Project Viability Assessment (PVA)

What Is the Project Viability Assessment?

The business case is the single most important element in building an effective capital project. IPA research demonstrates that the quality, depth, and completeness of the business case governs virtually every aspect of project development and execution. IPA’s Project Viability Assessment (PVA) quantitatively evaluates the strength of your project’s business case, identifies gaps in practices, and highlights actions to take to minimize project risk in subsequent phases.

3 Powerful Products in 1

*PUCB and CRMs can be delivered standalone when applicable.

Project Viability Index (PVI) & Business Case Risk Evaluation

• Assess the project’s overall business case strength compared to Industry
• The PVI’s formula was developed from analyzing over 1,000 projects within IPA’s database
• A Best Practical PVI rating results in a strong business case, leading to better planning, improved project drivers, better outcomes, and overall achievement of the business goal

Product Unit Cost Benchmark (PUCB)*

• Provides a realistic cost comparison basis for the current estimate
• Represents how much capital Industry has paid on average per
  unit of product
• Identifies if the project truly has a financial foundation for proceeding

FEL 1 Conceptual Risk Models (CRMs)*

• Assists in centering the cost and/or schedule of a project based
  on Industry
• Predicts how much FEL 1 cost growth and respective probabilistic distribution is to be expected
• Predicts the project’s total project cycle time and respective probabilistic distribution, assisting in early schedule development

Key Questions Answered

• Which business case elements are weak?
• Are the cost and schedule targets competitive and achievable?
• Are the project objectives clear?
• What are the key business case risks?
• What activities need to be completed to reduce risk?
• Is the project strong enough to keep in the portfolio?

Timing and Perspective

The Project Viability Assessment is a part of IPA’s Project Evaluation System (PES®), a suite of project risk and benchmarking evaluations for every stage in the project life cycle. This analysis is typically performed prior to the beginning of the Select phase, also known as the Front-End Loading (FEL) 2 phase, when decision makers typically decide whether a project’s business case is robust enough to justify further investment in project definition to support a full funding decision.

How IPA Benchmarks

IPA’s databases contain over 22,000 projects with more than 21 million data points. This information is carefully normalized to enable accurate comparisons of similar projects executed at different times and in different locations. The database is further used to create proprietary statistical models that establish industry benchmarks. We develop benchmarks for multiple project outcome measures and compare your project’s planned and actual performance against these benchmarks.

Our Clients

The Project Viability Assessment is available to owner firms across industrial sectors. Key sectors include, but are not limited to:

• Airports
• Chemicals
• Food & Consumer Products
• Fuels Manufacturing & Transportation
• Infrastructure
• Life Sciences
• Mining, Minerals & Metals
• Pipelines
• Power Generation & Distribution
• Pulp & Paper
• Renewables