Delay factors of the schedule of strategic industrial projects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a survey undertaken to identify and rank factors that are responsible for delay in the schedule of strategic industrial projects in Iran. Design/methodology/approach The survey covered 40 factors identified by previous literature and modified by 20 project professionals to fit the Iranian industrial culture. These factors were grouped into six major categories. For each category, the Shannon entropy weighting technique was applied. Findings The analysis of the 64 returned out of 87 randomly distributed questionnaires revealed that “sanctions” from political group, “cash flow problems” from financial group, “equipment availability and failure” from technical group, “project manager competence” from managerial group, “material procurement” from procurement group and “unqualified workforce” from human resource group were ranked as the highest contributing factors. Originality/value The findings of this study are of practical use for project professionals and experts seeking to improve the schedule performance of industrial projects.