A Review of Integrated Project Delivery: Expectation Versus Reality

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is promoted as a collaborative project delivery capable of reducing fragmentation, improving information exchange and supporting sustainable project outcomes. However, the practical implementation of IPD often falls short of the benefits stakeholders expect. This review examines the expectation–reality gap in IPD through a systematic literature review of 56 studies published between 2018 and 2025 and analysed using ATLAS.ti 9. The findings identify 11 expectation clusters and nine reality clusters. The expectation patterns are classified into three broader areas of collaborative practice, commercial and risk management, and governance and delivery, whereas the reality patterns relate to strategic and organisational issues, procedural and relational issues and, lastly, implementation and contractual issues. The discussion shows that IPD should be understood not only as a contractual arrangement but also as a socio-technical and institutional system that requires digital interoperability, trust, aligned objectives, legal readiness, and early stakeholder integration. The paper contributes a pattern–output matrix that links expectation clusters to reality barriers and translates the findings into future research directions for stakeholders.