Operational Framework for Managing Construction-Contract Administration Practitioners' Perspective through Modified Delphi Method

Abstract

Effective construction contract administration (CCA) is a core competency for the management of construction projects. The consequences of poor contract administration can be catastrophic, and it may necessitate extensive investigation of factors affecting the CCA performance. This paper presents an operational and systematic multidimensional contract administration performance framework (CAPF) in order to assist the client, the consultant, and the contractor to effectively plan, manage, measure, monitor, and control the CCA performance. Past research, semistructured interviews, and a two-round Delphi study were used to identify the importance of 93 operational key factors in 11 project management categories that affect CCA performance. The worst-case scenario of the mode score, mode value, and standard deviation to mean ratio (SDMR) were conducted to check the overall agreement on Delphi rounds. The mean value and interrater agreement (IRA) analyses were applied to quantify the significance and strength of the agreement of the identified factors on project performance. Furthermore, the external validity of the framework was validated by two real construction projects and the results indicated substantial improvements in CCA performance by better implementation and introduction of new factors. This study contributes to the construction management body of knowledge by introducing a comprehensive framework that would cover the limitations of the existing studies.