The Efficacy of Innovative Project Management Tools in Mitigating Risks and Uncertainty in the Project Delivery Process

¹ Department of Construction Economics and Management, University of Cape Town, South Africa
² School of Engineering, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom

^* e-mail: abimbola.windapo@uct.ac.za

Abstract

The project delivery process is vulnerable to the contractual relations, roles and responsibilities of clients, contractors and consultants. Scholars view that construction projects are vulnerable to risks and uncertainty when project management fails to integrate stakeholders’ interests and resolve the tension between the stakeholders’ power expectations. This study examines the nature of project risks and uncertainty and the effectiveness of an innovative project management tool (the SAP_PPM system) in mitigating risks and uncertainty in the project delivery process. This study adopts a qualitative research approach that interviews project managers in South Africa to obtain the data to address the study problem. The study found that the failure of projects occurred when project risk and uncertainty resulted in litigation, stakeholders dissatisfaction and project delay. An emergent theory was identified, substantively explaining that using the SAP-PPM system in the project delivery process mitigates project risk and uncertainty because of its usefulness for resource allocation, priority setting, and timely project performance monitoring. Therefore, the study recommends using SAP-PPM to enhance the opportunities and strengths of the project delivery process.