Using agile in construction projects: It’s more than a methodology Milind Padalkar Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Kerala, India Saji Gopinath Bennett University, NOIDA, UP, India
[email protected] Abhilash Kumar UL Technology Solutions Ltd., Trivandrum, Kerala, India Abstract Agile methods have been successful in information technology projects. Can they lead to superior performance in construction projects under high uncertainty? From case study of a high performance construction company, we find that agile methods succeed when supplemented by high levels of trust, vertical communication, empowerment, and ethical values. Keywords: Agile methods, Construction industry, Organizational trust, Values INTRODUCTION Despite several decades of practice experience and research attention, project performance remains far from satisfactory. According to a recent Standish Group survey report, 61 per cent of information technology projects either failed or were challenged to meet success criteria; and 74 per cent faced schedule overruns (Standish, 2013). Zwikael and Globerson (2006) survey project managers from several industries and report that despite much discussion in practitioner literature about critical success factors, the failure rate of projects remains high, with average schedule overrun of 32 per cent and average cost overrun of 25 per cent. Another study finds that 40 to 200 per cent schedule overrun is normal in information technology projects (Lyneis et al. 2001). Multiple studies link failures in information systems projects to an inability to foresee and manage uncertainty in project contexts such as user involvement, stakeholder communication; or process risks such as weak estimates, requirements analysis (Yeo, 2002, p. 245; Nelson, 2008, p. 70-71; Chua, 2009, p.