A wide range of alliance literature suggests that the benefits of alliancing include greater collaboration and a 'best for project' focus, underpinned by a framework of total alignment of Owner and NOPs commercial interests and objectives.
However, prior to agreeing the TOC (and other performance targets), a state of commercial misalignment exists between the Owner and the NOPs. While both Owner and NOPs are seeking a 'reasonable' TOC, their natural commercial interests would lean towards a lower TOC and higher TOC respectively. Therefore commercial alignment for an alliance does not exist in the TOC development phase.
Alliancing practice is geared towards achieving superior performance once participants' interests are fully aligned (after the TOC is agreed). The inherent commercial tension between Owner and NOPs in the TOC development phase is fundamentally inconsistent with driving superior VfM in developing and agreeing the TOC.
The Owner resources operating in this environment of commercial misalignment are at a distinct disadvantage in terms of optimising VfM. Asymmetry issues associated with limited resources, incomplete information flow and knowledge transfer add to the potential commercial asymmetry difficulties (described in Section 6.2) that can adversely affect the VfM outcome. While this asymmetry varies across Owners, it needs to be openly addressed as part of the business case.