Completing capital projects during commissioning is complex, there are a lot of moving parts. You rely on experts to help you understand the details and ensure commissioning is successful. But what you don’t realize when you’re working with a big consulting firm is that you’re probably only getting half the commissioning story that you need, and this leads to problems later in your project.

If you’ve worked with big consulting firms in the past, but the end of your project still didn’t go well, then I’m willing to bet:

• You received lots of technical information, but it seemed like there was still something missing
• Even with technical details defined upfront, it was still unclear who was responsible for what and when activities needed to take place
• Everyone’s interpretation of how to demonstrate the technical requirements during commissioning was different

You see there are lots of smart people working on projects that may understand the technical requirements of commissioning. But what you’re not getting from your big consulting firm are the commercial and process requirements of commissioning that are needed to complete capital projects without losing time. Having a definition of WHAT needs to be done (the technical requirements) is one thing, but the logistics of HOW and WHEN this takes place within a commercial environment of multiple contracts is another thing. The structured process to follow within the bounds of commercial requirements is still missing. And this is usually where projects run into trouble at the end when trying to execute fast-paced commissioning within a complex commercial environment.

The commercial frameworks to complete commissioning define how the last 25% of projects are completed during construction completions, commissioning, and system startup. Without these frameworks integrated into all stages of projects, it’s very difficult to complete the technical work. And the problem is, you aren’t even able realize that something is missing until it’s too late in your project delivery cycle, with a scramble at the end of your project to get the job done.

It’s not your big consulting firm’s fault – it’s just not their area of expertise – they focus on technical requirements. And since you’re relying on them as the experts, you’re not able to know that something is missing. This is quite common in the industry, and is a gap that has existed for decades.

Maybe you’ve relied on big consulting firms in the past. When you reviewed the information that was submitted, everything looked great! The commissioning plan was very detailed, there was lots of specific information giving the technical details of commissioning, and everything seemed fine before commissioning started.

But once testing started, it was a different story – nothing seemed to go to plan. Overlap between construction and commissioning caused confusion, nothing was ready on-time, the sequence of testing seemed random and unorganized, and delays accumulated at the end while you were trying to get your project in-service.

These are the items that you may not be getting from your big consulting firm:

• The commercial requirements for commissioning that must be included in construction contracts. It is not enough to include a draft commissioning plan in the contract. The commercial details defining how commissioning is planned must also be included.
• The detailed sequence of commissioning milestones for each subsystem and how these are linked to payment milestones
• The specifics of what is required for each commissioning milestone including both physical and document deliverables, as well as who is the authority signing off on each milestone
• A detailed definition of roles and responsibilities before each milestone to execute pre-commissioning and/or commissioning, as well as after each milestone to support commissioning activities led by others
• The logistics of how concurrent construction and commissioning activities will be managed
• The commissioning workflows to be followed and how all groups will use software systems to manage the process
• Commercial terms to break down barriers and ensure commissioning groups are working together as one team to get the job done

Translating technical commissioning details into a plan that is executable in the field within the commercial bounds of contracts is challenging. And this is why project teams require both the technical and commercial requirements of commissioning. When relying on other groups to help you with these decisions, you need to be confident that you are getting all the details you need to plan your project for success.