Strategic Project Analysis: A Powerful Set of Cost-benefit Tools and Techniques for Managers

The forming, funding, approval, and planning of a project are key factors in its future success or failure. This book explains the use of strategic project analysis, and advocates for a closer relationship between economic analysis and project evaluation and provides real-world examples of major projects that have used this method.

The primary quantitative method for decision-making in project selection is cost-benefit analysis. However, the method has well-known flaws and challenges. Using the principles of stakeholders, risk, ethics, and bias, the book presents a rationale for broadening traditional project analysis to include both quantitative and qualitative methods. The identification of sustainability and resilience benefits and hidden value are highlighted as an equally important factor in assessing projects.

Written in a clear and accessible style with straightforward maths, this book is invaluable to project owners, decision-makers, and management professionals seeking broader tools to evaluate strategic projects, as well as students of project management.

Alexia Nalewaik is the owner of Pellucid Projects LLC and occasionally an adjunct professor in engineering economics and project evaluation at higher education institutions such as George Washington University and American University. She is a quantity surveyor with over 30 years of experience in audit, risk analysis, and cost management for complex capital mega-programs. She is a Fellow of RICS, AACE International, the Guild of Project Controls, and ICEC. She serves on RICS Governing Council and is a Past Chair of ICEC and a Past President of AACE International. This is her third book.