PROJECT SERVICES
Adding bottom line value over the full project life-cycleAs an organisation needing to make capital investments you are faced with several challenges. You might not have a dedicated owner team in-house who can develop and execute capital projects. Or your team might lack specific experience or expertise in certain areas. You might not have a complete end to end methodology, or your current methodology does not adequately cover what needs to be done.
Project Management and Project Services is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time. The primary challenge of Project Management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints whereas the services portion is the support functions to enable effective project management.
A number of companies do not have, or cannot justify, permanent in-house project management and project services teams to define and oversee project development throughout the life cycle. These projects are often overseen by inexperienced project teams which rely solely on the engineering contractor for direction and potentially conflicting agendas.
How we help clients
OTC provides a diverse range of skilled resources to assist owners with project management and project processes for project development and implementation. During project development and implementation we follow a team based approach by delivering a complete Project Management service or by complementing the owners team resources.
During the development and implementation of projects we aim to protect the owner’s long term interest. We make our clients’ owner team more effective through providing management, project advice, training, specialised tools and support.
OTC will work with you to:
- Provide Project Management and Project Controls services.
- Improve your existing project processes with an emphasis on the early stage project development.
- Provide you with a structured and proven front end loading practice that can result in cost reduction, a reduction in time to beneficial operation and improvement in safety performance.
- Improve the predictability of future project outcomes and improve the ability of your project team to deliver as promised. We will empower your team to ensure that they meet the long-term performance criteria set by the client.
- We also assist owners in the evaluation or due diligence of existing projects and help implement recommended improvements.
How we work
OTC provides consulting services throughout the project lifecycle based on proven stage gate methodologies. These are delivered in the form of self-service resources and/or training (Toolkits), facilitated workshops, training courses and consulting.
OTC can take on all or part of the Owner Team role by providing appropriate competent personnel. OTC can also assist the owner in identifying and recruiting members of the owner team in which case OTC could function in a supporting, advisory and coaching role.
Services Offered
Management and support in owner team set up
- Defining the key competencies and structure for an effective owner team; and
- Assist / advise in setting up Project Management and Project Control practices with proven methodologies for project success.
Management and support in the front-end phases of the project
- Framing and alignment involving key stakeholders;
- Business case development, preparation of the prefeasibility and feasibility study estimates and schedules etc.;
- Assist with evaluation and qualification of contractors;
- Assist / Advising on project controls systems and processes;
- Analysis of Engineering Contractor systems; and
- Development of quality and risk management plans and the implementation thereof.
Owner team support throughout the project life cycle
- Provision of Project Management oversight and support during project execution;
- Reviewing existing client/contractor relationships and systems to identify and guide improvements;
- Provide Project Controls services (planning, scheduling, estimating, quantity surveying);
- Assist / support in project document management;
- Assist / support with change management processes;
- Ensure strong interfaces between all disciplines especially financial for preparation of asset registers, progress reports and forecasting etc.;
- Sourcing of competent personnel to staff the owner project team throughout the project lifecycle;
- Project management, procurement and construction oversight;
- Involvement and guidance in the project steering committee;
- Guiding and advising the project sponsor;
- Team Effectiveness Analysis – The OTC Project Team Effectiveness Assessment provides you with the insights to proactively ensure your project team performs at the highest level;
- Team wellness; and
- Community Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy planning and oversight.
Project Management Office support
- Setting up of a project office and organisation;
- Assistance with analysing / providing project processes and systems;
- Guidance / support on integrated project management and project controls systems;
- Project Portfolio Management;
- Project benchmarking; and
- Forensic performance assessment.
Specialised Reviews
These specialised reviews follow a process with deliverables specified upfront. Depending on the problem, we typically start with an executive level assessment to determine the objective. This is then followed by workshops and information gathering as required to clarify the requirements and map the way forward. The final deliverable is usually a report or a clear plan that the owner can act on.
- Project gate readiness review;
- Schedule review and audits;
- Capital estimate reviews, risk identification, contingency estimation and expenditure trending;
- Earned Value Management Systems Implementation;
- Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis;
- Project Health Indicator assessment;
- Enterprise Risk Management System Implementation; and
- Value engineering.
PROJECT SERVICES INSIGHTS
Engineering Quality Management
By Corne Thirion and Jurie Steyn. Projects are often remembered for their cost overruns or delayed delivery, rather than the quality of their deliverables. Yet, it is the quality of those deliverables that dictates the potential financial gains or losses throughout its lifespan. This article discusses an Engineering Quality Management (EQM) approach that ensures the delivery of technical quality in engineering projects.
