29 Jan Selecting Designers Using the Performance Information Procurment System (PIPS)
By Ed Maxey, John Savicky, Dean Kashiwagi
September 2003
Abstract
Designers have been selected predominately by a process called the Qualification Based System (QBS). This selection process is based on a subjective judgment of qualifications of past performance. Because the process is not a price-based process, some have called it a performance-based process.
However, the QBS process has sometimes resulted in low design performance that has not met the user’s expectation. The user has had difficulty correlating the expected design performance with the actual procured design performance. The information-based PIPS process was tested to determine if an information-based process could deliver the best available value for design services. Differences between the two processes are examined. The PIPS’ information-based process minimizes the user’s decision-making, work, and risk. The PIPS uses not only past performance, but also the designers’ capability to identify and minimize the user’s risk, and measures the designer’s relative ability to add value to the design. PIPS places the designer at risk to perform, and requires the designers to assign a value to their performance, forcing competition based upon performance and price. This case study involves a hospital selecting a designer for a medical research laboratory facility. The study also includes lessons learned and recommendations.