Planning for Startup: Assessment
The 45 startup activities of the Startup Planning Model are complemented with 26 tools across the eight project phases to facilitate the implementation of the startup planning activity. Twenty of these tools focus on the critical areas of front end engineering and detailed design. (IR121-2, p. 9)
Four examples of these 26 tools:
- Tool 1-A-2: Startup Planning Assessment Tool
- Tool 2-C: Startup Financial Risk Assessment Checklist
- Tool 3-I: Checklist of Typical Startup Activities
- Tool 3-C-2: Sample RACI Chart
The research identifies these 6 startup planning gates. The "Quality Gate" concept emphasizes the importance of planning milestones or checkpoints for assessing the thoroughness of startup planning to ensure that all appropriate planning is completed, prior to moving on to the next step of project development. (IR121-2, p. 7)
- Recognizing the impact of startup on project economics
- Updating the startup execution plan
- Finalizing the operations and maintenance organization and management systems
- Check-out systems
- Commission systems
- Finalizing documentation
Everyone involved in startup planning should be aware of the barriers and challenges to effective planning. The research identifies 140 barriers to successful startup grouped into five themes: (IR121-2, p. 9)
- Ineffective communication
- Schedule pressures
- Lack of personnel, information, or other resources
- Denial of potential problems
- Planning efforts applied too late in the process
This implementation resource provides the Startup Planning Model to help plan startups in a more thorough, effective, and efficient manner. It provides full details of the 45 startup planning activities identified by the research team. These activities have been organized by eight typical project phases and are supported with 26 tools.
