Projects rarely go wrong overnight. Long before a project becomes seriously delayed, goes over budget or ends up in a dispute, there are usually smaller warning signs although the challenge is that these signs can be easy to dismiss:

“We’ll catch up next month.”

“It’s only a small scope change.”

“The contractor will sort it out.”

“We’re still within the overall budget.”

“The approval should come through soon.”

For South African project professionals, these early signals matter even more as the infrastructure pipeline expands. Infrastructure South Africa reported in August that 82 projects worth about R502.7 billion were under construction, alongside 37 completed projects valued at approximately R69 billion. More projects create more opportunities but also more complex interfaces, dependencies, contractors, approvals, stakeholders and delivery risks.

So, what red flags should project managers watch for?

1. When the project completion date keeps moving

A single change to a project date is not necessarily a problem, however repeated changes are different. When the completion date moves every time there is a new development, your project schedule may no longer be acting as a control tool. It may simply be recording what has already happened. A useful question is:

“What specifically has changed in the critical path?”

In September 2026, Johannesburg’s Lilian Ngoyi Street rehabilitation project was reported to be about two months behind schedule. The City attributed the delay to cash-flow challenges and the complexity of underground infrastructure work. The lesson for project teams is not that delays can always be prevented. Underground conditions, design issues and other uncertainties are part of real projects, however, the lesson is to identify their effect on the programme early.

What to do

Check:

• Which activities are actually delayed?
• Which activities are on the critical path?
• What dependencies have changed?
• What work can be resequenced?
• What is the forecast completion date based on actual progress?

A schedule should help you make decisions before the delay becomes unavoidable.

For professionals who want to strengthen their scheduling capability, see the Classic Seminars Microsoft Project course and Planning & Scheduling with Primavera P6.

2. When risks depend on “someone else” doing something but nobody owns the dependency

Some of the biggest project risks sit outside the project manager’s direct control, such as:

• regulatory approvals
• environmental assessments
• design information
• utility connections
• procurement
• third-party suppliers
• municipal approvals
• specialist consultants
• community or stakeholder requirements

The problem starts when these dependencies are treated as assumptions rather than actively managed risks. South Africa’s first planned offshore wind farm as of September 2026 has been delayed because the environmental impact assessment had stalled while the project developers were required to provide new technical information. The project may have a detailed internal schedule but if such a key external dependency is not ready, the schedule alone cannot make the work happen.

What to do

For every major external dependency, identify:

What is needed?
Who owns it?
When is it needed?
What happens if it is late?
What is the contingency?

Then put those dependencies into your risk and project-control processes. This is especially important on large South African infrastructure and construction projects where multiple organisations may have an influence on delivery.

Classic Seminars’ Project Management Foundations course includes project planning, execution and control, risk management, tendering and the project lifecycle.

3. “Small” scope changes are happening without proper control

This is one of the most common early warning signs: A client asks for a small change → A designer adjusts something → A contractor performs additional work → A stakeholder adds a requirement → Everyone agrees verbally → The project carries on . . . Then, weeks later, someone asks:

Who approved this?
What did it cost?
What happened to the completion date?
Was the contract affected?

Small changes have a habit of becoming large changes when they are not controlled, yet good project management does not mean refusing every change since projects need to adapt. The issue is uncontrolled change.

What to do

For every meaningful scope change, ask:

1. What exactly is changing?
2. Why is it changing?
3. What is the schedule impact?
4. What is the cost impact?
5. What are the risk implications?
6. Who needs to approve it?
7. Has the baseline or contract documentation been updated?

The Classic Seminars Project Management Foundations course specifically covers scope, time, cost, quality and risk, together with project planning, execution and control.

For construction professionals, this becomes even more important because a change may also have contractual consequences. Classic Seminars’ Contract Management courses cover risk in contracts, tendering, contract mechanisms and the responsibilities of contractors and subcontractors working with JBCC, GCC, NEC and FIDIC contracts from a Contractor/Subcontractor perspective and that of Project Managers, Principal Agents, Consultants and Clients.

4. When the progress report says “80% complete” but the numbers don’t tell the same story

A project can appear to be 80% complete while important activities remain unfinished, costs are increasing or the remaining 20% contains the work most likely to affect the completion date. This is why experienced project professionals need reliable information about:

planned work + actual progress + actual cost + forecast

South Africa’s construction environment makes this particularly relevant. Stats SA reported that its July 2026 Construction Materials Price Indices showed a 0.2% month-on-month increase for total construction, while civil-engineering materials decreased by 0.5%. Individual work groups moved in very different directions, ranging from a 5.4% decrease to an 8.9% increase. Not that every project is facing rising costs but project teams need current, reliable information rather than assumptions.

What to do

Find out:

• Are we progressing against the approved baseline?
• What has actually been earned?
• What has actually been spent?
• What is the latest forecast?
• Where are the variances coming from?
• What management action is required now?

This is where project controls and earned value management become practical management tools rather than simply exam terminology. Classic Seminars’ Earned Value Management course covers the relationship between planned value, earned value and actual cost, as well as schedule and cost performance indicators.

5. People, contractors or external stakeholders are starting to disrupt delivery

A project does not operate in isolation since contractors, subcontractors, consultants, clients, communities, regulators, authorities and suppliers can all affect delivery. A project may have a technically sound plan and still experience disruption when stakeholder issues or contractor-performance problems are not managed early.

In August 2026, Parliament reported persistent delays on several Gauteng infrastructure projects, including a school construction project where the previous contractor’s services had been terminated because of poor progress and a replacement procurement process was underway. While in Cape Town, the City obtained a court interdict to protect MyCiTi Phase 2A construction projects from unlawful interference and extortion, noting that such interference can delay construction.These examples involve very different circumstances, but the project-management principle is the same: External threats to delivery need to be identified, monitored and managed.

What to do

Keep a close eye on:

• contractor performance
• unresolved instructions
• payment and cash-flow concerns
• stakeholder conflicts
• access to site
• community or third-party issues
• procurement delays
• outstanding approvals
• contractual notices
• unresolved claims

Don’t wait for a formal dispute before starting to manage the warning signs.

For professionals responsible for construction contracts and claims, Classic Seminars’ Delays & Extension of Time Claims course focuses on preparing, motivating and assessing delay claims using the construction programme as a basis, including relevant GCC, NEC, JBCC and FIDIC provisions.

The 10-Minute Project Health Check

You don’t need a two-hour meeting to identify early warning signs. At the beginning of each week, ask these five questions:

1. Scope: Has anything changed since the last review?

2. Schedule: What could affect the planned completion date?

3. Risk: What has changed in the risk profile?

4. Cost: Are actual costs and forecasts still aligned with expectations?

5. People: Who or what needs management attention this week?

If one answer concerns you, investigate it.

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Early action is one of the most valuable project-management skills

That makes strong project-management capability increasingly important for turning plans into controlled delivery. Classic Seminars provides professional training across project management, certification, scheduling, risk, project controls and construction contracts.

Explore the Classic Seminars Project Management Courses to find training relevant to your role and current development needs.

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