In Nigerian, public building projects (PBPs) failure and abandonment constitutes one of the hindrances to the development of the nation’s economic system. Therefore, the links between PBPs management success and the built environment professionals (BEPs) is becoming an important field of attention. This study evaluates the application of project planning techniques in PBPs in Nigeria and project planning challenges related to their successful delivery. Review of relevant literature combined with experts’ input revealed twenty three factors; this form the basis for designing a questionnaire adopted to collect relevant data from BEPs. Findings identified poor strategic project planning aligned to project success, unrealistic expectation and overly bureaucratic hiccups from project initiators as the most critical factors influencing project management practices (PMP) affecting success in PBP delivery. The study suggests that unsuccessful project delivery is a reflection of inappropriately applied project planning techniques leading to serious project planning challenges.