Project Governance
By Herman van Heerden, Freek van Heerden, Jurie Steyn Introduction Ed Merrow (2011), in his book Industrial Megaprojects, maintains that much of the pathology we see in megaprojects today reflects the nature and problems of the modern industrial firm and the way in...
Black Swan Risk Management for Projects
By Jurie Steyn.Introduction Decimus Junius Juvenalis, known in English as Juvenal, was a poet active in the period AD 110 to 130. He wrote sixteen satires on the vices, abuses, and follies of Imperial Rome and is regarded by many as one of the greatest satirists of...
Learning from All Projects
Any organisation should strive for continual improvement in the way they execute projects. A good way to do this is to ensure that mistakes of the past are not repeated.
Document Management in a Digital World
Once again, I am grappling with the future and considering moving back to the past… Things worked then, didn’t they? Printers, photocopiers, and fax machines were the order of the day. Nothing could go forward on a project unless there was a signature on the...
Importance of Project Stakeholder Management
Effective stakeholder management is fundamental to the success of projects. Communication is one of the main mechanisms used in stakeholder management. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI, 2013), amongst those organisations considered to be highly...
Remote Project Support for Owner Teams
Much has been written about the Covid-19 virus pandemic, the impact it has had on the world economy and how it will necessitate changes to the way we have traditionally interacted with other parties. At this time, nobody knows precisely what the future holds, but we...
Proven Time Management Tips for Project Managers
Time consumes most of our lives and in some form or degree is an essential part of life: past, present and future. It brings a sense of order into our lives via structured routine and a common way of interacting with our fellow humans for planning of activities,...
Can Anybody be a Project Manager?
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet specific project requirements. Can anyone be a project manager, more importantly can anyone be effective in this role? Opening remarks Can anybody be a...
The Elusive Project Sponsor
All projects are risky ventures: the larger and more complex the project, the higher the risk of an unsuccessful outcome. The project sponsor is the primary risk taker and owner of the project’s business case. In this article, we consider several scenarios for the...
Introducing the Project Execution Plan
The Project Execution Plan is used by the project team and management to assure, firstly, that the right aspects for project implementation are considered and secondly, that the project has been described in such a way that during each stage of front-end loading (FEL)...
The Widening Trust Gap in Projects
Trust is essential for project success. With several stakeholders, often with competing short term business objectives, how is this trust established by the owner team? What causes trust to break down? In this article we discuss this challenge from the perspective...
The Project Management Office (PMO)
“Our leaders are great thinkers. We need to take those ideas, make sure they are grounded and able to be executed. The PMO helps us do that.” - President of project services, global construction services provider, North America (Forrester Consulting, 2013)...
Disrupting Project Controls – Fast Forward 20 Years
Industry 4.0 is going to be very disruptive to manufacturing business. How could this impact on projects, and in particular the project controls function? Kevin Mattheys provides some thoughts on this topic. Introduction Sitting in the OTC office in Wellington,...
Quantitative Risk Analysis for Projects
This article is a continuation of a two-part series of articles on the basics of project risk management as published previously. The two parts are as follows: Part 1: Planning for project risk management (Steyn, 2018a); and Part 2: Identify, analyse, action and...
Introduction to Project Risk Management: Part 2 – Identify, analyse, action and monitor project risks
This article is a continuation of a two-part series of articles on the basics of project risk management as published previously. The two parts are as follows: Part 1: Planning for project risk management (Steyn, 2018a); and Part 2: Identify, analyse, action and...
Introduction to Project Risk Management: Part 1 – Planning for project risk management
This article is the first of a two-part series of articles on the basics of project risk management. The two parts are as follows: Part 1: Planning for project risk management; andPart 2: Identify, analyse, action and monitor project risks. Part 1 deals with the...
Project Portfolio Management and Optimisation
In this article, the primary focus is on the management and optimisation of the project portfolios to ensure that business needs are adequately addressed, and value is maximised. Introduction Organisations invest in programmes and projects to ensure sustainable growth...
Develop and Analyse Project Schedules for Realism: Part 2 – Assessing schedules for realism
This is the second part of a 2-part series of articles covering the development and control of robust, but realistic, project schedules. The focus of the articles is as follows: Part 1 – A composite scheduling process (published November 2016); and Part 2 –...
Develop and Analyse Project Schedules for Realism: Part 1 – A Composite Scheduling Process
This is the first of a 2-part series of articles covering the development and control of robust, but realistic, project schedules. The focus of the articles is as follows: Part 1 – A composite scheduling process; and Part 2 – Assessing schedules for realism. The...