O'Neal's Project Development and Delivery process:
- offers clients a structured process to develop and execute projects.
- provides alignment between O’Neal and its clients on overall deliverables and roles and responsibilities.
The animation below provides an overview of the key activities and benefits from the Project Development and Delivery Process
Pre-Project Planning
Assessment is the first phase of the process. The focus is on establishing the criteria by which the project will be developed.
Often, O’Neal’s role involves the following services related to early capital planning before formal design efforts begin:
- Options analysis support—evaluation of potential options to resolve the “project problem.” Analysis ranges from questions regarding greenfield, versus expansion, versus process optimization to more specific technical questions related to a process line or unit operation. O’Neal brings both technical capability as well as planning skills to identify project execution considerations for various options. This process is often facilitated via a planning workshop led by O’Neal.
- Developing project scope—technical and project management input to develop an initial scope of work for the project.
- Measuring scope readiness—O’Neal uses Project Definition Rating Index to identify overall project readiness and specific areas of scope risk.
- Project execution strategy—development of a strategy to execute the work including design, procurement and construction approaches, project schedule.
- Cost estimating—Using historical and current market data, O’Neal provides conceptual estimates to bring greater clarity to establishing a project basis.
The Case for Effective Pre-Project Planning
The Construction Industry Institute (CII) is a non-profit research consortium supported by preeminent US industrial producers and key engineering and construction firms. CII research teams study topics ranging from construction productivity to design management to safety and other key industry issues.
A Construction Industry Institute team conducted a study on the impact of pre-project planning on overall project performance (Pre-Project Planning: Beginning a Project the Right Way, 1994). Projects used in the study were nominated by CII members. Ultimately, 63 projects were reviewed for the study, ranging in total installed cost from $4 million to $350 million, with a median value of $28 million.
The study established criteria for “High,” “Medium” and “Low” levels of pre-project planning and applied that criteria to establish a planning value for each project.
Project outcomes were based on five areas of performance determined by interviews with project stakeholders and analysis of quantitative data (see table below).
|
Pre-project planning values |
Category | Range | Average | Std. Dev. | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
HIGH |
Cost Schedule % Attainment % Utilization Financial |
-19 – +13% -57 – +17% 50 – 140% 52 – 140% 6 Exceeded |
-4% -13% 102% 103% 7 Met |
7% 17% 20% 19% 3 Fell Short |
-3% -11% 100% 100% |
|
MEDIUM |
Cost Schedule % Attainment % Utilization Financial |
-28% – +9% -57% – +45% 42% – 101% 42% – 102% 6 Exceeded |
-2% +8% 93% 94% 6 Met |
10% 24% 16% 15% 5 Fell Short |
+1% +8% 100% 100% |
|
LOW |
Cost Schedule % Attainment % Utilization Financial |
-34% – +142% -55% – +125% 20 – 100% 46 – 107% 5 Exceeded |
+16% +26% 87% 85% 6 Met |
45% 44% 20% 20% 6 Fell Short |
+2% +23% +95% +95% |
The study revealed that projects with high levels of pre-project planning exceeded the average outcome for each of the rated categories: project cost, schedule, % attainment and % utilization. 13 of the 16 projects with high levels of pre-project planning met or exceeded business financial goals, as well. Projects with low levels of pre-project planning failed to meet, on average, any of the four categories shown above. 11 of 17 of these projects met or exceeded business financial goals.
In addition, projects with high levels of pre-project planning had significantly less variance from expectations (more predictable outcomes) while projects with the lowest levels of pre-project planning had much higher rates of variability (less predictable outcomes).
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