Factors Causing Design Changes During Construction Stage in Selected Government Building Projects Under Office of Federal Urban Development and Building Construction, Kathmandu Division.
Student: Luniva Shakya
Supervisor: Dr. Dinesh Sukamani
Submitted Date:
August, 2026
Abstract
Changes in design during the construction phase are one of the common problems in
building projects that cause cost overruns, delays, rework, decreased productivity, and
conflicts between project parties. This research is concerned about factors that
influence design change during the construction phase in some selected government
building projects in the FUDBC Kathmandu Division. It attempts to find out the
causes for the occurrence of design change, effects of design change in the
performance of the projects, and ways to minimize it. In this research, a combination
of qualitative and quantitative research approaches has been used, which include
questionnaire survey of clients, consultants, and contractors, key informant interviews
of the experienced individuals in the field of client, consultant and contractor, and
case studies of the selected projects. Data were analyzed using the Relative
Importance Index (RII), Spearman correlation, Principal component analysis (PCA),
and descriptive statistical techniques.
As per the findings of the research, the design changes are caused mainly by the top
three factors including Inadequate Design and Site Investigation (DS), Planning &
Coordination Deficiencies (PC) and Construction phase Constraints (CC) where
Inadequate Design and Site Investigation is the most significant one with the variance
of 27.507%. Variance of other determinants is 19.617% and 10.364%. The top factor
Inadequate Design and Site Investigation (DS) includes three causes like Change in
design when construction starts before the design is final or when design and
construction happen simultaneously (0.921), Differing site conditions (e.g.
unexpected rock layers, loose soil, high water) (0.906) and Lack of proper site
investigation including inadequate site area surveys (0.915). There are other causes
like error and omissions in design, lack of coordination between stakeholders, the
failure of a consultant to provide adequate and clear information in the tender
documents, errors, and omission of consultants. Additionally, the study finds out that
the design changes have negative effects on the project performance by causing time
delays with RII (0.850) cost overruns with RII (0.837) and work on hold with RII
(0.804). The least RII score is 0.508 from the quality impact, meaning that despite the
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design change that happened, the quality of the construction of the buildings was not
affected. In addition to the negative effect of design change, the positive aspect of
design change has been ranked in the improvement of functional performance of
building with RII of 0.806 as the top positive effect of design change. It becomes
evident from the research that even though it is impossible to stop the occurrence of
changes during design phase, but their occurrence can be significantly reduced by
proper planning at the time of design phase including ensuring proper review of the
design, proper investigation of the site and soil, proper coordination between project
participants, interdisciplinary review of drawings, and proper understanding of
client’s requirements.
Keywords
Design Change, Construction Stage, Government Building Projects, FUDBC Kathmandu Division, Principal component analysis (PCA), Remedial
measures, Negative and Positive impacts.