The Construction Readiness Assessment is often mistaken for an in-house construction readiness checklist.

Several organizations implementing the Construction Readiness Assessment are making the transition as part of a larger initiative to standardize processes and leverage project assurance tools that directly impact project performance.

In most cases, these organizations are replacing an internally developed construction readiness checklist that identifies tasks to complete prior to construction. These readiness checklists can vary in terms of the scope, who is engaged, and how it is completed.

Although the Construction Readiness Assessment could be perceived as a checklist, there are some major differences. Most importantly, the assessment quantitatively determines if a project is “construction ready” using industry-benchmarked leading indicators.

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Defining Construction Readiness

The Construction Industry Institute (CII) defines Construction Readiness as “activities and procedures that should be substantially completed prior to construction to productively start and sustain construction operations.”

The Construction Readiness Assessment is developed by industry leaders.

CII is the developer of the Construction Readiness methodology. They are a non-profit research organization of more than 140 owners, engineering contractors, suppliers, consultants and academic institutions.

CII is committed to the developing and sharing best practices in construction project management with the industry at large. They work with Registered Education Providers like Valency who support organizations around the world to implement CII best practices. Their research teams are composed of qualified member organizations and academics who follow a defined set of guidelines for their studies.

The goal of CII’s research team for Construction Readiness (DCC-02) was “to quantitatively determine what qualifies a project as “construction-ready” while assisting project teams to improve and sustain the readiness level of their projects.”¹

The Construction Readiness Assessment is measurable and based on industry benchmarks.

A project’s Construction readiness score is a single, unified metric that is expressed as a percentage. Depending on the score, a project is identified as not ready, borderline, or ready.

CII’s research shows that projects scoring 85% or higher on the Construction Readiness Assessment significantly outperform those scoring below 85%. Specifically, construction-ready projects perform 20% better in terms of cost and 22% better in schedule.²

CII’s research team arrived at this conclusion by first identifying 228 readiness factors which were then weighted based on their importance. The weightings were determined using data gathered from 80 projects. Of the projects surveyed, 41 were deemed to be “construction ready” and 39 were considered “not ready”.

These factors are leading indicators of construction-ready and not-ready projects and form the Construction Readiness Assessment. They are grouped into 15 categories and worded as simple statements answered with yes, no, or not applicable.

The Construction Readiness Assessment promotes team alignment, addresses risk, and helps to close gaps.

An important aspect of the Construction Readiness Assessment is how it’s deployed.

As a project assurance step, there are defined stages in your project when the assessment should be conducted including multiple points during detailed design, pre-construction, and just prior to mobilization for construction.

The intent is to hold a scheduled session with participation from your project team and key stakeholders. The assessment is led by a neutral facilitator, who captures the team’s responses and presents the final score.

A clear set of action items will emerge from the process helping to close the gaps and work towards a productive start to construction.

In addition to providing a standard and objective means to measure construction readiness, it promotes alignment among the project team and transparency around project risks at a crucial time where costs and schedule will be expended.

Using the assessment in your Next Project

If your organization is focused on adopting standardized, project assurance practices, replacing your construction readiness checklist with CII’s Construction Readiness Assessment can deliver measurable results toward improved project outcomes.

A CII Registered Education Provider can support you through the implementation process. This often begins by building a business case for adoption of the Construction Readiness Assessment and a plan for piloting and phased rollout of the assessment across major capital projects.

If you are interested in getting started, we invite you to contact Valency to schedule a discussion with a Senior Consultant.

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Sources:

[1, 2] Research Report FR-DCC-02 – Construction Readiness Assessment for Productivity Improvement, Construction Industry Institute, 2018