Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success is a 3-day training program based on IPA’s ongoing megaproject research, led by IPA Founder and President Edward Merrow, that seeks to reduce the high incidence of failure in megaprojects. Formerly known as Executing Successful Complex / Megaprojects, the course has been completely revamped to include the most current IPA data and research on megaprojects.

Megaprojects, defined as large and complex projects in the petroleum, minerals, chemicals, and power industries, are highly problematic with an alarming high failure rate. The frequency of megaprojects has increased, and will continue to increase for decades to come, as these large projects are critical to not only the sponsors that provide funding and execution, but also to the societies in which they are executed and to the health of the global economy.

Contributing to the high failure rate of megaprojects is the fact that they are fragile and require much more extensive cross-functional cooperation than most sponsoring firms are bringing to their development and execution teams. Seemingly small mistakes, especially in the pre-authorization, or Front-End Loading (FEL) work, can generate a cascade of failure in execution. The Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success seminar integrates the root causes of success and failure in megaprojects with strategies to prevent failure in future megaprojects.

The course materials are derived from more than 300 megaprojects contained in IPA’s proprietary Megaproject Database. These megaprojects represent an average cost of $3.5 billion (in 2010 terms) and over 80 sponsor organizations. Data for these megaprojects are gathered through interviews with project teams as part of IPA’s Project Evaluation System (PES®). Each megaproject is characterized by over 3,000 project attributes that enable IPA to perform detailed analyses regarding the project phases, project management practices, and performance.

Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success is officially registered with PMI, which allows attendees to easily claim 22 PDUs upon completion of the course. 

Course Content and Organization
Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success is a 3-day research-based seminar designed to communicate IPA's definitive research on how to plan, manage, and execute large and complex projects in a variety of ways. The format uses lectures supported with presentation slides and illustrative real-world examples to demonstrate and document the salient concepts. Facilitated discussions with other attendees will allow learning among peers to be shared.

Claiming PDUs
Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success is officially registered with PMI, which allows attendees to easily claim 22 PDUs upon completion of the course. Simply visit the PMI Continuing Certification Requirements site and submit the PDU Activity Reporting Form (Provider Number: 2767 / Activity Number: INS-CMD). For those claiming PDUs through other education organizations, please note that the duration of this course is 22 hours.

Course Benefits
Participants of the Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success course will take away the following:

• AWARENESS that megaprojects are fragile and require different strategies than less complex projects
• UNDERSTAND the critical drivers of megaprojects success
• IDENTIFY the key criteria to select megaprojects that best meet business needs
• RECOGNIZE the resourcing needs to effectively manage, plan, and execute a megaproject
• DISCOVER the risks for defining and executing megaprojects and risk mitigation approaches
• IMPLEMENT a formal opportunity shaping process to stabilize the project environment
• NETWORK with other project professionals involved with megaprojects

As part of the course materials, each participant receives one copy of Industrial Megaprojects: Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success, the new book written by Ed Merrow.

The Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success seminar is divided into a set of modules that will cover the following topics:

Characterize Megaprojects and Their Outcomes
It is important to understand the typical characteristics that define megaprojects and their various elements of difficulty because megaprojects have substantially poorer outcomes than smaller projects (the failure rate for megaprojects is two-thirds).  Megaprojects are more sensitive to the quality of practices, and are more difficult to manage because of their complexity. Establishing agreement on what constitutes success is important because of the size and importance of megaprojects to their businesses. Predictability can be more important to megaprojects than it is for less complex projects. Sometimes just achieving industry average cost and schedule performance is sufficient for these fragile projects.  Gaining insight into the trade-off patterns for megaprojects around cost, schedule, and operability is also important for understanding how outcome targets should be established.

Discuss the Opportunity Shaping Process and Devising the Shaping Strategy
The opportunity shaping process should be a formal, documented process led by the sponsor business to fashion a real project out of a business opportunity.  One of the root causes of megaproject failure is attempting to push forward without shaping the project.  There are a series of steps that the shaping process must follow to define the project context, assess the potential value, review the owner’s comparative advantage, identify and align all the stakeholders, and evaluate all issues pertaining to partner relationships. The two primary goals of the shaping process are to stabilize the project environment and to configure the project so that it is profitable for all stakeholder-investors.  Furthermore, the shaping process must be coordinated with the overall project development work process.  Examples of shaping errors and successful strategies are provided.     

Define the Complete Basic Data Required for Successful Megaprojects 
Every project is engineered from a Basic Technical Data package that governs the design, but when new technology is involved, it increases the portion of the Basic Data that are uncertain and incomplete. Specific examples of developing Basic Data across various industries are discussed.  Guidelines are provided for when the Basic Data need to be complete and available.  Furthermore, risk areas and consequences of Basic Data errors are explored, and we delve into the root causes of Basic Data mistakes.

Introduce Key Team Attributes Required to Improve Megaproject Performance and Strategies for Organizing Megaproject Teams
Discusses the precursors that are necessary for putting together a successful team.  Key team issues, such as when the team needs to be formed, how large it should be, the critical team functions, and the impact of turnover are discussed. The special challenges and difficulties of adequately staffing megaproject teams are addressed.  This topic covers different models of organizing megaproject teams that should be selected based on the complexity of the project.  The key attribute for any organization model is to maximize the flow of information to the right people at the right time.

Translating Ideas and Data to Scope (FEL 2)
The Front-End Loading (FEL) 2 phase is the most important phase of project definition because it is the last real opportunity to modify or abandon a project without significant economic damage. A root cause of megaproject failure is beginning FEL 3 without reaching closure on the scope of FEL 2. The FEL 2 process requires consistent interaction and coordination with the Basic Data and Shaping processes.  Best Practices for alternative scope selection are discussed, and the concept of an FEL 2A gate for optimization of the selected alternative is explored.  This topic also covers the criteria for assessing the completeness of the scope at the end of FEL 2 and for determining if the project should be executed or cancelled (“go/no go” decision).

Preparing to Execute (FEL 3)
The FEL 3, or project definition phase, is an intensive phase characterized by a high volume of work activity. The work done in the FEL 3 phase is critical to maintaining business value through execution. The amount of preparation completed during FEL 3 is a key driver of all major outcomes; however, megaprojects do not consistently achieve a sufficient level of project definition (as assessed by IPA’s FEL Index).  Despite megaprojects being critical to the project portfolios of the industrial companies that execute them, larger projects have historically had poorer definition.  Specific megaproject FEL challenges are described and the critical project context areas are discussed.  Furthermore, the length of the FEL duration for megaprojects is discussed.

Examine Contracting Strategies and Their Implications 
Contracting strategies and how they relate to megaproject success are discussed.  Specific concerns in contract selection decision making are explored.  The use of a project managing contractor is also addressed.

Characterize the Control of Execution Risk
Larger projects are more vulnerable to changes during execution and carry more risks and uncertainties than their smaller, simpler counterparts. This topic defines the key elements of control for megaprojects. The discussion focuses on practices found to be critical to the effective execution of large and complex projects. The course will also discuss the differences between risk, perceived risk, and uncertainties, and the different approaches needed to address each. 

Target Audience
Megaprojects - Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success seminar attendees should have at least 5 years of project management experience, including assignment to at least one megaproject. Attendees should be knowledgeable about phased, stage-gated processes for project development and basic project concepts. All attendees should be willing and able to share experiences in a collaborative learning environment. The primary targeted audience includes Business leaders considering to be, or are, involved with megaprojects, project directors, sub-project managers, and members of the megaproject team. Those who finance major projects, members of NGOs, and contractors should find the seminar valuable as well.