The failure of construction projects could be attributed to several challenges that emerged during the construction process. Nine major challenges were uncovered from the literature: resource allocation, time, cost, quality, safety, project complexity, changes, uncertainties, and communication. A survey was carried out among professionals having a minimum of 10 years of experience in the construction industry to identify the occurrence and severity of these challenges. A total of 117 responses were analyzed and plotted on a risk matrix. The mean values indicated that time, cost, and quality are the top three challenges faced in construction projects, while the risk matrix revealed that all challenges are high-risk challenges. Thus, the professionals should consider suitable measures to address these challenges for improving a project’s performance.

Globally construction works are suffering from several challenges. One of the major challenges is changes during execution of the construction work. Changes exert several negative impacts on the project performance. For effective project performance, it is necessary to understand the effects of changes. Hence, this study investigated various effects of changes occurring in construction project. Investigation was carried out quantitatively through questionnaire survey based on effect variables identified from review of literature. It involved three categories as time overrun, cost overrun and quality measured with 48 variables. 100 questionnaire sets collected against 218 questionnaire forms distributed among the practitioners were analysed statistically. From analysis results, it was found that cost overrun is major effect of changes followed by quality and time overrun. Delay in completion schedule, slower project progress and dispute between owner and contractor are reported as major drivers of time overrun. Top three variables of cost overrun in cost overrun are increase the cost of the projects, interrupted cash flow and additional money for contractor. While, major drivers of the quality in construction projects are rework of bad quality performance, changes in materials specifications and changes in material types & specifications during construction. These findings will be helpful for the practitioners in achieving project performance.