Managing Changes in Construction Projects

Scope management is responsible for the majority of project failures. In construction project, scope management deals with the analysis and approval of changes. D.M. Dillts & K.R. Pence (2006) found out critical factors in project failure related to changes, as follows:

• Change in initial project expectations
• Change in overall project importance to the organization
• Change in need for the project (by the organization)
• Change in overall complexity
• Change in overall time to completion
• Change in user needs
• Change in overall project resources (people, material, funds)
• Change in technical difficulties
• Change in funding source
• Change in regulatory problems
• Internal politics (within the organization)
• External politics to the organization
• Change in commitment by project champion

Based on several researches, the main cause of construction changes are investor's requirements for higher standards in relation to those planned.  The investor usually adds additional needs for a project. The second cause is partially incomplete project documentation, followed by change of technology caused by lack availability of designed technology in the market. Lack of concrete construction material in region caused by high or low current demand and lack of financing for the timely completion of a project are next causes. The other causes are: Contractor's change requests for easier operations, higher income, within the allowable limits for the project; Project documentation alignment with new regulations adopted in the period between project design and realization. 

Scope management is one of the angles of the project management triangle (cost, time, scope), which means that together time and cost it represents one of the most significant constraints and focuses on the project. There can be no project success without a systematically and professionally appointed system for managing the scope