Value Management of Construction Projects, 2nd Edition

13The Theory, Practice and Future of VM: A Revisionist Interpretation

13.1 Introduction

This chapter explores some of the developmental challenges that continue to face value management (VM). The chapter addresses a number of issues, a reinterpretation of aspects of the authors' research in the light of their current thinking, the nature of the VM practice setting and service offered and the issues surrounding ‘hard’ versus ‘soft’ value management debate. The chapter is subdivided into the following sections:

• Demand and supply of value management, concluding on issues raised in the book with regard to the practice of VM.
• The theoretical knowledge base of value management, concluding on the conceptual frameworks under which VM operates, the current state of VM practice, the potential for theoretical and practice development and a redefinition of VM.
• A drawing together of the debate on stakeholders and a conclusion on the definition and role of stakeholders in a VM context.
• The nature of professions, professional territoriality and the institutional structuring and positioning of VM, and where it may or may not be heading.

Finally, the chapter reviews the implications of this analysis for the continued development of value management, and argues the need to position it as a distinctive professional management style that revolves around a value-based, function-oriented, stakeholder decision methodology.

13.2 Demand and Supply: the Practice of VM

The marketplace for VM services ...