Managing Client Values in Construction Design

In construction projects the client will comprise both owner, end-users, and the wider society, representatives of which may have conflicting goals and values; and these may not be fully realized by the stakeholders themselves. Therefore it is a great challenge to capture and manage the values of the multiple stakeholders that constitutes the “client”. However, seeing client satisfaction as the end-goal of construction it is imperative to make client values explicit in the early project phase and make sure that these values are reflected in all subsequent phases of design and construction. The management challenge is further complicated by the fact that the delivery team, who are to understand and deliver client value, consists of even more different parties. To address this a Danish engineering consultancy company has, together with a major contractor, developed a value-based workshop method for capturing and managing client values within a lean framework. This paper describes the initial findings of a joint research project between academia and industry practitioners that seeks to develop the workshop method to create a state of the art approach in construction design management. This includes an overview of fundamental principles of value.