Optioneering is a blend of two words: options and engineering. It is the practice of developing a range of alternative solutions to a problem, appraising them objectively and recording why the preferred option was chosen. Refurbish or replace? Phase the work or do it at once? Intervene now, or monitor and defer? Optioneering is how an engineering team answers those questions in a way that others can follow and trust.
The term is most widely used in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, across engineering, construction and infrastructure. New Zealand's transport agency, NZTA Waka Kotahi, even publishes its own optioneering guidance. In the US, the same idea usually goes by analysis of alternatives.
The Association for Project Management describes it as “a voyage of rigorous, objective and evidence-based discovery throughout the life cycle”. That last part matters: optioneering isn't a single workshop at the start of a project. Options are refined as surveys come back, costs firm up and stakeholders weigh in.
Optioneering vs options appraisal
The two terms overlap. Options appraisal is the formal term used in business cases and in the HM Treasury Green Book: identify the options available, then assess them objectively to decide which offers the best value. Optioneering is the engineering term and usually covers developing the options (building them up from scope, cost and risk) as well as appraising them.
The optioneering process, step by step
The Association for Project Management (APM) frames the process as two rounds of opening up and narrowing down:
In practice, for an engineering project that looks like this:
- Establish the needs case. What's wrong, where and how do we know? Locate each defect, score its risk consistently (for example on a 5×5 likelihood × consequence matrix) and link the photos, drone imagery and survey data that prove it.
- Build a long list. Consider the widest reasonable set of ways to address the need. The Green Book calls this the long list and filters it against the project's critical success factors.
- Narrow to a short list. Discard options that fail the critical success factors and develop the remainder in detail: which scope items each includes, what each costs and which defects each resolves.
- Always include the baseline. Keep do nothing and do minimum on the short list (see below).
- Appraise the short list. Compare cost against budget or target, the risk each option removes and the risk that remains, benefits and trade-offs, deliverability and stakeholder views.
- Select and record the preferred option. Record who decided, when and why and which open questions had to be closed first.
Do nothing, do minimum and the preferred option
- Do nothing means continuing as you are now. It's the baseline that every other option is measured against. In formal appraisals, such as those following the HM Treasury Green Book, you may see it called the counterfactual: what would happen without the project. APM contributors suggest framing it as “continue as we are”, because literal inaction is rarely the real alternative and because “shiny new things are more attractive”.
- Do minimum is the least you could do to meet essential safety, legal or service requirements.
- The preferred option is the one that best meets the needs case against the stated criteria, with the reasons recorded.
How to appraise the options
Our guide to weighted criteria scoring covers the most common method in detail. Common methods include cost-benefit analysis, SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and multi-criteria analysis with weighted criteria. Whatever the method, a good appraisal shows, for each option:
- Cost against the budget or target, with its level of estimate accuracy.
- Risk removed and risk remaining. Be careful how remaining risk is summarised: averaging hides the worst problem left on site. The highest-scoring defect still open is a more honest measure.
- Benefits and trade-offs that the numbers alone don't capture.
- Deliverability: outages, access, programme, dependencies.
- Stakeholder views from asset management, operations, delivery and finance, each recorded individually.
Common optioneering pitfalls
- The HiPPO effect. The “highest-paid person's opinion” decides and the appraisal is written to fit. Recording each stakeholder's view separately guards against this.
- A straw-man shortlist. One real option and two that were never credible.
- Evidence left behind. Photos and survey data sit in folders, disconnected from the defects and scope they justify.
- Only the winner survives. The options that lost and why are never written down, so the decision can't be defended or revisited later.
- Rushing to delivery. Committing to a solution before the options have been properly developed.
What reviewers expect to see
Whether it's a client, an investment committee or a regulator, the questions are consistent. In UK energy networks, for example, the regulator Ofgem's Engineering Justification Paper guidance asks for the needs case and evidence, the options considered (including baseline and do minimum), how they were assessed, the preferred option, costs and deliverability. Our guide to RIIO, the price control for UK energy networks, covers that in detail.
How DevelopVault supports optioneering
DevelopVault gives the whole process one visual record for each project: issues and comments pinned on imagery or drawings, photos linked to what they prove, options built from scope items or as whole alternatives and compared side by side, stakeholder votes, approval blockers and decision packs in PDF, PowerPoint and Excel.
DevelopVault Pro is coming soon for anyone who develops and compares options, from project managers and engineers to consultants, contractors and client teams. DevelopVault Enterprise is configured around your organisation and can run inside your own environment.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the word optioneering come from?
It blends options and engineering. The term is most common in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. In the US the closest equivalent is analysis of alternatives.
What is optioneering?
Optioneering is the engineering practice of developing a range of alternative solutions to a problem, appraising them against cost, risk, benefits and stakeholder needs and recording why the preferred option was chosen. It continues throughout the project life cycle rather than happening once at the start.
Is optioneering the same as options appraisal?
Broadly, yes. Options appraisal is the formal term used in business cases and the HM Treasury Green Book. Optioneering is the engineering term and usually includes developing the options as well as appraising them.
What is the difference between do nothing and do minimum?
Do nothing means continuing as you are now. It is the baseline that every other option is measured against. Formal appraisal guidance such as the HM Treasury Green Book calls it the counterfactual: what would happen without the project. Do minimum is the least you could do to meet essential safety, legal or service requirements. Both should normally appear in an appraisal.
How many options should be shortlisted?
Enough to show a genuine choice. A shortlist typically includes the do-nothing baseline, a do-minimum option, the preferred option and at least one realistic alternative, so a reviewer can see the preferred option was tested, not assumed.
Sources:
- Association for Project Management, “Why it's time to become an optioneer” and “Finding the right solution for your project”
- HM Treasury, The Green Book
- HM Treasury, Guidance on developing business cases for projects and programmes (the Five Case Model)
- New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, Optioneering overview
This guide is general information, not professional or regulatory advice.