In an era shaped by the demand for instant gratification, it is human nature to want to reach our destinations faster – whether physical or developmental. This need for speed permeates nearly every aspect of our lives. The urgency is particularly pronounced in the realm of life sciences capital projects, with pressure from executives and where the stakes are high, promising solutions to some of humanity’s most pressing challenges, as well as driving the success of businesses. Establishing a new facility on schedule and within budget is not merely a financial triumph, it stands as a pivotal competitive advantage for organizations striving to thrive in what can be an unforgiving market landscape.
However, capital project complexity continues to rise, whether for life sciences, higher education, healthcare, or otherwise. Even under perfect conditions, project owners have to coordinate with multiple parties and contracts and navigate multiple approaches. Today, with the added challenge of supply chain delays, labor shortages, and inflation, sticking to your original schedule can feel impossible.
An Actionable Guide to Capital Project Planning & Execution
All capital projects move through the same core phases, from programming to operational readiness. But certain decisions you make—including the time allotted for each phase and which stakeholders you involve and when—can have a dramatic impact on success.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle project owners face today is balancing their sense of urgency early in the project with the need for certainty. Rushing work at this scale might get you to the finish line faster, but at what level of risk (or regret) and at what cost?
In this guide, we will share lessons learned on how to make more thoughtful decisions at each stage of the capital project life cycle and make a case for why slowing down in the early stages can actually speed up the project delivery.
Establishing Your Game Plan to Win
“Measure twice, cut once” can apply to various parts of the construction process, but it rings especially true when it comes to investing in your initial project strategy or project execution plan (PEP). However, many times, this step is skipped, thinking it saves time by not delaying design.
And while every project is unique, hindsight is always 20/20. In most cases, project errors would have been prevented by investing a little time up front in a PEP, saving a lot of time and getting to the finish line sooner.
When was the last time you conducted a lessons learned session following a large project—or reviewed the lessons learned from earlier projects? It is a great source of knowledge that can help prevent gaps in your delivery as you efficiently develop a PEP.
A thorough PEP should provide a strong initial sense of your overall costs, risks, and plans to mitigate them. Simply put, it outlines how the work will get done.
As it relates to large capital endeavors, establishing a PEP will set the tone for the work ahead, defining your:
■ Scope
■ Preliminary design
■ Schedule
■ Budget
■ Procurement strategy
■ Design strategy
■ Construction strategy
■ Relocation plan
■ Commissioning plan
■ Operational readiness plan

In best case scenarios, having a superior PEP along with putting the following three foundational elements in action, will result in a hassle-free project experience that sets the bar high for how to fast-track projects:
1- Fostering an Ecosystem of Cooperation
Capital projects are always an exercise in bringing fragmented teams together and finding ways for them to work seamlessly. The right PEP clarifies everyone’s responsibilities and role differentiation upfront, sets a shared definition for success, and identifies how progress will be measured.
It should also rally everyone around a common purpose—which, for life sciences and academic research organizations, often means driving new discoveries and saving lives.

2- Establishing Communication and Accountability Standards
How many meetings have you been to where you discuss the same things as last time, and not much progress has been made? Scheduling status updates and check-ins without having real accountability in place for team members is a recipe for failure.
When outlining your PEP, be sure to incorporate clear process discipline. Articulate where and how specific updates should be communicated (e.g., software or spreadsheets), and set working agreements for response times. You need continuous feedback loops that span all teams involved in the project—if everyone is only concerned about whether their piece is on track, you will never have visibility into the true status, or potential setbacks.
Continuous Feedback Loops Spanning All Teams

3- Facilitating Timely Solutions
Every capital project is different. As a project owner, you need partners who can commit to identifying timely solutions to whatever unique challenges arise—whether that is sourcing materials and equipment for a first-of-its-kind facility, navigating construction on an occupied campus (e.g., university, healthcare, or life science campus), or meeting sustainability goals.
Find partners who can support technical reviews of design documentation along with constructability reviews, again, to help flag roadblocks as early as possible. When vetting teams (like your general contractor), consider if you are getting the best people for your specific type of project or simply who is available at the time.
Other questions to consider:
■ Do the individuals who will be working with you (not simply the overarching firm) have relevant experience?
■ Do they know the local permitting guidelines, or have relationships with local municipalities and vendors?
■ Do they have a playbook of processes and controls for managing complex projects?

