Effect of pre-construction planning on electrical project performance

The importance of planning is unmistakable given the challenges faced by a competitive construction market. As a result of these trying times, project planning is experiencing renewed attention. Previous studies focused primarily on the qualitative aspects of planning, such as who should be involved in planning and what types of plans should be produced. Consequently, there was a critical need to quantify the impact of planning on the outcome of projects. Hence, the primary goal of this research was to investigate and quantify the effect of pre-construction planning on electrical project performance. The research addressed two key questions: (1) What is the nature of the relationship between pre-construction planning and performance and can this relationship be quantified? and, (2) Which planning activities contribute to better performance? Correspondingly, the research supported two hypotheses: (1) Projects that experience an appropriate planning effort also experience more successful outcomes, and (2) There are significant pre-construction planning activities that distinguish a "successful" project from a "less-than-successful" project. The study was conducted in three phases. In Phase 1, companies were asked to identify all of the planning activities they performed as part of their pre-construction planning process. Then in Phase 2, an initial model Electrical Pre-Construction Planning Process was developed from the data collected during Phase 1. In the third phase, project-specific information was collected on the planning effort and project outcomes for several "successful" and "less-than-successful" projects. This data collection effort culminated in a detailed analysis of the differences in planning practices of these two groups. Ultimately, Phase 3 resulted in the: (1) development of a technique to taxonomize and quantify inherent characteristics of a project, which might influence how a project is planned; (2) refinement and validation of the model Electrical Pre-Construction Planning Process based on "successful" projects; (3) creation of a scorecard that compared the actual planning effort on projects to the model planning process; (4) development of a technique for quantifying the effectiveness of an actual planning process; and (5) investigation and quantification of the relationship between inherent characteristics, planning effectiveness, and project outcomes.