Critical success factors towards collaborative construction project relationship in traditional delivery system

Traditional construction project delivery system has been characterized by inadequate collaboration among project teams, with low productivity, cost and time overrun, low quality and conflicts consequences. Therefore, the main object of this study was to establish the critical success factors towards improved project collaborative relationship. Literature review on generic factors for successful collaboration relationship in the project delivery process was conducted to collect secondary data. While structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data to establish the opinion of stakeholders on critical success factors for maintaining a collaborative relationship on a construction site. Respondents of these structured questionnaires were drawn from country wide Council Engineers, Consultants and Contractors based in Dar es Salaam. Sixty Six (66) questionnaires were distributed to Council Engineers, while Consultants and Contractors were given 50 questionnaires each. The response rate was 58% for engineers, 62% for Consultants and 68% for Contractors, which is equivalent to overall response rate of 62%. Weighted average score was used to rate and rank opinion from stakeholders. Commitment, effective communication, efficient coordination, prompt problem solving and mutual trust are regarded as the most important factors towards establishing and maintaining a collaborative relationship in a construction project. Further, respondents opinionated that all times, project teams should operate in transparent manner, fairly share risks and entrust each other with evaluation and self-control.