Integration

Project management is sometimes referred to as the process of ‘making sure everyone else is doing his or her job in a concerted manner’. This oversight and coordination role is referred to as project ‘integration management’, which means ensuring that processes and systems are in place within the project to ensure the project team is aligned and working as planned on its major objectives and deliverables.

IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 2 [24] speaks to the importance of integration on safety, stating that the management system “shall integrate its elements, including safety, health, environmental, security, quality, human‑and‑organizational‑factor, societal and economic elements, so that safety is not compromised.” This especially true for large nuclear projects.

FIG. 6. VE process (reproduced courtesy of SAVE International [77]).

This section covers some of the tools typically used to encourage project integration. Project integration during construction is also discussed in Section 2.2.4 of IAEA Nuclear Energy Series No. NP‑T‑2.7 [2].

4.1.1. Project charters

A project charter (or project mandate and brief) is a key tool used to define and control a project at a high level.

It provides clear direction and authority to the project team with respect to project objectives, scope, requirements, measures of success and other items. It facilitates making key decisions as to whether a project should proceed in the context of other investment opportunities. The project charter should not be confused with a project plan, which is an internal project document used to define the management of each project phase. The role of the project plan is discussed in Section 4.1.3.

Project charters are created at project initiation and are normally not revised unless there is a major change to project scope or deliverables. It is an agreement between the owner of a project (the project sponsor) and the project manager as to what ultimately the project is designed to deliver. Its highest level of approval is thus typically the project sponsor. Experience has shown that a well written project charter can be important if disputes surrounding what the project team was expected to deliver occur.

A project charter should address parameters such as:

● Business needs/problem definition: Statement of business needs and objective(s), or statement of the problem to be solved or opportunity to be addressed by the project. This would have been already negotiated and agreed to by the project board and the project execution function.

FIG. 7. Areas to be managed for nuclear projects.

● Project scope and deliverables: A high level statement of the scope covered by the project in line with the established market implementation approach should be included. Specific inclusions and exclusions should be noted, and performance metrics and criteria as well as priorities for the deliverables should be identified.

Requirements in addition to local legislation and regulations may also be stipulated. These may include, among others, requirements pertaining to the:

○ Establishment and use of local expertise and resources;

○ Securing of project funding, financing and even the seeking of additional equity contributions;

○ Price of the produced electricity (sometimes with capital and operating cost separated);

○ Provisions to be made for future items such as maintenance, refurbishments or decommissioning;

○ High level technical objectives, for example, expected operating lifetime.

● Assumptions, constraints and known risks: Assumptions related to the project and any desired constraints (e.g. time, dates, cost, regulatory or licensing expectations, corporate constraints, language of communication).

● Relationship to other projects: Consideration should also be given to any shared scope and interfaces or provisions for other current or future projects within the company’s or the supplier’s project portfolio, or even to large unrelated projects that may vie for similar resources or be prerequisites to the start of the project in question.

● Accountabilities and responsibilities: High level project responsibilities and authorities of the project manager and project team should be established, including:

○ Financial (authority limits, gated or staged approval approaches for project phases, etc.);

○ Reporting and coordination requirements;

○ Project stakeholder and public communication;

○ Nuclear safety, security and safeguards, etc.

● Project team members and key stakeholders: A preliminary list of key project team members and stakeholders.

Note that in some project management methodologies, such as PRINCE2, the project’s business case takes the role of the project charter. In PRINCE2, the business case is continuously updated, and is considered a draft until the project has been planned. It is then used during project execution to check that the project will continue to deliver its identified benefits [78].

A sample project charter template is included in the IAEA’s Nuclear Contracting Toolkit⁵. The project charter often covers items specific to the project environment (see Section 2.3.1) such as ownership and industrial involvement schemes.

4.1.2. Life cycle management strategies

Due to their long service life, nuclear facilities and their related projects can benefit from a documented life cycle management strategy. These are high level strategic plans that help to ensure that the facility can be managed in conformance with its licensing requirements over its entire life cycle. During the early phase of a facility’s planning, it is not expected that the strategy would be very detailed. It should, however, be mature and well informed by the time the project is ready to proceed with the bid invitation/contract negotiation process (i.e. at the end of Phase 2), since the information contained is a valuable input to the project’s detailed planning and specifications.

