EVALUATION OF CONSTRUCTION COST AND TIME

ATTRIBUTES
T.M.S. Elhag and A.H. Boussabaine

School of Architecture and Building Engineering, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK

Understanding the influences of cost and duration attributes assists developing

reliable cost forecasting models and building successful construction projects. This
paper presents the findings of a questionnaire survey, which is commissioned to
evaluate and rank factors affecting cost and duration of construction projects. A total
of 67 effective variables were identified through literature review and interviews,
these factors were classified into six different categories. The study is focused on
quantity surveyors based in the UK. Statistical analysis is carried out to establish a
priority rating of the influencing factors. A detailed discussion of the outcomes
indicates a strong agreement between quantity surveyors in ranking the significant
variables. The results reveal that the category that contains consultant and design
parameters is ranked top followed by client characteristics. Whereas, the third and
forth ranks are occupied by project characteristics and external market conditions
respectively. On the other hand, the fifth group of factors includes contract procedures
and procurement methods, and finally contractor attributes occupy the bottom of the
list.

Keywords: concordance analysis, cost, severity index, time.

INTRODUCTION
Cost and time influencing factors have been extensively researched but form different
perspectives and views. Wide rages of effective variables were identified in the
literature. This study classified these factors into six main categories. The objective of
this paper is to assess and rank these categories according to their degree of influence
on time and cost of construction projects.
A questionnaire methodology was adopted to extract the views of an arbitrarily
selected sample of quantity surveyors in the UK. The questionnaire was sent to 118
UK quantity surveyors and 31% response rate was achieved. The paper describes
statistical analyses of the survey, which include severity index computations and
Kendall’s concordance test. The results indicate that there is a strong agreement
between quantity surveyors in ranking the main cost and time categories.

BACKGROUND LITERATURE
A great deal of research approached factors affecting cost and duration of construction
projects from different angles. Moselhi, et al. (1993) undertook a questionnaire survey
and identified thirty attributes which significantly affect project profitability in Canada
and USA.
Naoum (1994) conducted a comparison analysis of time and cost for management and
traditional contracting in the UK. A model was developed linking various project
performances with different characteristics of construction projects. Relationships

Elhag, T M S and Boussabaine, A H (1999) Evaluation of construction cost and time attributes. In:
Hughes, W (Ed.), 15th Annual ARCOM Conference, 15-17 September 1999, Liverpool John Moores
University. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Vol. 2, 473-80.
Elhag and Boussabaine

between procurement methods on one hand and type of client and project type, size,
complexity and cost on the other hand were concluded, in order to deliver better
project performance and success.
Nkado (1995) examined time-influencing factors in the UK. Through a questionnaire
survey and statistical analysis the research managed to prioritize 28 factors, which
affect duration of construction projects. A significant degree of consistency in ranking
the factors was found.
Causes of high costs of construction in Nigeria had been investigated by Okpala and
Aniekwu (1988). The study shows that 27 factors contribute to time and cost overruns.
A questionnaire survey was conducted which included engineers, architects and
quantity surveyors. The rankings of the influencing variables by the three professions
are found to be fairly similar, despite some differences in views held by each
profession.
Factors influencing construction time and cost overruns on high-rise projects in
Indonesia had been examined by Kaming, et al. (1997). Project managers were
consulted to assess the different variables. Using factor analysis techniques, the
variables affecting delay and cost overrun were successfully grouped into main
categories.
Assaf, et al. (1995) studied causes of delay in large building projects in Saudi Arabia.
A sample of 24 contractors, 15 architectural / engineering firms (A/Es) and 9 owners
was involved in the survey. Degrees of importance of 56 causes of delay were
evaluated. It was shown that contractors and A/Es substantially agree on ranking of
the delay factors, whereas owners and contractors, and owners and A/Es do not match.
It was also depicted that finance factors were ranked the highest by all three parties,
whereas environmental factors were ranked the lowest.
Kumaraswamy and Chan (1995) and Chan and Kumaraswamy (1995) probed a range
of construction duration determinants in Hong Kong. The research studied the
relationships between construction time on hand and floor area, number of stories,
productivity and standardization on the other hand.
Shash (1993) identified and evaluated 55 factors considered in tendering decisions by
top UK contractors. The results indicated that several factors are considered equally
significant for both bid / no bid and mark-up size decisions. Other factors were seen to
have considerable importance for one decision but not for the other.

