A Proposed Projects' Overrun Management Protocol Using Projects Classification Matrix

Abstract

The impact of project delays is usually intolerable and difficult to recover from. A significant number of projects don't finish on time or aren't completed up to the specified quality and are subject to cost and time overruns. Public projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) claimed losses of the order of $ 40 Billion per annum as a result of project overruns and many were delivered below quality standards. A proposed solution involving eight stages was developed in order to tackle most of the project delay issues that were determined by the author and accordingly ranked based on severity and frequency. These stages have detailed processes with control gates so that these projects will be moved steadily meeting all requirements at each entry gate. The eight stages are; the proposal stage, preliminary review & investigation stage, validation stage, classification stage, consultation-a stage, consultation-b stage, kickoff stage, and finally handover/takeover stage. All selected projects will be gathered at the proposal stage and then will be preliminarily reviewed before they move to the stage of validation. In the validation stage, the unnecessary projects will be postponed or canceled by the higher authority of projects which is proposed to be created. The classification stage is a very critical stage where all filtered projects will be classified based on eleven criteria. A scoring method was developed with respect to these criteria. Accordingly each project gets a proper parachuting so that the consultation-A phase would confirm the project's adequacy, readiness, and the availability of all related documents and studies. The Consultation-B stage's role is to link the top country's vision "2030", objectives, and targets. Accordingly, the higher consultants committee will assure the compliance of the government strategy of in-house sourcing plan, technology transfers and national recruiting "Saudization". The last two stages are the "kick-off and the takeover" which will be referred to the contract management, final project review, and proper closing process. The project classification matrix was used as an effective tool for many projects classification in KSA. The paper classified "King Abdullah Stadium" in KSA-2014 Category-A with a score of 44 out 55 which accordingly is subject to the highest project management level of control. The ultimate goal of this new project management protocol is to establish a higher projects authority to assure the implementation of 2030 strategy with special guidance and support with respect to the main project delay factors on the major infrastructural projects. 1