(And why poor project management is rarely down to bad luck)
Almost every builder has said it at some point:
“The project just went over.”
The project was good.
The client was fine.
The team worked hard.
And yet… the schedule slipped.
Costs crept.
Stress climbed.
According to a KPMG Survey, 69% of building projects go over budget by at least 10%. That’s 7 in 10 builders – what – absorbing the extra cost??
Over-runs are so common in construction that they’re almost accepted as inevitable. But they’re not. And the reason projects over-run is rarely what people think.
It’s not laziness.
It’s not lack of skill.
It’s not even usually the weather.
It’s something more human. And far more fixable.
1. The plan existed… but only in someone’s head
Most jobs start with a mental plan.
You know roughly what happens first.
You’ve done it a hundred times.
You’ll “figure the rest out as you go”.
That works – until it doesn’t.
Because a plan that lives in your head:
- Can’t be seen by others
- Can’t be challenged
- Can’t be measured
- Can’t be adjusted early.
When something slips, you only notice when it’s already a problem.
By then, you’re reacting. Not managing. There’s no project management at all.
2. Tasks are assumed, not defined
On paper, the job looks straightforward.
In reality, it’s made up of dozens (sometimes hundreds) of small tasks that sit between the large, obvious ones.
And this is where projects quietly unravel.
- Who is ordering what – and when?
- What needs to be finished before the next trade arrives?
- What happens if one task is late by a day?
When you don’t clearly define tasks and schedules, people fill the gaps with assumptions. And assumptions don’t hold up well under pressure.
3. Dependencies are ignored until they bite
Every building project is a chain.
One thing depends on another.
Miss one link — the whole thing tightens.
But many schedules treat tasks as standalone:
- “We’ll start that when we get there.”
- “That shouldn’t take long.”
- “We’ll make it work.”
The problem is that dependencies don’t care about optimism. If something arrives late, finishes late, or is done out of sequence, the knock-on effect multiplies.
Suddenly:
- Trades are stood down
- Materials are wasted
- Clients are frustrated
- Profit quietly leaks away.
4. Progress isn’t tracked – it’s guessed
Here’s an uncomfortable truth:
You’re probably not closely monitoring your projects once they start.
You feel how it’s going.
You sense whether you’re ahead or behind.
You hope it’ll catch up.
But without clear task tracking:
- Small delays go unnoticed
- Slippage becomes normalised
- Recovery never really happens
By the time everyone agrees the job is behind, it’s already expensive to fix.
5. Changes creep in unchallenged
Changes are part of building. Everyone accepts that.
What causes over-runs is not the change itself – it’s how quietly it slips in.
A tweak here.
An extra there.
A “while you’re at it”.
Without a structured way to:
- Log changes
- Assess impact
- Re-plan tasks
- Revise prices
- Reset expectations.
Projects drift. Timelines blur. And suddenly no one is quite sure what “finished” looks like anymore.
6. You become the bottleneck
This one’s personal – and common.
As the business owner, you:
- Price the job
- Win the work
- Start the job
- Fix the problems
- Chase the decisions.
At some point, everything waits on you.
Not because you want control – but because there’s no system supporting the flow of decisions and tasks without you.
When you’re stretched, the project slows. When the project slows, pressure builds. And pressure makes everything harder. And you having a day off, let alone a week off becomes almost impossible – which is another article on its own…
The truth most people don’t like hearing
Projects don’t over-run because builders can’t build.
They over-run because projects are managed informally in a world that’s become too complex for that approach to survive.
Experience alone isn’t enough anymore.
Good intentions aren’t enough.
Working harder definitely isn’t enough.
What works is structure:
- Clear task breakdowns
- Visible timelines
- Proper scheduling
- Shared understanding
- Early warnings instead of late surprises.
It’s not more paperwork. It’s clarity.
A thought about project management to leave you with
If projects keep overrunning, it’s not a personal failing.
It’s a signal.
A signal that the way you’re managing the job hasn’t kept pace with the reality of today’s building projects.
That’s exactly why I’m seeing more and more builders taking some time away from the site – to learn how to plan, organise and protect their time and profit before the job starts (at the all important quoting stage) and while the job is live.
That thinking sits at the heart of our Project & Job Management Skills course. Not theory. Not large company processes. Just practical ways to stay in control of jobs before they start controlling you. We also show you how HBXL’s award-winning project management app, BuildProjex, does much of the work for you.
If you want your building projects to finish when they’re meant to in order to make the profit you deserve and feel less stressed because of it – find out more. Check out the Project Management modules and how attending the funded HBXL Skills Bootcamp could make a significant difference to your own business. Enquire today.