The construction industry has many sets or families of contract documents available to it from organizations such as American Institute of Architects, Associated General Contractors and Engineer’s Joint Contract Documents Committee. Recently, the Construction Owners Association of America has also published standard contract documents. Each set of contract documents is coordinated to be generally consistent with related standard documents.

Standard contracts used as a starting point may contain negotiated revisions which must also be coordinated throughout related documents. For example, changes to a design professional's responsibility during the construction phase in the owner-consultant agreement also needs to be coordinated with the construction and procurement documents.

Standard construction contracts are readily available from many other industry organizations, including American Public Works Association, American Water Works Association and many state Departments of Transportation (commonly used by cities and counties for infrastructure projects).

Each set of standard contracts has a unique set of risk allocations, intended uses, allocations of responsibilities, payment arrangements and overall control on project performance. The standard contract forms are usually not well-suited for a wide range of conditions without some revision to meet specific project conditions. However, a single form of contract is commonly used for all client projects. Project owners considering new types of projects (or consultants advising owners) may benefit from an evaluation of the best form of contract to achieve the owner's goals.

Design/Build contracting is experiencing rapid growth due in no small part to the potential cost savings, quality improvement and shorter completion schedules than the traditional design/bid/build process. Traditional design/bid/build contract forms are unsuitable for design/build or other alternative contracting methods, however design/build contract forms are available for this contracting method. Guidelines to assist in identifying projects appropriate for the design/build method are available from EJCDC and DBIA. The Construction Industry Institute has also published a project delivery system selection workbook.

International contracts frequently use documents published by FIDIC (Federation Internationale Des Ingenieures-Conseils), headquartered in Paris, France.