Traditional procurement method involves separating design and construction works, with the client appointing a consultant team to design the project and a main contractor to carry out construction based on the completed design. While this allows the client close control, it also means dealing with multiple parties and responsibility points. The contractor is only responsible for construction and has no input into design. Communication must go through the client, increasing delays. However, it provides competitive tendering on a fully defined design and scope.

1. Traditional Procurement Method
This is a common method that has been usually used in construction industry. Traditional
method is a procurement method that the design work will separate from construction. The
developer or client would appoint an architect to complete the design and produce
specifications of the building. The consultant team is appointed to take control of design
and cost. Upon the completion of the design, client will appoint a main contractor to carry
out the works through bidding. The contractor prepares the tender documents base on the
specifications and drawings or the bill. The lowest tenderer usually will be awarded the
contract. The contractor need to take responsibility to all the workmanship and materials
which including all works by the sub-contractors.
Based on the chart that had been shown above, the client has contractual relationship with
all parties. In this way, the client would have the closer control of the works. However, this
may bring risks in control of works of the project since the client need to deal with many
points of responsibility.
Firstly, client will appoint a consultant team which included architect, quantity surveyor and
engineers to come out with the drawings and specifications of the building. The quantity
surveyor in the consultant team will come out with the bills of quantity base on the
drawings that have been provided by the architect and engineer.
The employer appoints the contractor team to be in charge of the construction works only.
Therefore, the contractor team does not need to take responsibility for the design works.
Then, the contractor may appoint other subcontractor to undertake specialize works.

2. Advantages of Traditional Method
Traditional method usually come out with high quality works since the client has the closer
control to the works. For example, the consultant team must provide a design which meet
the requirements of the client. Besides, due to the advices and construction expertise that
provide by the consultant and contractor, client may compare and consider which design
and budget is more suitable for the project.
In traditional method, all tenderers produce a tender base on the same information.
Therefore, client may obtain the best or lowest price through competitive tendering.
Besides, the construction cost will be more accurate since the tender is bases on the
complete design and specifications.
If compare with other procurement method, traditional method will be easier to be
adopted. It is because this method had been commonly used for a long time, so, both
contractor and consultant team are familiar to solve or face the risks during the
procurement state of a construction progress.
Disadvantages of Traditional Method
For traditional method, client may hard to manage the project since he need to
communicate with few parties at the same time. For example, the consultant and contractor
do not have contractual relationship, hence, if they need to communicate with each other,
they must communicate with the client first, which is very inconvenience. There may be
miscommunication since the client need to communicate with so many organization too.
Traditional method requires longer period to complete the project. It is because the tender
will be provided after the design is fully completed. Furthermore, if problems occur,
consultant and contractor may shirk the responsibility to each other. The argument and
problems may need a long time to be settled.
Clear Example
The purpose of our project is to build a 20 storey condominium, assume that there is a
problem from the drawing of the design and the contractor wants to communicate and get
information from consultant team.
For traditional method, the contractor will only be appointed after the design is done,
therefore, contractor is unable to plan for the project and input his design. So, the
contractor need to communicate with the client first, then only the client will communicate
with the consultant, since, there is no contractual relationship between the consultant team
and contractor team. Besides, the changes of the design need to be approved by the client
first.

3. References
 C.M., Y.S., n.d. Procurement models: improving on the traditional method ... [WWW
Document]. MinterEllison. URL
http://www.minterellison.com/Pub/NL/201112_CLAa/ (accessed 12.15.11).
 @ukessays, n.d. What Is The Procurement Method Construction Essay [WWW
Document]. UKEssays. URL https://www.ukessays.com/essays/construction/what-is-
the-procurement-method-construction-essay.php (accessed 3.23.15).
 D.P., n.d. Building Procurement Methods - Construction Innovation [WWW
Document]. URL http://www.construction-
innovation.info/images/pdfs/Research_library/ResearchLibraryC/2006-034-
C/reports/Report_-_Building_Procurement_Methods.pdf (accessed 6.8).