Project Selection Program

Project Selection Program © 2024

By Dr. Thomas C Schleifer, Ph.D

There are no bad projects, just bad matches between projects and contractors. The probability of success in go/no-go decisions in project selection can be accurately measured in advance and is directly associated with the construction organization’s experience with similar work. The elements impacting success have been weighted to produce a numeric scale of how well the prospective project matches the firm's experience. Designed for General Contractors, Subcontractors and Construction Managers; effective for Architects, Engineers and Vendors; Supports Owner's Contractor Selection.

The weighting of questions is derived from 40 years of measurement and experience and considered accurate. Statistical analysis was used to estimate the likelihood that an event will occur and the severity if it does occur.

Each question includes relevant information about why the question is important, Hover your mouse over each Info to learn more.

There is a benefit to the company to have multiple people within the organization score projects separately and review as a team. We recommend printing each use of this tool and make it part of your long-term tracking and analysis of your project selection decisions.

This program provides the user with a starting point for considering project selection and should be used along with other factors specific to the user organization, including those found in Section 6 of the tool.

Answer the questions without overthinking them. Total possible scores range from 10% to 90%. The program is based on a firm’s knowledge about a potential project. If nothing is known about a project, probability of success is a “toss up” which in statistical language translates to 50/50 or a 50% probability. Therefore, the program score opens at 50% before adding knowledge about the project. As knowledge is added (changing “Unknown” to Yes/No or Never/Often) it raises or lowers the score. A higher score represents a higher potential for success and a lower score a reduced potential.

There is a benefit to the company to have multiple people within the organization to score projects separately and review as a team.

Section 1 - Project Fit Score
Has the firm successfully completed projects this size (this large)?

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Has the firm successfully completed projects of this type?

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Has the firm successfully completed projects in this geographic area?

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Has firm successfully completed projects with this Owner/GC/CM?

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Section 2 - Firm's Experience Score
Has the firm successfully completed projects with this Owner/GC/CM's representatives, inspectors, etc.?

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Has the firm successfully completed projects with this designer/architect/engineer?

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Has the firm successfully completed projects with this designer/architect/engineer’s field personnel, inspectors, etc.?

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Has the firm’s estimating team priced this type of project?

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Has the firm’s anticipated field team (PM, Supt, Foreman) built this type/size of project?

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Section 3 - Project Complexity Score
Is the required project schedule reasonable?

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Is there sufficient labor available to produce the project? (consider available skill levels)

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Has the firm had prior successful experience with the intended major subcontractors/vendors/etc.?

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Are there unusual access, room-to-work, parking, dust, noise, storage space, traffic, etc. issues?

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Are there unusual ground or surface water conditions?

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Are there rock, soft soils, unusually deep excavations,etc. that may complicate or delay the project?

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Are there unusual, circular, curved or angled design elements: i.e. walls, bridges, roofs, structures or other that may complicate/delay the project?

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Are there critical long-lead, sole source or unusual items that may delay the project?

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Section 4 - Financial and cash flow impacts Score
Is the project owner’s financing in place?

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Does the firm have experience with the payment processes of this owner/GC/CM?

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Will this project strain the organization’s resources: i.e., financial, equipment, manpower, management, or other?

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Section 5 - Contract issues Score
Are contract terms reasonable?

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Are there any unusual payment provisions, retainage issues or liquidated damages that will affect cash flow?

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Are there any unusual bonding requirements?

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Are there any unusual insurance requirements?

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Are there any unusual indemnity issues?

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Section 6 - Additional Issues to Consider (these are not scored)
Do you believe you have a competitive edge on this project?

Going after a project generally has a cost associated with it along with potential lost opportunity if the use of resources to get the project prevents or impacts going after another job or reduces efforts of attracting other projects. This makes the measurement of a competitive edge or lack of one significant. Where there is a competitive edge on a project it may make sense to invest more resources than on one where there is less or no competitive edge. This is difficult to measure, but for most contractors it is in intuitive.

Do you believe another contractor(s) has a competitive edge on this project?

Realistically recognizing any competitive edge other contractors may have is valuable knowledge and can assist in a project selection decision. Most are familiar with projects where a favored contactor was the owner/GC/CM’s obvious choice and many other contractors wasted a lot of effort and resources only to see the obvious choice selected. Screening out projects that a firm has limited chance of capturing saves considerable resources which can be applied to projects with a higher likelihood of success and can potentially increase sales.

Is there consensus within your organization about perusing this project?

When everyone in an organization is excited about pursuing a particular project the odds of capturing that work go up through the quantity and quality of the energy expended. The converse is true when there is little enthusiasm for a project making capturing it more difficult. There are situations when not going after a project is the best project selection decision. If some or many are concerned about a certain project it may be the wrong job for the company.

Is your “gut feeling” about this project negative or positive

The expression; “If all else fails trust your gut” can be a valuable inclusion in the project selection process. The information collected from the above questions is of great value, however, if persons in responsible positions within an organization still have a gut feeling about a positive or negative decision it probably makes sense to reevaluate the data before making a final decision.

How does the project fit with the existing/anticipated backlog?

A contractor whose current work is running smoothly has only limited exposure in taking on additional work. However, a contractor managing a troubled job or two may encounter additional risk in adding the next project. A well-managed and organized backlog has reasonably low exposure and makes additional, prospective projects attractive. A troubled backlog has higher risk which may indicate that this may not be the time to add another project.

Does the contract include Consequential Damages or are they expressed or implied?

Consequential Damages are damages resulting as a consequence of the project. The owner is the usual party damaged, the public and others may also be included. Fairly common are damages that result when a revenue-generating project is delivered late such as a restaurant, hotel or retail business. The damages include loss of revenue because the intended use is delayed which can result in serious potential liability for a contractor that causes this to happen. Some contractors will not undertake such exposure which unlike liquidated damages cannot be measured in advance.

The Simplar Foundation provides this as a free tool and provides no guarantees/warrantees of outcomes on your projects.