ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an introduction to design management best practice before moving onto performance issues, avoiding design pitfalls, and details of the design activities during the define, design, and refine project phases, "The early equipment management (EEM) road map". Design and performance management is the first of the five EEM subsystems. This concerns the systematic definition, analysis, and evolution of design effectiveness and enhancing project value, reducing project risks, and minimizing total life cycle costs (LCCs). Innovation occurs most frequently by combining things that already exist to create new value and advantage. For an interesting idea to be converted into something useful, innovation needs to be combined with a systematic design development process, similar to Edison's perspective: "Genius is 1" inspiration, 99" perspiration". The challenges facing capital projects fit the definition of what are known as wicked problems—that is, a problem with many potentially conflicting design goals.
