Consensus building in the pre-design phase of building projects

Building projects are unique manoeuvres in which numerous participants who possess different skills work together to complete various tasks. Working processes vary in complexity from simple to very complex. Although the building construction sector has traditional ways of structuring projects, project management professionals are continuously seek new process models and ways to cooperate between people and project participants. This paper focuses on processes in the pre-planning phase of a building project and is based on exploratory study where the conceptual and empirical literature about construction processes and decision-making were reviewed. Over thirty existent models were identified and thirteen of these models, which take a decision making into account, were more closely studied. In addition, decision-making models in other fields were surveyed. Using a hermeneutic cycle approach, the aim of this paper is to investigate a preferable model for the pre-planning phase of construction projects that can produce the main objectives, which is to best serve the end user and the project as a whole. As a final result a new model in the case of the pre-design phase of the building process is introduced and discussed. This paper asks what we have learnt from these foci.