Successful Delivery of Mega-projects

A capital project with a total installed cost greater than $1 billion dollars with any of the following complexity criteria:
(RS315-1, p. 1)

• A significant number of stakeholders
• A large number of interfaces
• A challenging project location
• An inadequate supply of resources
• Unfamiliar technology
• Difficult regulatory constraints
• Extensive infrastructure requirements
• Geographically dispersed teams
• Significant political, economic, environmental, or social influence

The research identifies 34 impact factors, and validated that these factors have high occurrence and performance impacts on mega-projects. The research further identifies the 16 impact factors that, when they occur, most affect performance on mega-projects. The 34 impact factors were categorized into 5 categories:  (RS315-1, p. 9)

• Category A – Location and Technology
• Category B – Team, Organization, and Communication
• Category C – Planning and Execution Processes
• Category D – Governance and Stakeholders
• Category E – Delivery Strategy

This tool synthesizes all the research findings into a targeted knowledge structure to help mega-project teams better understand the impact factors. Considering the characteristics unique to mega-projects, the main purpose of the tool is to increase understanding, highlight the importance, provide case study examples, and guide the assessment of these impact factors. (RS315-1, p. 25)

See Implementation Tools below for more information.

The case studies provide a breadth and depth of information on the impact factors, complementing the research data analysis effort and supporting the research findings. Case study findings were grouped by the five categories identified in Key Finding #2. Examples from each category include: (RS315-1, p. 21)

• Category A – Host governments of mega-projects are restricting the mass importation of craft workers.
• Category B – Both owners and contractors stressed the need to assign skilled and experienced personnel to lead mega-projects.
• Category C – Favorable business conditions and the urgency to get to market often influenced owners to skip key planning steps.
• Category D – As more mega-projects are undertaken as joint ventures, their governance becomes increasingly convoluted, with poorly defined roles and responsibilities.
• Category E – Host countries often require the use of local resources, where these local contractors and sub-contractors fail to perform.

IR315-2, MPACT Mega-Project Assessment of Criticality Tool

The MPACT tool is designed to help project teams assess the factors that are most significant to their projects and to provide a library of mega-project experience in managing or mitigating these factors. The tool can be used on any scale and type of mega-project, and provides the following:

• A methodology for assessing the 34 key impact factors identified in the research
• In-depth information on these impact factors, including detailed descriptions, research findings, and real case examples
• Recommendations for mitigating the impacts of these factors during mega-project front end planning and execution