Research Article Architect Critical Challenges as a Project Manager in Construction Projects: A Case Study Mohammadreza Yadollahi, 1 Mohammad Mirghasemi, 2 Rosli Mohamad Zin, 3 and Bachan Singh 1 1 Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor, Malaysia 3 Construction Research Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Mohammadreza Yadollahi; mohammadreza@utm.my Received 15 May 2014; Revised 15 July 2014; Accepted 15 July 2014; Published 13 August 2014 Academic Editor: Hossein Moayedi Copyright © 2014 Mohammadreza Yadollahi et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. All construction professionals such as civil, mechanical, and electrical engineers, quantity surveyors, and architects have important roles in the construction process. Among these, architects are frequently appointed as a project manager (PM). he role of a PM will drive the success of the projects implementation. herefore, the capability of an architect as a PM (ArPM) is critical in reducing challenges encountered. Accordingly, the identiication of these challenges is an important task in selecting an appropriate ArPM. he aim of this study is to identify the most critical challenges faced by an ArPM for construction projects. he data were collected through questionnaires and interviews with architects and professionals in the Malaysian construction industry. Because of the fuzziness and uncertainty of subjective responses, Fuzzy Set Ttheory is applied to identify critical challenges. A total of 65 questionnaires were distributed and 36 questionnaires were returned. he results revealed that the critical challenges faced by an ArPM are “poor planning,” “unfamiliar technology,” “unfamiliarity with green buildings and materials,” “inappropriate scheduling,” and “poor workmanship.” All critical challenges were then categorized into six main groups including technical, managerial, personal skills, contractual, psychological, and inancial. 1. Introduction he construction industry inherently has many diferent problems and requirements [1]. he importance of taking measures to improve the performance of the construction industry at various levels of socioeconomic development has been recognized in many countries. While the construction industry everywhere faces problems and challenges, the complexities and diiculties are most critical in developing countries due to the general situation of socioeconomic issues, lack of resources, organizational weaknesses, and an inability to deal with critical situations. According to the Singapore Department of Building [2], there is evidence that the problem has become greater in extent and severity in recent years. In Malaysia for instance, building construction accounts for about 67.6% of overall construction work and is consid- ered to be an essential element of the industry [3]. Due to existing limitations such as unavailability or lack of technical and/or inancial resources, Malaysia faces some challenges in local projects. Moreover, external factors, for example, prohibition to engage in commercial activities, political pressure to suddenly increase the volume of mass projects, and complex or diicult land conditions, may also complicate the problem [4]. Generally, there are some important elements for the successful management of a construction project such as project management philosophies, processes, methods, and tools; however, one important factor in this ield is the capability of the project manager (PM). Finding the right PM Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Civil Engineering Volume 2014, Article ID 205310, 15 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/205310