Preparing for Commissioning Before Construction Ends
By the time construction is finished, it is usually too late to start planning commissioning. The projects that commission smoothly began preparing months earlier.
Marcel Mbene, ChPP — Founder, Bold Leverage Ltd · 13 July 2026
Commissioning is treated as the next phase, not a parallel one
On many projects, commissioning is planned as a distinct phase that begins once construction is substantially complete. This sequencing feels intuitive but creates a problem: by the time commissioning planning starts in earnest, many of the decisions that determine how smoothly it will go — access sequencing, systems integration testing, documentation requirements, operational readiness — have already been fixed by the construction programme, often without commissioning in mind.
What gets missed when planning starts late
Late commissioning planning tends to surface the same set of problems: systems that were installed in an order that makes integrated testing difficult, documentation that was not captured as the work was done and now has to be reconstructed retrospectively, and operational stakeholders who are only consulted once the physical works are largely fixed and unable to be adjusted. Each of these adds cost and delay precisely at the point in the project when the client is most eager to see it finish.
Building commissioning into the construction programme
The alternative is to treat commissioning readiness as a parallel workstream from early in construction, not a phase that follows it. This means agreeing commissioning and testing sequences before the construction programme is finalised, so installation order supports rather than obstructs systems testing. It means defining documentation and close-out requirements at the start of construction, so records are captured as work proceeds rather than reconstructed afterwards. And it means involving operational stakeholders while there is still time to influence physical decisions, not only once they are asked to accept a finished asset.
Our view
Commissioning readiness is a specific focus of our construction and delivery assurance service, precisely because the difference between a smooth handover and a difficult one is usually decided months before construction finishes, not in the final weeks.