Construction Projects Fail Because | Post 5

After your calculations and documentation are complete, you begin your project. But something bad happens. So, you must wait before you resume the construction work. In this post, you will get an overview of the reasons behind the failure of construction projects.

The Short Answer - Your Plan and Implementation are way too different

How can you harm your project with your hands? Well, typing a report with all the details is a respectable activity. And you can be sure about the role of good quality documentation in the approvals and other transactions.

But writing down your plan is different from acting on it with integrity.

No, this is not about the inevitable "Revisions" to your original estimates or strategy. Instead, you must think about the on-site execution of your promises in the proposals. So, think about the risk factors below if you want to make your construction project succeed.

Cause of Construction Project Failure - Overview

1. What is the quality of your human resources? And do you believe that your labour management is realistic? After all, improper handling of labour can increase the risks to your project.
2. If the essential decisions are too slow to arrive, all your resources might stay idle. And you do not want that at any cost. Remember, for a construction project, time productivity is everything.
3. It is true that different stakeholders might have unique opinions. So, conflicts are going to happen sooner or later. Still, mismanagement of the differences among your stakeholders, teams and clients will not end well for your project.
4. You can have the best talent in the world. But a project without a reliable "feasibility report" is destined for failure. Thus, it is not important what you think to be a good offer. Read the data based on real-time market trends. Else, the underutilisation might haunt your completed projects.

Now, you have read this quick list of the general problems leading to a construction project failure. From this point onwards, you find the specific symptoms one at a time in the following sections.

Why Do Construction Projects Fail?

If you want a more engaging explanation for the failure risks in infrastructure development, keep reading. Soon, you will explore all the symptoms of a project destined for a market failure. And as you can guess, some types of risks and cause factors are outside of your control.

But you can always propose a backup system for most categories of the project risks. Of course, a construction project can benefit from risk management standards.

1 | Inaccurate Estimates for the Costs of Projects

Your client might ask a consultant or an in-house estimation team to draft a Cost Estimate for your projects. Or, your Contractor might have used the Lowest Bid. In short, your contractor might be working on a thin profit margin.

Both the above-mentioned situations carry a risk. Why? See, the answer lies in how Estimating works.

For construction work, nobody can tell you the "perfect" or exact cost of your project. Because you can predict your final cost only after your project completes.

Here lies the problem. Since you have to guess the different types of costs, you must depend on an experienced estimator.

But even the wisest Cost Estimator might forecast your project costs incorrectly. Yes, this uncertainty cannot end. And if your expected cost estimate is much smaller than the final estimates, your project has effectively failed at this point.

True, you could raise more funds and seek additional financial help. Yet, this problem is a serious one. And even after refinancing initiatives or relief packages, some ripple effects keep spreading.

If nothing else, your reputation as a Construction Project Developer is in danger.

2 | Lack of Experience

A person who has used a tool for a long time knows its tricks. But someone with theoretical knowledge might be unaware of them. Also, a seasoned sportsperson can judge a team player's strengths as well as weaknesses.

If your team members do not have good emotional intelligence, miscommunication is enough for complete chaos in your execution.

Still, not having enough industry exposure is a major problem on the Quality Assurance and Planning side as well. So, training your staff with the help of the "real" experts is essential.

If you have a lot of practically clever people, theoretical knowledge might be insufficient. For getting the required approvals fast, you need high-quality documentation standards. Also, theoretically sound paperwork increases your success during the audits.

The Summary

The success of your projects depends on your understanding of the failure factors. And in the world of construction projects, you can never go wrong with a high standard of risk management. Yes, the construction projects' completion rate varies wildly across the countries and sectors.

Thus, you must remain aware of how your project might fail.