Appraisal of the critical success factors for building information modelling (BIM) adoption by clients in northeast universities in Nigeria

Abstract

Adoption and implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Nigerian construction industry by clients will increase building performance, give automatic cost estimates and corrections during the design stage. It will also help in discovering design errors and omissions before construction begin. This study aims to assess the critical success factors (CSFs) of BIM with a view of enhancing the its adoption by clients in construction and making recommendations for implementation. Descriptive survey was employed involving quantitative methods using questionnaire survey strategy in collecting the data in six selected federal universities in northeast Nigeria. However, the survey was conducted among only 52 sectional heads of construction related professionals and staff of the works and physical planning unit. Data collected were analysed using descriptive analysis. Findings revealed that the level of awareness of BIM authorizing tools by clients is as high as 64% which is adequate for implementation. The major CSFs for BIM implementation are mandating BIM for all projects with a mean value of 4.93. Also, a mean value of 4.80, 4.69 and 4.62 were obtained in providing incentives for training and software, readiness of other project stakeholders to adopt BIM, and support leadership of the organization respectively. Based on these findings, the study recommended that BIM promotion agencies should be established by the federal government also be established and funded by universities. The study found that there is a high level of underutilisation of BIM tools by clients in their projects. In conclusion, the underutilisation is attributed to lack of leadership, direction and enforcement. BIM implementation strategy and policy in universities should be developed to improve the utilisation of BIM tools. The CSFs for BIM implementation by clients are mandating BIM for all projects and subsidizing cost of BIM.