Charrettes are intensive work sessions during which project design and performance requirements are identified and developed by a Charrette Team that is made up of key shareholders of the Project Delivery Team (PDT) including the facility’s users, customers, designers, and construction agents. Value engineering is a powerful function-oriented, systematic team approach to problem solving that can reduce costs while maintaining or improving performance and quality requirements. Value engineering seeks to first identify the function being performed by each design element. During Function Analysis the functions of all the facility’s design elements are evaluated to determine what is necessary to fulfill the facility's mission. The VE Team then seeks more cost effective alternatives to accomplish the required functions. In a Value Based Design Charrette representatives of the PDT are brought together in a workshop setting as a VE-Charrette Team to better define the customer requirements so that all the project’s key shareholders can commit to a Partnering Agreement that documents the optimized project scope, design concept, budget, acquisition schedule and strategy. A Certified Value Specialist facilitates this dynamic process, while a Cost Estimator provides successive cost estimates so shareholders can make decisions about scope and budget.

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