Project Initiation Management in construction

Abstract

This article will give an introduction to Project Initiation Management or Front-End management mainly in the construction industry. This includes a general introduction of how project initiation management is defined in literature and the purpose of doing good project initiation management will be presented. Project Initiation Management is all about starting projects in the right manner, defining the project phase and objectives and lastly authorising the project manager to proceed with the project . This consist of making sure that stakeholders expectation's are managed and aligned with the project purpose , but also taking time to define the project description to a big extent. Some of the practices to ensure that a project is being initiated in the best possible way will also be presented and discussed in the subsequent sections. This encompasses Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) and reference class forecasting as methods to initiate a project on the best possible grounds. Furthermore the importance of alignment in the initiation of projects is presented to give an idea how this can make it or break in the early phases of a project, and additionally a tool to determine the alignment is presented. Lastly the issues in Project Initiation Management will be addressed and the limitations of the theory and application will be discussed.

Table of contents

• General: This section will give a general introduction to Project Initiation Mangement in construction. Furthermore this section will try to cover the current body of knowledge within this
• Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI): The PDRI is a way to manage expectations before initiating a project and can be used as a tool in a lot of projects. This section will try to demonstrate how to apply this tool and show examples of succesful applications of this.
• Reference Class Forecasting: Often projects can run over budget. Here the reference class forecasting is a way to anticipate these cost overruns by looking at past projects to see how they performed.
• Alignment: For projects to be succesful the alignment from a Project Management view is essential to complete the project on time and within budget.
• Issues in Project Initiation Management: Some of the issues within project initiation management will be discussed in the section

Project Initiation Management in construction

Definition in literature and purpose

Project Initiation Management has many different names and definitions in litterature. This section will aim to collect the different definitions and names throughout literature, and will subsequently describe the purpose of doing good project initiation management. This will be substantiated with relevant cases from construction and infrastructure industry.

Synonyms of Project Initiation Management:

• Front-end planning
• Pre-Project planning
• Project Development process
• Project Start-up
• Early Planning
• Front-end loading

Definitions in literature:

• DS/EN ISO 21500: Guidance on project management: "The initiating processes are used to start a project, to define the project phase or project objectives and to authorize the project manager to proceed with the project work."
• Axelos, Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2: "Initiating a project is aimed at laying down the foundations in order to achieve a successful project. Specifically, all parties must be clear on what the project is intended to achieve, why it is needed, how the outcome is to be achieved and what their responsibilities are, so that there can be genuine commitment to it ... to decide whether or not the project is sufficiently aligned with corporate, programme management or customer objectives to authorize its continuation. If, instead, the organization proceeds directly from starting up a project ...then it may risk committing significant financial resources to a project without fully understanding how its objectives will be achieved."
• Project Management Institute:"The Initiating Process Group consists of those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an fine a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase. The purpose of the Initiating Process Group is to align the stakeholders’ expectations and the project purpose, inform stakeholders of the scope and objectives, and discuss how their participation in the project and its associated phases can help to ensure their expectations are met."
• Construction Industry Institute: "... the process of developing sufficient strategic information with which owners can address risk and decide to commit resources to maximise the chance for a succesful project."
• AMA handbook of project management:"The important point is that work is done (sometimes a substantial amount) on developing the project definition before and in the process of leading up to the submission of the project proposal, that is, the formal request to sanction full implementation of the project ... focuses on the project in its context, particularly on early definition of the conditions for stakeholder success. Within this framework, project, program, and even aspects of portfolio management are encompassed."

Alignment

Alignment Thermometer

https://www.nap.edu/read/10870/chapter/11