PROJECT DELIVERY CONTRACT LANGUAGE, SCHEDULES, AND COLLABORATION

The construction industry has developed a variety of project delivery methods, contractual arrangements, and scheduling methods in order to facilitate collaboration of stakeholders to maximize project performance. It is critical to investigate how project delivery methods and contractual arrangements might influence collaboration during scheduling practice. Understanding this influence can help managers choose/adapt available project delivery methods to their needs and develop strategies to enforce collaboration when they plan for future projects. This research reviewed contractual language in project delivery methods from the perspective of how those methods accommodate stakeholders' collaboration. Twenty-six professionals were also interviewed to reveal their insights on how contractual arrangements influence collaborative scheduling practices. Contract clauses were identified and categorized based on their level of supporting compliance or collaboration. Finally, the results from the interviews were compared and contrasted with the analysis of contracts for cross validation. Results show that schedules are commonly used as contractual documents, and a need exists to improve contractual arrangements to address the lack of application of collective knowledge to develop, review, and validate schedules for construction projects regardless of the delivery method used.