Using issue logs to improve construction project performance

Abstract

PurposeThe Project Management Body of Knowledge recommends the use of issue logs as a best practice to minimize the potential project cost and schedule growth. Although the broader topic of project control has been widely studied in the construction literature, the specific application of issue logs has remained relatively understudied. This study aims to analyze the extent and consistency with which construction teams utilize issue logs and the corresponding project performance outcomes.Design/methodology/approachA dataset of 5,635 individual issues was gathered from the final issue logs of 881 small building projects delivered via the design–bid–build method. Differences between groups were determined using the Kruskal–Wallis H test with post hoc testing via the Mann–Whitney U test with pairwise comparison.FindingsThe results showed that, on average, project teams who used issue logs to a greater extent achieved a 3.1 to 4.3% reduction in cost growth and a 5.3 to 12.3% reduction in schedule growth. This result shows that issue logs can be used to improve construction project performance in the areas of cost and schedule.Originality/valueThis result provides a contribution to practitioners, wherein project teams should be encouraged to establish their issue management practices early in the project schedule to encourage greater issue log usage for the remainder of the project.

Benchmarking lean construction conformance in Pakistan’s construction industry

“…Bajjou and Chafi (2022) utilized Kruskal–Wallis tests for non-parametric analysis, specifically to examine the difference between two groups. Similarly, other researchers, including Shalwani and Lines (2022) and Kuoribo et al. (2023), extensively utilized the Kruskal–Wallis test for non-parametric data.…”

Developing a Reference Framework for Claim Management Office: A Multi-Method Approach of an International Construction Firm

“…(1) considering the rejected requests of project issue management-Shalwani and Lines [25] proffer that issue management (as a project control technique) as a solution for mitigating project challenges by using the issue log during execution for the remainder of the project; and (2) considering organisational project/program management [70,71]. In addition, some scholars [72,73] claim that process improvement of organisational ambidexterity is critical to understanding its conflicting aims and contradictory variations.…”

“…Due to this difference, the CMO functions must be separated from the project management office (PMO) and other organisational-related units. CMO-related functions (i.e., dispute resolution and organisational ambidexterity management) have thus received specific attention in the project management discipline [23][24][25][26][27]. Understanding the CMO-related organisational ambidexterity helps a construction company to improve its performance [28,29], particularly when managing conflicts and ambidexterity [30,31].…”

Materials Science at Beihang: A Special Issue of Materials Lab Dedicated to the 70th Anniversary of Beihang University

“…However, seldom of existing researches have put effort into extracting design rationales from issue logs in open-source communities. As a primary channel for developers to post and resolve issues, open-source communities usually contain rich design knowledge that may be immensely helpful during project development and maintenance [23]. Besides, although several existing studies have reconstructed the so-called "design rationale", the underlying arguments (i.e., how and why a design decision is made) behind rationales are easily ignored [22].…”