Design management in design and build projects: The new role of the contractor

The team members in Design and Build D&B projects, including owner's representative, contractor and architect/engineer, have to re-adjust their traditional thinking and to learn extra professional skills to cope with the increasing complexities and demands of modern practice and for managing the design of large-scale projects. In D&B contracts, the design responsibility is transferred from the owner's organization to that of the D&B contractor. This paper presents a study, which reviews the project management of D&B projects and also analyses the issues relating to design management process and design risk of the project participants with their changed roles. The study explores the performance and adaptability of the D&B contractor in design management. A questionnaire survey and structured interviews of three groups of project participants: owners, designers and contractors were carried out. The study results indicate that, though there are identified areas needing improvement, most of the respondents have satisfactory experiences with the D&B contractor's performance in terms of effectiveness in managing the design team, adequacy of design knowledge and their ability in managing the design process.