Disputes have become an inherent feature of construction projects and often, lead to unsuccessful projects at the end. This encourages the construction industry to step towards dispute prevention which could begin at the early stage of a project where salient project characteristics are visible and responsible for the prevalence of disputes. For example, the causes which contribute to disputes such as complexity of design, unrealistic time target and inappropriate selection of procurement method can be addressed by the project characteristics of degree of deign complexity, time constraint and procurement method respectively. This research therefore aims to explore the causes of disputes from the perspective of project characteristics towards managing disputes effectively. A questionnaire survey was attended seventy-eight (78) professionals who involved in construction disputes, drawn through snowball sampling technique. A total of 52 causes and 14 project characteristics were identified through literature review and carried for the questionnaire survey. Amongst 30 causes and 10 project characteristics found to be significantly contributing to disputes. The significant causes further analysed from the perspective of project characteristics. Amongst 14 causes are correlated with project characteristics conceptually. Therefore, this study concludes that the careful selection of project characteristics would contribute to mitigate the disputes in construction projects.