Formulation of project management models and strategies for design and build projects in Malaysia

The problems and weaknesses of the construction industry had prompted industry players and clients to the construction industry to demand for improvement. This is evident from the publications of numerous construction industry reports and best practice standards worldwide. The common thread of the construction industry reports and best practice standards relate to the call to integrate the design and construction supply chain to remove the inefficiencies and weaknesses ofthe Traditional sequential procurement method. Design and build is an integrated procurement method that can overcome the inefficiencies and weaknesses of the Traditional method. Its popularity is attributed to its ability to provide single point responsibility, better price certainty, faster delivery, improved constructability, higher functionality and better teamwork. Design and Build was once an important procurement method In Malaysia but its usage in Malaysia is currently low due to its implementation problems and poor perfOrma!lce. Some sectors had even suggests to abandon the use of the Design and Build method. This is an alanning trend, which is inconsistent with the recommendation of the construction industry reports and best practice standards. While various reports reflect a need to integrate the construction industry, there has been no or insufficient corresponding development of a framework suitable for local Design and Build project management, especially for the Design and Build organisation and its project team. Therefore, he aim of this research is to gauge the current state of affair of the Design and Build method in Malaysia and to effectively utilise the Design and Build project generated knowledge to fonnulate a set of project management models and strategies showing evidence of better ways of approaching Design and Build project management, in a hope to provide a framework that promotes the understanding of the concept and initiate changes to the mindset that leads to project success and the achievement of the benefits of Design and Build in MalaYSia (Based on the findings derived from the literature review, survey, interviews and case studies carried out, concerns and problem areas affecting time and cost aspects of Design and Build projects in Malaysia were evaluated and used to develop a set of Design and Build project management models and strategies. checklist was also produced for project teams involved in Design and Build projects to review their current project management procedures and practices so that the models and strategies proposed in this research can be customised and used effectively as a Design and Build project management framework to ensure project succes