Since delays in a project can have many unwanted consequences, and even a small success in delay recovery may have substantial impact on the financial returns for the interested parties of the project, it is important to address delay causes (Khoshgoftar et al., 2010, Faridi and El-Sayegh, 2006). Over the last forty years, significant efforts have been made to identify possible causes of delays (Yang et al., 2013). A review of project literature shows that causes of delays differs from country to country. Different factors such as the environment, working cultures, management style, methods of construction, geographical condition, stakeholders, government policy, economic situation, availability of resources, political situation as well as different perspectives of researchers can impact on projects and cause delays (Yang et al., 2013, Khoshgoftar et al., 2010). Ramanathan et al. (2012) proposes that there is no universal root cause. On the other hand, the literature review shows that factors causing delays in construction projects are mostly identical across developing countries, but with different rankings in terms of importance (Toor and Ogunlana, 2008). Analysis from Akogbe et al. (2013) shows that factors such as national income and GDP growth have a great impact on project delay. In developing countries financial difficulties are a common factor of delay. Other causes are similar for developed and developing countries (Akogbe et al., 2013).
1.2. Avoiding delays
Most of the theory (e.g. Pourrostam and Ismail, 2011, Sambasivan and Soon, 2007, González et al., 2014 etc.) focuses primarily on causes of delay. Despite existing methods that focus on schedule reduction, there has been a lack of discussions on specific procedures to overcome delays in projects; the focus being mainly on the cause and actions (Chan and Kumaraswamy, 1997). Keeping construction projects within approximate budgets and schedules requires clear strategies, good practices, and careful judgment (Pourrostam and Ismail, 2011). The basic strategy for preventing delay is to improve the contractor’s ability to manage and administer the construction phase of projects (Yang et al., 2013). According to Sambasivan and Soon (2007), it is important that parties in construction projects avoid unrealistic contractual conditions and schedules. Akogbe et al. (2013) explains that avoidance of construction delay in developing countries may include the development and maintenance of planning, coordinating, controlling, organizing, and motivating program resources and supervising the component projects. It is suggested that the work should be awarded to the most successful bidder for execution and should be checked from time to time to ensure that the project is on schedule (Akogbe et al., 2013). Another suggestion is that that traditional building methods must be replaced by industrialized building systems (IBS), which could save on labour, cost and time of construction, and increase quality and durability (Alaghbari et al., 2007). In addition, greater attention must be paid to obtaining more accurate time and budget estimates from contractor (Mansfield et al., 1994).
Prioritising Considering contractor price over ability, experience and expertise will diminish project performance (Sambasivan and Soon, 2007). Besides adopting design- build, build- own- operate- transfer (BOOT) and construction management (CM) types of contracts, which limit owner interface, improving the design and contractual relationship between parties is suggested (Mansfield et al., 1994, Odeh and Battani, 2002). An Adequate source of finance, equipment, machinery, materials, and labourers should be provided (Assaf and Al- Hejji, 2006, Mansfield et al., 1994, Sambasivan and Soon, 2007, Hwang et al., 2013, Pourrostam and Ismail, 2011, Khoshgoftar et al., 2010). It is suggested that the client monitors the work closely with regular inspections, and maintains a good relationship with clients and contractors in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the project (Sambasivan and Soon, 2007, Khoshgoftar et al., 2010). Moreover, all parties should be involved in regular meetins, in order to communicate, coordinate and keep each other updated (Hwang et al., 2013). For contractors, long-term procurement contracts can be signed to decrease the impact resulting from the potential uncertainties of the availability and prices of material and equipment (Hwang et al., 2013). Effective data communication between various groups and levels involved in a project emphasizes the need for efficient methods of information processing in the construction industry. To accelerate communication and decision making among all parties, appropriate overall organizational structures and communication systems linking all project teams should be developed throughout the duration of the project. The roles and responsibilities of those involved in the project team should be