Value management is described as a method used in the construction design process to identify
or establish the value system of the client and it also serves to ensure that the client values
are communicated and understood by the project team (Green 1991). Value Management (VM)
evolved from Value Engineering (VE) which places significant emphasis on optimising the
function of an asset in terms of lowest cost while the VM methodology consists of a number of
steps which examine the functional requirements of the client through a process of analysis and
then synthesises a suitable design that offers the best value and meets the functional
requirements of the client (Thiry 1997 PMI 2015). This study endeavored to provide a clear
distinction between VE and VM because these terms are mostly applied by different scholars
interchangeably. It is for this purpose that the researcher further emphasised that only VM was
adopted for use in this study. It is also asserted that Value Management is different from
value Engineering in that VM is aimed at the optimisation of solutions in the establishment of
suitable decision frameworks for the rest of the project which is achieved through the use of a
structured decision model that originates in Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (Green 1994). A
project is a once-off activity with one chance to achieve a satisfactory outcome and this
necessitates the establishment of unambiguous objectives. Value Management identifies the
option which gives the best value for money in accordance with the set criteria (Hiley and
Paliokostas 2001).
