Shortening the execution time in projects: a state-of-the-art survey

Abstract

In the construction world, today s intense market dynamics force project owners to require faster construction times, without compromising the quality or increasing the costs. This situation has created a need for replacing the old traditional methods of construction and introducing effective tools and practices that can help to achieve a substantial reduction in the project cycle time. The subject of project schedule compression has been hovered around for some time now in the academic literature, but it is still a scattered subject in which many terms and concepts may be understood differently depending on one s point of view. The research presented in this thesis surveyed the academic literature to identify tools and practices currently used to reduce the overall project cycle time. Three important academic Project Management journals were particularly reviewed and analyzed to determine the state-of-the-art regarding techniques and methods of schedule compression. This research also identified the most common factors affecting construction projects in terms of time. This thesis concludes that the first step towards revolutionizing the construction world implies finding a common ground where all the concepts and practices are understood in the same way by everyone. Then, the subject of reducing the project cycle time should be raised as an optimization in which the objective is to find a balanced solution taking into consideration the particular characteristics and the context of each project. This report can be used both as preparatory work to open up new research paths on the subject and also as a guide for practitioners looking for ways to improve project performance.