Congress Session Spotlight: IPD Agreements Explained
We had the opportunity to speak with John Zachara, Vice President, Integrated Facilities Solutions Inc., about his 2025 Congress session, IPD Agreements Explained. John and James Pease, Vice President – Health Major Capital Projects, UCSF Real Estate, will lead the discussion on this important Lean topic.
We hope you will join their session—and take part in all the learning Congress has to offer! Join us at the 2025 LCI Congress, October 20-24, in Arlington, Texas. Register today for the best available rates.
John and James are longtime IPD users and presenters.
John and James are IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) subject matter experts. Over the past decade, they have worked with IPD contracts extensively for a range of clients and consulted with organizations across the country.
They’ve presented on IPD together at Congress for 10 years, and are dedicated to keeping it interactive and interesting. John offered, “ We bring a few copies of a book, IPD- AnAction Guide for Leaders, which James produced with other industry experts, and we give them away to the people who ask questions first. It’s not a scripted narrative. We go with the flow. We do this all the time and really care, and that passion comes out.”
They start with demystifying IPD and explaining its benefits.
John and James will break down the ideas behind the IPD Agreement. They’ll cover why it’s different from the traditional models, and why owners should consider it as their project delivery method for complex projects.
“We want attendees to understand that IPD contacts are not scary and are best for everyone at the table, including owners, contractors, designers, and trade partners. We demystify it. It’s not weird or unique to certain markets. It’s not more work and effort. It doesn’t cost more. It lowers risk across the board for everybody,” offered John.
The session is centered around discussing IPD versus traditional project models (including CM at Risk and Design/Build Agreements), comparing the delivery model, risk model, and more. They’ll cover the differences in the types of project delivery model, including the ability to make changes in scope during construction, the reliability of cost, and more.
John noted, “We explain why we believe the IPD model is the best delivery model for the owner.” He added that “risk always falls on the owner, but is limited with the IPD model because of the collaboration we do early on in the project.”
They’ll discuss the team aspect of IPD delivery.
The session will include a discussion of how teams are formed, who sits in the risk pool and who doesn’t, and talk about using the tri-party agreement (between the owner, architect and general contractor) versus the poly-party agreement in the IPD delivery model.
John shared, “We’ve used both versions. We’ll discuss the differences between each model, and why we have a preference for one or the other. Overall, we don’t want to add or increase complexity to projects. Tri-party is where we lean into because it’s not as complex.”
They’ll introduce the concept of validation.
The session will cover the concept of validation, a unique element of the IPD contract. It will introduce the importance of having a robust validation period and spending the right amount of time upfront before getting into construction.
John offered that, “The owner gets a good outcome if we don’t rush into construction and have problems later. Construction is the most expensive part of the project. We’ll talk about the importance of early onboarding of trade partners and the level of influence that we have on a project early on, when it doesn’t cost us a lot.”
He added, “During construction, some projects we work on have thousands of people on a project at a cost of $1,000 per person per day. If you have to lose one day, you’ve spent a lot of money doing that.”
The session will include new real-life project examples with key takeaways.
Attendees will learn from examples of how the IPD contract handles issues versus “the traditional CM contract, where you just get a change order. We go through examples of how an IPD contract would handle major issues on a typical project,” John noted.
John added that he and James are “working on the ground” and have new material each year for this session. They’ll talk about projects going on today that are “major billion dollar projects at the federal, state, and public level, and using the IPD contract model.”
They’ll also share an example of a project that “didn’t go forward because the validation was so robust. You can cancel a project if the business case doesn’t support it. If you have a $30M budget and the validation shows it will cost $60M, you get to make a good business decision in four months of work, not in one and a half years. It reduces exposure. It’s a more prudent approach, and at the end, you lock in the number.”
Two of the project examples will likely include:
- The University of Nebraska Medical Center Project Health, the largest health care construction project in the state’s history
- The Helen Diller Hospital for the University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
John noted, “There are a lot of lessons learned coming out of those projects that are in the early to late validation stage. These are mega projects that will take 5-10 years.”
The session is geared towards owners, along with general contractors, the trades, designers, and anyone thinking about using IPD Agreements.
John noted that this session is a must for owners, and that he and James “both wear the owner hat, so this will be owners hearing from other owners.” Both sit in the owner seat and do Lean coaching. James sits internally on the team and John is a third-party owner representative and owner advocate for the organizations he works with.
Contractors should also be there. John offers, “It’s for anyone with a client thinking about IPD. You can understand more about the language in the contracting structure and build a better business case around using the IPD contract.”
Trade partners should attend too since “they hold the most dollars. The mechanical and electrical trade partners in particular need to understand what they are getting into and understand how problems can get solved. We will share examples that relate to them and how, without stopping the work, you can solve problems and challenges. They should be advocating for this Lean process,” John notes.
Making decisions early in the IPD model aligns with the design community as well, making this an important session for engineering and architecture firms to participate in.
We closed with John noting the overall importance of IPD Agreements in Lean design and construction project management: “Everyone needs an ear to this conversation.”
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Interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at this year’s Congress?
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Questions on the Congress program?
Contact Joan Piccariello with any questions about the Congress program.