Since mid-December of last year, a member task force has been working on a series of informational pieces that address some of the requirements of the QBS selection process. Brought to the attention of AIA Ohio late last year, there has been an increasing number of Requests for Qualifications (RFQ) that have not fully complied with the state’s QBS selection process. These RFQs will sometimes overlook portions of the QBS requirements or include information that is supposed to be discussed after the ranking and the selection of the most qualified firm.
In response to these concerns, the task group, made up of members from across Ohio, has developed a set of documents to help public owners and decision-makers understand the importance and benefits of using QBS. The documents focus on various parts of the RFQ process and include the following:
- How does QBS Benefit the Owner?
- The QBS law: What does it say?
- QBS: What should be included in the criteria & evaluation?
- QBS: To interview or not to interview?
- What’s included in negotiations?
- What happens if I don’t follow QBS?
The task group will be unveiling these documents over the next several months and will make them available to all members on the AIA Ohio website. These pieces can be provided to public owners to help them better understand the intent of QBS and the process developed by Ohio.
The task group will continue its work as it looks to help ensure that the QBS process is fair to both public owners and the design profession. Through the use of this legislated and time-tested process, public entities and owners can significantly benefit from utilizing QBS.