Causes and Effects of Change Orders for Construction Projects in Palestine

The construction sector is vital to Palestinian economy, contributing significantly to its growth and development. Its complex nature encompasses human, non-human, and other elements and often necessitates change orders, which are inevitable, regardless of the project size, type, or characteristics. Change orders lead to massive delays and cost overruns impacting project timeline and profitability. The ccurrent study explores and ranks the causes and impacts of change orders in Palestinian construction projects from contractors' and consultants' perspectives. The findings revealed that internal factors related to the owner were the primary source of change orders. The major five causes were ranked based on the Relative Importance Index as follows: "use of duplicated documents from previous projects," "change in plan and scope by owner," "owner's financial difficulties," "poor site investigation before the design stage," and "errors and omissions in design." Similarly, the study presents the top five impacts of change orders as follows: "time overruns," "cost overruns," "rework and demolition," "delay in payment by the owner," and "disputes between contract parties." This study holds particular importance for the construction sector, offering valuable insights into managing the change orders to meet the projects objectives in terms of schedule, budget, and quality.