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Alotaibi, A B (2019) Project management: the implication of project management practices on project success in Saudi Arabia, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Operations and Systems Management, University of Portsmouth.

  • Type: Thesis
  • Keywords: communication; contracting; developing country; infrastructure; interview; project management; project success; Saudi Arabia
  • ISBN/ISSN:
  • URL: https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/project-management(826cd86b-a89e-43fb-b916-289137ba9148).html
  • Abstract:
    Saudi Arabia is a developing country which is trying to build a diverse and sustainable economy. Construction, including new infrastructure, is a growth sector in which project management practices are still relatively new and only beginning to be used. The literature indicates that full adoption of practices and techniques is likely to save contractors both time and money as well as reducing the number of project failures. To find out which PM practices are currently being used in Saudi Arabia and their effect on perceived project success, the large-scale contracting companies (Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3) in the Riyadh area were approached with a request to be able to survey and interview some of the more experienced PMs. This was a two-phase study, phase one was a qualitative survey consisting of interviews with twelve PMs from grade 1 and grade 2 contractors, and phase two was a quantitative survey consisting of a questionnaire completed by 276 PMs from grade 1, 2, and 3 contractors. These were analysed using statistical methods where appropriate, and by using thematic analysis. The research questions had led to several hypotheses which were tested using the results of this analysis. The first two hypotheses were regarding what factors affected the self-reported use of Project Management Practices by PMs, and it was found that the experience of PMs and the size of the project both affected this issue. The remaining hypotheses were connected to the perceived success of the projects from the use of Project Management Practices, and these were also proved by the results. The study has concluded that, although there are a variety of reasons for cost overrun and project failure, the acceptance and use of Project Management Practices should improve perceived project success, reduce project failures and generally improve the industry. Specifically, the report discovered that ethnicity and other variations of language or place of origin had no direct effect on project success, although the lack of lingua franca does sometime lead to communication difficulties among the general employees.