Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ATTRACT THE BEST DESIGN-BUILD FIRMS
TO COMPETE FOR THE PROJECT
Having the right DB team for a project is at least half the formula for success. The best
DB teams will compete for projects where they have a clear understanding of the potential
risks and rewards, as well as opportunities to win through providing innovation and
quality performance. The following factors will attract the best proposers:
• Well-defined projects with reliable financing
• Transparent and fair procurement processes that short-list the best qualified
teams to provide technical and price proposals
• Procurement processes that promote innovative design and construction solutions
• Procurement processes that contain or reduce the investment to compete, which
can often approach 1 percent of the project cost for each DB team
• Stipends that are provided to reduce the unsuccessful proposer's expense, facili-
tate involvement of smaller local design firms, and obtain ownership for the
owner of intellectual property of those unsuccessful proposers
• Fair and balanced risk allocation in the DB contract
• A collaborative and supportive partnering environment
• Opportunities for fair monetary rewards based on the competition investment
and project risk
• Project implementation procedures that expedite the project schedule and avoid
disputes
SELECT THE RIGHT DESIGN-BUILD TEAM
After attracting the best DB teams to compete for the project, selecting the right DB
team is heavily dependent on two activities: (1) using the qualifications phase to short-list
the best qualified DB teams to provide technical and price proposals. Too often, owners
short-list a large number of proposers or do not short-list at all, so they are not assured
that their final selection will be one of the best qualified firms; and (2) having a fully
prepared and committed owner evaluation committee that can recognize and reward
innovative solutions and technical excellence. If owners do not fully value technical
excellence, low price alone will drive the DB selection and create a less collaborative
DBB-type confrontational environment.
The owner evaluation committee must have a clear understanding of the procurement
documents and be prepared to thoroughly evaluate design-builder's technical propos-
als. Evaluation committee members need to be able to differentiate between the proposals,
assess the proposal responses relative to the project requirements, and score proposals obec-
tively. Too often, committee members use a “herd mentality” and score all propos-
als within a very narrow band that does not adequately differentiate quality and technical
excellence. This approach almost assures that a low price proposal will prevail at the
expense of the best technical solutions. Selecting evaluation team members based on
political correctness, but who are not qualified or committed to their role, can often lead
to a poor result in DB team selection.
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