Challenges faced by project managers towards mitigating project failures in relocation of underserved settlements

Abstract

Asian countries have experienced rapid growth in urbanization. In the same way, the numbers of underserved settlements have also increased. As these dwellers do not facilitate enough, it results health problems, urban unhappiness, environmental degradation and haphazard development. In the case of Sri Lanka, more than half of the Colombo city population lives in underserved settlements. This is a big challenge and also a constraint to make city more comfortable for its people. Sri Lanka has significant experiences of relocation of underserved settlements in the process of development. Colonization scheme in the dry zone was the first experience of resettlement in Sri Lanka. Later community relocations were due to natural disasters as tsunami, landslides and floods. Besides, low income settlement relocation exists in urban areas especially in city of Colombo. In the view of project management, it can be identified a gap in between causes of challenges and the project management. Many of these causes and challenges are strictly allied with the project planning and management. Hence, project management is significant in addressing project management challenges. Thus, this study intends to provide insights to address challenges faced by project managers in mitigating project failures in relocation of underserved settlements in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, a questionnaire survey was carried out to collect information from professionals in the industry. As findings of the survey, planning & management related, cost related, time related and communication related categories were identified as most critical categories of challenges respetively. Similarly, it also identified responsible project players to each category. Additionally, 19 project management challenges were identified according to the frequency of occurrences and its severity to the project failure. Further, this study presents 15 most relevant strategies and ways to implement those strategies to address challenges faced by project managers in mitigating project failures in relocation of underserved settlements in Sri Lanka