As a discipline, project management has evolved significantly over the last couple of decades, thanks to the standards, methodologies, research, case studies, best practices, and software solutions. Organizations have invested in improving systems, processes, and tools for enabling project management.
The adoption of project management ‘in spirit’ is far from satisfactory.
A majority of professionals follow project management out of compulsion or for audit compliance. Professionals manage what is ‘bare minimum’ – nothing more!
Why is it so?
Don’t professionals see the value of project management? Has the complexity of projects and stakeholders’ demands drastically increased? Are day-to-day EPC project management challenges so much that professionals find it too cumbersome?
Let us try to dig deep to explore more!
The complexity of EPC projects, for sure, has increased manifold. The following dimensions characterize today’s EPC projects.
- Very novel and complex designs
- Use materials that were previously untried
- Diverse contract types
- Higher levels of outsourcing specialized work
- Sourcing across geographies
- Adherence to global quality norms
- Compliance with various regulatory requirements
- Exhaustive documentation
- Enhanced and seamless collaboration with multiple teams – internal and external
- Numerous payment terms linked to different milestones
- Shorter delivery timelines
- Human resources of varied skills and competencies
- Increased stakeholder expectations
The list goes on.
With a backdrop like this, it is no rocket science to decipher why professionals are skeptical to embrace project management wholeheartedly.
How could we ‘help’ professionals get over this ‘project management pain’?
Given the nature of EPC projects, we need to equip project professionals with solutions that could be easily templatized as well as configurable depending on the unique project demands.
Why should templatization work?
Templatization is akin to ready-to-cook food. One does not need complete cooking skills from scratch to be able to cook good edible food. The final product (say, a Pizza) is broken down into multiple templates such as different types of crust, sauces, toppings, cheese, and so on. Having various options or models allows the user (as young as a school kid) to create Pizzas of his choice, taste, size, and so on. No wonder this business has boomed in recent times.
Then, what does templatization entail in EPC project management?
Well, quite a lot!
- Choice of project complexity
- Project life cycle approaches
- Level of project governance needed
- Contract types and payment terms
- Choice of project value and teams size
- Geographical locations involved
- Workflow-based decision making
- Choice of business processes
- Work Breakdown Structures
- Milestones, Tasks, and Activities
- Task Relationships, Lags & Leads
- Resource Profiles
- Bill of Material (BOM)
- Cost Budgets
- Library of Risks & Issues
- Quality Metrics
- Choice of Project Health Metrics
- Alerts and notifications
- Reports, Dashboards, and Analytics
- Documentation and Checklists
- Many more!
You might begin to wonder…well, by templatization, are we not binding project professionals?
It does not!
We are offering various templates for the users to choose from while simultaneously leaving the discretion to add, modify, or delete any of the above based on ‘their project needs’!
Did that get you to think, “Boy, which dreamland am I in?” Is this possible in today’s world?
The short answer to your blunt question is, “Yes, TouchBase® product design follows precisely the same strategy that puts the ‘User’ at the forefront of practical project management.
TouchBase® allows users to choose from a range of templates with the capability to tailor them based on their project’s unique requirements.
Don’t take my word, instead, test drive TouchBase® today!
