Practical

Application of
SWOT Analysis in
the Management of
a Construction
Project
IGOR N. MILOSEVIC

ABSTRACT: This analysis shows strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

共SWOT兲 from both the investor’s and the contractor’s point of view in the planning,
contracting, and construction phases of a project. With the current market economy, and
when private interests provide significant financing, construction within time and
budget limits is very important. To identify potential risks for both the investor and the
contractor, it is desirable to conduct a SWOT analysis. A decision maker must then decide
which risks are worthwhile in order to realize the expected investment benefits.

RESEARCH PROCESS

A
n analysis of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats 共SWOT兲 Information about the project environment, together with
implies an analysis of the internal possi- knowledge of the project’s possibilities, enable a team to de-
bilities 共strengths and weaknesses兲 of a termine the critical success factors that will satisfy the de-
project and its external environment mands of end product buyers. The analysis, as a rule, in-
共opportunities and threats that might cludes the team 共firm兲 managing the construction. Using
be faced during project management兲. Since risk is present in the analysis, the so-called strategic holes should be discov-
all aspects of our lives, risk analysis and consideration, as well as ered, and a clear plan for filling them in should be adopted
risk management, is a universal activity based on common 共Fig. 1; Hepworth 1998兲.
It is important to continually evaluate the factors that
sense, relevant cognition, experience, and application of appro-
influence the project’s goals—for example, construction time
priate procedures. We can understand risk management as a limits, prearranged costs, and quality standards—so they can
needtorecognizeandeliminate共oratleastreduce兲uncertainty be addressed by the contractor or by the project manager.
usingcontrolactivities. After defining the goals, internal and external possibilities for

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78 Leadership and Management in Engineering
 Figure 1. Research method framework

realizing the goals need to be identified, as well as obstacles accelerating the schedule to meet deadlines兲. This difference
to realizing those goals. To do this, we identify and then is subjectively evaluated by the team, adopting, first of all, a
analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, measuring scale. When it comes to weaknesses and threats,
and if needed, we respond to them. We also extract those it is obvious that they need to be eliminated to the greatest
critical success factors that have an impact on achieving the possible extent. Noticing these differences between current
goals. Critical success factors can be complex and can include and ideal levels of critical success factors helps the other
organization, management, and synchronization of construc- people responsible for the project—for example, the investor
tion. The external domain for critical success factors can be and the suppliers on whom the elimination of the weak-
found in the interrelation of the physical environment and nesses partly depends.
building site conditions, and the investor, supplier, customs After determining the differences—that is, the deviation
agents, government, local government, or local community. from optimal critical success factor levels—there are three
It is noteworthy that external critical success factors represent options: 共1兲 accept the difference, 共2兲 reduce the difference
a large challenge because they are difficult to control. Using somewhat, or 共3兲 reduce the difference significantly. If the
the brainstorming method, a team should be able to identify elimination of a small difference would take too much of the
10 internal and external domains for critical success factors team’s time, or if there is a doubt that in spite of the invested
and then extract several of the most important and stick to labor, the difference will remain, leaving the difference at the
them. Finally, we analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportuni- current level is reasonable. The strategies for reducing and
ties, and threats and identify ways to eliminate the weak- eliminating the differences can be immediate concrete steps
nesses and threats 共Eccles and Pyburn 1992兲. and activities, or they can be long-term activities that could
During project management, new strengths, weaknesses, last the whole project. The need for those activities can be
opportunities, and threats can crystallize, and the team must addressed in further planning 共Bourne et al. 2000兲.
continually recognize them and enter them into the SWOT
analysis. The team also evaluates which of the new elements
are critical success factors. Then we begin to determine the The Construction Project and Investment
differences between the current and ideal critical success fac- The project we examine is a business situated in Belgrade,
tor level. For strengths and opportunities, it is possible to fall the capital of Serbia, referred to as “Azzaro.” It is situated
short of the ideal conditions because that difference will rep- parallel to Yuri Gagarin Street, so it continues a row of busi-
resent a potential for improvement in meeting the goal 共e.g., nesses with modern architecture that for the past several

