Title: Factors impacting design documents quality of construction projects

Authors: Abdulaziz M. Jarkas

Addresses: Projects Department, Al Mazaya Holding Co., KSCP, Holding, P.O. Box 3546, Safat 13036, Kuwait

Abstract: Even though it is widely acknowledged that poor quality of design documents is a major cause of construction inefficiency, design outputs continue to suffer from major deficiencies. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to identify, explore and rank the relative importance of factors perceived to impact the design documents quality of construction projects. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire survey comprising 31 potential factors was distributed to a statistically representative sample of designers operating in the State of Kuwait. Using the relative importance index technique, the prominent factors related to 'client', 'designer' and 'external' groups are determined. Given the knowledge gap of the primary factors influencing the quality of design documents in the state, the results obtained, coupled with the related recommendations presented, can provide clients, designers and policy makers with guidance to enhance the quality of design outputs, hence assist in ameliorating the efficiency and performance level of construction projects.

Keywords: design documents; construction projects; Kuwait; document quality; design outputs; construction industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDE.2014.067076

International Journal of Design Engineering, 2014 Vol.5 No.4, pp.323 - 343

Received: 30 Jul 2014
Accepted: 27 Sep 2014
Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

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