Whether the project is large or small or the project manual itself is large or small, an experienced specifier who carefully edits a good master specification system can generate close, accurate bids, controlled costs, and construction quality. To protect against specious disputes, specifications on a public project are very expansive and written to cover all foreseeable circumstances that could result in an owner not receiving an acceptable, complete building. At the far end of the complexity scale are specifications for most federal projects, which allow no use of proprietary product names. The reference and descriptive material included in these specifications is often substantially more complex than on other projects, to the point of being arcane. Invited or negotiated bid projects in the private sector, on the other hand, allow designers to specify products and quality in a much simpler, abbreviated format.
Designers can recommend contractors who have an established track record of quality.
These negotiated projects can function well when essential products are listed in the specifications, along with some indication of what the designer needs to review and approve. Contractors have the option of submitting substituted products for their benefit and the benefit of the owners. A more cooperative group of subcontractors is often employed, who know what to do, take pride in their work, and bring their own clients around to show off the project when it's done. At the same time, a few of the more bitter construction project experiences I've been exposed to in recent years have been with invited bid private projects. On these projects, the designer was retained for only limited construction administration services.