Challenges of Construction Scheduling Practice in Ethiopian Construction Industry

Construction Technology and Management

Abstract

Practice of construction scheduling includes tasks of developing, controlling, and communicating the schedule to the concerned parties. This study focuses on identifying the major challenges of construction scheduling practice in Ethiopia. Questionnaire survey was used to collected data from selected construction professionals and one hundred fifty-five valid responses were collected. The data was checked for construct validity and internal reliability. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify challenges of construction scheduling practice. The factor analysis has resulted in four challenge affecting construction scheduling practice: (1) lack of top management commitment, (2) lack of scheduling knowledge and nature of construction projects, (3) lack of scheduling standards and (4) reliable resource scheduling in a resource constrained environment. One sample T-test was conducted to evaluate relative significance of the challenges, and reliable resource scheduling in a resource constrained environment was found to be the most challenging factor of construction scheduling practice. Developing countries’ construction industry faces major uncertainties in the resource availability and quality aspect than developed countries. Hence, it is important to understand the operating environment and consider the situation to improve the construction scheduling practice.