Capital Project Delivery Excellence for Large and Small Projects
The IPA Institute offers a Capital Project Delivery Excellence course that provides participants with Best Practices and learnings that have been shown to improve capital project effectiveness for projects of varying sizes. The program has been customized to include findings for standard size projects, that is, projects estimated to cost from $5 million to $1 billion (USD), and to highlight practices that drive the performance of smaller projects, that is, projects estimated to cost under $5 million (USD). This program integrates findings from IPA’s extensive quantitative research that links project management practices to project outcomes.
Smaller projects are often planned by site engineering organizations and executed in an operating environment. This program presents practices specifically correlated with successful smaller projects of this kind. This training can be integrated with a company’s project management work process, allowing industry Best Practices to be incorporated into the existing project system. The course will identify effective strategies for the following:
- Selecting and shaping the project to best meet business needs
- Building an effective team
- Implementing contracting strategy
- Improving the business value
- Executing projects in an operating environment
- Understanding and managing risks
- Setting and achieving competitive targets
- Controlling a project as it progresses through execution
- Defining and planning projects
As the leading research-based consulting firm studying the development of tools and methods to improve capital effectiveness, IPA has identified the major factors that directly affect the relative performance of capital projects. Most excellent project systems—those that deliver excellent returns on capital spent—incorporate the fundamentals of these key leading indicators into their work processes for projects. The program will cover these factors.
COURSE CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION
The Capital Project Delivery Excellence course is a 3-day training program. The course uses a combination of lecture, facilitated discussion, and case studies. Research findings are communicated through lectures. Participants share their experiences and relate learnings to their own experience through facilitated discussions. Case studies allow participants to see how course learnings apply in the execution of real projects.
The training course is divided into a set of modules, each covering a specific topic important in the capital project delivery process. The modules include the following:
Module 1: Project Delivery Systems
Sets the stage for the entire course by giving some basic definitions and reviewing the basic structure and purpose of the capital project delivery system. This module discusses the place of projects in the business supply chain and the impact of project performance on business competitiveness. Trends in project management for both large and small project systems will be highlighted. Portfolio management practices are discussed.
Module 2: Front-End Loading
A key element of project success, Front-End Loading (FEL), is the process of defining the project before detailed design work begins. This module presents details around FEL and explains its importance. The module covers important deliverables for the early project stages that identify the business opportunity for capital investment and defining the scope to meet that business opportunity. Applying the gated process to smaller projects will also be discussed. Practices specific to projects executed in an operating environment are included.
Module 3: Team Effectiveness
Team effectiveness is an important driver of good project outcomes. This module focuses on the theory of teams and their role in capital projects. The module addresses the components of effective team and owner core competencies. This section also discusses effective integration of contractors into the project team. The requirements for teams needed to effectively define and execute smaller projects will be highlighted.
Module 4: Site Definition
Addresses the site definition component of FEL. It presents Best Practices for site definition and explains why these practices are critical to project success.
Module 5: Engineering Definition
Presents the engineering definition component of FEL in detail. It includes a detailed discussion of what specific engineering deliverables should be complete prior to the start of production design. Deliverables specific to revamp projects will be presented.
Module 6: Project Execution Planning
Presents research linking project execution planning to project success and presents a description of a project execution plan and its components. The deliverables for well defined project execution plans for smaller projects will be discussed.
Module 7: Value Improving Practices
Defines Value Improving Practices (VIPs), explains how the proper use of VIPs drives project outcomes, and describes each VIP in detail. The module focuses on how to select the appropriate VIPs given a project’s characteristics and size. The impact of each specific VIP on project outcomes for both smaller and larger projects will be shared.
Module 8: Contracting Strategies
Focuses on the critical elements of contracting strategy and the implications of the choice of strategy on project management. Different contracting approaches and the rationale for using them will be shared in this module. This module explores the use of contractor alliances to leverage plant engineering resources. It also presents research on the effect that different contracting approaches have on project outcomes.
Module 9: Construction Safety
Addresses the role of the owner in construction safety, and presents research into the practices that drive better safety performance.
Module 10: Project Execution and Control
Covers the owner role in project execution and control. Topics include design, procurement, and construction management. Best Practices in project control are discussed.
Module 11: Risk Management
This module presents the basics of project risk analysis and management, and also presents different tools and techniques for identifying, quantifying, and mitigating risks. Specific risks, such as executing revamp projects and integrating capital project planning and execution into turnaround activities, are included in this module.
All participants in the program will receive a training course notebook. The notebook will include a hard copy of the presentation. Additional material will be distributed during the training courses. Tools and guidelines discussed in the course will be included in materials given to each participant. Electronic copies of presentation materials will not be made available.
Target Audience
The Capital Project Delivery Excellence course provides a forum to discuss the factors that lead to competitive project outcomes. The program is intended for existing project managers and those who are moving into the project manager role in the near future. In this course, we present learnings derived from the analysis of thousands of actual projects.
Benefits
The training course’s primary focus is to present in detail the key learnings and practices for project planning and execution that lead to superior outcomes. The training course will provide the following:
- Key elements of team effectiveness and team composition for both large and small projects
- Project drivers that lead to successful completion of each phase of Front-End Loading (FEL): the critical project definition phase, including the key deliverables that are required at the end of each phase and the objectives of each phase
- Aspects of defining revamp projects and those executed during a turnaround
- Deliverables of FEL, including a detailed discussion of key elements of site definition, engineering definition, and project execution planning, including a discussion of elements of FEL for small projects
- The important elements of contracting strategy and the implications of contracting choices on project results, including learnings about alliances with contractors that are common for plant engineering systems
- Additional engineering Best Practices (Value Improving Practices [VIPs]) that Industry uses to leverage extra value from a solid project definition package, and the selection process for implementing the VIPs most appropriate for project type and size
- Tools and techniques for identifying and mitigating risks
- Practices that are important in controlling projects as they proceed through execution.