Preparing an asset for operation

What opens on day one

A development can be physically complete while its future operator is still arranging service contracts, staffing or access to information. The owner needs an agreed description of the operation that will begin at opening. That description identifies the areas in use, the services available to users and the responsibilities the operating organization will take on.

The project team and operator should agree that scope together. Operating managers identify the resources and information they need. The project team identifies what it will deliver and what still depends on a contractor or another party. List unresolved responsibilities beside the proposed opening date.

Evidence for accepting responsibility

The handoff schedule can connect each operating responsibility with the information required to carry it out. A maintenance manager may need equipment information and the applicable service arrangements. The team dealing with occupants needs usable contact routes, access arrangements and instructions for referring a fault. Finance needs to know which commitments will continue after the project budget closes and which organization will pay them.

Ask the receiving manager to check a routine operating task using the supplied information. Equipment identifiers and service references should match the asset being handed over. The manager can then identify specific gaps for the party responsible for supplying the information.

Engineering, safety, statutory and contractual acceptance have separate requirements. The appointed specialists determine whether those requirements are met. Their conclusions and remaining conditions belong in the opening decision.

A phased opening

If one area opens while construction continues elsewhere, define which spaces and services the operator controls. Staff need to know who communicates with users and who takes a problem back to the project team. Shared access or utilities may affect both areas despite separate management.

Describe that boundary in the operating plan. Include the work the project team will continue to carry out, access it still needs and the arrangements for changing a shared service. The owner can then compare the proposed opening with the staffing and management capacity available. Each later phase requires an update to those responsibilities as more of the asset enters use.

Unfinished delivery work

Some delivery items may remain open after operating responsibility transfers. The handoff needs to show who owns each item, what evidence will close it and how its status reaches the operator. The owner also needs to know whether an unresolved item restricts use, creates an interim operating cost or requires further specialist approval.

Keep the route for reporting a fault clear during this period. Operating staff may first hear about a problem that belongs with a contractor or project manager. They need an identified recipient and a way to check the response. Sending the same issue through several separate lists can obscure whether anyone has accepted responsibility for resolving it.

The commercial treatment of unfinished work, warranties and contractor obligations is agreed through the appropriate contractual arrangements.

The first operating budget

A project budget may include temporary support that ends when delivery closes. Compare those arrangements with the services the operator will fund during ordinary operation. Identify continuing subscriptions, service agreements, internal administration and any temporary cover needed while the permanent team prepares for its responsibilities.

Check the operating budget against the scope accepted at opening. For services temporarily retained by the project team, show when cost and responsibility will transfer. Finance confirms the accounting treatment, while the owner and operator agree spending authority. Update both the budget and responsibility schedule if the opening changes.