Accurate project progress measurement is critical for effective project management.\nBesides guarantying smooth work progress, it affords project managers\nthe chance to identify early warning signs for peremptory remedial actions\nto keep the project on schedule and to budget. However, pertinent barriers\ncan suppress the realization of the benefits of an accurate assessment of\nconstruction progress. This study aims to identify, examine and prioritize the\ncritical barriers militating against accurate project progress measurement in\nthe Ghanaian construction industry. Sixteen barriers identified from the literature\nwere administered in a questionnaire survey to professionals with tier\none construction firms and consultants. Sixty experienced construction professionals\npractising with tier-one construction firms and consultancy services\ntook part in the survey. The relative importance index technique was used\nto rank the factors and correlation in responses of the two parties tested by\nthe Mann-Whitney U statistics. The most critical barriers perceived by the\nprofessionals were 1) Reliance on Supervisorâ??s Judgement, 2) Generic and\nNon-Systematic Approach, 3) Variable Quality of Data and 4) Intricate Measurement\nReports. Other highly ranked barriers include 5) Lack of Timely\nInformation, 6) Laborious Data Gathering and 7) Quality Integration Constraint.\nThe findings underpin the need to minimize dependence on subjective\nopinions and mere experiences of supervisors for assessment of project\nprogress in this age of information technology. Incorporation of a level of\nautomation into traditional progress methods will not only reduce human\nerrors introduced into manually collected data but facilitate visualization of\nprogress reports. Contiguous to a clear specification of the method of progress\nmeasurement in the contract document, a system that conveniently integrates\ncost, time and scope of work into progress measurement must be pursued.\nAddressing these identified critical barriers will consolidate current construction\nprogress management practices.
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