Construction Curiosities #119

What Construction Delivery Method is Best?? | ConTech Benchmark Report

Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.

Welcome to the Construction Curiosities newsletter!

It’s still May, so we are still talking through Procurement and Contracting.

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Summary

This week we will look at:

• One Musing: Delivery Method 101

• Contech Corner: AEC SaaS Benchmark

• One Meme: Low Bid Adventure

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Delivery Method Breakdown (Stupid Simple Guide)

People throw around delivery methods like they’re essentially the same.
They’re not.
Each one shifts risk, speed, cost control, and accountability in different directions.

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Design-Bid-Build (DBB)

The OG method. Architect completely finishes the design. Bidders compete. Lowest price wins. Can also be procured through a “Competitive Sealed Bid” where price and technical proposal play a role.

Pros:

• Straightforward and familiar to most Owners

• Max transparency through open bidding

• Owner keeps full design control

• Best option for low complexity, high competition markets

Cons:

• Lowest bid ≠ best value (hello, change orders)

• Can’t negotiate post-bid

• If over budget? Start over and rebid

• Longer overall schedule (no overlap)

• Requires the Owner to be very hands-on

Best for:
Public projects where budget trumps speed or innovation. And where the design is fully baked. (is it ever tho?)

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Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR / CM@R)

You bring in the Contractor during design under a Pre-Con contract. They help shape the drawings to keep things constructable and within the Owner’s budget. They set a GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) around the 100% DD stage and then move to the other side of the table and become your GC.

Pros:

• Early cost feedback and constructability input

• Contractor Accounting is an Open Book

• Can phase the construction and buy out long lead items early

• Reduces surprises → fewer change orders

• Design, estimating, and build teams collaborate in real time

• Great for complex projects or renovations

Cons:

• Not the cheapest up front

• Can be admin-heavy (contracting, procurement, GMP negotiation)

• Owner must understand the process and manage it well

• Still needs a clear scope to hit the GMP target

Best for:
Complex public projects, fast-moving markets, or when the Owner wants flexibility and visibility.

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Design-Build (DB)

One team owns the design and construction process. You get speed and simplicity but you give up a good bit of control.

Pros:

• Fastest of the bunch (design and build overlap)

• One contract = less finger-pointing

• Potentially fewer change orders

• Better coordination between field + design

Cons:

• Architect works for the contractor, not you

• Harder to control design quality

• Pricing isn’t always competitive (especially if not open-book)

• High trust required

Best for:
Schedule-driven projects where the Owner can articulate their vision up front, then step back.

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Job Order Contracting (JOC)

For ongoing small jobs. Think: unit pricing for “on-call” repairs, minor reno, MEP refreshes, etc.

Pros:

• Speedy. No need to rebid every small project

• Predictable pricing with minimal paperwork

• Great for repetitive scope

• Multiple JOCs can be awarded

Cons:

• Not ideal for complex or one-off builds

• Owner must monitor pricing as unit costs don’t always scale

• Quality control depends heavily on vendor oversight

Best for:
Facility maintenance programs, campus-wide refreshes, or public Owners who need work done fast without reinventing the wheel each time.

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Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)

The Unicorn contract (as I’ve never seen one in the wild).

But also the kumbaya contract. Owner, Architect, Contractor, and key trades all sign one agreement to share risks and rewards. In theory, it’s collaboration on steroids. In reality? Likely too good to be true.

Pros:

• True team alignment. No adversarial relationships

• Incentivizes cost savings and schedule performance

• Encourages early problem-solving instead of finger-pointing

• Best shot at innovation and total lifecycle thinking

Cons:

• Requires a ton of legal and cultural buy-in (see above about Unicorns and being too good to be true…)

• Very few teams know how to actually execute it

• Slippery slope if one party stops playing nice

• Not ideal for teams without repeat work or shared history

Best for:
Supposedly best for healthcare, higher-ed, or tech campuses with trusted design and build partners, and an Owner who knows how to effectively lead a team without being a tyrant or a ghost.

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Final Word:

So which Method is best??

That depends.

You’re not picking a “better” method.

You’re picking the one that sucks the least for your specific mix of:

• Budget

• Schedule

• Risk tolerance

• Project complexity

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ConTech Corner/ One Article

SaaS Benchmarking: What’s changed in AEC SaaS since 2023?

A deep dive into 2025 AEC software benchmarking, comparing financial performance and efficiency across leading industry players and top SaaS companies.

It’s a combo this week as we look at this article from Foundamental. It’s an interesting deep dive, but here’s the TDLR:

• Adobe outperforms the entire AEC sector on Rule of 40 despite equal growth rates - demonstrating superior operational efficiency with the same top-line growth

• Procore's negative margins persist after 22 years in business - though showing improvement, still an outlier among mature software companies

• Sales efficiency correlates directly with ecosystem strength and product stickiness - companies with integrated product suites and strong user communities demonstrate superior unit economics

• Intuit and Adobe set the gold standard for operational efficiency - achieving nearly $900K and $700K in annual revenue per employee, respectively

Procore is primed to be knocked off… who is it going to be?

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One Meme

constructionyeti

A post shared by @constructionyeti

You won’t always know they were low bid…
But there will be signs.

In a Design Bid Build, low-bid project, many times you get what you pay for…

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See y’all next week! ✌