Critical success factors for LSTK projects: The contractors' perspective

The construction industry is the second largest industry in Saudi Arabia, contributing to the development of the country where a trillion of dollars is being spent on diverse types of projects. Most of these projects are executed by contractors on the basis of Lump Sum Turnkey (LSTK) projects. While providing an acceptable quality, a construction contractor working on the basis on LSTK project is expected to work within limited time and budget. The objectives of this paper are to identify and assess the criticality level of the success factors of construction projects. The authors conducted a series of interviews with a selected sample of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors; and conducted a review of literature on the success factors of construction projects. Twenty six success factors were identified. A questionnaire survey was developed and administered to a sample of twenty five EPC contractors to assess the criticality level of each of the identified project success factors. The critical index value as well as the rank of each factor were determined. The findings of the study will be of practical use for EPC contractors to focus on the most critical skills so as they would be able to complete their project more successfully.