Abstract
Organisations in the construction industry are frequently faced with the challenges of not achieving the set targets with reference to late project completions, exceeding the budget and undesirable quality of work due to poor workmanship. By including postmortems as best practice, organizations are likely to mature as they can make considered decisions and further enhance the management of future projects. The purpose of this research is to identify the key factors of effective and successful project post mortems that organisations in the construction industry can implement in management of future projects. The research further aims to identify the benefits these organisations can gain from the project post-mortems. The research scope is limited to organisations executing construction projects in Gauteng, South Africa. This research adopted a quantitative research approach using a structured closeended questionnaire as a data source. The target population of the research was 150 consisting of various stakeholders with experience in the construction projects such as project managers, construction managers, project engineers, construction supervisors. The 93 research sample participants for the questionnaire were randomly selected through the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) database. The research quantitative data was collected and analysed using an online Google Form survey tool. Cronbach’s coefficient was used to measure the internal consistency of the research questionnaire. Chapter 4 discussed the analysis of the information obtained from the research questionnaire which included identification of the key factors and benefits of successful and effective project post mortems. The key factors were broken down into two categories, People aspects and Systems aspects. The research results suggest that though project mortem is a beneficial tool for organisations to review their projects, there is challenge with the clear procedures on how to conduct project review meetings or workshops and a lack of drive or instruments to employ lessons learned from past experiences.
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)