Status and Stages Standardization

Projects are often broken down into status and stages. A status is something that is relatively straight forward, it is a tag that is to inform you of where a project is generally in the development pipeline. Within those status, we will see many stages, which gives a more accurate explanation of where the product is within the project timeline. More often you should see governments and company set their status and stages set like this

Prospective: in which the project is in the early development phase. Government will often test feasibility of the project, hire consultants, explore finance models, hold hearings, move the project through the government approval process or is approved.
Initial Government Announcement
Project Investigation
Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case
Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete
Government Approval / Procurement Stage
Active: This is the stage at which active bids are being taken, hence the name of the active phase. This part is where the government has approved of the project but has not chosen a bid/company to carry out the contract.
Successful / Preferred Proponent
Inactive/Closed/Operational: This status means that the project has assigned a company that will carry out the project and/or that construction has begun or has been completed.
Financial Close / Start of Construction
Operations Phase / Construction Complete
Disstreed/Dropped: These are tenders which the project has stalled and or has failed and been dropped by the government. This means the contract has not moved forward or is lost within the system.
Canceled
Disstred

But we have noted that each government and business runs their status stage differently. For example the US Federal Government (sam.gov) only has two types of statues, Active (in which the contract is live) and Inactive (the contract has been completed), while offering no stages. While in India (indiainvestmentgrid.gov.in) they will have no status and use mainly stages; Under Conceptualization, Under Development, Under Implementation, Completed. Take Careful consideration when analyzing data from the various data sources. How you will map such project status and stages will really depend upon the data.

Example of mapping stages to statuses:

This is using the process pipeline from the Global Infrastructure Hub (GIHUB) stages for their pipeline projects.
They have defined different stages projects:

WorldBank Projects and WorldBank PPI

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case - Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete	Pipeline
Stage 2	- Tender is open to bid	Active
Stage 3	- Tender Closed / Start of Construction/Completion of Project	Closed
Canceled/Distressed	- Canceled/Inability to Complete	Canceled/Distressed

African Development Bank

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case - Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete	Implementation
Stage 2	- Tender is open to bid	Approved
Stage 3	- Tender Closed / Start of Construction/Completion of Project	Completion
Canceled/Distressed	- Canceled/Inability to Complete	Canceled/Distressed

Etenders India / E-Procurements India

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement	To Be Opened Tenders / Opening in Process
Stage 2	- Project Investigation	Technical Bid Opening
Stage 2	- Project Feasibility / Business Case	Technical Evaluation
Stage 3	- Project Feasibility / Business Case	Financial Bid Opening
Stage 4	- Financial Analysis and Engineering	Financial Evaluation
Stage 5	- Board Approval - Construction Begins	AOC / AOC - Accepted
Stage 6	- Construction is completed	Completion
Retender	- Tender is being reevaluated or redone	Retender
Canceled/Distressed	- Canceled/Inability to Complete	Canceled/Distressed

Asian Development Bank

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case - Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete	Proposed
Stage 2	- Government Approval / Procurement Stage - Board Approval	Approved
Stage 2	- Tender is open for bid	Active
Stage 3	- Tender is closed for bid - Construction is on-going	Closed
Stage 4	- Construction is now complete	Archived
Canceled/Distressed	- Canceled/Inability to Complete	Dropped/Terminated

Inter American Development Bank

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case - Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete	Preparation
Stage 2	- Tender is open to bid	Implementation
Stage 2	- Tender Closed / Start of Construction/Completion of Project	Closed
Canceled/Distressed	- Canceled/Inability to Complete	Dropped/Terminated

Asian Infrastructure Development Bank

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case - Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete - Government Approval / Procurement Stage	Proposed
Stage 2	- Tender is open to bid - Tender Closed / Start of Construction - Completion of Project	Approved
Canceled/Terminated	- Canceled/Inability to Complete	Dropped/Terminated

PPP India

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case - Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete - Government Approval / Procurement Stage	In-principle approval
Stage 2	- Tender is open to bid - Tender Closed / Start of Construction - Completion of Project	Final approval
	- Some data has blank status. Unsure of status.

