Engaging Stakeholders Early

2.2.1. Idea and Project Feasibility

The feasibility study is the beginning of the project, and it examines if the project is applicable and feasible for the customers. At this stage, the idea for the project is explored and elaborated, in order to find out the nature and scale as accurately as possible. The customer should, in addition, evaluate if the nature and possible execution of the project are familiar to them and to the suppliers, or if they are exceptionally complex with a lot of uncertain issues. If the nature of the project seems to be familiar in every way, it will probably be easier and more natural to use traditional project delivery methods instead of RPDM.

On the other hand, if the customer finds that the project will be special and multidimensional in some way, which would most likely require the deep involvement of multiple stakeholders and the utilization of their competence as a means of maximizing value creation, then using RPDM is recommended. At this point, the customers should write down their own purposes and objectives for the RPDM project, such as: the ultimate purpose of the project, the kind of benefits that using RPDM is expected to achieve, and the constraints that need to be taken into account. In addition to the customer's purposes, RPDM's general purposes are

(i) to increase collaboration between the stakeholders, especially between the customer and the design and construction teams;
(ii) to make the plans for the different project phases within the integrated team;
(iii) to manage the project as networks of commitments;
(iv) to optimize the end result, not the pieces;
(v) to focus on continuous improvement by linking learning into every action.