Benchmark Performance Metrics for Integrated Project Delivery

Abstract

The construction industry is fraught with waste and inefficiencies resulting in projects often failing to meet owners’ expectations. Integrated project delivery (IPD) is the newest project delivery system (PDS) and changes the traditional roles and relationships of key project stakeholders. Through increased early collaboration, IPD attempts to eliminate waste and deliver the highest-value projects to owners. It is seen as a potential solution to many of the challenges impeding successful project performance. However, a transformational move toward IPD has yet to reach a tipping point, and its use is not prevalent throughout the construction industry. Little research has been done to quantitatively analyze IPD compared with the more commonly used delivery methods. Through substantial collection of quantitative project performance data and univariate statistical analysis, this study fills the gap in PDS research by evaluating the effects of IPD on building construction projects across a wide range of performance metrics from the perspective of general contractors and construction managers. This research demonstrates that IPD/near-IPD outperformed non-IPD projects with respect to performance in communication, change management, and business performance areas. Communication was found superior in terms of the number of requests for information (RFIs) per million dollars; change management in terms of change-order processing time; and business performance in terms of a project’s impact on company image and the potential for return business. A new term called project quarterback rating (PQR), which combines key performance metrics, was used to quantitatively evaluate overall performance. Statistically significant evidence of the overall superior performance of IPD/near-IPD compared with non-IPD projects was found. These results should encourage owners to consider the use of IPD, or IPD principles in conjunction with other delivery methods, in future capital facilities endeavors.