Project Management Practice in Groundwater Construction Project in Ghana

Abstract

The implementation of good project management practice effectively, is a way of improving future projects especially in groundwater construction projects. The lack of good project management principles may cause project delays, and higher costs. A fundamental principle of project management is that any project, regardless of its size or type, consists of three components: scope, budget, and schedule. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and examine how project Management practice in groundwater construction projects in Ghana. The research focuses on the issues of management practice in groundwater construction projects in order to recommend ways of improving management practices. The data were collected through a questionnaire survey sent to the managers, consultants and client’s representative who had been involved in the construction of groundwater projects in Ghana. The survey covered the project management lifecycle: project initiation, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling the closing/evaluating processes of the project. The result of the data analysis reveals that: all three groups (managers, consultant and clients representative) generally agreed that most of the problems in the groundwater construction projects are human and management related. Furthermore, the results indicated that most of the projects did not have project management processes and procedures. The paper concludes with recommendations that the scope of the project is defined and a project management plan is developed be taken in the early stages (conceptual and planning, and evaluating phases) of the groundwater construction projects.