Project Planning Guide

This Project Planning Guide has been developed to assist all of those who

develop GSA’s Capital Program in evaluating, developing, and implementing federal

facilities projects.

This Guide is divided into five main chapters and several appendices.

• Overview of GSA’s Capital Program outlines GSA’s basic Capital Program development planning process and the fundamental roles of the Feasibility Study and the Program Development Study. The section includes summary sheets of each study and an overall project activity timeline.

• What’s Important and When discusses GSA’s primary business and program goals as presented in the Feasibility Study and PDS.

• Pre-Planning Phase describes the role that GSA’s daily management of facility requirements, customer needs, and portfolio planning play in the project development process. GSA professionals know that projects seldom have a cold start. They germinate slowly over time as requirements accumulate. Managing this process is important to project scoping and planning.

• Feasibility Study Phase outlines the process for beginning, conducting, and completing a Feasibility Study, a process that ends with the submission of the Prospectus package for the site and design funding. This section describes the process, deliverables, and keys to success to develop a sound project and site/design funding request. It explains that the Feasibility Study is the core of this process, but not the only ingredient needed for success.