This strategy is used to inform detailed project planning (see Section 4.1.3) and should address aspects such as:

● Siting: A preliminary strategy that directs site selection, characterization, environmental permitting and evaluation on aspects such as the number and timing of sites to go through the process, in parallel or series, as well as any contingencies and mitigations, etc.

● Stakeholder involvement: A detailed strategy for the analysis of regional stakeholders and the involvement of interested parties in the project development phase.

● Licensing management: A preliminary strategy on how the various nuclear and non‑nuclear licences will be applied for and managed.

5 See https://www‑legacy.iaea.org/NuclearPower/Infrastructure/NuclearContractingToolkit/manage‑contract/index.html

● Industrial involvement: A preliminary strategy on technology transfer, supplier development and required local content. The use of local resources should also be considered. If appropriate the owner/operator may have to work with functions within the government to assist in developing a national strategy. This national strategy may need to be supplemented by strategic requirements from within the project organization to effectively inform planning for current and future projects. The national industrialization strategy may be supported through the establishment of appropriate legislation, regulation and import controls.

● Contract strategy — generation supply agreements: A preliminary strategy for electricity supply and other supply agreements such as district heating and desalination if applicable.

● Contract strategy — key NPP supply agreements: A preliminary strategy for key facility component supply agreements should be developed.

● Funding and financing: A detailed strategy for the funding of the project development phase and a preliminary strategy for the remaining life cycle should be in place.

● Nuclear fuel cycle front and back end: A preliminary strategy which takes into account any applicable legislation and policies, including funding mechanisms for long term liabilities. At this phase the strategy should be comprehensive enough to inform stakeholders and the public of available options.

● Nuclear waste management: A preliminary strategy conforming to applicable local legislation and policy to inform stakeholders and the public of available options. Any requirements for the siting of waste treatment, interim and final storage facilities should be established and embedded in the requirements for site selection.

● Decommissioning: A preliminary strategy or preliminary decommissioning plan should be in place conforming to applicable local legislation to inform stakeholders and the public of available options.

For each of these aspects the following criteria should be considered:

● National policy, strategy, legislation and regulation;

● International best practice;

● Alternatives, and their advantages and disadvantages.

4.1.3. Project management or execution plans

Project planning, control and oversight are functions that belong to the adapted PDCA cycle shown in Appendix II, Fig. 37. The most important tool to communicate a project’s objectives, roles, responsibilities, baseline schedules and approach to activities is the project plan. Without a plan there can be no control of a project.

The project plan illustrated in Fig. 8 (for a new build project) is a dynamic set of planning information that is regularly updated to provide progress information and periodically baselined for performance reporting. This planning information specifies when project activities are expected to occur and with which resources. It becomes more detailed as the project proceeds through its various phases.

A project plan helps to ensure that:

● Key issues important to the success of the project are identified, defined and understood at the earliest possible stage;

● Project team members, end users and line authority are provided with a common understanding of the project and the planned method of execution;

● Orientation is provided to new project team members.

A new baseline of each component of the plan is established and approved at each project gate as specified by the project governance framework, which is described in Section 5.1. Each baselined plan would include a high level overall plan for the entire life cycle of the nuclear facility as well as a detailed plan for the upcoming project phase for which approval is being sought.

Typical project plan content is shown in Table 2. Depending on the particulars of a given project not all of the elements may be necessary.

FIG. 8. The project plan is regularly updated and baselined as the project passes through the various approval gates defined in the project governance framework (see Fig. 33).

TABLE 2. TYPICAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT/EXECUTION PLAN CONTENT

Topic Description

Project definition Referring to the project charter, this section would describe the project mission, objectives, high level scope (including its work breakdown structure), project

requirements, responsibilities and authorities as well as outlining project phases, required approval gates and critical success factors.

Project authorization Summarizes budgetary authorizations received to proceed with the project up to the current project phase.

Stakeholder analysis Documents the applicable external and internal stakeholders, their areas of interest and plans for contact.

Approvals and third party requirements Documents any permits, approvals or third party requirements impacting on the project.

Execution and delivery strategy Defines project phases, resources, contracting approaches, insurance approaches, bonding and security and risk allocation.

