Understanding the critical success factors for delivery of megaprojects in Colombia

By their very nature, megaprojects have significant short- and longer-term impacts on the socio-economic, technical, environmental and political landscape of the host country, but many are delivered with time and cost overruns and sometimes with quality discrepancies. This paper examines the critical success factors for megaprojects in Colombia – from the project definition stage to successful handover – from the perspective of professionals involved in the delivery of megaprojects in that country. It applies a mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis to rank 34 factors identified in literature sources as being critical to the success of megaprojects. Analysis shows that inadequate information at the tender stage, design changes during the construction phase, and limited availability and supply of materials have had a major negative influence on the delivery of megaprojects in Colombia. In contrast, adverse weather conditions and lack of prior experience with similar projects have had the least impact. This paper recommends approaches to mitigate the risks associated with the factors investigated.