6. Set the appraisal objectives and critical success factors

This section describes how to set your appraisal objectives. It explains what you, local partners and stakeholders want to achieve in managing the problem your project must address. It describes how critical success factors are the basic criteria to meet for a project's success.

Why you need objectives and CSFs

You should use your objectives and CSFs to identify a long list of options, create a short list for detailed evaluation and support your final option choice.

It is important that you involve representatives of stakeholders in the objectives setting process and share the conclusions more widely through your SEP. This helps to manage future expectations of what the project may finally recommend and ensures it will meet its CSFs.

Use previous work to support your objective setting

Your work with a range of local and national stakeholders to define the need for your appraisal and its scope will have identified local relevant plans and strategies and specific opportunities and constraints which will inform your objectives and CSFs.

Set your objectives

Your objectives must:

  • be relevant to the problem your project needs to address
  • show clear links to the objectives of higher-level plans, policies or local strategies
  • describe opportunities for achieving wider benefits
  • include the objectives of partners where relevant to your project
  • be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound (SMART)

Your objectives should not:

  • prejudge the solution
  • be restrictive – for example restrict how something is achieved
  • exclude potential opportunities for benefits that you could achieve as part of the project

Your objectives must be consistent with the National FCERM Strategy. Where possible they should enable options to take an adaptive approach to achieving them.

Different types of objectives

There are 3 different types of objectives you should consider:

1. FCERM objectives

Your FCERM objectives must include the management of flood and/or erosion risks to improve resilience to future flooding and coastal changes. Without these objectives, your project cannot be classed as an FCERM project.

2. Objectives with constraints

These are objectives that define specific constraints, for example to comply with legal obligations to maintain the status of a special protection area (SPA) in the floodplain

3. Opportunity objectives

These are objectives that describe the wider outcomes that FCERM solutions could provide, for example to enhance the amenity value of the coastal frontage

Set critical success factors

There are 5 basic CSFs that you should include in all projects.

These are:

  1. strategic fit and business needs - your options must be consistent with the National FCERM Strategy
  2. potential value for money - the whole life benefits of the option should exceed costs and provide good value when compared to alternative options and other FCERM investments
  3. supplier capacity and capability - potential suppliers must have the capacity to carry out your option
  4. potential affordability - your option can be funded within the funding policies of contributing partners
  5. potential achievability - you must be able to get necessary approvals, it must be physically possible to construct or achieve and be maintained over its intended life

You should not normally need to add to this list if your project objectives are correctly defined and understood. You will need to justify adding more CSFs if they limit or mandate needs that all your options must meet. This is because they will affect your subsequent options development.

Inputs to set your objectives and CSFs

You will need the outputs of the previous appraisal stage to understand and define the appraisal need.

This includes:

  • your description of the problem your project must address
  • the project scope
  • the relevant strategies and plans to help identify needs, opportunities, and constraints
  • the involvement of key stakeholders or their representatives

Checkpoints to set your objectives and CSFs

Your outputs are usually complete when the project team and stakeholders have agreed the appraisal objectives. You can assess whether it’s worth continuing with the appraisal in its current form by assessing if there is still significant opposition from stakeholders.

If significant opposition still exists, you should revisit the problem definition and objectives in the light of stakeholder concerns. Check if you have missed anything significant and amend the objectives if necessary.

You must make sure that:

  • the appraisal process is transparent
  • you communicate outcomes appropriately to stakeholders

Outputs to set your objectives and CSFs

By the end of this stage of the appraisal process, you should have:

  • set out the objectives and clarified CSFs for your project
  • developed a hierarchical structure of objectives, where needed, to cover specific FCERM objectives, opportunities and constraints

You will have used your SEP to communicate the outcome of this appraisal stage to your stakeholders and received their support.

Read the full technical guidance

If you need to understand the full technical content you should see section 6 – set the appraisal objectives and critical success factors in the FCERM technical guidance.