IDB Invest

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case - Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete	Proposed
Stage 2	- Government Approval / Procurement Stage - Board Approval	Approved
Stage 2	- Tender is open for bid - Tender is closed for bid - Construction is on-going	Implementation
Stage 3	- Construction is now complete	Complete
Hold	- The project is on hold	Hold
Inactive	- Status is not updated or unsure status	Inactive
Canceled/Distressed	- Canceled/Inability to Complete	Dropped/Terminated

GIHUB

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	Initial Government Announcement	Prospective
Stage 2	Project Investigation	Prospective
Stage 3	Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case	Prospective
Stage 4	Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete\|Prospective
Stage 5	Government Approval / Procurement Stage\|Prospective
Stage 6	Government Approval / Procurement Stage	Active
Stage 7	Financial Close / Start of Construction\|Closed
Stage 8	Operations Phase / Construction Complete	Closed
Canceled/Distressed	Canceled	Canceled/Distressed

NIP-IN (Indian Investment Grid)

Stage	Description	Tag
Stage 1	- Initial Government Announcement - Project Investigation - Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case
Under Conceptualization
Stage 2	- Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete - Board Approval - Financial Analysis	Under Development
Stage 3	- Tender Open - Tender Closed / Start of Construction	Under Implementation
Stage 4	- Completion of Project	Completed

Outcome of a Project or a Tender

A project can be closed successfully or as a failure. This is important as it will help us understand the outcomes of future tenders projects. Understanding how outcomes came about will allow us to help understand common themes on why projects succeed and why some fail. While WorldBank IEG have different the outcomes of a project and then gives them a ranking from the highest to lowest ranking:
Highly Satisfactory
Satisfactory
Moderately Satisfactory
Moderately Unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Highly Unsatisfactory
Not Rated
Not Available
Not Applicable
The ones with satisfactory outcomes are closed successfully while those with unsatisfactory outcomes were closed unsuccessfully.
Not Available or Not Applicable ones are those projects which may be dropped.
Not Rated are the ones yet to be evaluated.

Some Nations like the United States (sam.gov) don't have clear outcomes on certain tenders and some nations like India (IndiaInvestmentGrid.gov.in) instead have list of tenders known as "Stressed Assets," which are projects in delicate position that in extremely risky position but can be salvageable.

Try to keep note on the outcomes of those projects

How should we map these tenders?

Is the Tender active or not?
If the tender is not active is has it been (US Gov will either show tenders as active or inactive)
Completed/Archived
The project was seen all the way through and is now in use or is completed.
Canceled
Project was never completed its goal or was finished.
If the tender is active, understand where the tender is located within the pipeline.
Various programs like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Sam.Gov, PPPIndia, IDB Invest, and other sites have different metrics for standards for their status and stages or may just have one and the other.

Our Mapping Process : In Order from Start to Finish

Initial Government Announcement
Period typically when the government body is seeking to start the process or is in very early stages of a project. For places like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank this step where they announce they will be working alongside a project. For some this may include project ideas and proposals from clients, partners and other stakeholders and seeks to achieve an appropriate balance among borrowers, sectors, sovereign and non-sovereign projects.
Project Investigation/ Start of a Business Case
This is to help the government identify and prepare feasible projects. It often involves social and economic analysis, feasibility reports, financial analysis, and aspects of due diligence. For places like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank this often gives them an ability to look at the capabilities for all the partners involved in the case.
Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete
Appraisal gives stakeholders an opportunity to review the project design in detail and resolve any outstanding questions. The government and the various bodies like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank will review the work done during the identification and preparation phases and confirm the expected project outcomes, intended beneficiaries and evaluation tools for monitoring progress. Typically at this point, Agreement is reached on the viability of all aspects of the project
Government Approval / Procurement Stage
This process is also known board approval, this where all parties involved in the project are in agreement. This is the moment in which the project shifts from being "prospective" to "active" as now the tender mostly likes going to be open to the public for bids. The loan for the financing of the project has been signed and has to meet certain conditions. During this the various bank programs may be undergoing readiness
Financial Close / Start of Construction
Once the tender has assigned a person or company to carry out the project, the tender is now considered closed. The project is now under construction.
Operations Phase / Construction Complete
The project is now fully completed. A completion report to document the implementation experience. These reports are prepared within 12-24 months of the completion of the project and often used as a learning moment.

How do we make use of the above knowledge to inform understanding?

If the source has such labels based outcome evaluation systems, this can be of major importance to identify if the project was closed successfully or not. This also helps us identify the target labels for a project to train ML/DL models with other external data to predict the success rate of the project in a particular year, country, sector and subsector.
Hence this makes sense about expanding our non-prospective projects and tender database.
The same trained model is used to make predictions for prospective projects.

Why do we do this?

There are a number of reasons for such practices. It makes it easier to streamline the data (this allows us flexibility and adaptability), to give better analysis for future projects (ie risk assessment, future success of said project), and most importantly it allows to give a form of standardization to processes that seriously lack it. You'll see as you go through the various types of tenders that some governments and businesses have different ways to name their sectors and sub-sectors or not even have them at all. This creates confusion and gets those bogged down scrolling through various sites and tenders that have nothing to do with what they are looking for. If my customer is only interested in working within the said sector, i.e. ports and waterways in China, (where the tenders process itself is chaotic) it's a waste of time and resources for the company to dedicate to find the contract they would be best suited at. This also allows a more even playing field as now such tenders are more easily accessible from across the world rather than those players that have great networks with those close to the projects.

