Commissioning Software for Better Project Outcomes

Projects today are much more complex than they used to be. The days of electro-mechanical relays are long gone, with equipment today controlled by much more sophisticated PLC systems. PLC-based distributed control networks provide much more capability to monitor and control plant processes, but also come with a lot more challenges to design and integrate. 

Because of this, projects require a new approach. With the number of details to plan and execute in order for these complex systems to function during commissioning, there is just way too much information to manage using paper and spreadsheets. Everything is interconnected and dependent on electrical subsystems, mechanical subsystems, and all the big and small items to implement the plant process – way too many details to keep track of in a spreadsheet.

Yet many projects are still managing commissioning like the electro-mechanical relay days using paper and spreadsheets!

Projects that use paper for completing checklists and spreadsheets to keep track of what is open, what is closed, and what is outstanding to achieve each milestone of the gated commissioning process struggle to achieve their cost and schedule objectives. It is just impossible to manually keep track of all the details, and more importantly, give visibility to everyone else working on the project on what they need to do to achieve each project milestone. Without an organized tool to ensure everyone working on the project is aware of what they need to do, it’s impossible to align the team to achieve project milestones.

Projects are large moving machines of lots of people, and it is critical to keep everyone moving in the same direction to get to the project’s in-service date. If someone veers off-track, this diverts the team’s efforts from staying focused on the end goal – which can only be to successfully achieve the project in-service date on-time and on-budget. If anyone on the project does not have this crystal-clear focus in their mind on everything they do on the project, then they’re not working on the priority activities, and CMS Software is the tool needed to align everyone on the project and ensure they’re focused on the right things.

There are 3 critical components that make up the framework of successful project commissioning and startup – people, process, and tools.

All 3 components are required, and projects suffer when one or more of these aspects is not part of integrated project completion.

People

Projects require people – teams of people that can collaboratively work together to accomplish great things together. Even with the new AI technologies that are emerging and the discussions of how this will replace jobs, I don’t see this happening anytime soon for the more complex problem-solving jobs that are required on projects. When I ask Alexa, she struggles to tell me the score of the hockey game, so the technology isn’t smart enough yet. So maybe sometime in the future, AI is able to replace problem-solving jobs, but until then, smart people are required to plan and execute projects.

CSU Process

The pathway to completion needs to be clearly defined for everyone on the project to see and understand. This includes the details of each stage of construction completions, pre-commissioning, commissioning, and startup – what is required to take place during each stage, and the gated milestones to be achieved through the CSU process. This pathway to completion needs to be defined upfront, with everyone on the team understanding what the process is and how they contribute to it. It is not possible to complete projects when the pathway is not clearly defined or when only some people on the project understand what the pathway to completion is – this results in everyone on the project meandering down their path of what they think completion is, or they are working on something that does not align with the end-pathway to get to the project in-service date. There needs to be a well-defined process to complete the project with everyone on the project understanding how their role contributes to the end goal of the project. 

CMS Software

CMS Software acts as the bridge between the people and the CSU process. CMS Software gives everyone working on the project a clear view of what the pathway to completion is, and the status of where each part of the project is within the completion process. This visibility is critical to everyone on the project so they know the priorities to work on and what the next steps are to contribute to completing the project. Without CMS Software, everyone is guessing, with only a few key people on the project understanding the completion process and what the next steps are to get one step closer to completion. When these details are buried in spreadsheets or lost on paper, it’s impossible for everyone to see the completion process and understand what they need to be working on to get closer to completion.

Download our list of over 20 CMS Software providers to choose from.

People and Process- No Tools

You can have the best group of wicked-smart people working on your project, as well as a thoroughly defined commissioning process of what needs to be completed during every step of commissioning and startup. But when your project team doesn’t all have the same understanding of what the path to completion is and isn’t able to track where every detail is within the completion process, your wicked-smart project team will still struggle to progress the project through completion to get to the project in-service date. There is just no way to coordinate large teams on projects if everyone is not in sync on exactly what needs to be done to get to the end. And it’s not their fault – they’re doing their best and working on what they think are the highest priority items to get to the end. But there are just too many details and too many people working on projects to be able to keep everyone in sync with the daily priorities.

Without CMS Software tools, it is too easy for project teams to get side-tracked on non-important tasks that are not a priority to get to the end in-service date. When this happens, projects end up many months or years late and millions/billions over-budget. CMS Software is your best insurance to prevent this from happening. 

People and Tools- But No Process

As critical as CMS Software is for projects, it will not be of much use if not properly defined with the CSU process specific to your project. CMS Software is powerful and able to accommodate all types of projects, but this flexibility needs to be defined with the CSU processes specific to your project. Each industry (and each project) follows a slightly different commissioning process specific to each plant process and specific to each contract, so CMS Software needs to be flexible to accommodate this. This means you need to define what the CSU process is specific to your industry, specific to your project/contract, and ensure this is modeled properly within your CMS Software. When there is no CSU process defined for your project, CMS Software won’t be much help for your projects – you might as well stick with paper and spreadsheets since your project is using Cowboy Commissioning.

Your wicked-smart project team can have the best CMS Software available, but if it is not set up correctly with your project-specific CSU process and all your project-specific details, the software will become a burden and your project team will likely stop using it after a period of time once they are frustrated with it. This confusion will lead to months/years of delay and millions/billions of cost overruns.

Process and Tools- But No People

The best CMS Software loaded with the most sophisticated CSU process and all your project details are not much use without the people to execute your project. This goes without saying – projects need great people working on projects to leverage the tools and processes they are empowered with. No further discussion is required, the process and the tools are the enablers to allow people to do great things together. 

Projects Late and Over-Budget

If your project is missing any one of these key aspects – People, CSU Process, CMS Software – then your project is already straying from the path to completion. Meeting your project cost and schedule objectives will be very hard, if not impossible. With so much time and money at stake on projects – millions of dollars of tax-payer or investor dollars – it is irresponsible to put these sums of money at risk without taking the best precautions to prevent project overruns.

You have a choice – risk your project being months late and millions of dollars over-budget by saving some money on software – or invest in CMS Software with the correct CSU Processes for a fraction of these cost over-runs to prevent delays and cost over-runs.

Empower your project team with the best CMS Software and the best CSU Processes to enable them to achieve great things. This is the only responsible approach that can be taken to complete today’s complex projects.

CMS Software with the right people and CSU processes is your best insurance to protect your project investment, protect tax-payer dollars, and give your project the best possible chance of success, saving you months of schedule and millions of dollars.

Get started by downloading our list of over 20 CMS Software vendors!