Purpose -The construction project is implemented under uncertainty environment, and the product of construction is very complex. Selecting a project delivery system/approach is a critical task, which determines the project schedule, quality and investment objectives. The purpose of this paper is to propose a decision-making model for the selection of project delivery system which is based on information entropy and unascertained measure model. Design/methodology/approach -A decision-making model based on information entropy and unascertained set is employed to select project delivery approach. In order to overcome the subjective evaluations from the experts, the theory of "entropy weight" is applied to modify the experts' subjective weight. The multi-attribute unascertained measure decision making is fitted to deal with the uncertainty information for selection of project delivery system. Findings -The proposed methodology is more comprehensive compared with the previous work, especially in the uncertainty environment. Research limitations/implications -There is some further work that should be considered, such as how to deal with the imprecise and subjective information given by the experts; how to determine the weight of the experts'; finding a set of importance factors influencing the selection of a delivery system is a complex task to further research. Practical implications -The proposed method can help the construction owner to select a most fitted project delivery system of a construction project. Originality/value -A new approach to select project delivery approach is proposed based on information entropy and unascertained set.
IntroductionProject delivery methods not only define the roles, responsibilities and risk allocation of the participants involved but also set up a contract framework for construction project execution. A project delivery strategy is the set of project delivery methods that the owner may adopt for delivering the projects. A change to this strategy may involve a broadening or a lessening of delivery options. There are several systems of project delivery to choose from. The most common approaches are design-bid-build (DBB), design-build (DB), construction management at risk or construction management as general contractor (CM-at risk/GC), engineering-procurement-construction (EPC)/ turnkey and construction management as program management (CM/PM).Consequently, selecting an appropriate project delivery method is one of the key factors determining the success of a project (Oyetunji and Anderson, 2006;Yakowenko, 2004). To some extent, it determines the delivery time, quality and cost. It has been showed that an appropriate project delivery method could reduce project costs by an average of 5 percent (Business Roundtable, 1982). No project delivery system is perfect, but based on the unique requirements of each project. One particular project delivery system might be better than the others. To increase the chances of project success, owners must choose an appropriate project delivery sys...