CHICAGO, IL-A.T. Kearney recently released a report, “ExCap II: Top-Level Thinking on Capital Projects,” a study of best practices in managing capital projects across their entire life cycles. This is the second edition of the study. Although capital spending has recovered since the 2008-2009 recession to $11--$12 trillion annually, there are significant challenges for managers across the globe that pose major risks to large capital project economics.

Many of the pre-recession capital project issues are returning including resource scarcity, cost management, and underleveraged project portfolios. The study found that 23% of capital projects do not meet the required financial return threshold.

The ExCap II study found inconsistencies in three areas:

Resource availability. Although the world faces high levels of unemployment (+8 percent in the U.S. and more than 11% in Europe), there is a significant lack of engineering and project management talent available to capital project managers;

Capital availability. Although poor project discipline results in budget overruns of 5–10 %, capital project managers consider capital availability a major constraint; and

Leadership’s understanding of capex issues. An overwhelming majority of senior managers believe they have the right capex organization, processes and performance levels, yet project performance is often poor.

The ExCap II study found that the leading companies in the study, those companies that achieved top ratings in each dimension of the study, have improved their capital project processes and performance issues since the 2008 study. There are three themes that distinguish the leaders:

Bigger role for senior management. Senior management at leading ExCap II companies play active roles in capital projects, at all stages and in all aspects of the project;

Advanced Risk Management. Leading companies stand out based on how they identify and prioritize risks. They improve risk management at every step, identifying, quantifying, tracking and mitigating threats; and

Portfolio view of projects. The leaders in the study look at their projects as a portfolio. At the design stage, they edit out the variations and opt for maximum commonality.

To read the full 2012 A.T. Kearney ExCap II Report, please go to www.atkearney.com .