Abstract
The National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (NDPWI) has the mandate from parliament to provide accommodation (buildings) and other infrastructure to some public service departments (clients). These clients include the South African Police Services (SAPS), Department of Defence (DOD), Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ & CD), Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and Department of Home Affairs (DHA). However, it has been observed that considerable time is expended between project briefing and actual delivery of the infrastructure, resulting in time and cost overruns. Therefore, it has become necessary to evaluate the current project delivery process, with a view to identifying the causes of delay and proffer solutions on how to improve project delivery within the iron triangle of cost, time and quality, as well as to improve on customers’ satisfaction. A multiple site case study method of qualitative research was adopted. The Delphi technique, a method of consensus building, was used for data collection and analysis. The data are collected in iterative processes and distil the judgments of participants using a series of questionnaires interspersed with feedback. The participants, commonly referred to as experts or knowledgeable persons, are purposively selected within predetermined qualification criteria. The participants for this research were officers at the strategic and tactical levels of leadership, not lower than the rank of Engineer or Architect and must have spent at least five years in the respective office. Seventeen (17) participants who met the pre-qualification criteria where drawn from three zonal office of the NDPWI in Kimberley, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein as well as the Professional Services division in the Head office. The Focus group (FG) session was used to complement the results from the Delphi exercise. Eight (8) participants, among those who participated in the Delphi exercise, accepted the invitation to take part in the FG. First, they validated the findings from the Delphi exercise, x-ray the root causes to the problems identified and develops practical solutions...
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)