Let's all establish a "Design-Build RFP" Convention...here's what I have so far.

What's on the last sheet in a set of plans? A: electrical drawings. What's on the third or fourth sheet? A: Site Plan, maybe the landscape plan. How about opening up the set of plans to the center...wall sections and details? If one provides Division 6 services, they are a carpenter. If they provide Division 9, they install 'sheet rock' or lay-in ceilings. The point is that the traditional set of A&E Plans and Specifications have become such a convention that everyone in the Design & Construction Industry knows the answers to these questions, almost without hesitation.

Conventions are a wonderful thing. They improve communication since everyone knows where to look. They save time due to their predictable nature. They allow designers and builders to form a basis of understanding as to the prescriptive scope of a project, even if the designer and builder have never met. At their core, conventional "Plans & Specs" are the glue that holds the communication process together on about every project built. So important is their intent, they easily become the basis for about every dispute and change order suffered by the owner.

I'm tempted to go off in another direction, discussing Change Orders and how to avoid them altogether: but I'll save that for a future post. Back to conventions. Question: what's on the last page of a Design-Build RFP? What's on the third or fourth page? If you open up to the middle, what do you see? The correct answer to these questions is "that depends on whose RFP". Ah-ha...our industry does not have a Design-Build RFP convention. Or, our industry has not settled on one as yet.

The cool thing about traditional Plans & Specs is they are VERY predictable. The bad thing about Design-Build RFP's is they're all over the place. I've heard stories about the 18 page RFP for the $200 million project...and the 1,500 page RFP for the 5,000 SF addition to a storage building. AND WE MAKE THESE DOCUMENTS THE BASIS OF A CONTRACT!

For me, the Design-Build RFP "convention" must have 3 major components: the Agreement, the Evaluation & Selection Process, and the Scope Document.  Checkout this 3PQ Films video for a detailed explanation of this convention.

3 Components, That's it...

I've spent years developing a Design-Build RFP Document Convention for the primary purpose of communicating the complete, clear, and unambiguous scope "of a project"; one that both owners and design-builder can depend on as the basis of their shared contract. I want to share my 15 years of development with those who can put up with my writing.....stay tuned.