Success factors for dam engineering industry: systematic literature review and conceptual classification

Dam engineering projects have significant economic, social and environmental impacts. Compared to other types of infrastructure, they have a higher likelihood of not achieving success. This narrative and systematic literature review aims to review published research on identification and classification of project success factors for application to dam engineering projects. First, this study provides evidence from the literature, demonstrating that the underperformance issue is widespread in the dam engineering industry. The second step is to identify potential success factors for these projects. This was accomplished by the review of 1582 primary research, 89 of which were chosen for data extraction. It is possible to develop a more thorough understanding of the aspects that contribute to project success and pinpoint knowledge gaps by analyzing the chosen literature articles utilizing publications and content characteristics. Results of the analysis indicate that no study has been undertaken to identify critical success factors (CSFs) for dams. Also, twenty-eight success factors can be introduced from closely related infrastructure types as candidate critical success factors (CCSFs) for dams. Finally, theory of temporary organization has been applied to categorize CCSFs into different project dimensions. Four organizational theories are used to consolidate these factors into categories introducing a conceptual classification model. The findings of this research should not only help project practitioners improve their performance but also assist researchers to have a new insight on what constitutes project success.