International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol:10 No:01 31 109301-4747 IJCEE-IJENS © February 2010 IJENS I J E N S Abstract — The Nigerian construction industry produces nearly 70% of the nation’s fixed capital formation yet its performance within the economy has been, and continues to be, very poor. For example, the Nigerian construction industry’s contribution to employment has remained consistently at 1.0% over the last decade against the World Bank’s average observation of about 3.2% in developing countries. The last decade however exposed the declining level of clients’ satisfaction from the built facilities as a result of poor quality performance in addition to the perennial problems of time and cost overruns in the Nigerian construction industry. This has necessitated a radical change in industry practice in order to improve the quality of construction processes and the level of clients’ satisfaction arising there from by devising methodology for evaluating the quality performance of the contractors in order to assist construction clients in selecting quality-oriented organizations that will provide higher quality services and products within budget and on schedule. Therefore, the principal aim of this paper is to provide a methodology that will improve the quality of the design and construction processes and the level of customer satisfaction derived there from. This paper identified quality attributes relevant to the construction process and proposed a quality performance evaluation model that covers both the corporate and operational levels of a construction project. The paper also implemented the framework in the form of an investigative survey into the quality performance of building contractors in Nigeria as perceived by client organizations. The assessment was based on clients’ perception of the contractor quality practices based on the identified quality attributes. Index Term— Client satisfaction, Construction industry, Quality attributes, Quality Performance, I. INTRODUCTION The Nigerian construction industry produces nearly 70% of the nation‘s fixed capital formation [1].Yet its performance within the economy has been, and continues to be, very poor. For example, the Nigerian construction industry‘s contribution to employment has remained consistently at 1.0% over the last decade against the World Bank‘s average observation of about 3.2% in developing countries. The construction industry tends to define quality as the ability of products and processes to conform to the established requirements. These requirements are established Assoc. Prof. DR Arazi Idrus is with the Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia. E- mail: (Arazi_idrus@petronas.com.my. ) Mahmoud Sodangi is a PhD research student under the supervision of DR Arazi Idrus at Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia. (E-mail: abbax9@yahoo.co.uk ) characteristics of a product, process or service as specified in the contractual agreement. Quality is a persuasive concern throughout the entire project process, as the performance of each phase in the process will affect the performance of subsequent phases [2]. Both [3] and [4] have suggested the consideration of quality as a major criterion in construction procurement systems in order to enhance the level of competitiveness and facilitate the production of higher quality construction,. Yet, quality remains an elusive attribute that has been defined in many different ways. [6] consider quality as a subset of performance, in conjunction with productivity, safety and timeliness, while others seem to think of it in terms of ―conformity to established requirement s‖ or ―fitness for purpos e‖ [7] and [8]. ISO 8402 defined quality as the degree of excellence in a competitive sense, such as reliability, serviceability, maintainability or even individual characteristics. Similarly, the term ‗perform ance‘ can also take on different meanings depending on the context in which it is being used. Traditionally, it has been used to measure the effectiveness (doing the right thing) and efficiency (doing the right thing right). Various researchers have attributed numerous dimensions to performance, such as quality, productivity, profitability, safety, timeliness, growth, satisfaction, etc [9]. Therefore, in order for construction clients and end-users of completed facilities to realize best value, the concept of quality culture must be stressed in the industry to improve the quality of services (design and construction processes) and products (facilities constructed) offered by various organizations. Accordingly, there is a need for a framework for evaluating quality performance to assist construction clients in selecting quality-oriented organizations that will provide higher quality services and products within budget and on schedule. Therefore, the principal aim of this paper is to provide a methodology that will improve the quality of the design and construction processes and the level of customer satisfaction derived there from. The main objectives include investigating project quality attributes in the design and construction process; developing a quality performance evaluation model that will encompass both the corporate and project levels of a construction; and demonstrate the application of the framework by investigating the client ‘s perspectives of the quality performance of their contractors at operational level. Framework for Evaluating Quality Performance of Contractors in Nigeria. Arazi Bin Idrus and Mahmoud Sodangi