Industrial Megaprojects: Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success

More than half of large–scale building projects, such as drilling platforms, chemical plants, or dams, have miserably poor results: billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once they are finally completed. Occasionally, these fiascos make the news, but for obvious reasons, companies usually bury the disasters with as little publicity as possible. Yet, management at the companies know full well the complexity and the difficulty faced when mounting megaprojects.
Industrial Megaprojects explains the underlying causes of over–budgeted, delayed, and unsafe megaprojects: poor project management, destructive team behaviors, weak accountability systems, an almost pathological focus on the short–term, and the unwillingness to invest in deep technical expertise. Modern life as we know it relies on the success of these projects. Leaders and stakeholders of future megaprojects would be wise to heed the warnings and take note of the best practices outlined in this book.

Spis treści:
Foreword JAMES B. PORTER, JR. vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction
Why Megaprojects Fail So Often: Seven Key Mistakes 1
Part One
Understanding the Projects
Chapter 1
Megaprojects—Creators and Destroyers of Capital 11
Chapter 2
Data and Methods 23
Chapter 3
Project Outcomes 37
Part Two
Making the Right Business Decisions Before You Commit
Chapter 4
The Opportunity–Shaping Process 53
Chapter 5
Devising the Shaping Strategy 91
Chapter 6
Megaprojects and Co rporate Governance 123
Part Three
Making the Right Project Decisions
Chapter 7
Basic Data Are Basic: Get Them Right Before You Start to Design 137
Chapter 8
Megaproject Teams: People Do Projects 159
Chapter 9
Organizing Megaproject Teams 185
Chapter 10
Project Defi nition: Getting the Front End Right 199
Chapter 11
Contracting 253
Chapter 12
The Control of Execution Risk 305
Chapter 13
Focus on Success 333
Glossary and Abbreviations 341
Notes 343
Index 347

Nota biograficzna:
Edward W. Merrow is the founder and CEO of Independent Project Analysis, Inc., the world′s leading consulting firm evaluating billion–dollar megaprojects of national and international oil, chemical, pharmaceutical, and major mineral companies, and benchmarking their cost, schedules, safety, startup, and operational performance. Before founding IPA in 1987, Merrow was a research analyst and later the director of the Energy Policy Program at the RAND Corporation.

Okładka tylna:
More than half of large–scale building projects, such as drilling platforms, chemical plants, or dams, have miserably poor results: billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once they are finally completed. Occasionally, these fiascos make the news, but for obvious reasons, companies usually bury the disasters with as little publicity as possible. Yet, management at the companies know full well the complexity and the difficulty faced when mounting megaprojects.
Industrial Megaprojects explains the underlying causes of over–budgeted, delayed, and unsafe megaprojects: poor project management, destructive team behaviors, weak accountability systems, an almost pathological focus on the short–term, and the unwillingness to invest in deep technical expertise. Modern life as we know it relies on the success of these projects. Leaders and stakeholders of future megaprojects would be wise to heed the warnings and take note of the best practices outlined in this book.