Small project execution - How to execute small projects fit for purpose?

Small project execution - How to execute small projects fit for purpose?

Kraus, S.S.L.

Stikkelman, R.M. (mentor)
Bakker, H.L.M. (mentor)
Mooi, H.G. (mentor)

Technology, Policy and Management

Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Management of Technology

2012-10-12

Project management has always been an interesting topic and has received much attention, not only because of the method but also in its application. It has been observed that in literature ‘mega-projects’ receive much attention while little is written about small projects. There can be several reasons for this, but it is believe that this is mainly due to the idea that the project management practices can be used for any project, occasionally leaving some prescribed project activities out or by using a scaled version of the activity when applied to small projects. The developed project management bodies of knowledge provide guidelines for project execution. These guidelines are referred to as ‘traditional’ project management practices, as they are focusing on planning and controlling the project. Traditional project management approaches are based on a predictable, fixed and relative simple model with little focus on behavioral and complexity aspects. Nowadays, environments are much more dynamic compared to the environment where the traditional project management approach was developed. Adaptive project management can be seen as a derivative of traditional project management but is less focused on tasks and activities but more on a strategy-based management approach to achieve maximal benefit of the project. Adaptive project management is of importance for the smaller projects, because the project management approaches can be too cumbersome for this kind of projects. Adaptive project management is not in conflict with traditional project management, but it ensures that the activities used are made fit for purpose towards the project. Royal Dutch Shell has developed a project manual for downstream projects with expenditures over USD 100 million. This manual is also used for the smaller projects at the refinery of Shell Pernis but the question is whether this improves or hinders the efficient execution of small projects. The goal of this thesis is to investigate and contribute to knowledge on project management for small projects and to provide recommendations for the current situation for small projects at Shell Pernis. To reach this goal, a qualitative research study at Shell Pernis was carried out. The research started with exploratory interviews as there was little specific knowledge on the topic available. These exploratory interviews led to the identification of four themes: project classification, fit for purpose execution, project team and front end development. These themes refer to possible improvement areas for the execution of small projects. Literature review was provided to define the themes in more detail and to compare the project management approach of Shell (called Opportunity Realization Manual - ORM) with the information found in literature. The following step was to identify possible issues that were not apparent from the literature study and comparison with the ORM. This is done via surveys, in-depth interviews and project data. The data is analyzed and ranked to find the most important issues that influence fit for purpose execution of small projects. Improving these issues is likely to increase fit for purpose execution. Fit for purpose is used to describe that sufficient and efficient effort must be undertaken in order to reach a goal successfully. The top six issues that were identified are: 1. Difficult cooperation between stakeholders 2. Unclear tasks and responsibilities of team members 3. Different performance indicators per stakeholder group 4. The usage of the same project structure for every project 5. The lack of a good and complete scope definition 6. The business model of the engineering contractor and the communication with Shell In order to prevent these issues from occurring, the following minimal requirements are identified in order to enable fit for purpose execution of small projects: • Project team formation and integration • Focus on contracting and procurement • Stakeholder management • Usage of a project assurance plan • Scheduling (including ‘the way forward’ of a project) • Opportunity framing for proper scope development (including lessons learned) • Risk management

small projects
project management
fit for purpose execution of projects

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:451a7019-7ba9-47b6-8e96-82b84e1244d6

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 Kraus, S.S.L.