A proposal of project management practices in public institutions through a comparative analyses of critical path method and critical chain

Abstract

The term “Project Management Practice” is construed in several ways. For this research, we comply with the project management use of tools and techniques on project’s time and cost (Crawford 2005; Olateju et al. 2011; Abassi and Al-Mharmah 2000). Project scheduling still is based on the traditional methods of critical path method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique for the majority of contractors and public institutions. The aim of this work is to critically highlight the reasons under which the use of the Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is indispensable for scheduling and monitoring public works by public institutions in Greece. In particular, the conclusions of this study are very important for public institutions that don’t implement modern project management practices, tools and techniques. The methodology is exemplified by the analysis of 27 infrastructure projects. The contracts include 300 km of motorway, 46 km of road tunnels and 20 km of bridges constructed for the Egnatia Motorway in Northern Greece from 2002 to 2012. The results confirms that CCPM can perform better than the traditional method of CPM by achieving less construction time combined with accurate resource levelling in the early stages. The aforementioned procedure results in reduced indirect costs due to project's time reduction and reduced direct costs due to better resource allocation (ensuring “on time” availability of resources). As a conclusion, better financial planning is ensured for both the contracting parties i.e. the contractors and the public institutions. It should be noted that in literature the case studies are rare with very small sample size.