Since the evolution of project management as a research discipline, the field has suffered from chronic lack of understanding surrounding the complexity and challenges facing the initiating phase (i.e. project front-end) of major projects. This research addresses that gap through an investigation into the activities completed at the front-end of large-scale projects in order to help better understand, and provide reasoning behind, why this under-researched stage in the project life-cycle can have such a significant impact upon a projects end result.