Your Project Execution Plan
Scoping
With a solid plan in place, you can move into one of the most crucial steps of capital project programming: defining your scope.
Many teams make the mistake of moving from programming to design too fast, leading to disruptive equipment, space, and layout issues later in the project life cycle, which can be detrimental to success.
This is when it is critical to slow down. Invest time in capturing stakeholder input—including end-user requirements, process needs, and equipment performance expectations—and share that input with everyone on the team.
Getting as granular as documenting the number of items produced per day, or how many work shifts will occur in a 24-hour period, could be the difference between setting a realistic scope versus needing to recalibrate mid-flight.
When scoping is done right, everyone should have a clear idea of what is expected at the end of a project and can take action to swiftly drive success.

Budgeting and Forecasting
Project owners’ top objective for 2024 was lowering the cost per square foot of their initiatives, according to 35 North research. With cost concerns at an all-time high, owners must design to their budget rather than budget to fit their designs.
The most accurate budgets will account for everything up front, not just the cost of construction—including any owner furnished equipment and furniture costs. And remember: The more detailed your scope, the more realistic your cost estimates will be.
This part of the process should also include developing contingency plans across design, construction, and project owner teams, an area that is often a classic disconnect. Conduct thorough risk analyses to ensure you are prepared for any and all possible scenarios.
Again, feedback loops across teams are critical to setting a realistic baseline budget and sticking to it throughout design.


Scheduling
It is not enough to document individual schedules for each component of your capital project. All schedules, including design, construction, move management, and commissioning and validation, need to be integrated to provide the most accurate visibility.
Develop a master schedule specification to define the project’s work breakdown structure (WBS) and identify major milestones throughout the process. Discuss your early package strategy (for the site, central utility plant equipment, etc.) and identify all possible long-lead items that could impact the overarching timeline.
For example, are there certain materials you know are on backorder that will push completion out? Are there alternative materials available? Will you need more time to accommodate construction on an active campus?
Maintaining one holistic schedule detailing design through operational readiness is the only way to understand your true timeline—and your best bet for sticking to it.

Quality and CQV
As with many of the steps we have already discussed, timing is everything.
Long before you get to commissioning, qualification, and validation (CQV), you should engage your quality leads. Additionally, you should clearly identify the CQV strategy prior to design to ensure testing and documentation expectations are reflected in procurement contracts.
Commissioning teams should also strive to collect accurate asset data from the builder as early as possible (including unique IDs, manufacturer model and serial numbers, recommended maintenance information, and spare part numbers) to load into the CMMS.
For healthcare, higher education, or any sector for that matter, you could consider partial facility approvals or a “phased delivery” rather than waiting for an entire space to be delivered.
For life sciences projects specifically, there are even steps you can take to expedite the FDA’s on-site audit. Using integrated traceability matrix templates can also help accelerate approvals rather than reinventing the wheel with new documents.

Operational Readiness
It is a closely held belief that moving from facility testing to Transfer of Care, Custody and Control (TCCC) requires project teams complete commissioning before operational readiness. The truth is, managing commissioning and operational readiness in tandem can be a surefire way to streamline your entire project timeline.
Again, the decision to run this work in parallel must be made in your initial planning phases. This will help you ensure that commissioning and operational readiness are integrated earlier, during design and construction.
When commissioning and operational readiness teams work in partnership, you have more hands on deck to conduct risk assessments. This means a greater likelihood that any potential barriers turning over the facility will be caught and addressed. This type of collaboration also expedites the development of preventive maintenance and calibration programs. Commissioning teams can handoff equipment manuals and asset data in real time for operational readiness experts to build plans and load into the CMMS.

Slow Down to Speed Up
Keep in mind a common saying in the military:
“Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”
There are an infinite number of vital decisions that go into keeping capital projects on time and on budget. And yet, pressure from leadership to move fast often results in these decisions being rushed (or glossed over completely). Maintaining the project discipline to do things ‘right the first time’, drives smooth forward progress.
However, by slowing down at the beginning and investing the right amount of time in planning, communicating, and collaborating, you reduce the risk of major delays later in the project life cycle. Because capital project timelines orchestrated thoughtfully from day one are not just more realistic—in the end, they are faster too.