METHODOLOGY
This study compiled the above mentioned literature survey and identified 67 factors
which affect cost and duration of construction projects. Furthermore, industrial
interviews were conducted to assist clustering these factors into main groups, 6
different categories emerged:

Category 1: Client characteristics

• Type of client (public / private / developer)
• Financial ability / payment record
• Project finance method /appropriate funding in place on time
• Partnering arrangements
• Priority on construction time / deadline requirements
• Experience of procuring construction

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• Client requirements on quality

• Certainty of project brief

Category 2: Consultant and design parameters

• Completeness and timeliness of project information (design, drawings,
specifications)
• Buildability of design
• Working relationships with client / contractors / other design team consultants
(previous / present)
• Variation orders and additional works (magnitude, timing, interference level)
• Quality of design and specifications
• Inspection, testing and approval of completed works (toughness / requirements)
• Submission of early proposals for costing / cost planning
• Absence of alterations and late changes to design (no ‘design-as-we-go’ on site
philosophy)

Category 3:Contractor attributes

• Management team (suitability, experience, performance)
• Management / labour relationships and confidence in work force
• Financial capability
• Experience on similar projects
• Current work load
• Level of communications within the contractor organization
• Estimation method and cost control technique (accuracy and reliability)
• Planning capability and level of resource deployment / utilization / optimization
• Productivity effects: (managerial, organizational, labour, technology)
• % of main contractor direct work and % of sub-contracted work
• Number of sub-contractors
• Mark up policies and % (general and project wise) (special or normal conditions
applied)
• Record of payments to sub-contractors
• Previous claims record i.e. assessment of ‘low tender’ – ‘high claims’ performance
• Present claims (size and quantity)
• Accidents on sites record
• Bond / warranty arrangements
• CDM regulations awareness

Category 4: Project characteristics

• Type / function (residential, commercial, industrial, offices)
• Size / gross floor area
• Height / no. of stories
• No. of basement levels
• Level of uncertainty of soil conditions
• Complexity
• Type of structures (steel, concrete, brick, timber, masonry)
• Location (regions / rural ; urban) (inner city / outskirts)
• Site conditions / site topography
• Construction method / technology

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• Type of foundations (pile / raft / pad / etc.)

• Off-site prefabrication
• Type of cladding and external walls (brick, double glazing, etc.)
• Access to site
• Intensity / complexity of building services
• Phasing requirements (areas to be handed over first or initial non-availability)
• Quality of finishing

Category 5: Contract procedures and procurement methods

• Type of contract / Use of standard form of contract
• Tender selection method (open, selected, negotiation, single or two stage, etc.)
• Payment modalities (fixed price, cost plus, BOT, PFI-DBFO, etc.)
• Method of procurement (traditional, design and build, project management, etc.)
• Spread of risk between construction parties (client / consultant / contractors)
• Claims and disputes resolution methods (litigation / arbitration / others)
• Interviewing of selected prospective contractors

Category 6: External factors and market conditions

• Material prices / availability / supply / quality / imports
• Labour costs / availability / supply / performance / productivity
• Plant costs / availability / supply / condition / performance
• Weather condition
• Government regulations/policies (health and safety, fire, CDM,... etc.)
• Level of competition and level of construction activity
• Number of bidders on competitive projects
• Interest rate / inflation rate
• Stability of market conditions
A questionnaire methodology was adopted to evaluate and rank these main clusters
according to their significance. The questionnaire survey was mailed to 118 quantity
surveyors in the UK, 31% response rate was achieved.

RANKING OF INFLUENCING FACTORS

A scale for rating each variable is used, where 1 = not significant, 2 = moderately
significant and 3 = highly significant. The Severity Index (S.I.) is obtained for each
factor as a measurement of its significance according to cost and duration of
3
100%
S .I . = (∑ wi * fi ) * ..............................................(1)
i =1 n
construction projects. It is illustrated by Equation 1 and Figure 1.
Where:
i = represent the ratings 1, 2, 3
fi = frequency of responses
n = total number of responses
wi = weight for each rating

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 Cost and time

0 w1=1/3 w2=2/3 w3=3/3

Figure 1: Rating weights

100
90 82
77 75
80 71 72
67
70
severity index %

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
category
Figure 2: Average severity indices

A comparison of average severity indices obtained by each category is portrayed in

Figure 2. The top ranked category is found to be consultant and design parameters
with an average severity index of 82%, followed by client characteristics with an S.I.
of 77%. Whereas the third and forth categories were found to be project characteristics
and market conditions, which scored 75% and 72% respectively. Contract procedure
and procurement method were ranked fifth with an average S.I. of 71%. On the other
hand, the contractor attributes group scored the least average severity index of 67%.
Detailed analysis of each group revealed the following findings:

Client characteristics
The top three highly ranked factors within this category are found to be: deadline
requirements; certainty of project brief; and client requirements on quality.

Consultant and design parameters

The respondents placed the absence of alterations and late changes to design as the
top-influencing factor in this group. The second rank is shared by two factors namely:
the variation orders and additional works variable and the completeness and timeliness
of project information.

Contractor attributes
The performance of the management team is seen as the most important factor in this
category. The contractor previous experience on similar projects occupied the second
rank; followed by the planning capability and level of resource deployment.

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Elhag and Boussabaine

Project characteristics
The intensity and complexity of building services is the highly ranked variable in this
group; followed by the number of basement levels in the project. Whereas, the level of
uncertainty of soil conditions comes as the third ranking factor.

Contract procedure and procurement method

The first ranked factor within this category is perceived as the method of procurement,
which include the options of traditional contracting, design and build, project
management, etc. The tender selection method is the second ranked variable; followed
by risk allocation among construction parties (client, consultant and contractor).

