Team alignment during pre-project planning of capital facilities

The life cycle of a capital facility project typically involves four stages: business planning, pre-project planning, project execution, and facility operation. The second stage, pre-project planning, is the process of developing sufficient strategic information for owners to address risk and decide to commit resources to maximize the chance for a successful project. In previously published research, the level of effort expended on pre-project planning was found to be positively correlated with project success. The research also identified the existence of misalignment between pre-project team members regarding project objectives and priorities. This condition of misalignment may negatively effect the decision making process during pre-project planning and reduce the chances of a successful project. Alignment is defined as the condition where appropriate project participants are working within acceptable tolerances to develop and meet a uniformly defined and understood set of project objectives. This research investigated alignment of project teams during pre-project planning of capital facility projects. Input from over one hundred individuals and data collected from twenty industrial construction projects were used in this research. Brainstorming techniques and workshops with industry experts were used to develop a list of issues that may have an effect on team alignment. Constructs and measurements were developed for each of the identified alignment issues, the actual level of alignment, and project success. Data collected from the sample projects were used in studying the relationships between the alignment issues, the actual level of alignment, and the success of the project. Bivariate analyses, path analyses, frequency analyses, and a comprehensive qualitative analysis were used to evaluate the data. A significant and positive relationship was found to exist between the level of team alignment during pre-project planning and the ultimate success of a project. The evaluation also identified a list of alignment issues that have the greatest effect on team alignment. This list of critical alignment issues can be used by project teams to focus their limited resources on the factors that have the most effect when trying to achieve and maintain alignment. Conclusions and recommendations for industry and for future research are also discussed in this dissertation.