Abstract:
In the past few years, the Progressive Design Build (PDB) delivery method began gaining
traction in the construction industry. PDB projects have been shown to be successful
specifically for water/wastewater and transportation projects. However, as far as owners
are concerned, two main questions still remain unanswered: (1) What are the best practices
to maximize the likelihood of success in PDB projects? (2) Under which circumstances
should one be using PDB as a delivery method? While owners need to understand the
factors that govern project performance and the factors that impact selection of delivery
methods, there is no empirical database to provide evidence for efficient decision making.
Therefore, to fill this gap in the literature, this study aims to examine the impact of
time of involvement, team selection, team behavior, and trust on the performance of
projects delivered using the PDB method and to determine the importance of variables that
impact an owner’s decision to select PDB as a delivery method for a project. This thesis
reports on an empirical investigation of the performance and characteristics of projects delivered using the Progressive Design Build method by establishing a database of
completed PDB projects and conducting a descriptive and multiple statistical analysis using
the Mann-Whitney U test. The significant results of the statistical analysis provide a list of
best practices owners can follow to increase their chances of achieving success in PDB
projects. For example, to reduce the severity of disputes in a project, it is better to wait to
set the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) when the design has developed more than 60
percent. In addition, this study identified and prioritized influential variables in selecting
PDB as a delivery method. This study contributes to both academia and practice. As far as
academia is concerned, this study is the first attempt to establish a performance database
of PDB projects. Practitioners also can benefit from the results, which identify best
practices for maximizing success in PDB projects and provide guidelines for using PDB as
a delivery method, based on owner and project characteristics.