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79 APRIL 2010
Figure 2. SWOT analysis from the contractor’s point of view using the Azzaro project in New Belgrade as an example

years has fronted this busy street. The architecture is modern ation are given in the article “Application of the risk analysis
by domestic standards and uses glass and Alucobond facade software package Pertmaster when managing a construction
plate. 共Alucobond is a lightweight composite material con- project” 共Milosevic in press兲.
sisting of two prefinished 0.5-mm-thick aluminum cover The risk analysis for each of the registered contractors can
sheets laminated to a core of polyethylene plastic. Alucobond be based on the purchaser’s risk analysis, if it is included in
panels also maintain an extremely flat surface due to the the documentation. The better the analysis, the lower the
laminated construction of the material, thus reducing or contractor’s price, because there are fewer unknowns. In this
eliminating oil canning.兲 The gross area of the building is case, the risk analysis had to determine whether the contrac-
5,800 m2. The building’s construction consists of an ar- tor could meet the demand, but it also had to give the right
mored concrete shaft of raster walls 共7.2 ⫻ 5.4兲 and two balance: whether the contractor’s quote would be accepted
armored concrete cores, each with two lift shafts. The build- and the risk if the money was accepted and the contractor
ing is situated on an armored concrete ground plate. The happened to have a loss 共Fig. 2兲.
mezzanine ceiling is an armored concrete plate 22 cm thick
on the floor and 24 cm thick on the gallery; the plates above Strengths from the Contractor’s Point of View
the ground floor are also 24 cm thick, with an armored
concrete girder 40 cm thick. The total value of the invest- Advanced Project Management
ment is US$5 million. While working on this project, we used an advanced system
of project management with direct communication between
SWOT ANALYSIS FROM THE the construction site and the head office of the contractor’s
CONTRACTOR’S POINT OF VIEW firm. On this project, the contractor had the opportunity to
Examples provided for the SWOT analysis are from the Az- hire experienced engineers and foremen and made excellent
zaro construction project. Using the software package Pert- use of all employees on the project.
master 共an application for risk assessment and analysis兲, in-
fluence and risk factors on the Azzaro project were measured Workforce Stimulation
during the entire lifespan of the project. Factors that influ- On this project, workers’ wages were increased and equalized
enced project costs were subjectively evaluated. A detailed with respect to earlier projects. The wages of the high-
mathematical analysis of the risk and the results of the evalu- ranking workers 共craftsmen and specialized workers兲 were

