Identifying stakeholders’ involvement that enhances project scope definition completeness in Saudi Arabian public building projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical decision-support model and a procedure that will help project management team to measure project scope definition, for completeness. The procedure is different from previous studies because the measurement of scope definition completeness accounts for differences in stakeholders’ interest and importance on project. Design/methodology/approach – Data collection and analysis was based on semi-structured interviews in three steps with a total of 46 respondents. The first step identified stakeholders with an interest in public building projects while the second step identified the scope elements that serve as input to defining the project scope as well as elements that each stakeholder should be involved when measuring project scope definition, for completeness. In the third step, AHP was used to identify and prioritise the contributions required from various stakeholders when measuring scope definition completeness for 42 scope elements. Findings – An evaluation framework to measure project scope definition completeness for public building projects in Saudi Arabia based on the input of stakeholders in accordance to their importance weights. Originality/value – The prioritised weights of stakeholders’ importance in each element can be used by project managers and decision makers to reduce inefficiency and waste of time in the project scope definition process when evaluating scope definition for completeness.