Comprehensive Planning
ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Bob Prieto
Florida, USA
Introduction
This paper is the first of a three-part series that covers three interrelated topics essential for successful management, execution, and delivery of today’s engineering and construction projects:
- Comprehensive planning
- Organization, and
- Governance
Each of these topics could be an extended paper in their own right, but in this series we will touch on many of the aspects of each but know there is much more to each aspect. This series is driven in part by a recognition that later, larger problems on projects can trace their roots back to foundational activities that either have not been sufficiently thought through or in some case not even really considered.
The papers in this series are drawn from a script for a class the author previously taught, so the style is conversational.
We will begin with comprehensive planning.
Comprehensive Planning
In this paper we will touch on six aspects of project planning. The comments come from a perspective gained in nearly 50 years of working on, overseeing, and developing turnaround strategies on large, complex mega and giga projects with values up to $25 billion US dollars.
The six aspects of project planning covered are:
- Strategic Business Outcomes/ Strategic Business Objectives (SBO)
- Importance of Project Planning to Project Success
- Lifecycle Planning Process
- Project Planning as a Primary Management Function
- Project Plan
- Agile Planning
Strategic Business Objectives
Strategic Business Objectives (SBOs) represent the fundamental business drivers in a well-executed program.
They also represent the number one reason that large complex projects fail. In addressing the turnaround of 20 “underperforming” large projects there was only one failure mechanism common on all these failing projects. And that was the inability of the top person in the owner’s organization to sit across his desk and tell me what the strategic business outcome he wanted to achieve by spending billions of dollars. I am talking about very senior individuals.
In fairness there are three aspects of SBO failure…
More…
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How to cite this paper: Prieto, R. (2025). Foundations of Project Success: Part 1 – Comprehensive Planning, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/pmwj155-Aug2025-Prieto-Foundations-of-Project-Success-Part-1-Planning.pdf
About the Author
Bob Prieto
Chairman & CEO
Strategic Program Management LLC
Jupiter, Florida, USA
Bob Prieto is Chairman & CEO of Strategic Program Management LLC focused on strengthening engineering and construction organizations and improving capital efficiency in large capital construction programs. Previously, Bob was a senior vice president of Fluor, focused on the development, delivery, and turnaround of large, complex projects worldwide across all of the firm’s business lines; and Chairman of Parsons Brinckerhoff, where he led growth initiatives throughout his career with the firm.
Bob’s board level experience includes Parsons Brinckerhoff (Chairman); Cardno (ASX listed; non-executive director); Mott MacDonald (Independent Member of the Shareholders Committee); and Dar al Riyadh Group (current)
Bob consults with owners of large, complex capital asset programs in the development of programmatic delivery strategies encompassing planning, engineering, procurement, construction, financing, and enterprise asset management. He has assisted engineering and construction organizations to improve their strategy and execution and has served as an executive coach to a new CEO. He is author of eleven books, over 1000 papers and National Academy of Construction Executive Insights, and an inventor on 4 issued patents.
Bob’s industry involvement includes the National Academy of Construction and Fellow of the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). He serves on the New York University Tandon School of Engineering Department of Civil and Urban Engineering Advisory Board and New York University Abu Dhabi Engineering Academic Advisory Council and previously served as a trustee of Polytechnic University. He has served on the Millennium Challenge Corporation Advisory Board and ASCE Industry Leaders Council. He received the ASCE Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) award in Management (2024). He was appointed as an honorary global advisor for the PM World Journal and Library.
Bob served until 2006 as one of three U.S. presidential appointees to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC). He chaired the World Economic Forum’s Engineering & Construction Governors and co-chaired the infrastructure task force in New York after 9/11. He can be contacted at rpstrategic@comcast.net.
To see more works by Bob Prieto, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/bob-prieto/