External factors and market conditions

The level of competition and level of construction activity is believed to be the highly
important factor in this group. Material prices and availability captured the second
position; and on the third rank is labour costs and productivity.

Overall Ranking
An alternative statistical analysis is carried out to evaluate the degree of influence of
the whole 67 cost and time variables without considering the categorization process,
which is described earlier. The outcomes of this analysis unveil that the top ten highly
effective factors are selected, according to their influence, as follows:
1. Absence of alterations and late changes to design
2. Experience and performance of management team
3. Deadline requirements
4. Variation orders and additional work
5. Completeness and timeliness of project information
6. Intensity and complexity of building services
7. Quality of design and specifications
8. Overall building complexity
9. Level of competition and level of construction activity
10. Certainty of project brief
MEASURING QUANTITY SURVEYORS CONCORDANCE
Kendall’s concordance test provides a measure of the agreement between the quantity
surveyors for their judgements on each category of factors. Kendall’s coefficient of
concordance (w) ranges between ‘0’ and ‘1’, with ‘0’ indicating no agreement and ‘1’
designating perfect concordance. It is illustrated by Equation 2 as follows (Siegel
1988):
12 * s
w = .......... .......... .......... .......... ...( 2 )
k * n * ( n 2 − 1)
2

Where:
s = sum of squares of deviations of factors
k = number of quantity surveyor groups
n = number of factors in each category
In order to undertake Kendall’s concordance test the quantity surveyor responses were
divided arbitrarily into three different groups. Accordingly, the six different categories
of cost and time determinants were then ranked separately for each group of quantity

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Table 1: Kendall’s Concordance Analysis Using SPSS

Degree of Kendall’s
Category ID Chi-square Significance
freedom Coefficient
Category 1 7 19.8889 0.9471 0.0058
Category 2 7 19.6734 0.9368 0.0063
Category 3 17 48.3423 0.9479 0.0001
Category 4 16 42.5310 0.8861 0.0003
Category 5 6 15.7952 0.8775 0.0149
Category 6 8 23.4667 0.9778 0.0028

surveyors. SPSS software was used to carry out Kendall’s concordance test. Table 1
depicts the statistical findings of these analyses.
It is shown that those values of Kendall’s coefficient (w) ranges between 0.88 and
0.98 for the six categories. These high values of Kendall’s coefficient indicate strong
agreement between quantity surveyors on ranking these categories of factors affecting
cost and duration of construction projects.
The values of significance level are computed between 0.0149 and 0.0001. These
values indicate that, the null hypothesis: there is no agreement between quantity
surveyors, has to be rejected (p < 0.05). The alternative hypothesis that, there is a
significant agreement between quantity surveyors, is acceptable with confidence limit
p > 95%.

CONCLUSIONS
This study consulted 118 UK-based quantity surveyors via a questionnaire survey.
The main objective was to evaluate and rank cost-influencing factors of construction
projects. Sixty-seven variables affecting construction cost were identified through
literature and interviews. These factors were grouped into six different categories.
Statistical analysis revealed that a strong agreement between quantity surveyors
existed. This was proven by high Kendall’s coefficients of concordance achieved
within each category.
The average severity index computed for each category ranged between 82% and
67%. This result prevailed that there is no significant variation in the ranking of each
group. However, the category contains consultant and design parameters was ranked
top followed by client characteristics. Whereas, the third and forth ranks were
occupied by project characteristics and external market conditions respectively. On
the other hand, the fifth group of factors included contract procedures and
procurement methods. The contractor attributes group scoring the least index occupied
the bottom of the list.
This study represents a foundation stage for a future research aiming to develop tender
price estimation models, which utilize the cost and time attributes evaluated in this
paper.

REFERENCES
Assaf, S., Al-Khalil, M., and Al-Hazmi, M. (1995) Causes of delay in large building
construction projects. Journal of Management in Engineering, ASCE. 11(2), 45–50.
Chan, D., and Kumaraswamy, M. (1995 b) A study of the factors affecting construction
durations in Hong Kong. Construction Management and Economics. 13: 319–333.

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Kaming, P., Olomolaiye, P., Holt, G., and Harris, F. (1997) Factors influencing construction
time and cost overruns on high-rise projects in Indonesia. Construction Management
and Economics. 15: 83–94.
Kumaraswamy, M., and Chan, D. (1995) Determinants of construction duration. Construction
Management and Economics. 13: 209–217.
Moselhi, M., Hegazy, T., and Fazio, P. (1993) DBID: analogy-based DSS for bidding in
construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE. 119(3),
466–479.
Naoum, S. G. (1994) Critical analysis of time and cost of management and traditional
contracts. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE. 120(4),
687–705.
Nkado, R. N. (1995) Construction time-influencing factors: the contractor’s perspective.
Construction Management and Economics. 13: 81–89.
Okpala, D. C., and Aniekwu, A. N. (1988) Causes of high costs of construction in Nigeria.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE. 114(2), 233–244.
Shash, A. (1993) Factors considered in tendering decisions by top UK contractors.
Construction Management and Economics. 11: 111–118.
Siegel, S., and Castellan, N.J. (1988) Non-parametric statistics for the behavioural sciences
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