Status and Stages Examples

Here the same mapping can have different meaning of status for different source We will use this to create a identified_status field. This part is to be added in standardization script for every source

Project Statuses (These are the 4 major statuses)

Prospective	Pipeline	Proposed	Under Approval	Planned
Active	Ongoing	Approved	In Progress
Closed	Completed	Operational
Canceled	Dropped	Distressed	Canceled	On Hold	Paused
Not Available	nan

Tender Statuses (These are the 4 major statuses)


Active	Bidding	Announced
Closed	Inactive	Closed	Archived	Awarded
Cancelled	Cancelled	Dropped
Not Available	nan

Examples of Mapping by Source

Table. Project Sources Mapping

WorldBank Projects

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Active	status	Active
Closed	status	Closed
Dropped	status	Cancelled
Pipeline	status	Prospective

WorldBank PPI

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Active	status	Active
Cancelled	status	Cancelled
Concluded	status	Closed
Distressed	status	Cancelled

eProcurements India

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Active	status	Active
Closed	status	Closed
Cancelled	status	Cancelled

Indian Infrastructure Grid - NIP

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Under Conceptualization	status	Prospective
Under Development	status	Active
Under Implementation	status	Active
Completed	status	Closed

IFC

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Completed	status	Closed
Active	status	Active
Pending	status	Prospective
Hold	status	Cancelled
Pending Approval	status	Prospective
Closed	status	Closed
Status Pending	status	Prospective

Global Infrastructure Hub

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Stage 0: Project Information	status	Prospective
Stage 1: Initial Government Announcement	status	Prospective
Stage 2: Project Investigation	status	Prospective
Stage 3: Start of Project Feasibility / Business Case	status	Prospective
Stage 4: Project Feasibility / Business Case Complete	status	Prospective
Stage 5: Government Approval / Procurement Stage	status	Prospective
Stage 6: Successful / Preferred Proponent	status	Active
Stage 7: Financial Close / Start of Construction	status	Active
Stage 8: Operations Phase / Construction Complete	status	Closed
Cancelled	status	Cancelled

African Developement Bank

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Implementation	status	Prospective
Approved	status	Active
Completion	status	Closed
Cancelled/Distressed	status	Cancelled

Asian Developement Bank

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Proposed	status	Prospective
Approved	status	Active
Active	status	Active
Closed	status	Closed
Archived	status	Closed
Dropped/Terminated	status	Cancelled

USA Permits Performance - Projects

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Cancelled	status	Cancelled
Paused	status	Cancelled
Planned	status	Prospective
In Progress	status	Active
Class of Action Changed	status	Active
Complete	status	Closed
nan	status	Not Available

Table. Tender Source Mapping

Sam.gov - USA Tenders

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Combined Synopsis/Solicitation	stage (BaseType)
Presolicitation	stage (BaseType)
Solicitation	stage (BaseType)
Award Notice	stage (BaseType)
Sources Sought	stage (BaseType)
Special Notice	stage (BaseType)
Justification	stage (BaseType)
Justification and Approval (J&A)	stage (BaseType)
Modification/Amendment/Cancel	stage (BaseType)
Opportunity / Limited Sources Justification	stage (BaseType)
Yes	status	Active
No	status	Closed

OpenTender EU

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Announced	lot_status	Active
Awarded	lot_status	Closed
Cancelled	lot_status	Cancelled
Prepared	lot_status	Active
nan	lot_status	Not Available

Dodge - Construction.com

Original	Field Name	Mapped to
Permit	lot_status	Active
Planning Schematics	lot_status	Closed
Start	lot_status	Cancelled
Pre-Design	lot_status	Active
Bidding	lot_status	Not Available
Bid Results	lot_status	Not Available
Abandoned	lot_status	Not Available
Delayed	lot_status	Not Available
Construction Documents	lot_status	Not Available
Design Development	lot_status	Not Available
Construction	lot_status	Not Available
GC Bidding	lot_status	Not Available
Request for Proposals	lot_status	Not Available
GC Bidding-Invitation	lot_status	Not Available
Notice of Completion	lot_status	Not Available
Request for Qualifications	lot_status	Not Available
Sub Bidding	lot_status	Not Available
Subcontract Award	lot_status	Not Available
Pre-Qualification	lot_status	Not Available
Negotiating	lot_status	Prospective