A web based system has been developed to improve workflow optimisation, collaboration and the communication of a business process. This new generation project management application greatly enhances the ability of an organisation to comply with external standards and implement consistent internal systems. It helps people of all levels of experience to share information across geographical and organisational boundaries, can reduce cycle or reactivation time and helps to implement controls such as stage gates. The user interface displays the workflow and current status of single or multiple projects with unparalleled clarity.
All companies have management systems or work processes, some more formal than others, to help maintain consistency and quality in their business delivery and to ensure compliance with corporate and regulatory requirements. There is a common need across industry sectors and disciplines to define a way of working and then ensuring that this "business process" is used. Management systems may be inefficient or may even fail for a number of reasons, including lack of detail or too much detail, poorly defined requirements or inadequate information technology.
The simple but highly innovative web based system described in this paper was completed and implemented six months after coding began. An existing process had been mapped to the new software so users were immediately familiar with the task descriptions and terms used. The application delivered on its basic promise; improved process visibility, consistency and compliance with defined standards.
This paper contains a summary of the system attributes that led to a successful launch in Talisman Norway (TENAS) and suggests that a high degree of commonality exists between processes in different organisations. This paper will be of interest at all levels of an organisation - Managerial, Technical and Administrative.
Introduction
Repeatability, visibility and quality control of their work processes are common goals of many corporations aiming to improve the efficiency, consistency and cycle time of their businesses. Unfortunately, many do not realise these goals, battling with outdated, cumbersome, unpopular, or even ignored systems; this is especially true of many project management systems and software.
The Gantt chart has long been the de facto tool for presentation of progress against plan and many task based corporate systems have used this as the backbone for their process software or systems. While the Gantt chart has unquestionably a place in any project management system, it has limitations on screen or in printed form; systems based on a Gantt chart can be time consuming in their administration and inflexible in their use.
This project was conceived to provide usable, flexible software to improve Talisman Energy Norway's (TENAS) Well Delivery Process, to solve inconsistency problems and to provide a new look project progress output, featuring greater flexibility and visibility of progress against schedule and, importantly, the opportunity to input and display the quality of the work completed to date against corporate expectations.
