Presentation #535.13 in the session “New Views of Galaxy Formation and Evolution”.
The extensive and public nature of megaprojects makes them problematic to manage, resulting in a poor megaproject management performance record of only 5% of projects completed within scope, schedule and budget. Listed in the top five reasons why megaprojects fail, is the lack of in-depth stakeholder engagement during the project design phase. This is also the number one reason for local community-based activism against megaprojects. Yet, despite the power of local communities to influence a megaproject, practitioners and academics in the project management sector still classify local communities as secondary stakeholders. The concept of community has also been left undefined, and/or a community is treated as a single homogenous group. The next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is a planned megaproject with the potential to not only transform the frontiers of knowledge in radio astronomy, but also to drive development for the benefit of communities surrounding ngVLA infrastructure in New Mexico and other states. This poster will outline the process followed to develop a project management tool that enables megaproject managers to generate accurate definitions of local communities, thereby improving stakeholder engagement practices and project performance.