--- name: infrastructure-options-appraisal-evaluator description: "Evaluates and scores infrastructure delivery options — do nothing, do minimum, reference project, PPP, and alternatives — against weighted criteria spanning cost, risk, deliverability, ESG, and strategic fit, producing a structured options comparison matrix with a ranked recommendation and sensitivity analysis. Use when appraising infrastructure delivery options, building a business case options assessment, or defending a shortlist decision to a board or approval body." argument-hint: "[project-type] [options-list]" allowed-tools: ["Read"] --- # Infrastructure Options Appraisal Evaluator ## Purpose Score and rank a defined set of infrastructure delivery options against a weighted, multi-criteria framework — producing a defensible options comparison matrix, a ranked recommendation, and a sensitivity check that shows how the ranking holds under different weighting assumptions. Solves the problem of subjective, unauditable option selection that fails scrutiny at business case gateways. ## When to Use Invoke this skill when the user asks to: - Appraise a set of infrastructure delivery or investment options against defined criteria - Build the options assessment section of a Strategic or Outline Business Case - Compare do-nothing, do-minimum, reference project, and PPP/alternative delivery routes - Justify shortlisting or eliminating options for a gateway review or approval board - Produce a weighted scoring matrix that survives audit or independent assurance - Test whether a preferred option remains preferred under different criteria weightings ## Inputs Required Before starting, collect: - **Project description**: 3–5 sentences on the asset, service outcome, and geographic scope - **Options to evaluate**: The named list of delivery options (minimum 3, typically 4–6) - **Strategic objectives**: The 2–4 outcomes the project must deliver - **Evaluation criteria and weights**: If provided, use them; if not, apply the default framework below - **Cost data available**: Capital cost, whole-life cost, or order-of-magnitude estimates per option - **Key constraints**: Funding envelope, delivery deadline, statutory or planning constraints - **Risk appetite / assurance context**: Approval body, gateway stage, and any political sensitivities If weights are not provided, apply the default framework (Cost 25%, Risk 20%, Deliverability 20%, ESG 15%, Strategic Fit 20%) and state the assumption explicitly. ## Instructions ### Step 1: Confirm the Option Set and Baseline Establish the appraisal boundary before scoring: - Confirm every option is genuinely viable — eliminate any that fail a threshold constraint (funding, statutory, safety) and record why in a short exclusion note rather than scoring them - Confirm the **do-nothing / do-minimum baseline** is present — every appraisal needs a counterfactual to score value against. If absent, add do-nothing as the reference case - Ensure options are described at comparable definition — do not score a fully-specified reference project against a one-line PPP concept without flagging the asymmetry ### Step 2: Establish the Weighted Criteria Framework Set or confirm the scoring criteria. Use these five default criteria with sub-factors: **Cost (default 25%)** — capital cost, whole-life/operating cost, funding certainty, affordability against the envelope **Risk (default 20%)** — delivery risk, cost/schedule overrun exposure, risk transfer effectiveness, residual risk retained by the sponsor **Deliverability (default 20%)** — market capacity and appetite, procurement complexity, planning/consenting path, timeline to service, dependency on scarce skills **ESG (default 15%)** — carbon (embodied and operational), environmental impact and mitigation, social value/community outcomes, resilience and adaptation **Strategic Fit (default 20%)** — alignment to strategic objectives, flexibility/optionality for future change, alignment to policy and stakeholder priorities - Confirm weights sum to 100% - If the sponsor supplies bespoke criteria, adopt them and map each to a weight - State any criterion that cannot be assessed due to missing data and score it conservatively with a flag ### Step 3: Score Each Option Against Each Criterion Apply a consistent **1–5 scale** per criterion, where 5 is strongest: - 5 = clearly superior / meets objective with margin - 4 = strong / meets objective - 3 = acceptable / meets threshold - 2 = weak / partially meets - 1 = poor / fails or materially compromised For every score, write a **one-line justification** tied to evidence or a stated assumption. Do not award scores without rationale — an unexplained score is not defensible at gateway. Compute the **weighted score** per criterion (raw score × weight) and a **total weighted score** per option out of 5.00. ### Step 4: Build the Options Comparison Matrix Assemble a table with options as columns and criteria as rows: - Show raw score and weighted contribution per cell - Show the total weighted score and rank per option in a summary row - Include a short qualitative "key strength / key weakness" line beneath each option's total ### Step 5: Sensitivity Analysis Test the robustness of the ranking: - Re-run the ranking under **2–3 alternative weighting scenarios** (e.g., cost-led, risk-led, ESG-led) - Identify whether the preferred option **switches** under any plausible weighting — a preferred option that only wins under one weighting is fragile and must be flagged - Note the criteria to which the outcome is most sensitive ### Step 6: Recommendation and Next Steps - State the ranked preferred option and the runner-up - Give a 3–4 sentence rationale grounded in the matrix, not restated opinion - Note the key risks or evidence gaps the sponsor must close before the next gateway - Flag any option worth carrying forward as a fallback ## Output Format - **Structure**: Narrative preamble → weighted criteria framework → options comparison matrix (table) → sensitivity analysis → ranked recommendation - **Length**: 900–1,300 words plus the matrix table - **Format**: Structured document with one central comparison table; scoring justifications as concise bullets - **Sections**: Option Set & Baseline → Criteria & Weights → Scoring Justifications → Comparison Matrix → Sensitivity Analysis → Recommendation & Next Steps - **Tone**: Infrastructure advisory director — evidence-led, neutral in scoring, decisive in the recommendation; written to withstand independent assurance ## Quality Checklist Before delivering output, verify: - [ ] A do-nothing or do-minimum baseline is included among the scored options - [ ] Criteria weights sum to exactly 100% and are stated - [ ] Every score has a one-line justification — no unexplained numbers - [ ] The comparison matrix shows both raw scores and weighted contributions, with totals and ranks - [ ] Sensitivity analysis re-ranks under at least 2 alternative weightings and flags any option switch - [ ] The recommendation names a single preferred option and does not hedge ## Notes - The most common failure at gateway is scores without evidence — a matrix is only defensible if each cell traces to a stated basis - If cost data is order-of-magnitude only, score the Cost criterion on a relative basis across options and flag the estimate class rather than inventing precision - A preferred option that survives all sensitivity scenarios is a materially stronger case than one that wins only under the default weighting — surface this explicitly for the approval body - Where options are defined at uneven maturity, recommend a defined further-work step to equalise definition before final selection rather than forcing a premature choice --- ## How to use this skill This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top. **Installing in Claude Code:** - `~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects) - `/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills) Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register. **Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:** 1. 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