1. Why Do Small Projects Underrun and What Can We Do About It?
About 70 percent of small projects underrun, which tells us that small projects are not setting p50 estimates. And, the size of the underrun is increasing over time. Sure, on a single project, an underrun might make everyone from the plant manager on down happy. But consistently underrunning by a sizeable amount ties up money that could be used on other small projects. So how can we convince site management that not every project should underrun? What are signs of a “fat” estimate, and what are estimate validation practices to reduce the fat? This study will investigate these questions and more.

2. When Small Systems Do Big Projects.
During the economic boom of the previous decade, we saw site-based systems managing larger and larger projects. Some manufacturing sites currently manage projects as large as $50 million or even $100 million under the site project organization, whereas in the past these projects would have been handled by the central engineering organization. During the downturn, this trend has continued; we have not observed a shift back to the central engineering organization. So how do large projects fare under the site project organization? Is better performance associated with site or central management? What are common pitfalls when site-based systems handle large projects, and how can they be avoided or mitigated?