Planning and Defining the Design-Build Procurement Process - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 101

Proposal Evaluation

In the survey by R. W. Beck (2009) of water and wastewater utility owners that have used
DB contracting, a majority agree that considering qualifications in DB procurement is
important to successful DB project completion. Some owners believe that a best-value
selection (BVS) evaluation process is a favorable means to select the most advantageous
offer among competing responses to their DB project RFP. In a BVS process, the owner
evaluates the qualifications, project approach, costs, and other criteria that the owner
believes are important. In two-step procurement, the qualifications and experience of
short-listed firms have already been evaluated in the SOQ (i.e., step 1), so owners typically
evaluate technical and cost criteria in the proposals of step 2.
Figure 8-3 illustrates a typical sequence of tasks to review DB proposals. After receipt
of proposals, owners should have a team of staff, sometimes aided by specialty advisors,
evaluate the proposals. Recognizing that DB project proposals are generally complicated
and multifaceted, the review team often includes a diverse mix of technical, legal, busi-
ness, and operations staff. Ideally, owner staff that will be involved in the project, such as
the project manager, facility operator, and construction manager, will be engaged in the
RFP development, proposal review, and selection processes. It is also important to have
the owner's project leadership team invested in the selected design-builder and the pro-
posed project approach.
If cost and other commercial considerations are a part of the selection criteria, it is
recommended that this information be evaluated separately to allow each of these impor-
tant criteria to be reviewed without any bias or influence of competing priorities. Some-
times, owners will establish separate review teams: one for technical and the other for
commercial information. This approach allows for a thorough and unbiased analysis of
each topic. The two review teams discuss the totality of information and confirm the total
proposal scores, while considering the requirements that were in the RFP.

Requests for
Clarification

Evaluate
Technical &
Business
Proposals

Proposer
Responses

Cost
Evaluation

Proposer
Interviews

Select
Firm for
Negotiations

Figure 8-3. Typical steps of DB proposal review and team selection for BVS