Value Management of Construction Projects, 2nd Edition

11Discerning Value

11.1 Introduction

This chapter is a theoretical discourse on the subjects of value and quality and a review of those facets that combine to best describe value in the context of the delivery of a physical asset through a construction project. Value is delivered by the asset in use. There are no fundamental laws of value in the same way as there are fundamental laws of physics, indeed it was not until the early part of the twentieth century that philosophers began to analyse the concept of value.

The chapter is in six parts:

• Part 1 presents the basic tenets of value as discussed in the literature and makes the case for a value systems approach to understanding what value is.
• Part 2 considers the social and psychological aspects underpinning the individual's approach to deciding what is ‘of value’.
• Part 3 considers the theories of quality and concludes that quality can be assessed based on a degree of excellence; determined as the provision of all basic functions at the required level and all performance functions at the highest level.
• Part 4 distils the theories discussed in the previous three parts to deduce the principles for the determination of a value system.
• Part 5 discusses value systems in a construction environment by considering the following:
  • The client's value system and the client's project value system
  • Corporate and business values
  • The project value system
  • The practitioners' value system
  • The consumers' (users'/customers') value system
  • The stakeholders' ...