Change Order Management Factors in Building Projects in Northern Nigeria

A change is an amendment or addition with respect to the original plans, specification or other contract documents and vital factor in construction project management. A change order is an instruction from an employer approving a change. Construction projects in Nigeria have suffered deleteriously as a consequence of extensive change orders, which has manifested in cost and time overruns, disputes, arbitration, litigation and even the abandonment of projects and this negatively impacts on the efficiency of the Nigerian construction industry.This paper explore the extent change order management strategies correlate with overall building project in Nigeria. Thirty strategies for managing change order were identified through intensive literature search. Twenty -one factors peculiar to the Nigerian construction industry were used to develop a questionnaire. A total of 323 questionnaires were administered through stratified random sampling to respondents in the cities of Abuja, Kano and Bauchi. The study targeted construction Consultants namely Architects, Quantity Surveyors Building Engineers, Service Engineer (Electrical & Mechanical), Contractor and Building owners in three sub-study cities. The study recorded an overall response rate of 80.8 %. Using SPSS version 22, the questionnaire was subjected to reliability test. Statistical analysis was used using average index; spearman correlation coefficient; factor analysis and multiple regression were used to analysis data from survey questionnaire. The study reveal that change orders are better manage at the design stage and that clear and thorough project brief, better initial planning and thorough detailing of design are the three topmost management strategies. The study established that overall project success is impacted by change order management with a R2 of 0.252, meaning that change order management at the design stage accounts for 25.2% of the variation in building project outcomes. The Spearman's (rho) also show strong agreement among respondents. The study concluded that proper adoption and use of project implementation phase principles by project sponsor, increased effort at the design stage of projects by project participant and allocation of adequate resources to project requirement will help minimize change orders in project delivery in Northern Nigeria.