The Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) define the goals for construction projects. Whether it is a new building, a remodel or a system upgrade, defining the objectives up front for the team to understand, helps to ensure project success. Learn what the OPR document really is, why it is important and how it is used in this interactive session lead by professionals experienced in the development and deployment of OPRs on large and small construction projects.
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Establishing a Solid Project Foundation - The Inclusive OPR Process
1. The heart and science of medicine.
UVMHealth.org/MedCenter
Establishing a Solid Project
Foundation
Jennifer Chiodo, Cx Associates
Dave Keelty, University of Vermont Medical Center
The Inclusive OPR Process
24. Working Session
• Develop OPR for a Conference Center Meeting Room
• Logistics
– Step-by-step instructions
– Break into groups
– Take on personas as assigned
– Develop requirements
– Multi-voting
– Report out
• Roles
– Facilitator (manages process, timing, keeps group on task,
manages brainstorming)
– Scribe (capture essence of each requirement)
– Timekeeper (monitors progress against agenda)
• End Result
– List of your group’s prioritized requirements for a conference room
24
25. Step 1 – Project Scope
• Building a new conference center
• Burlington, VT
• Concerned about environment, resiliency, competition,
cost of financing, schedule, bookings
25
26. You are the stakeholders
• End users: conference organizers, attendees, exhibitors
and presenters
• Operations, maintenance and housekeeping
• Ownership, mgmt., fiscal
• Sales, leasing and marketing
Step 2 – Stakeholders
26
27. Step 3 – Group Meetings
• Hold facilitated group meetings
• Define the requirements for a large conference room in
this new conference center with regard to:
– Sustainability
– Function
• Break into four groups by room quadrant
• Keep voices quiet
• Select a facilitator, scribe and timekeeper
• Follow the agenda
• Provide a list of prioritized requirements
27
28. Your Agenda
• Divide into groups (2 minutes)
• Assign roles - Facilitator, Scribe and Time Keeper (2 minutes)
• Introductions (2 minutes)
– Facilitator asks people to hold up cards to identify personas:
• End users MAUVE
• Operations BLAZE ORANGE
• Management YELLOW
• Sales and marketing RED
• Silent brainstorming of requirements for the new conference rooms
based on your assigned persona (2 minutes)
• Facilitator conducts round robin (each person gives ONE idea) (15
minutes)
• Scribe records
• Multi-voting (5 minutes)
• Review results and report out (2 minutes per group)
28
29. • Facilitator
– Keep things moving
– Hold group to norms
• Scribe
– Record key points
– Write BIG
– Spelling doesn’t matter
– Alternate colors for each
idea
• Timekeeper
– Monitor time
– Vocalize as deadlines
approach and are reached
Logistics
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• Round robin
– Go in order
– Be brief
– One idea per person
– Don’t repeat
– No judging or interrupting
• Multi-voting
– Each person has three
stickers:
• Blue = 5
• Red = 3
• Yellow = 1
– Don’t try to refine
30. • Quietly break into groups
• Facilitators can self-identify and assist in organization
• Follow agenda
NOW!
30
31. Agenda
• Divide into groups (2 minutes)
• Assign roles (2 minutes)
• Introductions (2-5 minutes)
– Facilitator asks people to hold up cards & identify personas
• Silent brainstorming (2 minutes)
• Round robin (each person gives ONE idea) (15 minutes)
– Scribe records
• Multi-voting (5 minutes)
• Review results and report out (2 minutes per group)
31
Understand what is an OPR
How is it used and its benefits
Have the skills to implement a successful OPR process on your projects
All building projects are unique
Different Functions
Different Purposes
Different Users/Customers
Different Budgets
The OPR is a process for helping the owner define and state their needs, goals and priorities for the project. For example:
Design/ Aesthetic Features
Performance Requires
Energy Use
Maintainability
The OPR provides a means for formalizing those requirements and documenting and communicating these requirements to the design team.
In the simplest terms: The OPR is a list of priorities that clearly states the owner’s specific goals for the project that will inform the design and construction of the project
The list could included aspirational goals or very specific and quantifiable objectives.
States owner’s needs, objectives and desires
Defines criteria for project success
Breaks it down to the Who, what, when, where, why and how.
Identifies measurable and verifiable performance goals
The trick is to refine and clarify the list… move from the nebula cloud of ideas, hopes, dreams and aspirations …toward tangible and concrete requirements that will guide you to a successful project
Gets everyone on same page:
Teams represent different consistencies and perspectives
Projects are complex
Communications can be challenging and not every team member has the same access to the owner’s perspective
Provides needed clarity and focus on common objectives
The OPR provides clarity regarding desired outcomes and priorities
Generates and provides common alignment and knowledge
Reduces risk by making key decisions early instead of reinventing the wheel or making decisions later when changes cost more.
Reduces rework.
