Forget the buzz words, and the fads. "Nothing has greater impact on the success of a project than the delivery system," said Steve Bannes, program director for graduate studies in construction management at Washington University.

"For example, the people at Walmart understand better than anyone what they need in their stores, so design/bid/build is probably works well for them. But if you are doing something unique that requires a lot of coordination, like a lab building at Washington University, you need time for pre-construction services that design/bid/build doesn't provide. You need to assess the needs of the project, the desired outcomes, and the owner's resources and tolerance for risk to determine the best delivery system and build the team around that," he said.