Allocating scarce financial resources effectively through function analysis in social housing projects

Budget constraints faced by social housing projects (SHPs) developers can lead to poor value delivery to the end-users. Without a structured method to guide the decision-making processes during product development, SHP often fails to meet user needs and aspirations. Function analysis (FA) is an essential step in a value management (VM) study. Still, FA practice in SHP has been treated with secondary importance. This paper aims to propose a method for improving FA practice in the VM process for a Brazilian SHP to achieve optimum benefits. The research followed Design Science Research (DSR) in a specific single case study context, focusing on solving practical problems while contributing to theory. The method has 11 steps and guides a complete VM exercise. Its development was based on prior VM research. Focus group meetings were held to get feedback about the initial method's version to increase its relevancy and applicability in the studied context. The proposed method suggests that scarce financial resources in SHP do not necessarily lead to low-value delivery and low-design quality. When FA is fully implemented, opportunities for cost reallocations to enhance value are identified. VM prior research in construction has not provided a specific method for improving FA practice for social housing developers to enhance value in the context of scarce financial resources.