MMB 536 – ENGINEERING AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT 1 – MINI PROJECT

PROJECT TITLE: CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED IN MANAGING PROJECTS BY

THE DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING AND ENGINEERING SERVICES

Compiled by:

MOGOGI PERCY BILLY - 201601229

KARABO LESALAMOSE - 201800354
KEORAPETSE JULIUS KAMARA – 201900070
KABELO REUBEN –
WILLIAM -
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND

METHODS

RESULTS

CONCLUSION
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGRROUND
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
3.0 METHODOLOGY
Details of correspondents
A questionnaire survey was conducted which later showed that 10% of the respondents were of senior
roles in management departments, 35% were from the second class management role, while 58%
belonged to the junior group of management team as the DBES team.
All the participants were major players in the implementation of various construction projects. 38% of the
participants being experienced with over 5 years. 82% of the respondents were holders of bachelor’s
degree. This survey showed 30% of former project managers being key players in the participation of
project implementation.
All participants have sufficient experience in the construction industry. This lead to a reliable survey with
discussions and analysis of various experiences in the construction industry particularly management in
the business.
Methodology/Survey questionnaire
All relevant stakeholders involved in the management of construction projects were included in the pilot
survey for research purposes. These stakeholders included the consultants, university lecturers,
contractors, engineers and engineering students. Assessment of challenges was that lead to cost increase,
project duration overruns, failure in implementation of project management offices, use of relevant
project management methodologies, techniques including tools for the management of infrastructure and
building construction projects. [1]
This pilot survey was designed to gather pre data before producing a final version of the survey. Using
pre tested survey studies is very important to ensure the validity and reliability of the survey procedure.[2]
The basic purpose of the pilot study was to “pre-test the survey and subsequently modify before a final
version of the survey questionnaire was produced” (Alzahrani & Emsley 2013). Furthermore, as observed
by (Chileshe & Kikwasi (2014), Hwang &Ng 2013, Hwang et al. 2013, Bartsch et al. 2013, Ngacho &
Das 2014, Zou et al. 2014), usage of pre-tested survey instruments is crucial in ensuring the validity and
reliability of the survey instruments. The response rate to the questionnaire survey was 55.7%, which is
more than 50% of the targeted 70 participants.
Challenges encountered during the research project
As observed from the comprehensive literature review undertaken in this study, projects encounter
various types of challenges and risks. The first challenge encountered in this research was the prolonged
response from the Ministry of Infrastructure Science & Technology when the researcher put up the
request to undertake a research with the Department of Building and Engineering Services. The
application was made to the Ministry on the 22nd June 2015 and the response/ approval was given on the
8th July 2015. The 16 days delay affected the schedule for the research. However, the researcher made
some contingency plans by increasing the hours allocated on the schedule in order to catch up on the
programme.
Furthermore, prolonged response to approve the planning review documents by the project supervisor
during the University Summer break affected the project schedule (planning review submitted on the 7th
July 2015 and response received on the 1st September 2015) and similar action was taken increasing the
hours allocated to catch up on the lost time. In support, Hegazy et al. (2011) stated that for the project
duration to remain within the project deadline, “the project manager can overcome the delays through
various acceleration strategies e.g. using overtime on the activities within the critical path”.
As reflected by the 55.7% response from the target group of 70 DBES technical staff, it was difficult to
get the feedback as some of the participants were not willing to take part on the research due to the
reasons known to them. In support, Shehu & Akintoye (2010) highlighted that subsequently respondents
are not willing to retort to quantitative survey questionnaires due to many questionnaire survey request
issued to them.
Finally, the issue of regular power cuts/ load shedding due to insufficient supply and high demand of
power in Botswana is one of the constraints encountered during the progress of the project. The power
shortage in the country are caused by the failure of major construction projects such as Morupule B
power station. In support Essah & Ofetotse (2014) stated that “though it is anticipated that the
commisioning of Morupule B power station (which is still behind schedule), would increase the
percentage figures of electricity accessibility”, power outages are still a concern. Therefore, to mitigate
the risk of insufficient supply of electricity in Botswana, the reseracher purchased some lights that uses
solar power, which helped during the time when power from the main grid was off.
Limitations of this research/gaps and recommendations for future research
Potential gaps of this research and hence suggestions for future research are worth mentioning. Even
though, considerations have been taken to avoid subjectivity or biasness when developing the
questionnaires, the quantitative information gathered through the survey were self-assessed, thus
subjectivity and biasness may have occurred. In spite of this limitation, this study offers information
useful for management of building and infrastructure projects for their successful performance, as well as
a useful foundation for future research.
Furthermore, the data was only collected from the technical staff from DBES headquartered in Gaborone
who mostly deal with implementation of development projects. Although care has been taken by doing a
pilot study involving all the stakeholders within the construction industry before issuing the final
questionnaire, the population of the respondents may not represent the Botswana construction industry,
thus the results are tentative and must be cautiously interpreted and applied. Therefore, future research
may focus on collecting information from all the stakeholders within the construction industry in
Botswana (e.g. clients, design engineers, supervising consultants, contractors and suppliers) to compare
the results. Nevertheless, this limitation should not nullify the results outcome derived from the practical
evidence found in this study.
The comprehensive literature review undertaken, most relate to the construction industry in general and
the building sector in particular, as such the literature review will not include some of the major
challenges in infrastructure construction projects. Furthermore, the literature studied concentrate more on
developed countries and would not reflect clearly the challenges that would affect the construction
industry in developing countries. Therefore, future research may consider building on what has been
investigated in this study and use the same methodology and findings developed in this study to other
relevant projects.
The study also used only a quantitative research tool to achieve the research objectives. Even though,
Sidawi & Al-Sudairi (2014) submitted that findings from a combination of research methodologies can be
used to complement each other in enhancing theoretical or substantive completeness of the results.
Therefore, future studies may consider using both questionnaires and interviews for the results to
compensate each other.
The sample size of 37 respondents to the survey questionnaire poses some limitations to the extent to
which the results of the data could be generalised. Due to the limited number of respondents, the survey
may not have identified the major possible challenges affecting the management of building and
infrastructure construction projects in Botswana. However, notwithstanding this, the research made a
significant attempt at identifying the major challenges affecting the management of building and
infrastructure construction projects in Botswana.
Finally, the research is based on the assumption that adoption of the identified challenges will lead to
effective management of building and infrastructure construction projects, as well as implementation of a
project management office in order to be able to use various project management methodologies, tools
and techniques in managing building and infrastructure construction projects for performance
improvement. The principle of this assumption is based on the evidence from the comprehensive
literature review as a number of previous studies have provided support for this school of thought.
However, to further confirm this assumption within the context of the Botswana construction industry,
future studies should employ rigorous statistical analysis such as regression analysis, correlations and
factor analysis. These parametric tests will enhance the desirable support for the results validity and
reliability between the variables identified in this study.

4.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.0 REFERENCES
[1] Aziz (2013) and Shehu & Akintoye (2010)
[2] Hwang &Ng 2013, Hwang et al. 2013, Bartsch et al. 2013, Ngacho & Das 2014, Zou et al. 2014),
7.0 APPENDICES