RT-DCC-02

Due to the competitive nature of the construction market and the omnipresent pressures of time and money on large-scale projects, project teams often launch into construction without taking time to adequately assess their construction readiness. As such, this research aims to quantitatively determine what qualifies a project as “construction-ready” while assisting project teams to improve and sustain the readiness level of their projects.

To this end, RT-DCC-02 derived 228 readiness factors from members’ industry expertise, the extant body of literature concerning construction readiness, and the current state of the practice in terms of construction readiness. These factors were divided into 15 categories, including Project Team, Engineering, Planning, and Stakeholder Management. Once the factors were identified, a comprehensive survey was developed which collected data from 80 projects: 41 Construction-Ready (CR) projects, and 39 Construction-Not-Ready (CNR) projects.

Using the collected data, the team developed mathematical and statistical models to weight each factor, highlighting the factors that differentiate CR from CNR projects. From these weights, the Construction Readiness Score (CRS) is computed, which is a single unified metric that can be used to assess the readiness level of a project as a percentage. Furthermore, the collected data was used to benchmark the CRS to classify future projects as CR, Borderline, and CNR, and the performance differences between CR and CNR projects were investigated to quantify the impact of achieving – and sustaining – a readiness status throughout the project.

All of the research findings were incorporated into the Construction Readiness Assessment (CRA) Tool. RT-DCC-02 developed this computer-based tool to integrate the findings of its research into the workflow of industry professionals and to assist them in controlling construction readiness. The CRA tool is built in Microsoft Excel-Visual Basic for Applications. The tool uses the weights of the 228 factors to compute a unified project readiness score, and subsequently compares that score to both the benchmarks identified in this research and user-defined project goals. The CRA tool further identifies leverage areas in which improvement can be made to increase or maintain construction readiness. Repeated use of the tool during the planning and construction phases of a project permits projects to be tracked as they progress toward construction readiness.

The CRA tool was used on 10 projects, 100% of which reported that the tool was:

• Valuable in assessing construction readiness
• Valuable in enhancing construction readiness
• Potentially able to improve project performance
• User-friendly

More importantly, 100% of the testers reported that they plan to use the tool on their future projects.