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Decision Support Model for Selecting the Appropriate Construction Management Firm
AboelYousr, Mohamed Ahmed
AboelYousr, Mohamed Ahmed
Date
2021-12
Author
Advisor
Type
Thesis
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Description
A Master of Science thesis in Construction Management by Mohamed Ahmed Aboelyousr entitled, “Decision Support Model for Selecting the Appropriate Construction Management Firm”, submitted in December 2021. Thesis advisor is Dr. Sameh El-Sayegh. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Completion Certificate, Approval Signatures, and AUS Archives Consent Form).
Abstract
Decision support models assist construction professionals in reducing human-bias during the selection process. Construction management (CM) firms are unique as they act as client’s agents and assist them in the management of construction projects throughout the project’s life cycle. Selection of the appropriate CM firm increases the chances of successful project delivery. Examining existing research pointed towards the absence of decision support models for CM firms. This thesis proposes a multi-criteria decision support model for selecting the appropriate Construction Management firms using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed model aims to assist decision makers in selecting the appropriate CM firm by ensuring that the right services are offered by a provider from project initiation to closure. By doing so, this thesis aims to standardize the method of selection for CM firms based on key selection criteria. The selection criteria were identified through literature review. The importance of these identified criteria was measured through a survey distributed to construction professionals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The survey collected the feedback through pair wise comparisons of the identified criteria. Fifty-two survey responses were collected and analyzed using Expert Choice software and then used to develop the model based on AHP. The results show that the most important criteria for selecting CM firms are: past experience in similar projects, financial standing, technical capability in Building Information Modeling (BIM), abilities and qualification of key staff members, current experience in ongoing projects and technical capability in risk management. Moreover, the results indicate that the firm’s experience category is more valuable in comparison to the firm’s characteristics and construction management teams’ categories. Similarly, CM technical capabilities are more valuable relative to CM firm’s core and support services. A framework was also developed consisting of five stages that the decision makers will go through to select the appropriate CM firm. A case study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed model.