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The purpose of this paper is to reengineer the process of cost management in large projects.

Considering the fact most large projects overrun their budgets because of the long time period needed to completion, it was decided to reengineer the cost management. Accordingly costs allocated to packages were reviewed and changed on a dynamic basis. Different types of contingencies were provided. Concepts of package contingency and project contingency were introduced. These were based on the project buffer and feeding buffer concepts popularised by Eliyahu Goldratt.

The re-engineered method of cost control worked well and yielded better than expected results, leading to the setting up of a new world record in the completion time for setting up a million tonnes per annum continuous, tandem cold rolling mill to roll steel sheets.

In view of the total success of the reengineered approach, which was tested out on a large project over three years, it is felt that other projects could also try out this technique, especially since it is along the lines proposed by Eliyahu Goldratt who is an authority on project management. However the success can be better understood if the results of the testing become available. To that extent the contents of the present paper have limitations.

Large projects can deploy the methodology and complete their projects on time and under budget.

The reengineering of the cost management was done primarily with a view to complete projects under budget. Since many governments spend many billions of dollars on publicly funded projects for the welfare of citizens, the use of this technique could have a salutary effect on the cost.

The method was innovated in the company by the author’s team and deployed in a live project over four years for the first time to achieve world-class results.

Cost and time are two of the primary benchmarks in which construction projects are measured. A variety of factors, however, affect cost and time on construction projects, as identified in previous research. This has led to a need for better understanding how factors affecting cost and time overruns on public construction projects can be managed more efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

In this study 26 factors affecting cost and time overruns on construction projects were identified, through qualitative interviews with project managers from Danish governmental agencies and through a literature review. Through principal component analyses the 26 factors were subsequently narrowed down to four primary latent factors.

The identified four latent factors affecting cost and time overruns on public construction projects were lack of quality management, lack of project pre-planning, lack of user management and lack of project management.

Previous research has focussed on increasing knowledge by identifying and ranking factors affecting time and cost performance. This has led to the identification of an overwhelming number of factors to use for managing construction projects. The present research reduced the number of factors by clustering them into key latent factors responsible for most of the deviation in performance, narrowing the scope of construction cost and time management into a few tangible key focus areas. This supports and improves fast decision-making that is necessary in a changeable environment such as construction.

The objective of this paper is to develop an efficient project management system to track and control construction activities for contractors and/or project managers.

The work package model is utilized to break down project data into activities and work tasks. The data structure of a project is represented using the entities‐relationship methodology. A relational database stores all of the project data. The earned value method calculates the cost and schedule variances. The internet‐based platform with three‐tier client‐server architecture is chosen for system implementation.

The developed project database stores all of the project data necessary to perform project control functions. The implementation of the project database management system is efficient. The developed system provides real‐time data sharing and a collaborating environment in support of project control.

Time and cost control are essential management functions for achieving successful delivery of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects. The developed system can assist contractors and/or project managers in tracking and control of their construction projects in a real‐time manner.

Legions of projects fail to attain their time and cost objectives due to ineffective coordination. This is often due to a lack of essential learning from projects because of insufficient communication and working experience. One of the key reasons why this occurs is that managers are unaware of what knowledge needs to be retained. In contrast with knowledge management research, which mostly focuses on the systems and processes for capturing, storing, and retrieval of knowledge, this paper investigates the nature of project communication and learning and their role on project time and cost control.

A stratified proportional purposive sampling approach was adopted in choosing the interview participants for the study. They are experienced industry practitioners working on building construction projects in Malaysia. Content analysis was then performed on the interview data. The identified variables were further validated by 11 industry experts from the three primary construction stakeholders.

The results of a series of 12 in-depth interviews with industry practitioners are provided to reveal the effective communication tools for sharing and learning in a project-based environment, the learning inducing situations involved, and the use of reusable project experiences to improve project time and cost control.

A possible limitation of the study is its focus on a small group of Malaysian practitioners delimits the generalizability of the findings.

A two-phase model with three-step project management process of input, tools, and output is developed from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide as an aid for more effective knowledge reuse in project time and cost control in the future.

This paper aims to identify and analyse the factors affecting the selection of effective cost control techniques in the UK construction industry and assess their importance. The study examines these key areas; the factors that have significant impacts on cost overruns, the most effective cost control techniques and the factors for selecting cost control techniques for a project.

The study relies on a mixed-method research approach; a qualitative exploration of the most effective cost control techniques and the factors affecting the selection of cost control techniques, followed by a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. Relative importance index (RII) is used for ranking the factors.

The budgeting technique is ranked first with-0.821RII, followed by cost forecasting-0.800RII and cashflow monitoring-00.733RII, as the most effective cost control techniques. On factors that influenced the choice of the techniques used, cost information/cost-related factors are ranked first with-0.611RII, followed by the size of the company-0.509RII and the effectiveness of the technique-0.572RII.

Although the scope of the study was limited to the UK construction industry, the results could be interpreted for critical learning in other developed/developing countries.

Identifying and ranking the factors affecting the selection of effective cost control techniques in the UK construction industry has been the focal point of this study. The study also proposes a simple but effective model which can be used for critical learning on mitigating cost overruns and the effective use of cost control techniques in the construction industry.

The Iron Triangle, also called the Triple Constraint, is a central concept to project management research and practice, representing the relationship between key performance criteria. However, there is disagreement about which criteria should be represented on the vertices of this triangle. The purpose of this paper is to explore which concepts are part of the Iron Triangle, and how these concepts have changed over time.

