Influence of scope management in construction industry projects

Abstract

In the period 2008-2015, Spanish construction industry falls into a deep crisis, that loses two-thirds of its companies, drastically reduces its production, misses the majority of its workers, and decreases its contribution to Spanish gross domestic product to less than half. At the same time, in 2015 less than a third of projects in the worldwide construction industry end without overruns and only a quarter do so on time. Both circumstances invite to research about how to acquire competencies in project management for involved agents in the construction processes, in order to improve their performance, avoiding their failure. Project scope is the first of success dimensions, due to its globalizing nature and predictive significance, as well as for its tactical importance against changes. In this context, ISO 21500 standard meets the ideal conditions to be used as reference to model a system for project scope management that improves the construction projects performance, by adopting measures to prevent scope creep, in any of variants. Through analysis and critique of literature, those characteristics related to scope management and those related to success that generate the greatest agreement are collected. Among pre-selected features, those considered by literature as critical success factors are compiled. Then, based on a questionnaire given to construction industry professionals in Spain, the degree of importance of each factor is calculated and, finally, a structural equation model is proposed, in which it is confirmed that projects scope management decisively influences organizations sustained success.