Jadhav, Ajay (2023) Development of scope of services for procurement of professional consultant services on transportation projects: A study of South carolina department of transportation. PhD thesis, Clemson University, USA.
Abstract
Project Scoping Process (PSP) is one of the significant steps that starts at the very beginning of the project life cycle. During project initiation phase, project scoping is kicked off which includes documenting a list of project-specific goals, deliverables, tasks, costs, and deadlines. The scoping phase duration depends on the project complexity and involves various stakeholders, establishing team, confirming the project purpose and need, initiating the environmental revie process, determining the level of environmental documentation and permit requirements, conducting survey, identifying project risks and tools to mitigate them, and evaluating public involvement strategies. A well-defined PSP is therefore essential for a state Department of Transportation (DOT) to effectively meet the infrastructure needs of the state. Based on the recent study conducted by the SCDOT, 43% of the scope deficiencies were directly related to alterations in the design elements of the projects. This could potentially be linked to the lack of efficiency and effectiveness in developing the project scope during the project scoping phase. The project scope or Scope of Services (SOS) is a document that contains tasks, deliverables, major milestones, quantities of materials and resources necessary in a particular task, responsibilities, standards and specifications, and schedule. The South Carolina Department of Transportation's (SCDOT's) current SOS development process utilizes past completed project scopes as a baseline on similar nature of projects. Even though this might seem like a standard approach by the DOT employees, it comes with many challenges that only surface in the later phases of the project. These challenges are present in the form of scope modification, changes in design, change in delivery plan, improper environmental impact considerations, lack of resources, organization structure, lack of seasoned staff, etc. The ultimate effect of these practices result in time and cost overruns affecting the budget of the agency. To address this overarching problem, this dissertation is focusing on a Mixed Methods Research Design that are primarily divided into three (3) phases: understanding the SCDOT SOS, identifying SCDOT comparable state DOTs, and developing a standard SOS process and template.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Mousavi, Ehsan; Clarke, Shima; Burgett, Joseph and Powers, Matthew |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | scope of services; professional services consultants; department of transportations; scope negotiations; fee negotiations; civil engineering; construction engineering and management; transportation engineering |
| Index terms: | environmental impact, professional service, project complexity, agency, specification, documentation, survey, transportation engineering, strategy, transportation project, effectiveness, construction engineering, project scope, negotiation, dissertation, duration, mixed method, efficiency, cost overrun, research design, life cycle |
| Subjects: | organizational theory, organization, research dissemination and communication, scope management, environmental impact, sociology, project controls, conflict resolution, infrastructure and transport systems, engineering methods, performance management, civil engineering, management, professional development, contractual condition, financial and cost management, research design and methodology, data collection methods, value management |
| Topics: | Project Management, Engineering Principles, Sustainability, Quality Management, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Stakeholder Management, Contract Administration, Time Control, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here