Posts Tagged ‘project management best practices’

Proposed Offshore-Drilling Safety Institute: Help or Hinderance?

Friday, March 11th, 2011 by admin

According to a recent article from the Houston Business Journal “Energy industry considers offshore-drilling safety institute,” on March 18th, energy leaders will decide upon forming an industry run offshore-drilling safety institute in response to the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Reilly — who sits on the board of directors at Houston-based ConocoPhillips — called for a framework of continual learning among companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico. An industry organization should conduct routine safety audits of its members and “discipline or reject” companies that do not comply, he said. The government should support the organization and make its membership a prerequisite for operating in the Gulf, he said.

Here is some food for thought:

  • So is this a redundancy to the federal law recently passed – Workplace Safety Rule?
  • Will the costs of joining and complying with a offshore-drilling safety institute be too high for smaller or even large operators?
  • Will the standardization of “best practices” ultimately improve company margins while reducing health, safety, environmental and operational risks?

Competitive Advantages of Utilizing Best Practices

Monday, August 2nd, 2010 by admin

Capital projects involve an intricate coordination of interdependent activities, resources, and stakeholders to fulfill three (3) primary project expectations: scope, cost, and schedule. When one of these three outputs changes, which inevitably occurs, the other two factors likely increase. This creates havoc to internal budgets, financial metrics, and internal support (a.k.a. – politics.)

Bad news: Projects fail more times than not. Industry surveys covering over 1000 major companies show an average project failure rate of 55% (range from 40 % to 70% failure). The top-noted failure criteria include: 1) finish on-time and in-budget, 2) Exceed budgets, 3) Blown schedules, and 4) Failure to meet requirements. Common reasons offered for these failures include: 1) insufficient up-front planning, 2) incomplete estimates, 3) ignoring requirements, 4) underestimating productivity, 5) poorly defined performance indicators.

Best Practice Advantages

Good news: Industry surveys of over 60 companies show that when Project Management Best Practices are applied, projects are highly successful, beat industry averages (Figure 1), and provide distinctive competitive advantages. Keys to this success includes: 1) careful and complete up-front planning, 2) strongly implemented organization and execution methodologies, 3) complete pre-project risk evaluation, 4) full knowledge of contract provisions, 5) relentless tracking of cost and schedule changes, and 6) transparent communication to all stakeholders, 7) immediate problem resolution.

Successful projects require constant and active participation by all stakeholders to avoid pitfalls and identify opportunities for success. Focusing on the goal of beating the average requires attentiveness to the above key success factors that will drive project success.