Selection of the most competent project designer based on multi-criteria and cluster analysis

Construction project designers (CPDs) are essential human resources for the construction enterprises. This paper focuses on creating a novel approach for selecting the most efficient CPD. Thirty-four required attributes of a designer were identified and prioritised through a structured questionnaire survey. The survey led to 199 responses from engineers throughout the Greek Construction Industry. SPSS PASW was used to implement cluster analysis and three distinct clusters of participants' profiles were identified based on their responses. Secondly, an approach is proposed for ranking available project designers and identifying the most competent one. The criteria were selected among the most dominant attributes of the survey. The Simos method asserted the weighs of the selected criteria in order to implement the PROMETHEE multi-criteria methodology. The approach was implemented for all the identified samples of participants. A case study was conducted, which highlighted the most eligible designer based on the proposed methodology.