Standards body BSI haslaunched a new whitepaper on how to minimise risks in infrastructure projects.

Experts suggest that a better approach to scope development and managing risk and contractual change could save up to £25bn a year on projects.

BSI worked with industry experts and researched existing practices to identity key challenges, then considered how organizations can address these issues. The whitepaper covers:

The three main underlying issues with scope development
Impacts on costs and programme timings
Related existing standards and potential gaps to address
Five ways that organizations to improve the scope and reduce risks.

The whitepaper is aimed at those involved in planning, designing and procuring for major infrastructure programmes, including the construction industry, infrastructure owners and operators, in particular people involved in in scope development such as procurement and commercial directors, project managers and project planners.

It includes case studies including of Whitechapel Station and Associated British Ports. The lead authors were George Sethia, Head of Consulting, BSI, and Alyaa Hassona, Consultant, Built Environment, at BSI.

Sethia said: “The project scope, a document that sets out the baseline, aims and objectives of the entire project, is the critical piece of information that dictates the level of risk and certainty within the programme during the early stages.

“All focus should be on defining the project scope; getting it wrong can have drastic consequences on project performance. By contrast, addressing this from the start could contribute to £10-25 billion per year in cost savings.”

To download a copy of the whitepaper click here.