Alternative Delivery
Beyond RHA’s 20-years of experience in Partnering over 4,000 construction projects, we have spent the last 20 years analyzing and developing an approach to address specific challenges that repeatedly occur on Alternative Delivery projects. Our professional and experienced facilitators guide your team through questions and conversations that are crucial to gain the most benefit from the selected delivery method.
At an RHA-facilitated Team Scoping workshop, we introduce the right topics at the appropriate time so you gain the most value from the design phase of the delivery process. Even when your organization has existing experience with the selected Alternative Delivery method, there is no guarantee that each member of the team has the same experience or expectations of the process.
So let’s talk about your organization’s internal understanding of the differences between traditional Design-Bid-Build versus Alternative Delivery methodologies.
Does your staff understand and support the differences and benefits?
Do they embrace these other delivery methods?
As management, have you made a conscious effort to educate and train your staff on working differently?
These are very important questions that need to be answered. You cannot expect to throw your staff into a new methodology and not give them the tools to do the job. This will only lead to project and team failure as well as extreme frustration with whatever methodology they are using. One important reason is that these are good delivery methods that lead to real success. However, if we don’t adjust our management to the opportunities of the method, these methodologies will quickly be removed from our contracting repertoire.
Alternative Delivery Projects including Design/Build (D/B), Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR), Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC), and Time Plus Cost. Each methodology has provided some unique opportunities and challenges for organizations now embracing them. These new delivery methods require new approaches and changes in existing attitudes, which are often entrenched in our organizations. We cannot just try and make these methodologies fit into the standard delivery method of design-bid-build.
Team Scoping
When beginning an Alternative Delivery project, it is crucial that we establish goals that focus on the bigger picture. It is less about pure design that any contractor can bid, and more about tuning the design and making innovations based on how the selected contractor intends to build the project. When each member is engaged and aware of their responsibilities in the design phase, we have greater innovations and a higher focus on stakeholder needs, along with fewer changes or disputes later in the construction phase.
In the design phase of an Alternative Delivery project, we at RHA have coined the phrase Team Scoping to describe the process we employ. While it remains a team-building workshop, this workshop supports developing processes, clarifying expectations, and defining the roles and responsibilities of each member or entity during the design phase. It is substantially different from the Construction Phase Partnering.