This paper explores 45 years of project management research, drawing on a database of 109,804 records from 1970 to 2015. Three corpora were constructed, representing the project management and Time, Cost, and Quality Management literature. Time and Cost are consistently identified as part of the Iron Triangle. However, the status of quality is contested. Key concepts in the project management literature were explored using scientometric research techniques, to understand the relationship between these concepts.

Significant links were found between Time, Cost, and Quality, verifying these concepts as the vertices on the Iron Triangle. These links were significantly stronger than links to alternatives, such as Scope, Performance, or Requirements. Other concepts that are core to the Iron Triangle were also identified, and how these have changed over time.

This research develops the understanding of a key project management concept by clarifying which concepts are part of the Iron Triangle, based on evidence of how the concept is used in research. This paper also reveals the context in which this concept is used, and how this has changed over the last 45 years.

This paper reports the developments of a project cost control system (PCCS) for construction projects to (1) measure its current level of cost control maturity, (2) examine the relationships between elements within PCCS processes and (3) identify improvement areas.

This study adopts a mixed approach of descriptive analysis and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to measure the current maturity level of PCCS and evaluate the relationships between elements within PCSS to identify improvement areas. Further importance-performance matrix analysis (IPMA) of priority constructs was conducted to improve a target construct and identify the most important areas of specific actions at indicator levels. The results of IPMA revealed the contrast that has the greatest importance on the performance of others so that the recommendations can be made accordingly. Data collected in New Zealand were used to develop the research model.

This study develops structural and measurement models with the constructs including pre-control, in-control and post-control processes, enablers and their proposed interrelationships. Then, data from survey of 184 experienced project cost control team members reveal that post-control has the lowest maturity or weakest areas in the PCCS. Data analysis facilitated by PLS-SEM confirmed that all the constructs in the structural model have positive and significant relationships with each other and suggested that systematic cost analysis reports, communication, skills and experience, defining roles and responsibilities, and top management's support should be the highest priority for improving the PCCS in a more effective manner.

This study presents one of the earliest attempts to develop and test an integrated model that links sub-processes in PCCS and their enablers. Secondly, this research adds to the construction project management literature by empirically verifying the roles of enablers in enhancing maturity level of PCCS.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new framework for time–cost trade-off. The new framework provides the optimum time–cost value taking into account the float loss impact.

The stochastic framework uses Monte Carlo Simulation to calculate the effect of float loss on risk. This is later translated into an added cost to the trade-off problem. Five examples, from literature, are solved using the proposed framework to test the applicability of the developed framework.

The results confirmed the research hypothesis that the new optimum solution will be at a higher duration and cost but at a lower risk compared to traditional methods. The probabilities of finishing the project on time using the developed framework in all five cases were better than those using the classical deterministic optimization technique.

The objective of time–cost trade-off is to determine the optimum project duration corresponding to the minimum total cost. Time–cost trade-off techniques result in reducing the available float for noncritical activities and thus increasing the schedule risks. Existing deterministic optimization technique does not consider the impact of the float loss within the noncritical activities when the project duration is being crashed. The new framework allows project managers to exercise new trade-offs between time, cost and risk which will ultimately improve the chances of achieving project objectives.

Time-cost trade-off is normal conduct in construction projects when projects are expectedly late for delivery. Existing research on time-cost trade-off strategic management mostly focused on the technical calculation towards the optimal combination of activities to be accelerated, while the managerial aspects are mostly neglected. This paper aims to understand the managerial efforts necessary to prepare construction projects ready for an upcoming trade-off implementation.

A preliminary list of critical factors was first identified from the literature and verified by a Delphi survey. Quantitative data was then collected by a questionnaire survey to first shortlist the preliminary factors and quantify the predictive model with different machine learning algorithms, i.e. k-nearest neighbours (kNN), radial basis function (RBF), multiplayer perceptron (MLP), multinomial logistic regression (MLR), naïve Bayes classifier (NBC) and Bayesian belief networks (BBNs).

The model's independent variable importance ranking revealed that the top challenges faced were the realism of contractual obligation, contractor planning and control and client management and monitoring. Among the tested machine learning algorithms, multilayer perceptron was demonstrated to be the most suitable in this case. This model accuracy reached 96.5% with the training dataset and 95.6% with an independent test dataset and could be used as the contingency approach for time-cost trade-offs.

The identified factor list contributed to the theoretical explanation of the failed implementation in general and practical managerial improvement to better avoid such failure. In addition, the established predictive model provided an ad-hoc early warning and diagnostic tool to better ensure time-cost implementation success.

Design and build (D/B) construction methods have gained more importance in recent years for their potential advantages in improving project performance. There are, however, a number of problems that are commonplace in D/B procurement, which, when they interact with each other, can lead to project time and cost overrun problems. The most important among them are design changes, together with communication and coordination lapses among concerned parties. Past research has focused only on the characteristics of the traditional construction, or separate sub‐systems such as different phases or human resource input to projects. An attempt is made in this paper to improve D/B project time and cost performance. A generic system dynamics model is developed that incorporates major sub‐systems and their relationships inherent in D/B constructions projects. It is validated and calibrated for a typical large D/B infrastructure project using time and cost overrun problems experienced in Thailand. Extensive simulations with many policies, individually or in various combinations, show that improvement in time or cost can be made with proper policy combinations that reflect strong interactions between the whole design and build system and can be derived only if these interactions are accounted for. To achieve overall improvement in both time and cost, the combination of full overtime schedule, average material ordering, and fast track construction with moderate crashing of design is most appropriate. If cost is the focus, extending the construction schedule, combined with material ordering based on actual need, and design and build with traditional construction method is the best solution.