Qualifications-driven Procurement

Qualifications-driven procurement has been tied to improved performance and positive project outcomes. The hypothesis is quite obvious: the best qualified team with the most experience should be able to perform better than a lesser qualified team with less experience. This hypothesis has been tested by a number of research efforts using large datasets and multiple statistical analyses. However, implementing qualifications-driven selection is not always simple given that a contractor’s qualifications are more difficult to quantify compared to simply selecting the lowest bidder. Therefore, it is critical to implement a clear and structured selection process that is transparent and fair to all participants. This chapter was developed, based on extensive research and practical experience, as a guide to help design such fair and transparent qualifications-driven procurement processes for design and construction projects. Project owners can benefit by learning how to design or improve their existing procurement process, while engineers and contractors can learn what to expect when competing in a qualifications-driven selection for their next project.