Ballesteros-Pérez, P; Sanz-Ablanedo, E; Soetanto, R; González-Cruz, M C; Larsen, G D and Cerezo-Narváez, A (2020) Duration and cost variability of construction activities: An empirical study. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 146(1): 04019093, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
The unique nature of construction projects can mean that construction activities often suffer from duration and cost variability. Because this variability is unplanned, it can present a problem when attempting to complete a project on time and on budget. Various factors causing this variability have been identified in the literature, but they predominantly refer to the nature and/or context of the whole project rather than specific activities. In this paper, the order of magnitude of and correlation between activity duration and cost variability is analyzed in 101 construction projects with over 5,000 activities. To do this, the first four moments (mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) of actual versus planned duration and cost (log) ratios are analyzed by project, phase of execution, and activity type. Results suggest that, contrary to common wisdom, construction activities do not end late on average. Instead, the large variability in the activity duration is the major factor causing significant project delays and cost overruns. The values of average activity duration and cost variability gathered in this study will also serve as a reference for construction managers to improve future construction planning and project simulation studies with more realistic data.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | activity variability; merge event bias; network topology; project delays; scheduling |
| Index terms: | construction activity, cost overrun, deviation, empirical study, variability, construction planning, duration, scheduling, construction manager, bias, construction project, project delay, topology |
| Subjects: | operations research, construction planning, financial and cost management, construction operations, profession, project controls, statistical analysis, research methods, geometry and topology, probability and distributions, production management |
| Topics: | Site Management, Time Control, Project Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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