Project Management Approaches and Sustainability of Infrastructure Projects in Embu County

Purpose: This study focused on the following specific objectives; to establish the role of traditional, agile, waterfall and systems approaches on sustainability of infrastructure projects in Embu County. This study was guided by stakeholder theory, social learning theory, Technology Acceptance Model, the theory of change, and the 3 overlapping circles theory of sustainability. Methodology: A descriptive study design was employed. The targeted population of the study were the 188 project managers. The census method was used in identifying a sample of 158 respondents since the target population was small. A self-administered closed questionnaire was used to obtain primary data. A pilot study was conducted with 10% of the sample prior to the main study and through Cronbach alpha, reliability of the research instrument indicated a co-efficient of 0.7 indicating a relatively high reliability. The raw data was coded, validated, and entered into a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 28) for analysis by use of linear regression to establish the relationship between variables. The results are presented in form of graphs, tables and figures. Findings: The findings of this study showed strong relationships between the variables with the traditional approach at 64.7 per cent, agile approach at 73.2 per cent, the waterfall approach at 66.7 per cent, and the systems approach at 56.2 per cent. All the four formulated null hypotheses were rejected. The study concluded that all project management approaches under this study are key factors for sustainability of the projects. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study thus recommends that a hybrid approach involving some or all the methodologies should be adopted in order to bring about project success. Other factors such as financial analysis, risk analysis, communication and network determination, operational plan, training, human resource development and capacity building, environmental and community analysis all help to determine the sustainability of projects.