Paper Title
Success Factors For Project Management Services In The Kuwaiti Construction Industry

Abstract
The construction industry is vital for any nation and an indicator of its development level. Therefore, the need to deliver large-scale complex projects rises which is associated with the obligation of employing project management (PM) firms to control the budget, quality, productivity, delivery time, and to manage resources in the most efficient ways. This research aimed to evaluate the performance of the PM firms in Kuwait’s governmental construction projects and to develop criteria, guidelines, and recommendations for the selection of the best project management services within the government regulations and the administrative system. The research was carried out by conducting comprehensive semi-structured interviews with well-defined questions with top managers working for owners, PM, consulting, and contracting organizations. The data collected from the interviews along with the study of the Request for PM Proposal and Technical Proposal submitted by the PM led to identifying the problems in the existing system. These problems are: (1) misunderstanding of the services that should be provided by the PM, and (2) using rigid criteria lists to evaluate the PM proposals and performance for all project types. At the end of the research, a suggested list of recommendations was established in order to improve and optimize the PM performance in the governmental projects in the state of Kuwait. The results of this research are applicable, to large extent, to other developing countries, especially those in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since these countries share similar economic, political, governmental, geographical, technical, social and cultural characteristics.. Index Terms— Project management, Construction management, selection criteria, evaluation criteria, Kuwait.