Organization, roles and responsibilities Identifies the organizational approach envisaged for overall management of the project and the roles and responsibilities for key members of the project team.

Health and safety management Describes the plan for management of occupational safety and health on the project.

Project staffing Describes staffing and resource acquisition and resource development plans.

TABLE 2. TYPICAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT/EXECUTION PLAN CONTENT (cont.)

Topic Description

Authority levels Identifies organizational authority levels for approval of project in‑scope expenditures, the spending of contingency amounts, commitments of the organization in discussions/

negotiations with regulatory agencies and project designs.

Schedule and milestones Provides a target schedule and major milestones for the project.

Project costs Provides detail on the project’s cost breakdown structure, the current cost estimate and the basis of the estimate.

Describes project cash flows, project financial and funding plans and release of funds strategy (i.e. project phases).

Project controls Describes the procedures to be used for project control of cost and schedule, change management, progress monitoring and claims.

Performance measurement Describes the processes and metrics to be used for performance measurement and status reporting.

Risk management Documents how risk management will be performed for the project. Documents the roles and responsibilities for project team members, the methodology and tools to be used, and the schedule for risk management. Describes any lessons learned incorporated into the project plan and lessons learned processes.

Requirements management Describes how requirements impact the project (e.g. licensing, regulations (nuclear, grid, other)), governmental requirements, internal organizational requirements, and

international requirements) will be recorded and managed.

Licensing and regulatory approvals Describes how licences and regulatory approvals will be managed for the project, including siting, reactor or facility design approval and others.

Engineering management plan Describes how engineering work on the project will be managed and resourced, its general scope items and processes for submittals and reviews.

Procurement plan Describes the procurement process being utilized, contract models being sought and the plan for procurement of major equipment, including roles and responsibilities.

Construction oversight, installation

and commissioning management plan Describes how construction and commissioning work on the project will be managed and resourced, key suppliers and subcontractors’ arrangements for factory and on‑site testing, etc.

Environmental oversight plan Describes how the project will ensure that all environmental approvals are in place such that the overall project schedule is not affected and that construction activities are carried out in an environmentally acceptable manner to meet all environmental requirements.

Includes any requirements for management of conventional or radioactive waste.

Communications plan Describes how the project intends to manage public communications, internal project and company communications, communications with contractors and confidentiality issues.

Records management Describes project records management processes, storage locations and storage media, electronic document management systems and records identification/coding

methodologies.

Project closeout Describes the processes to be used for project turnover and closeout.

Administration Describes on what basis the project execution plan will be updated, i.e. inputs, frequency, etc.

4.1.4. Managing and monitoring ongoing work

Project control, monitoring and oversight involve analysing information to understand, influence and predict important project objectives such as resources, cost and time schedule. This makes effective project management, planning and decision making possible. Organizations such as the IPA Institute have reported a positive correlation between better project control practices and reduced schedule slippage and cost growth in project execution. Cost improvements from project control best practices can range from 6 to 20% [79].

Using techniques such as project milestones and earned value management (EVM) can often more effectively control project activities.

4.1.4.1. Project milestone management

A project milestone is a “significant point or event in a project” [7], and lists of such milestones are often used as a useful communication and control tool. They are used as signal posts for a project’s major events such as start or end date, need for external review or input, need for budget checks, submission of a major deliverable and for other purposes. They have a fixed date but no duration.

Project milestones are frequently used to monitor project progress, but there are limitations to their usefulness.

They usually show progress only on the critical path, and may ignore non‑critical activities.

Note that the IAEA’s Milestones Approach [1] for new nuclear programmes uses a similar concept for describing the progress of a national nuclear programme. However, it only defines three milestones, while a typical NPP project taking place during Phase 2 and Phase 3 would define many more.

4.1.4.2. EVM techniques

The PMI defines EVM as a “methodology that combines scope, schedule, and resource measurements to assess project performance and progress” [7]. It integrates the project’s scope, cost and schedule baselines and compares them to the project’s actual performance. EVM develops and monitors three key dimensions for each work package and control account: the planned value of the work to be done at a given time (e.g. the estimated cost of work that has been done), the amount of work done at that given time and the actual cost of the work done at that given time. For the technique to be effective, individual items need to be costed and scheduled appropriately and measures of completeness for longer duration items (e.g. percentage complete to be credited, weighted milestones) need to be formalized.

