Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI)

Presented by:
Nafisa Nazneen Choudhury (226104013)
Sharmistha Ghosh (226104019)

Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Introduction
• The Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) is a powerful, easy-to-use tool that
identifies and precisely describes each critical element in a scope definition
package.
• It was developed under the guidance of the Construction Industry Institute (CII)
in 1994 with the mission to develop user-friendly pre-project planning tools that
would help owner and contractor firms better achieve their business,
operational, and project goals.

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Introduction
• It is meant to be used at the front end planning (FEP) phase of a project.
• It helps teams immediately recognize the potential threats to the project.

Fig 1: Project Phases in Front End Planning

Source: Construction Industry Institute

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 PDRI Selection
Building Projects
◦ IR155-2 Version 4.0 - Contains 64 scope definition elements in an easy-to-use
score sheet format. There have been some minor textual edits, stylistic
modifications, and major enhancements made to the spreadsheet features
made to version 4.0.
✓ Airport motels ✓ Medical halls ✓ Stores and
terminals ✓ Industrial facilities ✓ Recreational shopping
✓ Apartments control ✓ Nursing homes and athletic centers
✓ Banks buildings ✓ Offices facilities ✓ Toll booths
✓ Churches ✓ Institutional ✓ Parking ✓ Research and ✓ Warehouses
✓ Dormitories buildings structures laboratory
✓ Government ✓ Light assembly ✓ Public assembly facilities
facilities and and ✓ Schools
✓ Hotels and manufacturing performance (classrooms)
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 PDRI Selection
Industrial Projects
◦ IR113-2 Version 5.0 - Considers revamping and renovation, as well as project
security issues. The PDRI MATRS CII Research Team (RT-361) combined two
large research projects, PDRI, and FEED MATRS, and significantly improved the
capability of the PDRI spreadsheets to upgrade PDRI-Industrial to Version 5.0
in 2019.
◦ IR314-2 - Considers Small Industrial Projects.
✓ Chemical plants ✓ Oil and gas plants ✓ Steam heat/chilled ✓ Water/
✓ Food processing production ✓ Plant water plants wastewater
plants facilities upgrade/retrofit ✓ Steel and treatment
✓ Manufacturing ✓ Paper mills ✓ Power plants aluminum mills
facilities ✓ Pharmaceutical ✓ Refineries ✓ Textile mills

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 PDRI Selection
Infrastructure Projects
◦ IR268-2 Version 4.0 - Contains 68 scope definition elements in an easy-to-use
score sheet format.
◦ IR314a-2 - Small infrastructure projects valued at less than $20 million and of
shorter duration.
✓ Access ramps and switch networks stations ✓ Railroads structures
✓ Airport gears ✓ Highways ✓ Pig launchers ✓ Reservoirs ✓ Wide area
runways ✓ Electricity ✓ Levees and receivers ✓ Security networks
✓ Aqueducts transmission ✓ Locks and ✓ Pipelines fencing
✓ Canals and weirs ✓ Pumping and ✓ Towers
✓ Electrical distribution ✓ Meters and compressor ✓ Tunnels
substations ✓ Fiber optic regulator stations ✓ Water control

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PDRI Selection
Mining Projects
◦ FR-366 - Assessing the readiness of projects in the mining industry.
Manufacturing and Life Sciences Projects
◦ FR-MLS-02 - In keeping with the standard PDRI format and recommended
practices for conducting assessments upon the PDRI Industrial and PDRI for
Buildings.

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Advantages
A resource for education and development in the field.

A method for keeping track of where things stand at

various points.
It can be used as a benchmarking tool to compare the
completion of scope definition on current projects to the
performance on past projects.
A unified standard by which members of the project
team can settle their differences.

A tool that promotes communication and alignment

between owners and design contractors.

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How to use PDRI tool?
▪ In order to evaluate the level of element scope specification, the PDRI tools
employ a scoring sheet (0 to 1000 points).
▪ Members of the project team collaborate to define a set of criteria that will be
used to evaluate the success of the project.
▪ Definition levels are defined for each element ranging from level 1 to 5.
▪ Total scores that are high indicate that the project is not properly defined, while
scores that are low indicate that the project is clear.
▪ At the end of the project, the facilitator will go over the final grade with the
team.
▪ The final score provides insight into how well the project's parameters have
been defined.