Reduces reliance on assumptions…often unstated
People presume they know the owner’s priorities but have own biases
Some have unrealistic or bogus assumptions
OPR Benefits
Informs and instructs the planning, design and construction process
Allows you to measure the results of your project against its goals and objectives
Provides a “Road Map” for the project team
Provides a roadmap for implementing the project planning design and construction
Ensures everyone is pulling in same direction
Provides a durable record of design and operational choices
Becomes an “Owners Manual” for the project team
Guide when hard choices are needed
Provides performance definition and operational parameters
Establishes benchmarks and measurable criteria that can evaluate after completion and use as touchstone
Can be become the “Owners Manual” for the project
Informs the entire project continuum from planning, design, construct thorough occupancy and beyond
A pathway to a successful project
Owner: ensure member of consulting team has OPR development in their scope
OPR Developer: work with owner to organize attendance of diverse stakeholders at input sessions
OPR D: facilitate input sessions
OPR D: compile draft OPR and distribute to stakeholders
Owner/stakeholders: review OPR and approve
Not static…it can be updated
Design, construction and operations teams: use OPR as guidepost for decisions and to understand goals
Input process must understand and accommodate:
Different perspectives
Diverse opinions
Multiple options for collecting input from stakeholders:
Facilitated Stakeholder Meetings (most common)
Debriefs on past projects – good for maintenance, housekeeping and developer
Walk-throughs of existing buildings
Surveys – end users
Focus groups – get in deep with specific constituencies early. end users (such as patients or students)
Participants need to be diverse and representative
Dissatisfied people (aka complainers) need to participate so they are part of the solution
End users (Healthcare – patients, nurses, doctors)
Administrators – finance, business decision makers, marketing
Maintenance and housekeeping personnel
Difficult to get some of the key end users to participate
Such a departure from convention – when you invite people in it is almost like a cultural shock
Never been asked before, alien process,
Don’t have time for this
Don’t understand value
Competent facilitator
Planned agenda with time for each step
Need to encourage input and accommodate.
Logistics challenges – plan right environment
Time – you need adequate time to make the OPR process successful
keep things moving
Brainstorm priorities
Multi-vote to identify top requirements
Outline
LEED Requirements – Jen pull from V4
Overarching goals
Project management requirements
Specific requirements
spaces, finishes, envelope, furnishings, space, storage, housekeeping, sustainability, energy, MEP, etc.
Living document – updated over life of project
The Evolution
McClure
No OPR = long-term dissatisfaction from 1985 to the present.
Established a bad reputation that lingers to this day
McClure Building Design – predates the OPR, but provides a good base line the implications of no OPR
Cookie cutter approach
Design decisions largely made on lowest first cost basis
No analysis or understanding of lifecycle performance
Little or no input from the folks who use or maintain or otherwise the building
Results:
High operating costs
Very High EUI
On-going costs and day today challenges to overcome operational limitations, for example:
No ability to isolate plumbing distribution…no valves
No scalability of Infrastructure/HVAC…one monster system…little redundancy
Radiation Oncology Outpatient Radiation Therapy for Cancer Treatments: 24,000 SF, $13M completed in 2012
Established when the OPR concept was integrated into the commissioning process
Our first OPR
Largely internally focused but involved a broad constituency of internal departments
Doctors, Nurses, Clinical Staff
Facilities
House Keeping
Security
Other Support Services
Unqualified success
Increased patient satisfaction
Lower operating costs
Enhanced quality and maintainability
LEED Gold Certification ( This was OPR requirement)
Green Roof with produce garden and open public space
Miller Inpatient Building: 132 Beds, 200,000 SF, $187M , Occupancy-Summer 2019
Took our OPR process to a whole new level.
Everything we did on the Radiation Oncology Project but this time we imbedded patients and families in the process
We introduced rigorous performance requirements. For example:
Patient and Family control of their environment
Life cycle analysis based decision making
Building Envelop performance
EUI 50% below average performance
LEED Silver
The OPR drove the planning and design process
Serves as a day to day refence document as we building the project and plan for occupancy
Here is a specific OPR application example for an out of state health care project I’m involved with.
Commissioning design review – I learned to always start with the architectural, drawings more advanced and help understand the building.
The architectural plans clearly indicate “refuge area”
I need to know – what are the expectations for duration of occupancy and services available in this area so when I conduct my electrical design review, I can be sure they are satisfied.
The OPR defines these key requirements and where it isn’t adequately detailed, gets revisited and updated to define details of key requirements, like what is the expectation for refuge areas, to ensure everyone understands what’s needed for project success. If this didn’t get caught at design and the electrical had minimal provision for emergency power but the owner wanted to be able to accommodate patients during a hurricane (24 hours) then it would be costly to fix after the fact or during construction. The OPR is the playbook for project success.
Inquire who has had experience in the OPR development process suggest they make sure they are spread out.
Role assignments:
Have EVT person give us a rough count or we can eyeball room into quadrants.
Put colored cards on each seat to indicate the group.
Need to ensure we have 4 easels, with flip charts, markers and we need stickies for multi-voting.
You have a chance to work with your peers to develop your requirements that you want to see incorporated into the design and construction of the project.
End product is a document that describes the project, requirements and the prioritized requirements.
Operation – flexible to accommodate needs of market – want high percent leased engagement, need it to
If you are going to build this, articulate what your requirements are that need to be achieved through design, construction and operations.
If you have the group assembled correctly you are going to get the best output.
Requirements for this workshop have been narrowed to focus on two specific areas of interest:
Sustainability
Function
There are other areas that can and should be explored, but these will get out a lot of the wants and needs about the space.
Operational, financial and aspirational targets – what are mandates, sustainability, financial, energy star score, etc.
Operational, financial and aspirational targets – what are mandates, sustainability, financial, energy star score, etc.
We will send you an example OPR through the conference attendee list.