Quantitative impacts of project change: Size issues

Change has a tremendous effect on the performance of a construction project. Research that focuses on the quantitative impact is limited, incomplete, and in some cases questionable. The goals of this study were to quantify the nature and impacts of project change and develop recommended practices so that owners and contractors can manage change better. The focus was on project change during detailed design and construction, in particular the size of change and its impact on the project. These results show that the amount of change is negatively correlated with productivity and total installed project cost, whether within the design phase or construction phase, or between them. The greater the amount of change the more productivity and costs are degraded. Recommendations are also offered here on how to mitigate the impact of project change.