Before production begins on a design package, some investigation and planning must occur. These tasks are called preliminary engineering and are critical to the success of the project. Major new discoveries made during the design production phase are usually negative events.

This chapter addresses the preliminary tasks that must be accomplished before the main design task begins. First, the project must be fully scoped, with each task delineated and quantified. This scoping process includes gaining familiarity with the existing control system and walking down the process area noting distances, space availability, obstructions, and so on. It also requires the initialization of a database and generation of an I/O list.

When these tasks have been completed, a detailed estimate may be generated. Refer to Part I of this book for more information on the scoping and estimating processes.

A Development of a Detailed Scope of Work

A scope of work is simply a list of tasks (see Part I, Chapter 3). If a detailed estimate is required, to an accuracy of, say, 10%, then the scope of work should be rather detailed. Figure 9 presents a very basic scope of work developed in outline format in Microsoft Word.

Figure 9: Sample scope of work

The finalized scope of work fully describes performance expectations for each line item and provides reference to any standards and practices that might apply.