A front end planning decision-making framework for infrastructure project selection and prioritisation in Indonesia

The selection and prioritisation of infrastructure projects is an important part of the strategic decision-making process that aligns organisational objectives with project strategies. Organisations undertaking infrastructure development, such as governments or ministries, have to invest many resources to ensure the project success. The Front End Planning phase is crucial, particularly in relation to the project approval and final investment decision, considering that incorrect approaches in the decision-making process can lead to project failure and the organisation's strategic objectives being missed. Therefore, in situations involving complex and uncertain decision-making processes, such as infrastructure project selection and prioritisation, a Decision-Making Framework (DMF) is required to direct the decision-making process. Furthermore, organisations have limited investment resources so there is a need for infrastructure projects to be selected and prioritised based on a particular set of criteria by the decision makers. The selection of these criteria must be done comprehensively by considering the decision-making context to better mimic the decision-making situation and process. This research aims to develop a model of a DMF for infrastructure project selection and prioritisation that integrates multiple decision criteria in the Indonesian context. It employs a mixed method approach using a multi-sequenced technique. The first sequence captured the current practices and developed the conceptual DMF model. In the second sequence, semi-structured expert interviews were employed to investigate the current decision-making practices related to infrastructure project selection and prioritisation in Indonesia. The third sequence examined the appropriate decision criteria in infrastructure project selection and developed a Decision-Making Tool (DMT) to be incorporated into the proposed DMF model. Finally, the developed DMF was validated through several evaluation strategies including real case study implementations, parallel-forms reliability tests and sensitivity analysis. This study has succeeded in developing a DMF that can be used by decision makers to assess infrastructure project proposals and make appropriate decisions regarding investment resources allocation. The developed DMF consists of two major aspects that complement each other, i.e. the framework process and the DMT. The framework process has four stages, namely: data input, data analysis, project assessment and final results. Meanwhile, the DMT was developed using a multi-criteria decision-making technique-NSFDSS-II-to facilitate decision makers in assessing the performance of each project proposal. Throughout the investigation of the actual practices within the infrastructure management agencies, this research provides contributions to the existing knowledge of infrastructure project planning and decision-making practices, including establishment of the Indonesian development planning hierarchy, identification of factors influencing decision makers during the infrastructure project selection process, establishment of necessary selection criteria in accordance with the decision-making context, and development of a technical DMF that is able to provide assessment of the multi-dimensional process of infrastructure project selection and prioritisation. Other findings such as identification of decision approach characteristics, identification of challenges in infrastructure project selection, establishment of key features for the infrastructure project selection framework and elaboration of the changing paradigm provide an advanced apprehension of strategic decision-making issues in the Indonesian context. In addition to its contributions to knowledge in this field, this research offers a practical guide for Indonesian practitioners by providing a ready-to-use tool for selecting and prioritising infrastructure project proposals. This DMF was designed to improve the decision makers' ability to identify, evaluate and recommend infrastructure investment dec sions by infrastructure management agencies such as the relevant ministries. It will be very useful for decision makers in managing infrastructure assets and budget allocation to assist those involved in three major functional areas, namely: (1) planning and program development, (2) budgeting and financing, and (3) engineering (construction and operations). The use of this DMF promotes objectivity and transparency in the decision-making process of infrastructure project selection and prioritisation. While its primary use is to guide future investment decisions, it can also be utilised to assess the performance of past decisions. Hence, it can serve for review purposes against previous budget management policies.