Key Success Factors of Collaborative Planning Processes

Building design and planning is a typical instance of coordination and collaboration processes where experts work together in fulfilling their own distinct planning tasks that build the basis for the realization of the joint building project. Increasing requirements on building performance, like sustainability and energy efficiency, and project complexity call for a holistic view of the project rather than a fragmented one, as strengths in one domain cannot easily offset weaknesses in others. Traditional sequential planning processes fall short in fulfilling this requirement. This study compares sequential and integrated building planning in a large laboratory experiment with student participants. We identified that the success of building planning processes relies on the skills of the workgroup. Furthermore personality influences the results and the optimal planning procedure and conflict was handled better in integral planning.