Umuhoza, E; Bitamba, B F and An, S H (2023) Causes and preventive strategies of scope creep for building construction projects in democratic republic of Congo and Rwanda. International Journal of Construction Management, 23(7), pp. 1264-1275. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Scope creep is the uncontrolled changes to scope that are difficult to be known and contribute to time and cost escalations during construction phase. Thus, preventing its causes would be an efficient strategy to improve performance of the construction projects. This research set out to highlight, ascertain and rank the critical causes of scope creep with respect to their level of occurrence and to their influence on cost and time increase for the building construction projects in the Sub-Saharan countries of D.R.Congo and Rwanda. Subsequently, preventive strategies were also provided. A questionnaire survey was conducted among consultants, contractors and clients, and a total of 141 questionnaires were collected from both countries. The survey results analysed by the mean of t-test technique showed that there is a significant difference in the likelihood of occurrence and in the level of influence on cost and time overruns for majority of the 37 causes resulting to scope creep between the two countries. Also, there is significant difference in the importance level of majority of the eleven best practices in preventing scope creep. This study grants a vital contribution to control scope creep in D.R.Congo and Rwanda, and in the countries with the same condition.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | best practices; building construction projects; risk management; scope creep causes |
| Index terms: | scope creep, risk management, best practice, Congo, construction phase, time overrun, questionnaire, construction project, cost escalation, Rwanda, survey, building construction, strategy |
| Subjects: | Geography, production management, management, economics, project controls, building construction, scope management, risk assessment, data collection methods, business, project delivery |
| Topics: | Time Control, Risk Management, Construction Technology, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Project Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here