Interface Consulting can assist clients in developing project execution plans to support project success.
A substantial challenge that project teams face is developing a robust project execution plan (PEP) that all stakeholders buy into and that serves as the guiding document throughout the project lifecycle. A PEP is often required by lending institutions prior to release of funds and can be helpful for projects that have multiple partners.
Interface Consulting’s experts can work with client stakeholders to assist them in developing a PEP. Along with a well-defined project scope, an important document prior to the final investment decision or project sanction is the project execution plan. In Interface’s experience, most of the time spent prior to project sanction, especially during the front-end engineering design, is on scope definition. For a typical large capital project, it is not unusual to spend several millions of dollars during the FEED stage. These funds are spent almost entirely on developing scope documents such as piping and instrument diagrams (P&IDs), plot plans, equipment specifications and data sheets, and control system design.
But project scope, while important, only addresses the “what.” It does not address the who, where, when, and how, which is covered by the project execution plan. Project teams often fail to meet their metrics due to poor or inadequate project execution planning. The PEP provides a roadmap and detailed methods and guidance for how the project team will get from engineering drawings to an operational facility. PEPs typically vary from project to project, as each project has different objectives, scopes of work, contract requirements, execution plans, and cost and schedule drivers.
Project Execution Plan Development Methodology
Interface Consulting’s methodology for developing project execution plans is illustrated below. As shown, each of these categories can be further divided into individual plan components. In general, Interface’s approach is that each of the subsequent PEP sections builds on the previous ones.
Project teams often must address multiple questions when developing a robust PEP, including the following:
- Who develops the PEP?
- What content goes into each section of the PEP?
- What is the framework used to develop the content?
- How much detail should go into the plan?
Interface Consulting’s experts can assist clients in answering these and other questions and thereby help develop a meaningful PEP that is useful to project stakeholders. Our approach for developing each of the individual sections described above is shown below at a very high level. Using this approach ensures that the critical components of each area are covered. These factors, along with Interface’s experience and judgement and project-specific requirements, are key in developing PEPs that are appropriate for a given project. Because there is no one-size-fits-all approach, each project is evaluated based on its unique requirements.
Based on Interface Consulting’s experience, the biggest challenge in developing a PEP is aligning everyone on the plan and ensuring that it is used throughout the project lifecycle. Interface’s methodology, briefly outlined above, has been used successfully in the past on a variety of complex capital projects.
Expert Analysis and Support
While almost every project encounters changes and challenges at all stages of the EPC process, having a robust execution plan in place ensures early alignment of goals and can provide important guidance throughout the project lifecycle. Interface Consulting’s approach facilitates client involvement in planning key components of the PEP as well as writing them, resulting in a developed strategy with stakeholder alignment to ensure plan utilization.