This is a very important question, especially when the budget is tight. I am currently working on an article for the next edition of BuildingToday Magazine on this topic. While reading up on the topic I went into 4 research papers from 3 different Kenyan Universities. The specific projects looked at varied from road projects, to housing estates and Ministry of Works Projects. The Papers were done between 2012 – 2016. But the findings were very similar and confirm what I found in my own PM practice:
- Professional Project Management improves outcome of projects. Projects are delivered with significantly less overrun on schedule and cost, while ensuring that scope and quality are met
- Projects run by project managers had less interference by stakeholders
- Projects run by project managers had happier stakeholders due to better communication and reporting
- Risk mitigation was clearly improved and risks were less costly.
These are just the top shared findings, we could extract much more should we go into more detail. However I think these are already enough strong points for the case. Even in Kenya Construction Projects will fail less often and will usually save money if you involve a professional project manager. If budget is very important to you, then you should hire a professional Construction Project Manager, who is experienced and has a proven track record.
Should you decide against it, you will have to face the consequences, which include significant cost and schedule overruns and possibly poor quality work.
I believe the project managers and construction managers in Kenya should use this as a basis to keep spreading the gospel of project management and it’s benefits. An Architect or Quantity Surveyor might have the skills, but they do have extensive other responsibilities and hence are not effective in project management, since they simply do not have the time.
Look for the BuildingToday Magazine published by the Association of Construction Managers of Kenya (ACMK) coming out in September, for the full article.