**1. Introduction**

The selection of a project delivery method (PDM) is a crucial step in impacting project success [1,2]. A PDM describes the relationship and working methods among project participants in the process of transforming the owner's goal into the completed facilities [3]. It directly affects construction performance including schedule, cost, quality, and efficiency [4–6]. The PDM can be viewed as both a contractual structure and compensation arrangement through which project owners obtain a completed facility that meets their needs [7]. The PDMs in practice are design-bid-build (DBB), design-build (DB), construction management at risk (CMR), engineering-procurement-construction (EPC), and integrated project delivery (IPD) [8,9]. However, the most common approaches are the first three, and the limitations of design-bid-build and the complexity of project features and requirements lead to a greater willingness to use design-build and other delivery methods [10].

In order to select the appropriate project delivery method, researchers have developed many methods based on case performance [11,12] and mathematical models [2–4,13–16]. These models and methods rely more on subjective expert opinions which are interfered with by the preferences, expertise, and abilities of the evaluators and are not very adaptable to constantly changing projects.

The project delivery method reflects the task, organizational, and contractual relationship of the project. Under the requirements of specific goals, new organizational and contractual relationships are created immediately after the tasks are rescheduled, and the corresponding delivery methods are also generated. However, few studies consider the feasibility of this delivery method from the perspective of the internal development process and working relationship.

**Citation:** Zhong, Q.; Tang, H.; Chen, C. A Framework for Selecting Construction Project Delivery Method Using Design Structure Matrix. *Buildings* **2022**, *12*, 443. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings12040443

Academic Editors: Srinath Perera, Albert P. C. Chan, Dilanthi Amaratunga, Makarand Hastak, Patrizia Lombardi, Sepani Senaratne, Xiaohua Jin and Anil Sawhney

Received: 28 February 2022 Accepted: 2 April 2022 Published: 5 April 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

1

This paper attempts to develop a framework model for selecting project delivery methods. The framework uses the design structure matrix (DSM) method to analyze the relationship between the activities in the system and optimizes activities through merging, deleting, and changing locations. The appropriate implementer is selected according to the closeness between the activities and, finally, the project delivery method is formed. This study expands the path and perspective of project delivery method selection, reveals the connection between project activities and project delivery methods, and reduces the instability of selecting project delivery methods.

#### **2. Literature Review**
