2012 Q1 Two Methods of commissioning new equipment

[Peter]

Hi I am sitting paper 1 this year and have attempted Q1 from last year's paper.

You have talked about programme risks and costs but very little about technical risks and the relative engineering costs of the two. You have assumed that they reader knows about the complexity of doing multiple stage work. He may well know this, but he will not give you any credit unless you tell him that you know about it. So, particularly in your answer to section b, saying about the difficulty of designing many stages before any of them being commissioned without giving details of what the issues and risks may me will not get very many marks.

An important consideration may be the ability to find sufficient staff to deliver a Big Bang commissioning.

You make reference to major commissioning costing less, but what you really mean is at the engineering aspect may use smaller amounts of resource. The cost to the customer includes the TOC costs that you raise at the start. Therefore be careful about what you are saying costs less. A factor for consideration is the relative costs of the different elements.

Some pedantic points - soak testing is not going to save you any testing on the commissioning. It merely gives you confidence that equipment is likely to be reliable. You still need to do your commissioning tests when it comes into use.
On the S&C being laid in, you have jumped to the possible solution of those that need some interim point detection. Depending on the timescale, this may well be unnecessary. Strictly speaking, occupying a track will not stop a route being set, it will stop an aspect clearing but assuming all the opposing route locking is normal, the route can be set.

Peter