EXTENT OF THE APPLICATION OF LESSONS LEARNED IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE
Eng. Dr. Charles Nnamdi Ononuju - Senior Lecturer, Department of Project Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Nigeria
Dr. Benedict Amade - Lecturer, Department of Project Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Nigeria
Dr. Uzoma Francis Amaeshi - Senior Lecturer, Department of Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Nigeria
Dr. Emmanuel Tayo Adu - Senior Lecturer, Department of Quantity Surveying, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria
Precious Keinpirima Iringe-koko - Postgraduate Student, Department of Project Management Technology, Federal University of Technology, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
The aim of the study is to analyze lessons learned practices as is applicable in the Nigerian construction industry with a view to delivering construction projects to fruition. Specifically the study determines and evaluates the extent of lessons learned effort deployed in construction projects, determine and evaluate the lessons learned enabling tools that would aid in the successful delivery of construction projects in Nigeria. The study deployed a survey research design method, while a snow balling sampling technique was used in arriving at a sample size of 111 respondents from a population of two hundred (200) practitioners consisting of engineers, architects, builders, project managers and quantity surveyors, etc from construction firms located in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. A questionnaire modeled using a five point Likert scale was used for data collection. The collected data were presented with the aid of figures and charts, while Cronbach’s alpha test, frequency distribution, relative importance index were deployed in the analyses of the key issues in the study using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20. The findings from the study show that there is a general low level of application /adoption of lessons learned as affirmed by 80.39% of the respondents, while 85.29% of the respondents have not deployed any lessons learned activity of late. Findings from the use/deployment of lessons learned enabling tools in construction project delivery by the practitioners shows that face to face meetings (RII=0.32), brainstorming (RII=0.31), project files and minutes of meetings for tender approvals (RII=0.30), technical forums/training workshops (RII=0.29) and post project reviews/performance reviews (RII=0.27) were the most deployed lessons learned enabling tools.
