July 11, 2011

Be sure to check out our new webinar on Front-End Engineering and Design: Influence over a Project’s Outcome by James D. Whiteside, II PE, and Tyler Humes.

Project management needs to know how much of the total installed cost of a project is spent on front-end engineering and design (FEED) when developing a project in order to set a budget. The answer is normally expressed as a percent of the total installed cost, which is converted into a budget of engineering hours. Statistical percentages are acceptable for comparative purposes like benchmarking, but statistical percentages are not a substitute for estimating or establishing a budget of activities to be performed.

The study focuses on identifying the FEED characteristics that are common among competitive projects. Characteristics such as duration and hours for engineering and project management activities are compared to predictability and performance metrics for cost and schedule. A slate of projects is examined, and it is discovered that project success is driven by the type of engineering performed in FEED. The study found that FEED duration and management FEED hours are key drivers to project cost and schedule competitiveness and predictability.

This webinar was developed from one of close to 100 presentations given at the 2010 AACE Annual Meeting in Atlanta, and is just an example of the types of high-quality topics presented each year. Mark your calendar for July 8-12, 2012 to attend next year’s Annual Meeting in at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas.

To view this webinar, click here .