Evaluating the Need to Use Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) Approach as a New Alternative Implementation System in Developing Countries

摘要

The progress achieved through social and economic development in today's world, results in expanding activities in the field of engineering projects [1]. One of the factors of economic development in each country is success of its civil infrastructure projects [2]. In recent years, the government of Iran has welcomed using technology in the civil and infrastructure section, in order to develop the country and create economic boom [3]. Considering the increase of complexities in the building industry, it is faced with several challenges. The building industry has learned many ways to face these challenges through offering diverse systems for project implementation. Moreover, due to the increasing need of societies and more importance of time, cost, and quality in evaluating the projects, systems of project implementation need presenting new approaches [1]. For this purpose, a number of practitioners in this industry have proposed a new delivery system under the title of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). IPD is the result of changes of the traditional project delivery models which gathers all the project team members at an early planning and design time in order to reduce time, avoid wastes, improve project performance, and to create a win-win result for all those involved in the project (Glick and Acree Guggemos, n.d.). This approach improves project objectives through a participatory system [26]. It optimizes project implementation system by enhancing cooperation among different project stakeholders [4]. In fact, increasing coordination and participation of members of project team are considered as the major IPD target [5]. Studies have shown that IPD can be used in all kinds of projects, but as it is not used widely, it is supposed that it is not still approved in Iran as a developing country; whereas this approach has been used in many projects abroad [6]. In this study, due to incompatibility and inability of the common civil contracts in Iran in using the experiences of other stakeholders and inappropriate distribution of profit and loss among them, duplications and other similar problems in them, IPD has been introduced as a new system for conducting the civil projects and a response to most of these problems. According to lack of understanding of IPD in Iran and other similar developing countries and consequently using previous traditional approached, it is required to introduce this approach as a new approach in implementing the civil projects.