Over half of large-scale engineering and construction projects—off-shore oil platforms, chemical plants, metals processing, dams, and similar projects—have miserably poor results. These include billions of dollars in overruns, long delays in design and construction, and poor operability once finally completed.

Industrial Megaprojects gives you a clear, nontechnical understanding of why these major projects get into trouble, and how your company can prevent hazardous and costly errors when undertaking such large technical and management challenges.

• Clearly explains the underlying causes of over-budget, delayed, and unsafe megaprojects
• Examines effects of poor project management, destructive team behaviors, weak accountability systems, short-term focus, and lack of investment in technical expertise
• Author is the CEO of the leading consulting firm for evaluating billion-dollar projects

Companies worldwide are rethinking their large-scale projects. Industrial Megaprojects is your essential guide for this rethink, offering the tools and principles that are the true foundation of safe, cost-effective, successful megaprojects.

Quantitative analysis of outcomes vs PMs at the individual level

Leading Complex Projects takes a unique approach to post-mortem analysis to provide project managers with invaluable insight. For the first time, individual PM characteristics are quantitatively linked to project outcomes through a major study investigating the role of project leadership in the success and failure of complex industrial projects; hard data on the backgrounds, education, and personality characteristics of over 100 directors of complex projects is analyzed against the backdrop of project performance to provide insight into controllable determinants of outcomes. By placing these analyses alongside their own data, PMs will gain greater insight into areas of weakness and strength, locate recurring obstacles, and identify project components in need of greater planning, oversight, or control.

The role of leadership is to deliver results; in project management, this means taking responsibility for project outcomes. PMs are driven by continuous improvement, and this book provides a wealth of insight to help you achieve the next step forward.

• Understand why small, simple projects consistently outperform larger, more complex projects
• Delve into the project manager's role in generating successful outcomes
• Examine the data from over 100 PMs of complex industrial projects

• Link PM characteristics to project outcome to find areas for improvement

Complex industrial projects from around the world provide a solid basis for quantitative analysis of outcomes—and the PMs who drive them. Although the majority of the data is taken from projects in the petroleum industry, the insights gleaned from analysis are widely applicable across industry lines for PMs who lead complex projects of any stripe. Leading Complex Projects provides clear, data-backed improvement guidance for anyone in a project management role.

Major Projects are Delayed by Months or Years, and Cost Millions More Than Budgeted, Because of Common Mistakes Made at the Contracting Stage

Organizations that invest huge amounts of capital in major building/industrial projects almost never do the engineering and building themselves. They hire engineering and construction contractors to do it for them. Unfortunately, selecting contractors and negotiating the terms of a major project is one of the most difficult aspects of project management...and organizations waste billions of dollars and "bake in" months or years of delay by doing it wrong. Contracting is also the area of project management that is most prone to firmly held opinions unencumbered by any facts. We intend to remedy that situation with this book. Drawing on a properietary detailed database of over 1100 major projects, the world's leading industrial engineering project consultant, Ed Merrow explains:

Key Principles of Contracting for Major Projects:

1. Owners are from Mars; contractors are from Venus
2. All the biggest risks in contracting belong to the owner
3. Contracting “games” will normally be won by contractors, not owners
4. Most risk transfer from owners to contractors is an illusion
5. Contractors do good projects well and bad projects poorly
6. Contractors may have shareholders, but they are not your shareholders!
7. Mixing different contract types with different contractors on the same project is unwise
8. Economize on the need for trust; trust only when being trustworthy has value

Merrow also explains:

• Which contract incentives work and which don’t and WHY
• Which of over a dozen contracting strategies work best and which ones hardly ever work and WHY

The strategic advice in this book is designed for owners and contractor project managers, team members and supply chain, executives, and other business leaders involved in major projects. It's also an indispensable resource for engineers, leaders of industrial firms, bankers, and academics studying the messy realities of the construction and engineering industries.