ANALYSIS OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE FACTORS IN NIGERIA BUILDING INDUSTRY

ANALYSIS OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE FACTORS IN NIGERIA BUILDING INDUSTRY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The  construction process  appears  as  ordered, linear  phenomenon that  can be  organized, planned and managed  easily.  The  high  rate  of  failures  that  occur  in the  construction projects  to be  completed on budget  and schedule  clarifies  that  the  nature  of  the  construction process is not as  ordered  and  predictable  as  it  may  appear. The  construction process  is  a  complex, nonlinear and dynamic  phenomenon that  may  exists  on  the  edge  of  chaos  sometimes. Therefore, the construction projects  are  rich in  plan  failure,  delays  and  cost  overruns  more  than  in successes (Bertelsen, 2002).   Some  practitioners  refer  to  a  project to  be  successful  if  it satisfies  the  three  leg  of  the  triple constraint  specification, cost  and time. However  this  definition does  not  fully  embrace  the meaning and  the factors  of  project  success/failure. For  instance, the  Sydney  opera  house  in Australia  is  one  of  the  most  recognizable  images  of  the  modern world.  Though, it  cost  about sixteen times  as  much to  build and it  took  four  times  as  long  to  complete. Nowadays, the  opera house  has  an  enormous  value  and became  the  icon of  Australia  and  it  is  considered  an architecture  accomplishment  (Camilleri, 2011).  

From  the  project  management  perspective,  success  means  the  delivery  of  the  project  within the deadlines, budgets  and its  functionality  fulfills  the  mission and the  planned  objectives  and meets  the  required  expectation  of  the  stakeholders.  While  the  project is  assumed  to  be  a  failure when the  completion time  exceeds  the  due  date, occurrence  of  budget  overruns  and the outcomes  did  not  satisfy  the  company’s  performance criteria or  the  stakeholder’s  expectations. Sometimes  in  case  of  the acceptance  of  the outcomes  by  the  stakeholders,  higher  cost  and delays  must  be  tolerable  (Toader  et  al.,  2010;  Prabhakar,  2008).  This  clarify  that the  success and failure  criteria  changes  from  project  to  project  depending on participants, scope, project size,  technological implications  and  many  other  factors  (Jari, 2013).  Therefore,  it is  vital for project  managers  and  researchers  to  gain  better  understanding  about  success  and  failure of construction  projects  and  to identify  all  the  factors  that  may  oppose  the  project  success  and leads  to  failure.  Eventually,  approve  a certain  criteria to  be  used  to  measure the  success  of different  projects.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Acvording to Nwachukwu et al. (2010), the rate at which infrastructure construction projects fail, or are abandoned , some even u dere construction, is retrogressive in most developing economics. So one understands why it is a problem in Nigeria. Project failure is a big problem in Nigeria. Besides the very high numbers of abandoned projects defacing the landscape. Of recent a he GH rate of collapse of privately owned building projects has been recorded, with the attendant fatalities. Hence there is need for analysis of success and failure factors in Nigeria building industry.

1.3  OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

This  research  aims  to  develop  a framework  to analyze the factors of success and failure in Nigeria building industry. Towards  achieving  this  aim, these  objectives have  to be  accomplished:

•  Firstly, building  a  comprehensive  background of  the  research topic  through covering:  the nature  of  construction industry, its  stages  and players, identifying  the  factors  of  project failure  and their  impacts.

•  Secondly,  classifying  the  factors  and  impact  identified  from  literature  review.

•  Outlining  the  research  conclusions  and recommendations  useful  to construction professionals  towards  delivering  successful  projects.

1.4  RESEARCH QUESTIONS

(1) what are the critical factors for successful project implementation in Nigeria?

(2) Is client commitment more important for project success more than availability of the required technology?

(3) what are the reasons for project failure ?.

1.5  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study can go a long way in throwing up indices which can be successfully applied to boost project delivery in Nigeria. This can help in informing policy development in the subject matter and can help project guidance to professionals involved in construction projects by building industry in Nigeria, from design to implementation. It can also establish a clear need for professional project managers in Nigerian building industry because of paucity of literature on project management principles and practices in Nigeria, it is hoped that empirical studies such as this can help enrich the indigenous literature on the concept.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The research focus on the analysis of success and failure factors in Nigeria building industry.

 REFERENCES

Bertelsen, S. (2002).  Complexity-construction in  a new  perspective,  IGLC  championship.

Camilleri, E. (2011)  Project  Success:  Critical  Factors  and Behaviors,  Gower  Publishing.

Jari, A. J. and Bhangale, P. (2013).  To study  critical  factors  necessary  for  a successful construction project,  Internatiol  Journal  of  Innovative  Technology  and Exploring  Engineering.

Nwachukwu, C.C. and Nzotta, S.M. (2010). Quality factors indexes: a measure of project success constraints in a developing economy. Interdisciplinary journal of contemporary Research in Business, 2(2), 505.