1st Edition
Strategic Project Analysis A Powerful Set of Cost-Benefit Tools and Techniques for Managers
The forming, funding, approval, and planning of a project are key factors in its future success or failure. This book explains the use of strategic project analysis, and advocates for a closer relationship between economic analysis and project evaluation and provides real-world examples of major projects that have used this method.
The primary quantitative method for decision-making in project selection is cost-benefit analysis. However, the method has well-known flaws and challenges. Using the principles of stakeholders, risk, ethics, and bias, the book presents a rationale for broadening traditional project analysis to include both quantitative and qualitative methods. The identification of sustainability and resilience benefits and hidden value are highlighted as an equally important factor in assessing projects.
Written in a clear and accessible style with straightforward maths, this book is invaluable to project owners, decision-makers, and management professionals seeking broader tools to evaluate strategic projects, as well as students of project management.
Introduction 1. What is strategic project analysis? 2. Analysis Planning 3. Stakeholders 4. Risk 5. Quantitative concepts 6. Qualitative concepts 7. Perspective, bias, and ethics 8. Reviewing an analysis report 9. Sustainability and resilience 10. Scenarios 11. Concluding remarks 12. Solution Sets Index
Biography
Alexia Nalewaik is the owner of Pellucid Projects LLC, and occasionally an adjunct professor in engineering economics and project evaluation at higher education institutions such as George Washington University and American University. She is a quantity surveyor with over 30 years of experience in audit, risk analysis, and cost management for complex capital mega-programs. She is a Fellow of RICS, AACE International, the Guild of Project Controls, and ICEC. She serves on RICS Governing Council, and is a Past Chair of ICEC and a Past President of AACE International. This is her third book.
"Dr. Alexia is an internationally renowned academic and practitioner in the art and science of project management, project controls, and governance, who has the breadth of knowledge, experience, and character to impart both soft and hard skills to those who have been fortunate enough to attend her lectures and presentations, as well as read her books and the important publications to which she has made significant contributions.
This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with establishing the groundwork for a successful project. Dr. Alexia delves into the early stages of the project lifecycle, when the project begins as little more than an idea, and its costs and benefits must be identified and articulated clearly in a competitive environment to get the necessary investment and gain support to proceed with execution and delivery. The text has a strategic focus throughout. Balancing the explanation of a variety of analytical and economic methodologies and models with the critical importance of human factors offers acceptable situations for their implementation as well as potential hurdles and restrictions."
Shane Forth, Principal Consultant, Go Forth
"Strategic Project Analysis sheds light on the challenges of cost-benefit analysis during the fuzzy project front-end stage. The book provides a comprehensive and practical guide, covering critical and diverse topics, such as evaluation, planning, benefits, risk, stakeholders, project ownership, bias, and ethics. I highly recommend this as a guidebook to support managers in enhancing project investment decision-making."
Professor Ofer Zwikael, The Australian National University Canberra, Australia
