Documentation quality in construction projects : a qualitative inquiry

Documentation quality is of high importance for any procurement method, however for a managing contract type procurement it is particularly important as there is limited time to issue and fine tune the finalised drawings for tender without the potential to halt concurrent works. It is the quality of the finalised documentation during this construction phase that generally dictates the final outcomes of a project. This research adopted a qualitative approach to investigate documentation quality issues in construction projects. Selected industry professionals in South Australia were interviewed, followed by a case study. The results showed that choosing an appropriate procurement approach plays a critical role to improve the documentation quality. In particular, the risks associated with management contracting in terms of documentation quality are highlighted.