| Abstract: | In the contemporary world, preproject planning and practices are becoming very essential since managing projects has emerged to be complex and challenging from time to time. However, enough attention is not given, in Ethiopia to pre-project planning. Hence, this research aims to assess pre-project planning and its practice in building construction projects as a case study of Defence Construction Enterprise. Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) is used as a tool to analyze the preproject planning and its practice in the building construction industry. The study design is descriptive research which explains well-defined and poorly defined PDRI score and developed a regression model that relates the PDRI score & project performance. Primary data is collected by using questionnaires and secondary data is collected by reviewing contract documents. A sample size of sixty-two (62) was selected following a simple purposive sampling and data was collected using self-administered questionnaires from professionals who directly participated in the construction of eleven building projects. The study revealed that building construction projects did well in defining PDRI scope elements relating to site information & business strategy in their pre-project planning stage which contributes a lot to the successful completion of the projects. On the contrary, the study showed that there was a limitation in identifying, quantifying, specifying and planning accurately different project risks, major engineering equipment, and material items. Besides, the research identified that there was poor constructability analysis in the sampled projects at the preplanning stage. Therefore, the research results provided a valuable source of information that supports better planning in the early stage of the project life cycle has a positive impact on the final project outcome. |