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80 Leadership and Management in Engineering
370 dinars per hour 共US$ 1 = 70 Serbian dinars兲, and the Resistance to New Methods of Working
wages of the low-ranking workers were about 300 dinars per Some senior and more experienced workers may find it dif-
hour. During the hard summer months, the contractor of- ficult to adopt new techniques and strategies. To help the
fered a bonus to the best craftsmen and all participants in the workforce accept modern technology, offer training and, if
project who had higher-level responsibilities. possible, monetary bonuses for meeting deadlines. Supervi-
sors should demonstrate patience and respect during the
Knowledge of the Subcontractor learning period.
On previous projects, the contractor had done business with
many subcontracting firms and had established good rela- Lack of Coordination
tions with them. When the contractor knows what to expect This weakness means that a problem related to coordinating
of the subcontractors, it makes project planning go much the workers can arise within the organization. The use of a
easier. modern formwork system and new materials positively in-
fluences coordination among workers.
Modern Technology
Modern materials and work automation have contributed to
rapid advancements in construction. This is a strength of the Possibility of Injury at Work
contractor and was reflected in the effective and efficient or- Because the workers are not accustomed to working with
ganization on the Azzaro project. new construction technology, there is an increased possibility
of injury at work.
Use of Modern Machinery
The contractor rented modern machinery for use while man- Undeveloped Relationship with the Subcontractor
aging the construction of the building. Unlike the concrete manufacturer, the contractor worked
with new vendors for both the locksmith and plastic work.
Use of PERI Trio Prefabricated Formwork Signed contracts should stipulate high penalties for missed
Trio formwork enables rapid progress during construction. deadlines.
Apart from that, the reasons to choose the Trio system were
exploitation load, minimal working time on a site, and
minimal labor expenses. The principal considerations were Opportunities from the Contractor’s Point of View
the agreed-upon quality of work and the schedule.
Favorable Contract Terms
Skillful Work Team Contract terms should realistically allow the contractor to
This was an additional contractor strength. It was specified finish the project within the anticipated time limit. It is very
that workers who had already worked on the construction of important for the contractor to study the contract and care-
residential and business projects of similar size and similar fully examine his responsibilities, as well as the investor’s
heights would participate in the construction of this build- rights and responsibilities. Only with the knowledge of these
ing. rights and responsibilities, as well as the risk he is undertak-
ing, can the contractor set prices and schedules. The contrac-
Good Relationship with Material Suppliers tor produces the budget for the specific project when he gets
This contractor had been cooperating with the same material a formal inquiry from the investor. Replying to inquiries
suppliers and the same concrete factory for a long time, so he entails considerable expense, which only the investor bears
was familiar with their working methods, and the risk fac- the risk for. A thorough evaluation of expenses should result
tors regarding shipment delays and other problems were sig- in a competitive price 共estimated expenses plus profit兲,
nificantly reduced. which is usually an excellent criterion for obtaining the job
and for the contractor’s success on the project. Underesti-
mated expenses always result in business losses, while over-
Weaknesses from the Contractor’s Point of View estimated expenses can be a cause for losing the business 共Lee
and Ko 2000兲.
Inexperienced Workers
The workers may need some time to adopt a method for
working with the PERI Trio formwork. This, in turn, could Reliable Investor
influence the scheduled deadlines. The workers need to be Former cooperative and positive experiences with a specific
trained at the beginning of the project and then supervised investor represent another very favorable circumstance and an
and assisted as needed. opportunity to respect any deadlines for the estimate.

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81 APRIL 2010
The Possibility of Working on Future Projects the benefits from the investments are realized in the future,
When the contractor wins the investor’s trust, he will be so a decision maker should decide what risk he is willing to
more likely to partner on new projects in the future. take in order to see the expected return on investment.
When evaluating a project, investment decisions depend
Favorable Financing Arrangements on the decision maker’s attitude toward the risk. As a rule,
The contractor needs to receive sufficient advance funding to most investors accept a project that is likely to succeed be-
do all necessary and planned activities until the next agreed- cause they have a natural aversion toward risk. However,
upon payment. Mutually agreed-upon financial arrange- there is always an element of risk about the project outcome,
ments represent an opportunity for a favorable project out- and the decision maker has to determine how much risk he
come. is willing to take.
When he sets priorities among the project goals, the in-
Possibility of Developing a Well-Coordinated vestor has to consider carefully the risks he can be exposed to
Project Team and Project Management Strategy during construction, and he has to predict all the conse-
for Future Projects quences of those risks. If the investor is not qualified to con-
The contractor has an opportunity to put together a func- sider the potential risks, he can hire specialized consultants to
tional and coordinated project team for managing the project help with the risk assessment and develop a plan to mini-
and to implement a standardized project management sys- mize any risk.
tem. During the Azzaro project, all of the investor’s desires, the
communication problems that occurred, and the conflict of
Threats from the Contractor’s Point of View interests between the investor and contractor were noted. All
the key influences that increased the expenses and prolonged
High Level of Groundwater some activities on the project were documented. After a sub-
This threat originates from the beginning of construction in jective evaluation, the following strengths, weaknesses, op-
the period of concreting the bed plate. portunities, and threats can be distinguished 共Fig. 3兲.

