Evaluating Agile Practices For Reducing Cost Overruns In Yemen’s Construction Projects

Cost overruns in construction projects in Yemen have become a widespread phenomenon,inevitably leading to delays,legal claims,and sometimes lead to project failure.As projects become increasingly complicated,budget overruns arise more unpredictably.Most enterprises tend to adopt the best and new technologies,new management concepts,and philosophies to achieve improvements in project cost overrun.The initial motivation for this research is to explore a flexible approach to deal with cost overruns in Yemen’s construction projects and,at the same time,enhance the overall project performance.In this paper,the problem of cost overruns in construction in Yemen is discussed firstly.Then,the agile practices are proposed under the conceptual model of agility in construction to solve the current cost problems such as the inaccurate cost estimation,change orders,and low labor productivity.Agile management,derived from agile theories in other engineering disciplines,is an integrated strategy that enables projects to thrive in a flexible environment by applying agile approaches throughout the project life cycle.The proposed agile practices are evaluated with construction professionals by the AHP method.The study found that adopting agile practices would help construction projects to reduce cost overrun and enhance their performance.Some recommendations are suggested to help Yemeni construction project managers to benefit from agile management.