The list of projects included in the sample set was determined by collecting a list of relevant projects initiated after 1 January 2000 with a value exceeding $20 million across all participating jurisdictions in Australia. Specific projects meeting this criterion included projects from the Transport, Accommodation, Hospitals, Justice, Education, Information Technology (IT), Water sectors and projects generically classified as 'Other' categories. From this total project data list, the sample set was established by:
• Random selection of projects from the listing nominated by each state;
• Preference given to projects with a high likelihood of data existing in a collectable form;
• Projects that appeared unique and had skewed data were avoided, e.g. projects dominated by land purchases;
• A balance between all states for each project type in each category was also sought where appropriate;
• An Australian wide data set was chosen by the research team and confirmed by participating jurisdictions.