Small Area for Storage and Manipulation on the Strengths from the Investor’s Point of View
Construction Site
The large gross area of the buildings coupled with tenants’ Good Selection of Contractor
moving into the buildings brings the possibility of problems The investor found a contractor who satisfied the criteria.
related to lack of space. The problem can be solved by using This is an important strength that allows future projects
a neighboring parcel of land without any reimbursement of with the investor and creates confidence in the contractor’s
expenses. ability to direct the suppliers. If the purchaser selects a bad
contractor or vice versa, or if both sides accept bad contract
Supervisory Board with an Interest in the Project terms, both can have serious problems, which can require
A supervisory board 共a group of individuals chosen by the more resources to solve than the risk analysis itself. Selection
stockholders of a company to promote their interests of the contractor who offered the lowest bid does not guar-
through the governance of the company and to hire and antee the lowest final expenses. A contractor will always be
supervise the executive directors and CEO兲 for the construc- tempted to lower the prices and profit in order to beat the
tion cannot be objective, because it has a conflict of interest competition and get the job. Taking into account the diffi-
in the project. This often happens among the participants of culties they have in realizing a profit, these contractors will
a project in Serbia. try to find other ways to make a profit, such as working with
poor quality materials or constantly setting new
Repeated Changes in Allocation of Space conditions—a frequent practice in the construction industry.
The investor’s repeated changes in the allocation of space An irresponsible contractor can cause construction delays and
inside the building present difficulties for the contractor, substituting cheap and poor quality materials can affect
who must deal with frequent improvisation and changes to building quality, which, together with constant new de-
the plan. mands, increase construction expenses.
SWOT ANALYSIS FROM THE INVESTOR’S
POINT OF VIEW Successful Acquisition of Project Documentation
From the moment he decides to undertake construction, the and Building Permits
investor is in suspense regarding the final outcome. A con- This is a strength the investor has because of good business
struction project lasts for a specific period of time; however, contacts.

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82 Leadership and Management in Engineering
 Figure 3. SWOT analysis from the investor’s point of view using the Azzaro project in New Belgrade as an example

Market Demand Related to Building in New Lack of Protection of the Investor’s Interests by
Belgrade the Supervisory Board
Although the investor conducted an evaluation before invest- This is a consequence regarding the supervisory board; the
ing, real estate prices increased during the construction. engineer attempted to justify some positions by protecting
his work and made an objective report to the investor im-
possible.
Contractor and Subcontractor Willingness to
Agree with Frequent Project Changes Inability to Use the Desired Materials
In many cases, the contractor and subcontractors have been During the project, the investor wanted to use some mate-
willing to oblige the investor and carry out changes in the rials with good aesthetics but weaker fire-fighting character-
project without any specific compensation. istics, which was against safety regulations.

Possession of Cash Contractor’s Unwillingness to Make Big Changes

The investor did not take any kind of credit and did not The contractor could not oblige the investor all of the time
obtain any kind of loan. because changes to the plans resulted in a lot of unexpected
work. The contractor was not willing to accept the changing
work dynamics and was unable to solve some of the prob-
lems resulting from plan changes.
Weaknesses from the Investor’s Point of View

Absence of Determined Buyers Opportunities from the Investor’s Point of View

Although buyers of the end product should not have any
direct connection with construction, they occupy a special Opportunity to Win the Contractor over for Future
place because of the influence they have on the investor. Be- Projects
cause of their changes to space allocation on the premises, the The investor creates an opportunity to work on another simi-
project experiences a series of problems. lar project with the contractor.

