Multi-disciplinary and multi-functional teams in PPP procurement & delivery

Multi-disciplinary teams are useful in addressing the increasing complexities of construction projects. Such teams must be carefully chosen and co-ordinated to maximise value and minimise problems. This is specially so in Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, since there are more stakeholders, multiple success criteria, longer time horizons, and greater risks in procurement and delivery. Multiple functions must be addressed by disciplinary specialists from the same PPP consortium, e.g. in financing, in operations, as well as the design and construction functions.This paper draws on examples from recent studies and projects to examine how an appropriate balance may be achieved, for example in not compromising the essentials of one’s parent discipline and project function, while accommodating basic requirements of interface disciplines and functions. Although conflicts need to be resolved, the end results should be synergistic, rather than unduly dilute the contributions of any discipline e.g. of architects to aesthetics; nor compromise any function e.g. by neglecting downstream operational or maintenance needs. The resolution of such inter-disciplinary and inter-functional conflicts is regularly required of PPP team managers. One of the common gaps arises from disciplinary stereotyping that starts with compartmentalised education and training within disciplines. An example of inter-disciplinary group work at undergraduate level in Hong Kong shows how ‘bridging’ can be beneficially approached earlier. The examples from industry and academia, and broad frameworks developed in this paper, set the scene for more detailed R&D that would incorporate these initial findings into formulating better team-building strategies in PPP procurement and delivery.