ZANCO Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences The official scientific journal of Salahaddin University-Erbil https://zancojournals.su.edu.krd/index.php/JPAS ISSN (print ):2218-0230, ISSN (online): 2412-3986, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21271/zjpas RESEARCH PAPER An Analysis of Causes and Factors Affecting Change Orders Occurrence in Construction Projects in Iraq Khalil Ismail Wali 1 and Nazik Imad Saber* 2 1,2 Department of civil, College of Engineering, Salahaddin University-Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. A B S T R A C T: One of the most important problems facing the construction management process is the occurrence of change orders, which became inevitable in every construction project and the magnitude of these variations varies considerably from project to project. Considerably causing different effects to the project like changes in cost, time, quality, and completion schedule. The objective of this study is analyzing change orders causes related to owner, contractor, consultant and other causes and their effects on project cost for the Kirkuk governorate-Iraq selected as a case study for the purpose of this paper. The Relative Importance Index (RII) methodology was used to analysis the collected data. The case study analysis focused on the selection of 12 construction projects and a questionnaire administered to professionals in the construction industry in Iraq. According to the questionnaire analysis of 40 questions and based on RII ranking was found that the top most ten significant causes of the change orders come to the poor project management in the first rank. Whereas, change in the country’s economic conditions comes in the second rank, contractor’s lack of experience and mistakes during construction stage, poor cost estimation, quality assurance and control, poor performance of contract and subcontractor, the contractor’s financial difficulties, the lack of required skills, unrealistic project durations and design errors and omissions, and finally the collision between contract documents. KEY WORDS: Change Order Causes , Construction Projects, Owner, Contractor, Consultant, Relative Importance Index. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21271/ZJPAS.31.6.1 ZJPAS (2019) , 31(6);1-12 . INTRODUCTION : Change orders have many definitions depending on different researches one of which is that the change order is a written order to the contractor, signed by the owner, and issued after execution of the contract, authorizing a change in the work or an adjustment in the contract sum or the contract time. Every change that is done to the project leads to the impact on time and cost of the project. Change order brings a problem to all parties included in the project and in most of the cases are causes of the contractual disputes. There are many reasons that a change order can be issued such as errors and omissions on design, market conditions, slow delivery of the required material and other similar factors. The construction projects related change orders and the subsequent conflicts are the main causes of major problems in the industry such as delays in project completion, increase in cost, and defects in quality. A change may be because of an addition, deletion, or revision of the project scope (Naoum, 1994). Sun and Meng (2009) reviewed and combined existing literature on project change causes and effects developed two classifications for change causes and change effects, and illustrated how the taxonomies can be used during the project change management process. The essential elements in any construction projects are the triple constraint factors (cost, time and quality) Due to many causes, these elements can significantly differ from the premier evaluation of contract in terms of these elements. The reasons could be changed in the specification, scheduling, or any other contract documents. * Corresponding Author: Nazik Imad Saber E-mail: nazik.saber@su.edu.krd Article History: Received: 15/01/2019 Accepted: 24/06/2019 Published: 05/12 /2019