Principles
Corvative’s project execution planning approach is standards and principles-based. It incorporates fundamental Australian and international policies, legislation, standards and recommended practices such as:
- The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) and related practice standards;
- Commonwealth Procurement Rules;
- AS 4817:2019 Earned value management in project and programme management;
- AS/NZS ISO 14001:2016 Environmental Management Systems;
- International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) core principles;
- International Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACEi) Recommended Practices;
- Australian Jobs Act 2013;
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act));
- Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and related amendments;
- AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems — Requirements with guidance for use;
- AS/NZS ISO 31000 – Risk Management Guidelines;
- AS/NZS 4804:2001 – Occupational health and safety management systems;
- AS/NZS ISO 9001 Quality management systems — Requirements;
- AS ISO 10005:2018 Quality management – Guidelines for quality plans; and
- AS/NZS ISO 10006:2017 Quality management — Guidelines for quality management in projects.
Content
One of the challenges in applying PMBOK® and other standards, is that they are ‘one-size-fits-all’. As such, they need to be tailored for the national, regional, and industry context of the project. They also need to be applied in a way that is appropriate for the scale and maturity of the project.
While the depth of a project execution plan will increase as a project matures, a project should at least touch on the following management areas at every stage:
- Governance & integration;
- Communication;
- Stakeholder identification, classification & engagement;
- Project controls (cost, time, change);
- Environment (from an ecology sense);
- Approvals;
- Design;
- Procurement;
- Health, safety & emergency management;
- Industrial relations, employee relations and workforce planning;
- Quality assurance/quality control;
- Information;
- Risk;
- Construction;
- Transport & logistics; Operational readiness; and
- Commissioning.
Process
Project execution planning is an iterative process. The exact path depends on the contracting strategy selected. But the process described below is typical. The initial project execution plan is established in prefeasibility and is in two parts:
- Current phase;
- Execution phase.
In each phase of the project, the current phase plan is detailed out only in those areas where controls are required for the current phase. For example, design, project controls, procurement, information management and health and safety (if field work is taking place) or quality (if sampling or testing is taking place) are required early.
In early phases, the plans are not particularly integrated. E.g., the designer, the environmental and approvals consultant and the geotechnical consultant (if these are not self-performed by the owner) will usually develop their own management plans and incorporate them in their scopes of work.
As the project develops and becomes more complex, the current phase plans also develop until, at the commencement of exection, the current-phase and execution-phase plans are essentially the same.
The execution-phase plans also develop.
In early phases, the owner sets out the framework for the project execution plan and decides how the plan will be structured. This structure is tested and refined in later phases. For example, if a managing contractor is appointed, they may become the custodians of the plan and take responsibility for development to execution level. A mature and experienced owner may retain that responsibility, or validate the plan through external review.
When major contractors are being selected (e.g. designer, construction, underground development, original equipment manufacture), they should be asked to contribute to the development of the management plans. It is essential that they fully understand what the plans require of them and that they incorporate the requirements into their offers.
Contractors should be asked to submit pro forma management plans with their offers. The quality and comprehensiveness of these plans should be part of the assessment criteria for selection.
After contractor selection, and once a final investment decision has been made, contractors should be asked to develop and submit their own required management plans.
These do not all need to be available as of the notice to proceed. Management plans such as commissioning are typically developed much later.
