Writing More Competitive Proposals: Content Analysis of Selected (and Unselected) Construction Contractor Technical Proposals

摘要

The public sector vertical construction market has historically procured contractors through price-driven methods. Yet the increased use of alternate project delivery methods along with owner-perceived concerns over construction performance has led many owners introduce qualifications-based selection criteria into their procurement systems. As a result, construction contractors are being tasked with preparation of technical proposals ever more frequently when pursuing public sector work. The research objective of this paper was to identify whether quantity and quality content elements of contractor technical proposal have a relationship with the owner evaluation committee's proposal evaluation scores. The methodological approach was to perform a content analysis on a sample of 50 contractor proposals (containing selected and unselected bids). Results indicate that certain quantity and quality elements do in fact have direct relationships with owner evaluation scores, and to varying degrees. The quantity of contractor-identified project risk solutions as well as proposal content that emphasized solutions to potential design errors and omissions, concealed existing conditions, and technical elements of the contractor's work plan, corresponded with higher evaluation scores. The quantity of proposed scope alternates also correlated with higher evaluation scores, along with scope alternates that were expected to have negligible impacts to project cost.