Cumulative cost spent on construction projects of different sectors

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to analyse and evaluate the course of various construction projects and to compare the planned, incurred and actual costs. Moreover, the authors aim to indicate the basic causes of cost deviations from the earned values, i.e., those that were really performed on a construction site. The data on the development of the original research methodology come from the authors' own experience and professional work involving the providing of Bank Investment Supervision services in the years 2006-2019 on behalf of banks granting investment loans for non-public contracts. The authors of the article collected and processed cost data by conducting monthly direct technical and financial inspections at construction sites of implemented investments. The measurement of the cost and budget of investment tasks was documented in 536 technical and financial reports. A database was built in the form of tables that were prepared for the purpose of value and cumulative analyses of the cost and time of 40 construction projects measured in a monthly cycle from 8 different investment sectors. On their basis, charts of planned / estimated, invoiced / incurred, and actual / earned values of the cumulative costs of the examined construction projects were prepared. The elaborated levels of the amounts of construction that works to be executed were determined using the S-curve. The selected, planned, incurred and actual cost graphs in homogeneous groups, and also earned cost graphs in a diverse group were presented. The conducted studies, which are briefly presented in the article, relate to various construction projects concerning 8 typological research samples. Analyses were carried out in accordance with the methodology of the Earned Value Method (EVM), which enables the actual achieved budgets of various investment tasks to be assessed. Analogies in the arrangement of cumulative cash flow curves were observed within the same groups of buildings, and also between them. Such information is fundamental in terms of controlling and predicting of cost and schedule performances within homogeneous construction sectors. Planning diverse investments budget and timeframe the executives may foresee in measurable way the most probable spend of actual and earned values of managed projects. They can estimate the range of cost and schedule overrun at the construction project completion and set up mitigation actions to minimise the risks of such overrunning.