Achieving Construction Project Success through Integration in the Project Delivery System from an Owner's Perspective

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is a newly evolved project delivery system which has been capturing the attention in the Architecture / Engineering / Construction (AEC) community. IPD promotes more integration among project stakeholders and more optimal use of project resources. IPD, like any other new method or technology, needs to be approved in order to be widely accepted and used in the AEC community. The proper way to prove this new system - and integration in construction projects in general - is to objectively compare its benefits to those of other more established delivery systems in the industry. Owners' perspective is the main focus of this study.;Literature was reviewed about the subject matter and a gap was identified in the construction literature for this study to fill. The literature also helped identify variables in construction project delivery to observe and analyze. In addition, owners-specific success criteria were gathered from the literature to measure project performance. Then, a data collection tool was developed based on project delivery variables, and data was collected from 34 projects executed by construction owner organizations. The collected data was analyzed to test this study's main hypothesis that IPD and more integrated projects give better results to owners. The analysis was performed in a univariate level first, then in a multivariate level.;Univariate analysis results showed that IPD and more integrated projects were statistically proven to have better performance than other more conventional and less integrated project delivery systems in four owner-specific performance areas: quality, communication, safety, and owner satisfaction. Multivariate analysis helped develop a predictive and explanatory model for project performance with OPQR being the dependent variable and project delivery characteristics being the independent variables. The multivariate analysis highlighted project delivery characteristics that significantly affected project performance. Integration initiatives such as collaboration and open communication, financial transparency, and applying lean construction tools were found to significantly affect project performance.;These contributions should serve as a stepping stone in proving IPD as a construction project delivery system, and integrated projects in general, to the AEC community and most notably owners.