Hybrid Project Management Concepts for Handling weakness of Traditional Project Management; (Case Study in Addis Ababa construction projects)

Abstract

The success of any construction project is achieved through the application of knowledge-based project management. In our Country, the commonly adapted project management approach is Traditional project management. To carry out large and complex construction projects with appropriate Project management and to reduce the challenges posed by traditional project management methods, it is important to apply modern hybrid project management techniques, using the best practices of agile and lean project management methods in the construction industry. Therefore, this study aims to determine the perception of experts and validate a hybrid project management concept for handling the weakness of Traditional Project Management in Construction Projects. The research study area was on selected construction projects and organizations in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. To achieve the objectives of this research expertise was selected from, the three main construction stakeholders, selected building and general Contractors, public clients and Consultants. The sampling technique adopted for the study was the purposive sampling technique. The research was descriptive research type where a quantitative research approach was used. The data for research was gathered from both primary and secondary data. For the primary data, a survey method of the structured questionnaire was distributed both online and offline. An intensive literature review, of books, journals, and websites was conducted for secondary data sources. Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were used in the data analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the Personal characteristics of the Respondent, to assess the level of awareness of modern project management, to determine the weakness of Traditional project management and agreement of respondent on Hybrid Project Management. The inferential statistics were used to compare the level of acceptance of the hybrid project management concept based on the sample mean. The finding shows that, majority of experts, in the construction industry, have an awareness of modern project management. Among the total respondents 80.9% are familiar with modern management methodologies. From total of respondents, 85.5% of organization started using Lean principles. More than 70% of respondent rated agreed Ineffective Communication, Rigidity (Inflexibility), Not Learning from Experience, High Wastage, and Lack of coordination and Need More Time/slow are on the major weakness of TPM. Also the proposed hybrid concepts have gained an average mean rating of less than 2.6 (Linkert scale range for Strongly Agree to Agree). And this shows that all respondents agreed on the proposed hybrid project management concept for handling the weakness of traditional project management. This study will used as a reference for further studies on modern project management in the Ethiopian construction industry.