Effective Framework for Change Order Management Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Abstract

Construction projects are of very complex nature and come along with an intrinsic butundesirable property of change orders. The purpose of this paper is to propose an effectiveframework for the change order management in the construction industry. This is achieved byinvestigating and identifying various causes of change orders and their impact on projectobjectives like project duration, cost, and quality. The data for this project were gathered byconducting a survey among the professionals like owners, project management consultants,design/supervision consultants and contractors in construction industry. The survey respondentswere requested to provide feedback on the impact of change orders on project duration, cost andquality. Initially, the data collected from 105 professionals was analyzed through RelativeImportance Index (RII). Furthermore, multiple objective decision technique of AnalyticalHierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to rank the causes of change orders according to theirimpact on project duration, cost and quality considered collectively. According to AHP, the topthree causes of change orders with highest cumulative impact on project duration, cost andquality were, “Change in specifications by the owner”, “Change of plans or scope by theowner”, and “Poor project planning by the contractor”. This paper also suggests improvementsfor the existing change order management processes and ranks these suggestions according totheir role in reducing impact on project duration, cost and quality. The proposed framework canbe adjusted to suit individual construction projects with different relative importance of projectobjectives.