CVEN 640:

Project Development:
Methods and Models
Lecture 2: Project Development
Spring 2009
Dr. Ivan Damnjanovic
 Role of Engineers

 Didn’t
change; plan, design, construct, and
maintain civil engineering structures

 However, those decisions need to be

coordinated to maximize the project
objectives: MAKE PROFIT!

 How can we make such decisions?

Engineering Decisions Determine:

 Construction
quality (type of material and
equipment, etc.)

 Constructability

 Operations
flexibility (expanding, scaling,
and abandoning)
Engineering Decisions Determine:

 Life-cycle costs
 Development costs
 Construction costs
 Maintenance costs
 Operating costs
 Other costs
 Revenues
 Increased revenue due to strategic planning
 Other
 Example of Scalability
DEMAND, Cumulative Cost

II
WILL YOU INVEST IN THIS PROJECT?

PLANNING DESIGN CONSTRUCTION TIME

 Engineering Decisions Matter

 Design option was more expensive, but…

 Made the project more attractive and
feasible
 Changed the cash flows – important from
the perspective of servicing debt

 Engineering,Investment and Financing

Decisions are related!
 How to Develop Project?

 The Vision or The Idea

 Defining the Concept

 Market Research and Analysis

 Business Structure
 The Vision: A Marketable Need or Service

 Vision Source
 Work experience
 Educational experience
 Business colleagues and friends
 Observed business trends and
opportunities
 Advanced education and training
 Media coverage
Note: Without an identifiable customer segment willing to pay for a product or
service, its value is dubious no matter how clever it seems.
Who comes up with the vision?

Who are project developers, sponsors or

promoters?
 Contractors
 Vendors
 Operating companies
 Investment banks
 Venture capital funds
 Other investors
 Redefining/Defining the Vision

 If an invention, build a prototype or prepare

design drawings and specifications
 If a process, clearly define its purpose and
advantage
 If it is proprietary intellectual knowledge, define
how it can produce clear competitive advantage
 If a new market, define the market and why it will
use the product or service
 If a niche market, define why the product has an
advantage over existing participants
 Market Research

 Market information is making known the

supply and the demand for the considered
or substitute products
 Market segmentation is the division of the
market or population into subgroups with
similar motivations
 Market trends is predicting and analyzing
upward or downward movements of a
market, during a period of time
 Market Research

 Costumers or Buyers
 Vendors

 Barriers to entry and exit

 Substitute products

 Competitors

 Current industry health and trends

 Apparent factors for success

 Societal factors
Strategic Approach to Market Analysis

 SWOT Analysis

 Porter’s Five Forces Model

 Othertechniques (PEST Model, Context

analysis, Six Forces Model, GAP, TOWS,
etc.)
 SWOT Analysis

Strategic planning tool to evaluate project’s:

 Strengths, attributes of the organization that
are helpful to achieving the objective
 Weaknesses, attributes of the organization
that are harmful to achieving the objective
 Opportunities, external conditions that are
helpful to achieving the objective
 Threats, external conditions that are
harmful to achieving the objective
 Factors

 Internal factors - The 'strengths' and

'weaknesses' internal to the organization.

 External factors - The 'opportunities' and

'threats' presented by the external
environment.
 Strengths

Consider this from an internal perspective, and

from the point of view of your customers and
people in your market
 What advantages does your company have?
 What do you do better than anyone else?
 What unique or lowest-cost resources do you
have access to?
 What do people in your market see as your
strengths
Note: If all your competitors provide high quality products, then a high quality
production process is not a strength in the market, it is a necessity.
 Weaknesses

 What could you improve?

 What should you avoid?

 Whatare people in your market likely to

see as weaknesses?
 Opportunities
 Where are the good opportunities?
 What are the interesting trends?
Useful opportunities can come from such things
as:
 Changes in technology and markets on both a
broad and narrow scale
 Changes in government policy related to your field
 Changes in social patterns, population profiles,
lifestyle changes, etc.
 Local Events
 Threats
 What obstacles do you face?
 What is your competition doing?

 Is changing technology or policy

threatening your position?
 Do you have bad debt or cash-flow
problems?
Carrying out this analysis will often be
illuminating - both in terms of pointing out
what needs to be done, and in putting
problems into perspective.
 Porter’s Five Forces Model

 Developed by Michael Porter in his book

“Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing
Industries and Competitors” (1980)

 Five forces determine the attractiveness of a

market:
 Bargaining power of customers
 Bargaining power of suppliers
 The threat of new entrants
 Threat of substitute products
 The level of competition in an industry
Porter’s Five Forces Model
In Class Exercise (groups of 3-4)
 Assume you are Patrick Kron, Chief
Executive Officer and Chairman on the
executive board of Alstom.
 You have an amazing idea to build and

operate high speed rail between Houston,

Dallas, and San Antonio.
 Conduct SWOT Analysis and Implement

Porter’s Five Forces Model

 For Info Check: http://www.thsrtc.com/