Collaboration Tools: Fid-Bau Portal

Collaboration Tools

Smith, Ryan E. / Carraher, Erin / DeLisle, Peter

This chapter discusses the importance of collaboration tools and processes that are valuable resources for collaborative project delivery teams when making decisions, particularly with regard to preventing the process from becoming adversarial. Collaborative project delivery seeks to align stakeholder interests, objectives, and practices by re‐conceiving the organization, operating system, and commercial terms governing the project. The primary team members include the architect, key technical consultants, general contractor, and key specialty contractors. A key characteristic of collaborative project delivery teams is collective decision‐making on significant issues. A project that integrates lean principles may use the reports as a method for summarizing and documenting an important decision, a way to analyze TVD options, a format for standardized status reports, and a way to conduct analysis exercises. A decision tree is used to map the possible consequences of alternate decisions based on cost, schedule, personnel, and impact. It is essentially a scenario‐based flow chart that aids in helping to identify the strategy that is most likely to reach the team's stated objective. The chapter discusses the case study involving the construction of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.