PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF 40/60 HOUSING PROJECT IN ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

Quality management advances over the years through an evolution, which is influenced by the method of management of organizations. Quality is a key factor in any product or industry, in order to implement quality to any type of product or service it is important to employ the best quality management practices. Hence the aim of this study was to assess the project quality management practices and challenges of 40/60 housing projects that were active and under construction during the study. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the current knowledge and there were a gap of knowledge in the area which studies the quality management aspects of the 40/60 housing projects in the implementers’ perspectives. And five factors that were expected to have influence on the project quality management performance were selected (i.e. regular budget update, commitment of all participant, top management support, availability of trained resources and communication between project implementers). The study was conducted using a mixed method approach and convergent parallel mixed method design was employed to answer the research questions. Practices and challenges of project quality management and the level of implementation of the selected five factors were assessed and there were lack of adequate resource management, lack of continuous improvement, weak coordination with supplier, lack of quality management information between different sections of the project. From the selected factors that adversely affected the quality performances of projects were; the level of implementation of regular budget update (2.04), commitment of all participants (2.06), top management support (2.07), and availability of trained resources (2.11) which were below average level of implementation. Even though the effect of employing regular budget update, top management support, availability of trained resources, commitment form participants was believed to influence the project outcome positively, it is weakly implemented. Recommendations were made for 40/60 housing project implementers to ensure implementation of resource management, implementation of quality improvement tools and techniques such as check sheet and control charts to control the performance and improve regularly, budget management, to establish strong coordination with supplier, provide training for employees and implement top management support during the project implementation.