Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, the Project Questionnaire is different and is a standalone data collection instrument.  If your organization submitted responses in May through the Firm Questionnaire, we now kindly request that you please submit responses to the DB Project Questionnaire.  We recommend you designate a primary company respondent to fill out the ongoing Project Questionnaire. 

Our Research Team actively seeks DB projects with a range of best to worst performance to conduct this study.

1. If you submit one project: the submitted project symbolizes your company’s overall experience with Design-Build.  For example, if your company’s overall DB satisfaction is approximate to either excellent or poor, you submit either one best or one worst performing project, respectively, that is representative of your past portfolio of DB projects.
2. If you submit multiple projects: the submitted projects represent as closely as possible your company’s overall portfolio history with Design-Build as expressed in terms of best versus worst performing projects.  For example, if you submitted three best and one worst performing projects, this allocation would represent a 75% company’s success rate with DB.
3. If your company’s success rate with DB has been mixed: You may submit the most recently completed projects regardless of project performance.

All your organization needs to do is to start filling out the Project Questionnaire and offer support to your company designated primary respondent.  Examples of company support include having your company’s legal department (if you have one) collaborate with designated contract, procurement, and project managers. Additionally, as an example, specific project managers from each project being submitted will have relevant data that will inform the primary respondent.

No, only one primary company-designated point of contact is needed who can coordinate with other internal company resources as needed to provide appropriate questionnaire responses.

Yes, company-designated respondent(s) actively participating in the project-based questionnaire will be eligible to earn up to four (4) hours of Professional Development Hours (PDHs).  In addition, the ACEC Research Institute and University of Colorado will share a copy of the final report with you upon the completion of this research.

Yes, the link you received via email from Daphne Bryant is unique, secure and company specific.

Yes, the questionnaire link can be safely shared with the staff of your company, enabling several departments and company colleagues to concurrently collaborate on completing different sections of the questionnaire.  

Yes, responses are saved instantly as they are entered on the web form.  To ensure your work is fully saved and can be resumed later from where you left off, we strongly recommend clicking the next button (à) before exiting your browser.  This step offers an extra insurance particularly if the section you are working on has not been finalized (we also recommend typing your answers in a separate reference document for your own use). 

If two people are working on the same question, the system will only save the latest input for that given question.  We recommend that if many respondents are collaborating to fill out the questionnaire, one person is designated to enter all the collective responses from the support team.

If your company does not participate in DB projects, the questionnaire should only take 5-10 minutes to finish.  If your company does participate in DB, however, the estimated questionnaire time is one to two hours. 

There are workarounds to help you edit your submitted questionnaire.  As a general guide, once you hit the “Submit” button, you will not be able to go back into the questionnaire and make any changes, so please be sure you have fully completed the questionnaire to the best of your knowledge before submitting.  If you, however, need to make important changes, please contact Victor.Galotti@colorado.edu and request a retake.  In these instances, you will receive a new link with all your previously submitted answers, which you may adjust as needed.

Yes, any information provided will be kept in strict confidentiality, within a password-protected database managed by the University of Colorado Boulder.  Publications or presentations based on the results of this study will categorically exclude personal or company identifiable information and data will only be shared in the aggregate.

Embedded hyperlinks throughout the questionnaire clearly define key industry terminology.  Hyperlink definitions will pop up as you hoover over these terms, characterized by dotted underlines, with your mouse.

When your organization is collectively ready to submit, click the Submit button.  You should see a Thank-you Note at the end of the questionnaire, indicating that you effectively submitted your responses.

We could email you a PDF copy of the full questionnaire upon request via email.  Because the web version of the questionnaire has logic, we strongly warn against using the PDF as a final guide.  This is because you may not see on the web form all the questions as displayed on the PDF.  We strongly recommend using the PDF only as a tentative guide.  Once the questionnaire responses are entered online, the web form will dictate what questions will show depending on options you have selected.  Requests to obtain PDF copies of the questionnaire should be addressed to Victor.Galotti@colorado.edu

Your company may select as many completed DB projects as your company wishes.  Your company is highly encouraged to select more than one completed DB project to be studied by this research.  Requests to submit more than one project should be addressed to Victor.Galotti@colorado.edu

Under this research, completed projects achieved substantial completion prior to May 2021 (please do not select ongoing projects with unknown final project costs or schedules).

This research is accepting all types of DB projects-- if they were performed in the United States—that your company wishes to submit.  We will accept projects from any market sectors, dollar size, owner type, or project role assumed by your company.  Whether the project was completed many years ago or as recently as May 2021, we will very gladly accept your project selection for this study.

The Project Questionnaire has been designed to address DB Nonparticipation as well.  Whether your company participates in DB or not, your response is critical to improving future DB project delivery methodology and defining best practices for its success.  To this end, the DB Project Questionnaire gives you options to answer DB nonparticipation and opt out of future DB questionnaires as you may deem appropriate. It is helpful to this research study to understand the reasoning behind firms not participating in DB.