpredictable manner. The initial motivation for this research is to explore a systematic flexible framework to deal with delays caused by complex changes in construction and meanwhile enhance the overall project performance. Since agility encompasses multiple meanings and principles, the first task was to provide a clear and specialized explanation, what agility means in the construction. Derived from extensive literature of agile theories, agile project management is an integrated method that allows project success in a complex environment by applying agile approach throughout the project lifecycle effectively. To fulfill the above objective a comparative study of traditional and agile project management practices in construction industry has been closely observed followed by identification of agile project key performance indicators (KPIs) which are then verified by qualitative survey with construction professionals, having ultimate goal of reducing delays and cost overrun. Finally, an agile project management framework developed which will provide valuable information to clients, consultants and contractors and other stakeholders who desire to improve management techniques in dynamically complex construction projects.