Impact of Best Practices on the Cost and Schedule Performance of Heavy Industrial Construction Projects

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dc.contributor.advisorSadeghpour, Farnaz
dc.contributor.advisorJergeas, George Farage
dc.contributor.authorRobu, Mihai
dc.contributor.committeememberDann, Markus R.
dc.contributor.committeememberHunt, John D.
dc.contributor.committeememberLi, Simon
dc.contributor.committeememberEl-Badry, Mamdouh
dc.contributor.committeememberJergeas, George Farage
dc.contributor.committeememberSadeghpour, Farnaz
dc.date2019-06
dc.date.accessioned2019-03-27T18:59:04Z
dc.date.available2019-03-27T18:59:04Z
dc.date.issued2019-03-25
dc.description.abstractThe heavy industrial sector is important to the North American economy, however, projects in this sector are often overbudget and behind-schedule. An improvement in project delivery can positively impact the organizations involved in the heavy industrial sector and subsequently on the economy. While there are many factors impacting project performance, the implementation of best practices is within the control of practitioners. However, as implementing best practices can be costly and/or time-consuming, detailed knowledge of the impact of best practices is valuable to practitioners seeking to improve project performance. To date, the impact of best practices has only been studied at the project-level but not at the more granular phase-level. Statistical analysis is conducted on 1,015 heavy industrial projects to determine if the impact of best practices is different across phases and to determine the magnitude of the impact. Pairwise inferential tests are used to determine if the relationship between best practices and phase cost and schedule performance are statistically significant. It was found that best practices impacted different phases and was speculated that the impact is related to the nature of activities being conducted in each phase. Cost performance benefited most from a high degree of scope definition, partnering agreements, and the implementation of risk mitigation. Schedule performance improved most from increased scope definition, risk assessments, and a documented and well-understood change management plan. The cost and schedule characteristics of projects are also explored through descriptive statistics for each phase to better understand the uniqueness of each phase. It was found that each project phase exhibited different cost and schedule characteristics, with the Commissioning phase having the worst mean, and most variability in performance. The cost and schedule benchmarks can be used by industry practitioners to compare their project performance to an average specific to heavy industrial projects, which allows for identification of areas of strengths and weaknesses. The impact of best practices at the more granular phase-level allows for more judicious implementation of best practices based on the improvement goals identified by practitioners.en_US
dc.identifier.citationRobu, M. (2019). Impact of Best Practices on the Cost and Schedule Performance of Heavy Industrial Construction Projects. (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/36318
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/110109
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisher.facultySchulich School of Engineeringen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectProject Performanceen_US
dc.subjectHeavy Industrial Constructionen_US
dc.subjectProject Cost Performanceen_US
dc.subjectProject Schedule Performanceen_US
dc.subjectBest Practicesen_US
dc.subject.classificationEngineering--Civilen_US
dc.titleImpact of Best Practices on the Cost and Schedule Performance of Heavy Industrial Construction Projectsen_US
dc.typemaster thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineEngineering – Civilen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Science (MSc)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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