Empirical Evaluation of Performance of Construction Management at-Risk (CM at-Risk) Project Delivery System With and Without Agency-CM

Abstract

A project delivery system is a comprehensive process of assigning the contractual responsibilities for designing and constructing a project. Design-Bid-Build (D-B-B), Design-Build (D-B), and Construction Management at risk (CM-at-Risk) are the three principal project delivery systems. Agency CM is as a construction management system, and is a way to manage the process of construction. Agency-CM doesn’t take any performance risk in guaranteeing project cost, project schedule and project quality. Generally Agency CM is remunerated on monthly fee, lump sum fee or by the percentage of the project cost that has conflict of interest with the final project schedule and final project cost. Considerable amount of fee is paid to the Agency CM in order to improve the efficiency of the project. This necessitates a comprehensive investigation in to the performance of projects delivered with Agency CM and projects delivered without Agency CM. Agency-CM can be used with any type of Project Delivery system. This study is intended to evaluate the project performance metrics such as Project Cost, Project Schedule and Project Quality in Projects where CM –at - Risk Project Delivery System was used with Agency CM and Projects and where CM-at-Risk Project Delivery System was used without Agency CM. The study included literature review, designing a questionnaire, collecting data from 200 CM-at-Risk projects of which 100 projects where Agency CM was used and 100 projects where Agency CM was not used. Analysis of data pertaining to project performance metrics was done by using Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) statistical software. An understanding of this study may help an owner/client better select the most suitable Project Delivery System between the CM-at-Risk Project Delivery System with Agency CM and CM-at-Risk Project Delivery system without Agency CM.

Keywords: Agency construction management, project delivery systems, CM-at-risk with agency CM, project performance metrics, CM-at-risk without agency CM, construction projects