Introduction:
A key factor that impacts project success is stakeholder buy-in. Stakeholders can range from suppliers, government regulators, business teams, project team members to senior management. Unless project managers win support from people across all levels within the project’s organisation, the project may fail to have the desired result. Building personal connections with individuals and groups means that they are more likely to share their perspectives when the project is developing and executing plans.
Problem:
A business operating in the energy sector was encountering a range of inefficiencies and challenges within its Hydrocarbon accounting procedures, reporting and greenhouse gas regulatory compliance. With no overall discipline or guidelines, the various segments of the business operated in silos, capturing and reporting results information as it impacted their area and with little consideration for the company position as a whole.
The business was delivering another project to address issues such as isolated data repositories, disjointed process, limited data exchange, and the absence of a central, authoritative data source for the purpose of sales to production allocation. Because of the significant interconnection between that project and the current Hydrocarbon process problem, the business aimed to consolidate their management under a single Project Manager.
Objective:
The objective of myP3’s Project Manager was to leverage his knowledge and simultaneous management of the complementary operational data platform project to deliver this new project. It was necessary to run both projects in parallel, with meticulous schedule, dependencies management and phasing of key governance decision points.
Overview:
The initial lifecycle phase focused on defining high-level scope and requirements. Given the fragmented nature of the current processes, myP3 identified the need for sound stakeholder engagement and collaboration. A detailed stakeholder identification and analysis was performed to ensure the project had representation from all impacted teams within the business.
myP3 was successful in accurately capturing the needs, expectations, and requirements of all the stakeholders, with substantial investment in engagement of business leaders to gain their support for the project. Working groups were also established to capture input from all affected teams in the design and development of new ways of working. Where necessary, myP3 employed negotiation and persuasion skills to address and resolve potential conflicts and concerns based on our prior experience with the client and our understanding of their overall goals.
This was followed by a market scan and vendor selection process where myP3 worked closely with the evaluation panel, ensuring they were working effectively, and that all perspectives were shared and evaluated. During this process, myP3 managed and contributed to:
- Development of tender packs for the market
- Presentation of outcomes to the tender board, and
- Contract negotiations and contract award.
Following vendor selection and award of contract, work commenced on solution design and configuration. The business process team also developed their new processes in parallel with the solution design activities. The team struggled with different data perspectives and ownership, however with myP3 facilitation and steering they were able to gain consensus on the best fit for the whole of business.
Business Champions were established and distributed across the business and were provided with materials to ensure effective and consistent messaging and communications relating to project objectives and benefits. myP3 also managed engagement through a project intranet page and Teams channels to respond to staff enquiries and communicate additional information. ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions and targeted roadshows were conducted for interested personnel and for specific focus groups to ensure effective dissemination of information and provide opportunity for questions.
As a result of a change in Project Sponsor, amended requirements for scope surfaced that impacted the solution design, and consequently the vendor’s delivery. myP3 was able to negotiate this variation at a no cost impact to the client, by focusing the vendor’s attention on the importance of positive customer relationships and long-term vision.
A parallel-run test site was established for solution implementation and refinement. The purpose of this was validation of downstream and upstream integrations prior to executing full-scale implementation.
Outcome:
The business went live with a consistent and reliable data set with increased accuracy to support production allocation and forecasts, and regulatory reporting capability covering emissions to tax and royalty obligations.
The project enjoyed unprecedented support from stakeholders with all teams working enthusiastically to achieve a common solution supported by new ways of working.
Satisfaction across all areas of the business increased through the knowledge that their needs were well represented, and which resulted in a solution in use that is fit-for-purpose.
The project has had a positive organisational impact with increased ownership and greater collaboration between teams with an elevated focus on business goals rather than team goals.
The productive partnership held with the solution vendor resulted in a variation at no cost to the client.