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83 APRIL 2010
Favorable Contract Terms not made on time, nonfulfillment of other contract respon-
The terms of the contract determine a safe investment. The sibilities兲, additional demands and project changes, and in-
first thing the investor has to do is the risk analysis in order complete and imprecise project solutions. Evaluation of ex-
to give the same information to all participants in the penses in construction depends on the complete project
project. For example, the contractor should not bear risks schedule, which is subject to the dynamics of scheduling
that cannot be quantified with certainty. Expenses should be various types of work. At the same time, it is sometimes
related to the things that can be anticipated. If the investor is important to eliminate parallel work as much as possible.
worried about who will bear the risks, then he should do the
necessary analyses and, on the basis of those analyses, ask for
a bid from a contractor. The more details he offers, the lower
the risk in the contractor’s bid. If the investor wants to trans-
fer as much risk as possible to the contractor, he chooses a Reduced Construction Quality
“lump sum contract” because most contracts of this type
include restitution that equals a total lump sum. It often This is a direct threat for the investor who, because of project
happens that one combines several different contract strate- delays and constant changes, can find himself not being able
gies for the construction of a single project. By applying to sell units in the building to desired buyers. The risk analy-
several contract strategies, the investor gets more time to sis regarding quality needs to look at everything that could
decide about and more precisely define his demands without affect the quality or safety of materials and processes in each
delaying the beginning of construction. The investor often stage of construction. Quality standards are defined through
consults existing contracts and adapts them to create “hybrid the technical specifications, which define the material quality
contracts.” level, quality of work, and the overall building. Specific qual-
ity demands determine the schedule and cost of the build-
ing’s completion. Most frequently, the risk analysis means an
Good Expense Control analysis with respect to the investor’s demands, which have
The investor’s consultants should make it possible for the to be documented and understandable; technical documen-
investor to monitor the project and communicate with the tation, which has to be defined; the possibility of purchasing
builder so that he gets information about the expected time materials needed for the project; changes in projected tech-
necessary for finishing the project. nology and construction dynamics; timely financial monitor-
ing; and mutual profitable and honest interactions between
Good Communication with All Participants in the the contractor and the investor, which make the continuity
Project of quality construction possible.
This is another product of cooperation with the builder, Deviation in time and expenses can be addressed during
which facilitates access to all the things that happen on the construction; quality faults are incorrigible. Because of that,
construction site. at the beginning the optimization goals have to be strictly
and clearly defined and then examined, and the criteria
Threats from the Investor’s Point of View should undergo changes as needed.
SWOT analysis for big projects can require extensive
Schedule Delays work from the whole team and could take hours. For smaller
Delays occurred on the Azzaro project because the lock- projects, the initial SWOT analysis can last only
smith’s work dragged on and was directly related to reallo- 10 to 15 min, but the project manager should incorporate
cating space in the building. The schedule directly affects the constant reflection about the possibilities and project’s envi-
increase of expenses and reduction in profit for the investor. ronment into his analyses. Although the initial SWOT
The aim of the risk analysis regarding the construction analysis can take valuable time and look overwhelming, the
schedule is to recognize all of the important influences that advantages lie in discovering a project’s strengths and weak-
can affect the optimal time for construction, as well as the nesses before starting the detailed planning. In this way, the
certainty regarding the construction deadline. The analysis team immediately focuses on strategic weaknesses and
includes factors that can cause delays, as well as the conse- threats and so prepares alternative scenarios and solutions.
quences of changing the conditions for the project outcome. The investor has to recognize how much the contractor’s
Some of the principal risks are environmental conditions, estimate is based on goodwill in accepting the risks. A useful
contractor negligence 共organizational disturbances, bad plan- strategy for cost transparency requires that the expected ex-
ning, negligence in purchasing supplies and materials, un- penses be divided into project expenses and risk expenses.
synchronized work, negligence in communication兲, inci- The accompanying documentation should also show the
dents related to a higher force, investor negligence 共payment contractor’s risk perception.

