The role of project management practices in avoiding time and cost overruns:The construction sector in Pakistan and the UK

Masters Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, University of Huddersfield, course: Msc. Business Project Management, language: English, abstract: Over the past two decades, the Pakistani construction sector is experiencing many problems particularly housing shortages, cost and time overruns, and construction defects due to lack of adequate project management practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of project management practices in Pakistan compared to the UK to avoid time and cost overruns of construction projects. A blend of primary and secondary data collection methods are used to achieve this aim where primary data is collected through survey method. The findings of the paper suggest that Pakistani construction industry is different from the UK in terms of not adequately practicing most of the project management practices. A majority of construction participants agreed that such practices are inherent to avoid the cost/time overruns but some problematic factors are hindering the implementation of those practices in Pakistan. Some of the critical factors include changes in the scope of the project, lack of knowledge, skills and experience, fear of change, lack of top management commitment, and excessive bureaucracy. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations to Pakistani construction sector explaining how they can adopt modern PM practices undertaken in developed countries particularly in the UK to avoid the cost/time overruns.