Function analysis (FA) is considered to be at the core of value management (VM). However, research in the construction industry in the United States and Hong Kong indicates that this fundamental process is sometimes abbreviated or omitted from the VM process. In examining this situation in the...

The main task of contractors' estimators is to predict the likely costs involved in executing a future project. This is an onerous job as any errors made can undermine project success and ultimately reduce the contractors' profit margins. The inherent uncertainty of most construction work,...

Many public construction projects have been undertaken throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as part of the government's national development plans in the past three decades, with significant public expenditure involved. One of the critical problems concerning these projects is the frequent and...

Cost estimators play an important role in an organization, as they produce most predictions of probable final construction cost. Since both under- and overestimates can be costly, attention should be paid to the estimating tasks. People involved are therefore likely to experience a considerable...

The selection of a competent architect is vital to the success of a development. Like in many developed countries, developers in Hong Kong select architects based on a set of criteria. Price is not the only consideration in the process, and decisions rely heavily on subjective judgement. By...

Previous research on building pre-tender cost estimating stresses the importance of giving accurate estimates and minimizing estimating errors. Cost models, especially those mathematical models using mean square error or the like for model training and validation, often treat positive errors...

This paper is concerned with identifying universal criteria for prequalification and bid evaluation, and the means by which different emphases can be accommodated to suit the requirements of clients and projects. The information, assessment and evaluation strategies currently used by procurers...

Neo-classical microeconomic theory has been suggested to offer (1) an appropriate analytical tool for construction price determination while, at the same time, (2) full-cost pricing is most commonly accepted pricing policy of construction firms. Paradoxically, however, both are mutually...

This paper discusses the content, origin and development of tendering theory as a theory of price determination. It demonstrates how tendering theory determines prices and how it is different from game and decision theories, and that in the tendering process, with non-cooperative, simultaneous,...

With notably few exceptions, bidding models contain probability distributions with parameters that are assumed to be fixed, or stationary, over time. Some methods of testing the tenability of this assumption are examined and applied to eight datasets. Of particular interest is the statistical...