Abstract
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)
One of the major challenges facing many Engineering companies today is the lack of
sufficient resources to staff all projects concurrently. The objective of this study is to
understand the challenges on engineering projects due to the lack of resources. The aim is to
assess the problem in South Africa and develop a suitable strategy and action, to manage
the challenge of limited Engineering resources. This dissertation will be limited to researching
the challenges facing Civil Engineering projects due to the lack engineering resources in
South Africa.
All projects require human resources because they play an important role in any project.
These resources may contribute to either a projects success or failure. Therefore having the
correct people for the project is extremely important. Projects compete against each other for
resources, and this result in Engineers assigned to several projects at the same time.
The most common and widely experienced challenge on a project is insufficient team skills.
Organisations should consider outsourcing of work versus in-house; leadership’s skills;
human management and skills management, to ensure project success when it comes to
skilled resources.
The main findings of this research study revealed that the highest impact on a projects
success is to comply with the planned budget, time frame and performance criteria. This is
followed by having competent project team members. Other factors for a projects success
included having clearly defined goals, directions, roles and responsibilities. Further
improvements from various organisations (viz. Government, Companies and Universities) are
also required for a project to succeed.