The development of new oil and gas production facilities starts by the design of a contractual strategy (CS). A CS is a set of coordinated actions, defined as a split of project scope into contracts, with smaller scopes, specific types of remuneration and contractors selection mode. These contracts will later drive the execution of the project. When designing a CS, three main issues are faced: (i) the identification of a relevant set of alternatives; (ii) the estimation and evaluation of such alternatives; (iii) the need to substantiate the chosen one. In this work, we propose a 3-step structured approach for selecting the appropriate CS through the exploration and selection among a detailed, albeit reasonable number of alternatives. The focus in this communication is on identifying and estimating alternatives, using a combination of Domain Mapping Matrices (DMM) and Design Structure Matrices (DSM).