Paper (65): Value for Money (VfM) Assessment Using Fuzzy Logic
Abstract: Value for Money (VfM) assessment is the gateway analysis for adopting the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) route for project delivery. Literature review shows that PPPs have evolved significantly over the past few decades but the VfM assessment has remained unchanged. Throughout the world, practitioners and researchers have voiced their concerns about the limitations of VfM assessment. This research work presents use of Fuzzy Logic (FL) to improve the existing VfM assessment.
FL enables decision makers to assign degrees of truthfulness on the basis of “awareness” of the qualitative and quantitative propositions within the VfM. This helps in getting a single comprehensive VfM assessment result. This approach proves superior to the traditional approach where the VfM components are analyzed separately on the basis of monetary and non-monetary values. A case study analysis of VfM assessment from CALTRANS’ Presidio Parkway Project will be presented.
Biography: Dr. Sharma is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at California State University, Fullerton. Before this, he worked as a full time Decision Science faculty in Merrick School of Business at University of Baltimore. He earned his PhD from University of Maryland, College Park. His research interests include Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), Value for Money (VfM), contract management, sustainability, climate change and clean energy initiatives.
Dr. Sharma devoted the majority of his research time towards improving PPPs practices including VfM assessment. He has worked on PPP financing optimization models; PPP feasibility guidelines, excel-based PPP feasibility analysis toolkit (known as P3FAST); and integrating qualitative and quantitative components of VfM assessment. He is open for collaborations and expanding his research domain.