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84 Leadership and Management in Engineering
Figure 4. SWOT analysis from Parsons Brinckerhoff. 共Source: 具http://www.datamonitor.com/store/Product/
parsons_brinckerhoff_inc?productid⫽D45F7560-E705-4BA4-A98B-B33085B9A96E典 .兲

THE APPLICATION OF SWOT ANALYSIS business dealings, as well as the risks of further development.
BY THE CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES All well-known construction companies in Europe 共e.g.,
Construction is an industry in which uncertainty is more DPR Construction, Inc., Hensel Phelps Construction Co.,
common than in most others. Uncertainty includes situa- Ames Construction, Inc., Parsons Brinckerhoff兲 make their
tions in which there are no historical records or references SWOT analyses available through the Internet and use them
describing the situation that is being analyzed. Completely as a marketing tool. In our domestic market, no company,
certain situations in construction are rare. Aside from the except for the firm Komgrap, has tried to promote itself in
possible bad influences of the environment on construction, this way. Using SWOT analyses, construction firms can de-
the uniqueness of each project explains such uncertainty. termine their goals for further development, predict the fu-
With the conditions of market economy, and when private ture of the company, recognize the risks of their business
financiers significantly participate in project financing, keep- dealings, and recognize their strengths over the competition.
ing construction on schedule and within budget is very im- SWOT analysis is also suitable for the planning and con-
portant. In the western European countries, it takes a lot of tracting phases. Sometimes, an experienced contractor can,
time to plan and little time to construct a project. In Serbia, before signing the contract, influence its form and content,
we do it the other way around. This phenomenon is charac- especially if he has properly investigated the market and has
teristic of a long period of socialism and making “dictatorial” done a large number of favors for the investor during the
decisions, very often without a rational reason. Project failure concept phase of the project. Taking into account that the
often relates to not paying enough attention to problems one who finances the project is the one who decides, the
that occur on the majority of projects. If we could predict the investor still has the greatest influence on the text of the
problems and thus avoid them, managing expenses, sched- contract, and potential investors need to become familiar
ule, and quality would be easier. For very large, complex, or with contracts as much as possible 共Fig. 4兲.
new projects, there is a great possibility that they will be
submitted to high risk levels. It may seem that the risk price CONCLUSIONS
is high, but the price for not handling the risk is even higher. Mutual risk identification and SWOT analyses by both in-
SWOT analysis should first be carried out at the com- vestor and contractor are desirable so that both sides can be
pany level. Every construction company in Serbia can do a informed about the risks. The investor has to be ready to
SWOT analysis and use it to define its position with respect make a distinction between good and bad quality and hon-
to competitive companies and to recognize its strengths in esty. Bad quality and dishonesty can displace good quality

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85 APRIL 2010
and an honest approach. The investor can approach this Hepworth, P. 共1998兲. “Weighing it up: A literature review
problem by demanding transparent risk prices in estimates for the balanced scorecard.” J. Manage. Dev., 17, 559–
or by demanding that estimates include plans for handling 563.
the risk. This way, the differences between honest and dis- Lee, S. F., and Ko, A. S. O. 共2000兲. “Building balanced
honest estimates can be seen. In practice, bidders with expe- scorecard with SWOT analysis, and implementing ‘Sun
rience in handling risk can show goodwill toward bearing Tze’s The Art of Business Management Strategies’ on
the risk and give lower prices than the competition, which QFD methodology.” Managerial Auditing J., 15共1/2兲,
increases their strength in the marketplace. 68–76.
Milosevic, I. 共2010兲. “Application of the risk analysis soft-
REFERENCES ware package Pertmaster when managing a construction
Bourne, M., Mills, J., Wilcox, M., Neely, A., and Platts, K. project.” Int. J. Applied Eng. Res., in press.
共2000兲. “Designing, implementing and updating per-
formance measurement systems.” Int. J. Oper. Prod. Man- Igor Milosevic is a project manager for the construc-
age., 20, 754–771. tion firm Dabar in Serbia and is studying for his Ph.D. in
Eccles, R. G., and Pyburn, P. J. 共1992兲. “Creating a compre- building technology and management. His particular
hensive system to measure performance.” Manage. Ac- interest is in risk management. He can be contacted via
counting, 71共4兲, 41–44. e-mailat:igorjagodina@yahoo.com LME

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86 Leadership and Management in Engineering
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