This paper presents a literature research assessing the performance and issues of delivering construction services worldwide, by exploring reasons for delays and increased construction costs. The study shows a comparison of the performance of the construction industry between different continents and countries. Multiple research databases were looked through and performance information was taken from over 95 publications. The results reveal that although the construction industry is growing throughout the world, there are many of the same problems being experienced in delivering construction projects in developing countries and developed countries. The literature reveals that all countries and continents are experiencing the same issues. On average, 72% of projects are delayed with 38% increase in original contracted duration, also, 63% of projects experienced cost overruns with 24% increase in original contracted cost. Additionally, rework is also a factor that affects performance and accounts for 6% increase in total project costs. Customer satisfaction on projects is low, and 90% of all major issues causing non-performance are due to people. A best value approach was identified as a potential solution to overcome the poor performance on construction projects with the following results: tested over 1900 times, totaling over $6B of procured services, a 94% on time and 97% on budget, and 98% customer satisfaction.

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The State Agency is the regulatory agency responsible for ensuring quality of air, land, and water resources. Historically the State Agency has experienced difficulty in managing environmental professional services. To potentially address the issues, the State Agency tested a new approach to managing their projects, the Best Value Project Management Model (BV PMM), which focuses on using logic and natural laws instead of technical information and experience to improve project performance. This paper presents a case study on the State Agency’s implementation of the BV PMM on their indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) Water Quality contract that ran 60 individual projects. The main functions of the water quality unit program is to identify, assess and remediate sites that are contaminated with hazardous substances. This paper presents the BV PMM, its development, and documents the case study results after one year of implementation. Results include an improved PM utilization rate (22% increase), increase in vendor work performed (102%) in 33% less time, and increase in customer satisfaction (22%).

Traditional project management (PM) results have been poor. The practices of direction and control have been identified by deductive logic as problematic. Deductive logic identifies that, if a manager directs and controls, their risk goes up and performance will go down. A new approach to PM is the replacement of technical expertise with the identification and utilization of expertise. New components of this approach are the minimization of the need to think and make decisions, the use of the language of metrics, a new definition of risk, and the use of preplanning that includes the utilization of expertise and focusing on the mitigation of risk that the expert does not control. This approach has been tested by the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction Working Commission (CIB W117, formerly known as the Performance Based Studies Research Group at Arizona State University) for the past 25 years increasing customer satisfaction to 98% and minimizing cost by 5 to 30%. These practices are a part of the “PM of the Future.”

The Best Value Approach (BVA) is a new project delivery method that has been documented to increase performance and value on projects by the identification and utilization of expertise instead of management, direction, and control (MDC). It utilizes performance information that is simple, observable, and countable. It allows the expert vendor to know what the client project requires, why they can achieve success and what they will do before they do it. The tracking of the project cost and time deviation requires an initial plan and method to track it. Preliminary results of the BVA have shown a 90% decrease in effort by client organizations, 98% customer satisfaction and has led to 1% vendor cost and time deviation rate. It applies to construction, services/IT projects, and any long-term service. In 2014, a large private organization having difficulty delivering information technology (IT) and construction/facility services identified the BVA as a potential solution. This paper will summarize a major IT Enterprise Resource Planning case study that the large private organization used the BVA on and identify the full results.