As far as possible, progress should be tracked by measuring the completion of concrete, physical, useful deliverables or events. This is as opposed to secondary measures like hours worked or costs incurred that may not indicate the true progress of the project. Concrete deliverables can include items such as the number of design packages delivered to the constructor, number of work packages fully assessed, percentage of materials delivered to the site, metres of cable tray or pipe installed, cubic metres of concrete poured, major components being delivered, etc.

Figure 9 shows a typical EVM tracking chart which can be used to review whether a project (or part of a project) is behind or ahead of schedule, or above or below its planned budget, based on the work done to date. The PMI, the American Association of Cost Engineering (AACE) and TechAmerica have published detailed guides to EVM [80–82].

4.1.4.3. Requirements management

Large or even small projects can include hundreds or thousands of specific commitments or requirements.

These can originate from diverse sources such as the project scope document, regulatory bodies, the NEPIO, the government, other stakeholders and interested parties, international commitments, etc. Specific requirements for a facility such as an NPP can be extensive, often numbering in the tens of thousands of detailed requirements.

Requirements management is the process of documenting, analysing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It represents a continuous quality assurance and quality control process throughout a project (see Section 4.5).

Many organizations manage project requirements in a discrete manner. That is, commitments to, say, a regulatory body might be tracked in a regulatory commitment database, project scope requirements would be included in the project scope document, financial commitments would be managed by the finance department, specific end user requirements might be found in a constructability review document, etc.

Some organizations, however, attempt to manage project requirements in an integrated manner using a centralized method. This can be a daunting but useful exercise, since ensuring all necessary project requirements have been met is normally a requirement at closeout.

Categories of requirements can be established ranging from absolute requirements that have to be met to more discretionary criteria that can be used to optimize the project. This range of requirements makes requirements management a complicated and dynamic exercise. Not all requirements can or should be accepted by a project team. This leads to the necessity to make decisions about the feasibility of meeting certain requirements and the necessity to negotiate the requirement base with the various stakeholders. Once accepted, a requirement should be monitored to ensure that it is met. This is often done via software tools or a simple requirement traceability matrix, whereby requirements are mapped in accordance with their origin and specification within the design and contracting documentation right through to the verification of their achievement.

Countries introducing nuclear power for the first time may underestimate the level of detail needed to adequately specify an NPP. Experienced individuals involved in operating NPPs are, however, well suited to assisting in such efforts. Owners’ requirements can include specific technical features, process requirements, commercial conditions (e.g. intellectual property rights, training support, project management reporting), items related to the project’s scope (e.g. vendor scope versus owner scope), regulations, codes and standards to be addressed (including the need to address nuclear safety regulations that can affect the supply of equipment), items stemming from development phase activities such as environmental approval conditions, development of safety and security culture programmes or items related to the licensing of a design (e.g. design maturity, vendor involvement needed for the licensing process, pre‑licensing reviews by a regulator, requirements for having a reference plant in operation). Features that may be beyond a ‘base design’ but that can afford production, reliability or maintainability benefits can be explored. The IAEA’s Nuclear Contracting Toolkit⁶ contains a list of some typical areas of interest

Countries introducing nuclear power for the first time may underestimate the level of detail needed to adequately specify an NPP. Experienced individuals involved in operating NPPs are, however, well suited to assisting in such efforts. Owners’ requirements can include specific technical features, process requirements, commercial conditions (e.g. intellectual property rights, training support, project management reporting), items related to the project’s scope (e.g. vendor scope versus owner scope), regulations, codes and standards to be addressed (including the need to address nuclear safety regulations that can affect the supply of equipment), items stemming from development phase activities such as environmental approval conditions, development of safety and security culture programmes or items related to the licensing of a design (e.g. design maturity, vendor involvement needed for the licensing process, pre‑licensing reviews by a regulator, requirements for having a reference plant in operation). Features that may be beyond a ‘base design’ but that can afford production, reliability or maintainability benefits can be explored. The IAEA’s Nuclear Contracting Toolkit⁶ contains a list of some typical areas of interest

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