The most up-to-date edition of the bestselling text on megaprojects
In the newly revised second edition of Industrial Megaprojects Revisited: Concepts, Strategies, and Practices for Success, 2nd Edition, veteran megaproject valuator Edward Merrow delivers an accessible and authoritative discussion of why megaprojects frequently go over budget, past their deadlines, or result in safety compromises. You’ll explore project management deficiencies, destructive team dynamics, weak accountability systems, short-term biases, and technical expertise gaps and, more importantly, learn how to avoid or address these pitfalls in the real world.
This latest edition offers extensive new material on renewable energy and decarbonization projects, as well as:
- Clear, nontechnical explanations of why major projects tend to get into trouble
- Strategies to avoid hazardous and costly errors in the high-stakes megaproject environment
- A comprehensive collection of tools, tips, principles, and frameworks to take a megaproject from start to finish without compromising on safety, blowing the budget, or exceeding the deadline
An essential resource for engineers and industry professionals and executives, Industrial Megaprojects remains the gold standard on the subject. It also belongs in the libraries of finance and banking professionals who regularly fund these projects, and academics who research them.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Why Megaprojects Fail So Often - Seven Key Mistakes 1
Part 1 Success Is Elusive 9
1 Megaprojects - Creators and Destroyers of Capital 11
2 Data and Methods 25
3 Project Outcomes and Trends 45
4 The Roads to Ruin - The Mechanics of Failure (and Success) 71
Part 2 The Three Work Streams 95
5 An Introduction to the Shaping Stream 101
6 Shaping Step 1 - Understand the Context 109
7 The Next Steps - From Context Knowledge to Project Shape 135
8 Devising the Shaping Strategy 169
9 Basic Data Are Basic 207
10 Project Definition - Getting the Front- End Right 235
Part 3 People Do Projects 297
11 Megaprojects Teams 299
12 Organizing Megaproject Teams 339
Part 4 Getting It Done 353
13 Contracting 355
14 The Control of Execution Risk 407
Part 5 Finishing Up 435
15 Project Governance 437
16 Focus on Success 449
Glossary and Acronyms 459
Index 463
