Difference in S-curve for different types of construction projects

Abstract

Project cash flow and contractor S-curve are tools that can be used to measure, control and anticipate project progress. Few studies dedicated to evaluate and judge the behaviour of original S-curve. This study aims to evaluate the similarities and changes between different project types. More than 40 approved S-curves were collected from state of Kuwait for different types of construction projects. The list of collected curves was divided into six groups based on type of client, no of buildings and number of floors. Comparing the curves inside each group of project. Statistical analysis using test of normality, T-paired test and standard Euclidean distance were applied to evaluate the similarity and changes between groups. This study revealed that there is level of similarity of S-curves for high rise buildings and there is no similarity of S-curves for one or multi-building projects.  The maximum gap between S-curves for one and high rise building laying in the middle part of project duration, while the maximum gap between S-curves for multi-buildings project laying in 70% to 80% of project duration.