Benchmarking design-build procurement systems in construction

Abstract

Benchmarking can be an effective way of helping organizations to deliver better services through continuous improvement. The concept of benchmarking has been extensively applied to the construction industry in recent years to enhance the performance of the project delivery process. Success is hard to achieve, especially for a construction project delivered by an innovative procurement method - design and build, and the identification of critical success factors can enable project team leaders to make improvements in some particular areas. This paper aims to establish a conceptual framework of critical success factors (CSFs) for design-build projects in construction. From the framework, it is hypothesized that project success of a design-build project is a function of the interaction among project characteristics, project procedures, project management strategies, project-related participants, project work atmosphere and project environment. The CSFs so identified can provide practitioners and academics with a better understanding of running a design-build project successfully to develop a benchmark for the D&B project delivery process.