Formulation of Best Practices for Owner's Representatives

Abstract

Quality and productivity in construction could be achievable if the parties involved in the process identify and apply the relevant best practices to their business processes. This seeks the owner's/client's involvement in and commitment to adopting the industry's best practices into the business/project. To provide the owner/owner's representative with appropriate tasks and directions for improving quality and productivity in construction projects, research by Jawaharnesan and Price identified twelve important tasks to be performed by the owner's representative. The tasks were: preparing and organizing; developing project definition; procurement; organizing a joint management team; design management; safety management; measuring and reviewing performance; communications; motivation; coordination; documentation; and project postmortem. A survey of 38 of the major U.K. construction (owner) organizations coupled with interviews and literature review have evolved best practices to effectively perform each of the preceding tasks to achieve quality in construction. This paper evaluates these practices for their importance in improving the performance of the owner's representative.