W2_MaryKentebe_Scheduling best
practices vs. Industry standards: oil and gas sector
Problem Statement
Over the years, the devastating state of
schedule overruns in the oil and gas industry has become a chronic menace in
the industry. Essentially, the issue is that most standard form construction
contracts neither promote nor encourage efficient time management. More so, because
the project controls discipline is relatively new to the industry, it is still
a trouble finding the footing of what works best for the planning and
scheduling practice. Hence the need for the comparison between what is referred
to as scheduling best practices and industry standards.
Alternative Solutions
In tackling the issue of standardization
on planning and scheduling practices, I shall be comparing the Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge 4th Edition1 (PMBOK® Guide) and the PMI Practice Standard for Scheduling with the Capital scheduling and
schedule Management Project guide 04 (company’s standard). This comparison will
be done using basically the SWOT analysis tool. Hence three derivates can be
the outcome of this comparison. These are:
·
The company is doing better than best practice
·
The company is complying to best practice
·
The company falls short of best practice.
Depending
therefore on what the outcome is, the conclusion may be a recommendation to
review best practice, a recommendation to review company standards, or just a
conclusion that company is in alignment with GAO best practices.
Selection Criteria
Three
essential parts of the schedule shall be evaluated in this comparison.
·
The Application
·
The Schedule Organization and Plan
·
The scheduling and schedule control
activities
Conclusion
The
point is for as long as the menace of schedule overruns still persists in the
oil and gas sector there is a need to get it right and review what is
acceptable as best practice in the discipline.
This should then be closely followed
by correct implementation of these practices and adherence to them.
References:
1.
Warren Buffet (2012)Project Planning
and Scheduling extracts from: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Planning.html
http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/PDF/CIOB_TM_report_full.pdf
MARY....!!!! I loved your problem statement. It is excellent.
ReplyDeleteBUT, are you aware that AACE and PMI are in fact COMPETITORS? My best advice would be to not be using PMI standards unless you also include AACE as well.
So what I recommend would be to compare the GAO "best practices" which I sent out to you as they are a combination of PMI plus AACE plus other organizations. Compare the GAO standards against what your company is doing and that will have a LOT more credibility in the eyes of the AACE reviewers than if you use the PMI standards. (Many of the "regulars" in AACE don't have much respect for PMI, myself included) PMI is dominated by IT and Telecommunications people not so much oil and gas. AACE on the other hand is dominated by oil, gas and heavy chemical process plants.
Now to the bad news...... Because you didn't follow the Step By Step process provided in my blog template, nor did you provide a minimum of 3 references and those references were not in the appropriate format, I have no choice but to REJECT your W2 posting and urge you to seek out the advice and guidance of one of the people who received and AWESOME or EXCELLENT review from me.
Ask one of them to help you out in drafting your revised W2.1 blog posting.
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta