Development of a framework for the measurement of construction works progress in Ghana

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Date
September, 2015
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Abstract
Progress measurement is very important in project management. Progress management encompasses project monitoring and evaluation. Construction project progress is key information in the integrated project management systems as it provides the baseline for comparing what is planned and/or actual cost/work. Among the various kinds of as-built information collected on a project, the project progress rate is one of the critical indices that represent the project performance and progress state. The progress rate aids timely and accurate decision-making through the provision of basic information that can be applied to project planning and control as well as cost engineering. Despite the importance of the progress information, it has come to light that many a time construction professionals disagree on the assessment of the percentage completion of construction projects. This is as a result of the lack of pragmatic methodology. Some professionals prefer to use cost as a basis whilst others use time elapsed or the resource requirements. The lack of pragmatic methodology in measuring construction works objcetively necessitates this research work so as to eliminate the subjectivity from the process. The aim for the research is to propose a pragmatic procedure and framework for measuring construction progress. In order to achieve this aim, a number of objectives were set. Key among them is identification of barriers to the realization of accurate assessment of progress and critical factors that will help drive the process of realistic assessment of construction progress. Existing literature revealed that time, cost and quantity of work are key factors in progress determination. The main tools for the collection of data included questionnaires and interviews. The target population for the data collection included senior management of large building construction companies (D1) and senior consultants of quantity surveying firms. Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS V 20) was used to analyze data obtained. Descriptive statistics, relative importance index, Mann-Whitney U Test and mean ranks were the tools used. The study revealed that the three most critical factors that will help drive the process of accurate progress measurement are cost/budget, quantity (scope of works) and schedule (time) whiles the four major barriers to the process are dependency of supervisor opinion without hard data to back, different units of measurement of bills of quantity items, unspecified method of progress measurement in conditions of contracts and difficulty in getting uniform work breakdown structure. By way of recommendation, contractors and consultants are asked to allocate adequate resources to construction work planning.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Building Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Science in Construction Management, 2015
Keywords
Construction works, Progress measurement, Cost, Time, Quantity
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