Benchmark the Selection Model of the Project Delivery Method (PDM) on K–12 Public School Projects

Each year, federal and local governments spend billions of dollars on public school construction. During the execution of the design and construction, selecting an appropriate project delivery method (PDM) can help to reduce time and cost. However, the PDM selection process is a complicated decision process due to the risk and uncertainties. Although some methods have been developed for transportation or airport over the past decade, limited research has investigated the PDM selection method on public school projects. In this work, the pros/cons selection model for public school projects based on analysis of the critical impact factors was proposed. The factors were identified through literature review and through an interview with industry professionals with experience of 20 years on average. In addition, the steps of the benchmarked model were described and the model functionality was also validated through using a qualitative analysis on data collected from 204 public-school projects. The results demonstrated that the proper performance of the proposed model is useful for selecting a PDM for public school projects. In addition, our results recommended developing a multi-criteria selection method for large projects.