Project Delivery Systems - PDS

First of all, it is extremally critical to understand that each industry has its own macro and micro processes, detailed knowledge and factors, best practices, methods, techniques, and strategies. In addition, each industry has its laws and regulations, and risks that would impact the delivery process of any project or initiative. This means that whatever applies to IT projects would be significantly different to what applies to process improvements projects, construction projects, and so on.

Following the same concept, projects in the construction industry have a unique nature and complexities comparing to other projects from other industries.

This is due to:

1. Their size and magnitude,
2. The size and magnitude of their financial investments,
3. The uniqueness of their business objectives, values and benefits, and desired outcomes,
4. Level and degree of the associated risks and the impacts of those risks on each process and domain,
5. The interactions between different risks,
6. The number of internal and external stakeholders and their impacts on the process, including the impacts of their organizational structure and other organizational factors on the detailed process,
7. The number of interfaces and the needed coordination and integration between processes, business, and people,
8. The size and amount communication that would be needed to deliver the project successfully,
9. The size and diversity of the delivery team, as sometimes this would result in extremely complex communication process to control the overall and detailed delivery process,
10. In addition to the economic factors and conditions combined with the complexity of the legal system and politics in some jurisdictions,
11. Added to all of the above the current global and local challenges and their impacts on each initiative.

All of the above and many more would add different layers of complexities while we are still scratching the surface; i.e. the actual project/initiative related complexities aren’t being explored yet.

On another level, each construction project has its own unique complexities that would be impacted by many factors, processes, exact circumstances, and risks.

Generally speaking, as a rule of thumb, construction projects may follow the general project's lifecycle on the high macro level.

However, there are significant differences on the micro level due to several factors, similar to the associated impacts of the selected PDS.

What does this term mean? What are the impacts of the PDS on the delivery process of construction projects, on the macro and micro levels?

"A project delivery system defines the structure of the relationships of the parties, the roles and responsibilities of the parties, and the general sequence of activities required to deliver the project (PDI, 1999, p. 4)." - PMI

In another definition "A?project delivery method?is a system used by an agency or owner for organizing and financing design, construction, operations, and maintenance services for a?structure?or facility by entering into legal agreements with one or more entities or parties."

In short, PDS is the strategy, framework, roadmap, the system, and the process of taking any construction project or initiative from conception to operation.

i.e. How the overall delivery process would look like? what are the impacts on the different domains and processes? What are the associated risks for each system? who are the parties and stakeholders that supposed to be engaged? and when? when the procurement must occur? what to procure? how risks would be distributed? what are the responsibilities and obligations of each party? Who is responsible for what? what type of contracts? how the design would be completed? what is the exact process? how deliverables would be accepted formally? how KPIs would be established, measured, monitored, and managed? What the communication process would look like? How the communication process would be managed and controlled? How conflicts and disagreements would be resolved? What the dispute resolution process would look like? When escalations would occur? And how? How the process would be governed to ensure the successful completion? and so on ...

All of the above and many more would be impacted by the selected PDS.

The selection of the best PDS would be super critical and would lay the foundation for the delivery process and its success.

The PDS system must be selected and tailored to align the uniqueness of each project or initiative with the strategic benefits and business objectives on all levels; project, program, and portfolio. It must be tailored to ensure the alignment with the unique business values and desired outcomes.

The PDS would directly impact the cost, schedule, scope, risks, and all other micro processes along the way to achieve the successful completion. This would include the risks distribution, sources financing and funding, procurement processes, design process, construction, handing over and acceptance process, post construction, O&M process, etc.

One of the major misconceptions in the construction management field that compressing/accelerating the construction schedule, through crashing/fast-tracking the critical path/critical activities is the only way to expediate the delivery process of construction initiatives.

Yes, this is one of the techniques. However, the Construction or development phase is only one phase of the overall process.

Expediating the delivery process goes beyond simply expediating the construction schedule, and the overall process would be significantly impacted by the selected PDS.

The true acceleration would occur through accelerating the overall delivery process. This would occur by accelerating each process/phase, on the macro and micro levels, fast-tracking the different phases, and allowing the different phases to overlap throughout the process.

In addition, this process would expediate the process of realizing the business values and benefits for all stakeholders, tackle issues and challenges as they arise, and limit their impacts on the overall delivery process before it is too late or too costly to do that, by implementing corrective actions in a timely fashion.