Determining Critical Project Success Criteria for Public Housing Building Projects (PHBPS) in Ghana

Abstract

Successive Public Housing Building Project (PHBP) attempts have been unsuccessful due to a number of reasons. Among these is the lack of clearly defined success criteria which guides and measures PHBP success from inception to closure. The adoption and application of project management practice and project success criteria is to deliver projects successfully, attain enhanced output, develop framework to help track key project results and to enable the appropriate allocation of resources. This paper aimed to establish critical success criteria for PHBPs in Ghana. A questionnaire survey was employed to elicit the views of experienced professionals on 13 project success criteria identified from literature. Mean score analysis and factor analysis were conducted on the data collected. The results showed that PHBP practitioners perceive ‘cost of individual houses’ and ‘extensive use of local materials’ as the most critical success criteria with ‘risk containment’ emerging as the least critical criteria. It also revealed the following as the major underlysing factors for critical project success criteria for public housing projects in Ghana;‘Time, Cost and Quality Management’, ‘Satisfaction, Health and Environmental Safety’, ‘User Affordability and Design Consideration’ and ‘Cost of Individual Units and Technology’. These two findings are essential for developing a framework which will enable project managers involved in PHBPs in Ghana to channel appropriate efforts and behaviours towards ensuring the attainment of success on their projects.