Building design management: key success factors

The architectural, engineering, and construction industry is facing challenges related to increased productivity and improved quality. Most of these challenges need to be dealt with early in the design phase of the projects. This requires an effective design process and increases the need for effective building design management (BDM). This paper explores the success factors for BDM by addressing the following research questions: (1) What are the key success factors in BDM according to literature? (2) Which of these key success factors are considered important by practitioners? Based on a literature review, a framework with 10 success factors for BDM is proposed. The success factors were then assessed with a case study. Afterwards, 22 design managers (DMs) have ranked these success factors according to importance. The case study shows that not all 10 success factors were equally dealt with, underlining the need for a broader perspective on successful BDM. The case study findings emphasize the design team and communication as the most important success factors, while the DMs rated communication and decision-making as most important. The proposed framework should enable building DMs to better handle the challenges of the design phase.The architectural, engineering, and construction industry is facing challenges related to increased productivity and improved quality. Most of these challenges need to be dealt with early in the design phase of the projects. This requires an effective design process and increases the need for effective building design management (BDM). This paper explores the success factors for BDM by addressing the following research questions: (1) What are the key success factors in BDM according to literature? (2) Which of these key success factors are considered important by practitioners? Based on a literature review, a framework with 10 success factors for BDM is proposed. The success factors were then assessed with a case study. Afterwards, 22 design managers (DMs) have ranked these success factors according to importance. The case study shows that not all 10 success factors were equally dealt with, underlining the need for a broader perspective on successful BDM. The case study findings emphasize the design team and communication as the most important success factors, while the DMs rated communication and decision-making as most important. The proposed framework should enable building DMs to better handle the challenges of the design phase.