Assessment of the Impact of Design Documentation Quality on Construction Project Delivery

Abstract

Extant literature indicates that poor design documentation quality often results in construction project inefficiency. However, there is less effort by researchers to identify and empirically assess the significant impacts of design documentation quality on project delivery. Therefore, this study seeks to empirically assess how poor design documentation quality impacts construction project delivery. This study is a sequel to a study by the same authors that reviewed literature on the impacts of design documentation quality on project delivery based on a meta-synthesis approach. Therefore, the outcome of the meta-synthesis was developed into a questionnaire and distributed to project managers, architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, and site supervisors based on purposive sampling which obtained 127 responses. Data were analyzed statistically by determining the Relative Importance Index (RII) of each factor. The findings indicate project delays, project abandonment and cost overrun as significant impacts on project delivery. Also, improving collaboration between design disciplines and specialists’ involvement during design are significant strategies to improve quality. The results provide pragmatic data to help enhance initiatives toward quality improvement. However, future studies should aim at developing a framework to improve design documentation quality.

Keywords

• assessment
• construction project delivery
• design documentation
• design documentation quality