Improving Quality of Construction Projects in Governmental Contracting Companies – Views of Project Managers at Ministry of Construction and Housing

Abstract

Quality assurance as a cultural standing point and economic role become more essential in the view of the new activation of the Iraqi Construction Sector. A comprehensive view of local factors must be considered side by side with the international development issues. This paper discusses the results of obtaining construction managers consensus opinion on factors to improve quality in the construction projects of governmental contracting companies. With the aid of Nominal Group Technique a consensus opinion of 100 construction managers in the Ministry of Construction and Housing is obtained on 25 factors sudjested by them to improve quality on their projects together with the relative importance of each factor. A Pareto analysis is carried out to show the weight of contribution of each factor and it was found that basic wages and quality related incentives together with obligations and delegations to construction project managers are the most important factors. The factors that have the same source of problems were also combined and categorized into five areas where it was found that satisfaction and quality knowledge together with instructions and procedures are the most critical areas. These findings are compatible with the new philosophy of total quality management.