Qualifications-Driven Procurement Selection Criteria for Design–Build and Construction Manager at Risk Firms

Abstract

Alternative project delivery methods (APDMs) such as construction manager at risk (CMAR) and design-build (DB) rely on engaging the contractor earlier in the project, while design is still ongoing. Selecting the contractor based on the traditional lowest bid approach is oftentimes neither ideal nor recommended since the design is not complete and there are still too many unknowns for a precise estimate. Thus, project owners started selecting the most qualified firm to build the project methods such as qualifications-based selection (QBS). Although several studies have addressed QBS, there is still a need to develop a comprehensive understanding of this approach and how it is being applied. The objectives of this paper are (1) to highlight patterns of the multistep selection, (2) to identify the top qualifications criteria used in solicitation documents [66 requests for qualifications (RFQs) and requests for proposal (RFPs)] for CMAR and DB firms, and (3) to develop scoring weights and find the frequencies of use for the identified top criteria. To achieve these objectives, a total of 66 RFQs and RFPs are collected from all 50 states covering transportation, water infrastructure, educational, public services, and recreational projects. Qualitative and quantitative content analyses and thematic analyses are used to identify the qualifications-driven procurement approaches and the most popular criteria for each APDM, to develop a list of the top 11 qualifications criteria with their detailed descriptions and their associated frequency and average scores. Firm experience and qualifications is the top qualification criterion for both CMAR and DB; followed by the project approach and key personnel experience and qualifications for CMAR firms; and design performance for DB firms. The key contribution of this paper is informing the development of new RFQs and RFPs by providing project owners team with a wide range of options for carrying a successful, systematic, and representative qualifications-based procurement. Thus, helping select the most qualified CMAR and DB firms for their projects. Alternatively, this paper contributes by educating contractors on how to be ready for qualifications-based procurement. This paper reflects the state of practice on contractor qualifications-based procurement, particularly for when the contractor is engaged in the project before the design is complete. The scope covers construction public projects of different types and services including transportation, water, educational, recreational, and public services performed by several agencies such as state DOTs, counties, cities, departments of corrections, port authorities, and public schools. The paper provides public owners with a list of top 11 qualifications selection criteria and their descriptions along with scoring weights, to refer to when developing their documents used for solicitation to procure a contractor. This analysis is timely since the public spending on construction projects has been increasing and is expected to increase significantly during the next decade due to the commitment of federal funds focused on infrastructure spending. Thus, to be able to ensure efficient delivery of these projects in a timely manner, the most qualified contractor needs to be selected for each unique project, especially when the design is not yet complete and there are many major unknowns. Hence, the need to have a systematic mechanism to exercise qualifications-based selection efficiently and increase the chances of selecting the most qualified contractor.