Alsuliman, J; Bowles, G and Chen, Z (2012) Current practice of variation order management in the Saudi construction industry. In: Smith, S D (ed.) Proceedings of 28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2012, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
The complexity of construction projects means that it is unusual to deliver a project without any change during its project lifecycle. Liability to change is an attribute that generally characterizes almost all projects. It is assumed that the use of a change management system in construction projects would assist the management of variation orders effectively. Variation order management is not fully understood nor well applied in the Saudi construction industry. In order to better understand the current practice of variation order management at the design stage of public sector construction projects in Saudi Arabia, this paper reports the results of an exploratory study that used a series of interviews with public sector clients and consultants in 2011. Findings indicate that there are currently no formalized approaches to the management of variation orders at the design stage. In addition, there is a general lack of knowledge about managing variation orders. The paper concludes that there is not only a need to apply an appropriate variation order management system to Saudi public sector construction projects at the design stage, but it also presents participants' suggestions of the most appropriate ways of doing so.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | design stage; public sector; Saudi Arabia; variation orders |
| Index terms: | variation, construction project, design stage, construction industry, complexity, interview, liability, Saudi Arabia, management system, project lifecycle, public-sector client, change management, exploratory study, public sector |
| Subjects: | professional practice, project completion, data collection methods, sociology, liability law, systems engineering, administrative law, industry analysis, research methods, management, production management, contractual condition, Geography |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Legal Issues, Contract Administration, Organizational Design, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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