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 Problem Statement
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.