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PDRI Tool for Small Infrastructure Projects
- RT-314a

Fig 2: Optimal Times

Optimal times
◦ PDRI Early Review – Typical PDRI score: 400-800
◦ PDRI Final Review – Typical PDRI Score: 150-400, with a target of 300 or below

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PDRI Tool for Small Infrastructure Projects
- RT-314a
Composition of the tool:
◦ 3 Sections
◦ 8 Categories
◦ 40 elements

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 Table 1: Project Score Sheet – Unweighted.
Source: https://keep.lib.asu.edu/_flysystem/fedora/c7/184247/ElZomor_asu_0010E_17239.pdf

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PDRI Tool for Small Infrastructure
Projects
IR314a-2 includes the following tools:
◦ Unweighted Project Score Sheet
◦ Weighted Project Score Sheet
◦ Element Descriptions
◦ Macro enabled excel project assessment spreadsheet
◦ Logic Flow Diagrams
◦ Facilitation Instructions

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 Table 2: PDRI Score Comparison.
Source: https://keep.lib.asu.edu/_flysystem/fedora/c7/184247/ElZomor_asu_0010E_17239.pdf

PDRI - Small Infrastructure Projects use has proven that projects with a PDRI score
< 300 tend to perform better than those > 300.

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Applications
As a checklist for actions
◦ Improve the project definition and scope.

As a list of standardized scope definition terminologies

◦ Improves communication and provides alignment between the project team.

As a risk identification and assessment tool

◦ To plan mitigation strategies before moving to the detailed design.

As a project monitoring and benchmarking tool for the planning phases.

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Conclusions
• Easy-to-use tool at Front End Planning Phase of a project.
• Low PDRI score → better project scope definition.
• CII found that cost of project can be reduced by up to 24% if this tool is
implemented effectively.
• The PDRI scores of the projects improves cost performance of the project.
• It also minimizes completion time overruns and change orders.

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Future Research Suggestions
• PDRI tool for other disciplines or projects (not included in the previously
available PDRI tool).
• Incorporating new elements in previously available PDRI tool to calculate PDRI
score.
• Combining a PDRI tool with other available or new tools to further improve the
project success rate.
• PDRI as a measure of sustainability in project management.

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 References
1. Bingham, Evan Dale. Development of the project definition rating index (PDRI) for
infrastructure projects. Arizona State University, 2010.
2. Bingham, Evan, and G. Edward Gibson Jr. "Infrastructure project scope definition using project
definition rating index." Journal of management in engineering 33, no. 2 (2017): 04016037.
3. Cho, Chung-Suk, and G. Edward Gibson, Jr. "Development of a project definition rating index
(PDRI) for general building projects." In Construction Congress VI: Building Together for a
Better Tomorrow in an Increasingly Complex World, pp. 343-352. 2000.
4. Cho, Chung-Suk. Development of the project definition rating index (PDRI) for building
projects. The University of Texas at Austin, 2000.
5. CII, “PDRI Tool for Small Infrastructure Projects (Best Practice)”, Accessed 2022/08/10,
https://www.construction-institute.org/resources/knowledgebase/more-filter-
options/result/topics/rt-314a

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References
6. CII, “Project Definition Rating Index Tool for Infrastructure Projects (Best Practice)”, Accessed
2022/08/10, https://www.construction-institute.org/resources/knowledgebase/best-
practices/front-end-planning/topics/rt-268
7. Collins, Wesley, Kristen Parrish, and G. Edward Gibson Jr. "Development of a project scope
definition and assessment tool for small industrial construction projects." Journal of
management in engineering 33, no. 4 (2017): 04017015.
8. ElZomor, Mohamed A. Development of the project definition rating index (PDRI) for small
infrastructure projects. Arizona State University, 2017.
9. Ubach de Fuentes, Pere-Andreu. "Validation of the project definition rating index (PDRI) for
MIT building projects." PhD diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004.
10. Wang, Yu-Ren. Applying the PDRI in project risk management. The University of Texas at
Austin, 2002.

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 “If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail”
- Benjamin Franklin

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