Factors influencing the quality of design documentation on South African civil engineering projects

Abstract

This research explored the relative importance of factors within the design process that influence the quality of design documentation in South Africa. Thirty-four factors were identified from a comprehensive literature review and formulated into a questionnaire. An additional three factors were proposed during the pilot testing phase of the questionnaire. The consolidated thirty-seven factors were incorporated into a final web-based questionnaire administered to South African civil engineering consultants practising in CESA member firms. Analysis of the data collected shows that the following factors, presented in order of importance, have the greatest influence on the quality of civil engineering design documents: low design fees; selection of design firms by lowest price tendered; limited time available for checking and coordinating all design documentation; discounting of professional fees to below the recommended fee as per ECSA guidelines; and poor communication among multi-disciplinary teams. The following factors are considered to be the least influential: limited opportunity for new entrants into the profession to gain relevant experiential training; high staff turnover; delays in payment of professional fees; failure to adopt quality management systems, e.g. ISO 9001; and lack of appropriate software to produce the design documentation. It is, however, necessary to recognise the limitations of this research. The CESA member firms' data bases were used to identify the survey respondents. These member firms are required to meet certain criteria (e.g. implementation of a quality management system) which may not be representative of all the consulting engineering practices in South Africa. Furthermore, the focus of the study was civil engineering projects. This guides the extent of generalisation of the results. Despite the aforementioned limitations, the findings from this research study offer insight into the relative importance of the factors within the design process that influence the quality of design documentation, and provide a basis upon which the South African construction industry can focus efforts aimed at identifying measures to improve the quality of design documentation and, as a consequence, the efficiency in the implementation of construction projects.