Here are the top 10 challenges associated with configuring commissioning software for capital projects:

Complexity of Project Requirements: Capital projects often involve numerous stakeholders, complex workflows, and diverse requirements. Configuring commissioning software to accommodate these varied requirements while ensuring consistency and accuracy can be challenging. Software will not define your workflows in the way you do your work – only you as the system expert can define how you want to systematize your project and the workflows you want to follow. Capital projects are complex, and commissioning software is a tool to assist you do your job. You need to know how to select the right tool and know how to use it. You certainly wouldn’t select a sledgehammerfrom to frame a house – you need the right tool for the job.

Integration with Existing Systems and Processes: This is actually over-rated. While it sounds nice to have a tool that connects to everything and does everything for you, it’s actually not needed. The skillsets for construction are entirely different from the skillsets for commissioning. The two phases of projects are managing completely different functions. In the same manner, you need separate and specific software to manage the very specific challenges of each of these phases. You also don’t need all 30,000 activities from Primavera loaded into your commissioning software – there are only a handful of critical milestone dates to synchronize, which does not require some elaborate integrated process to maintain. When commissioning software is set up with exactly what you need to finish projects, and not bogged down with a bunch of other integrated items that have nothing to do with completions or commissioning, you’ll have a much better success rate completing your projects.

Data Management and Organization: Managing project data, including specifications, drawings, inspection reports, and compliance documents, is crucial for successful commissioning. Configuring software to effectively organize, track, and manage project data can be challenging, particularly in projects with large volumes of information. Other document management systems organize documents by name. This isn’t much help when you don’t know the document’s name or number. A better way to organize information for commissioning is by equipment tag number. When you can enter an equipment tag ID and get every drawing, RFI, NCR, and change notice that was ever issued on the project specific to each piece of gear, this is a much more helpful way to see information when you’re dealing with equipment, subsystems, and systems for commissioning.

Standardization and Compliance: Ensuring compliance with industry standards, regulations, and project specifications is essential for successful commissioning. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a standard that governed how commissioning information is to be managed and presented to operating groups at the end of projects? To have consistency across projects and industries?  Too bad it doesn’t exist. So you’re going to need to make sure your commissioning software uses a robust method to consolidate information in a hierarchical manner to present operating teams with the information they need for on-going operation and maintenance of the new facilities.

Collaboration and Communication: Facilitating collaboration and communication among project stakeholders, including owners, contractors, engineers, and inspectors, is critical for efficient commissioning. Most software platforms do a good job of this.

Workflow Management: Configuring commissioning software to automate and streamline project workflows, including task assignments, approvals, and progress tracking, can improve efficiency and reduce delays. While most software platforms do a decent job of tracking your commissioning, not all software does a good job of managing workflows.  Some are too restrictive, forcing you into workflows that do not align with how you do your work. Others are missing this critical function, and do not manage workflows very well.  Designing and implementing effective workflow management in your software requires careful planning and consideration of project-specific requirements and constraints, so that software actually makes your job easier, and does not constrain how you complete projects.

Risk Management: Identifying, assessing, and mitigating project risks is essential for successful commissioning, particularly in projects with complex risk profiles or regulatory requirements. These software capabilities are only going to continue to increase. With all the recent discussions of the AI tools that are available, the data generated by projects is a perfect use-case for AI to analyze. As the software tools continue to grow in capability, I can envision powerful AI systems that can analyze project data and identify risks, in a way that can’t possibly be done reviewing spreadsheets.

Quality Assurance and Testing: Ensuring the quality and integrity of project deliverables, including equipment installations, system configurations, and documentation, is crucial for successful commissioning. Configuring software to support quality assurance processes, including inspections, and testing, is critical to ensure that nothing gets missed. All the big details and all the small details really matter during commissioning. Miss one small VFD setting and the system won’t work. Software allows tracking of everything, to reduce the number of snags during commissioning.

Training and Onboarding: Providing training and support for project team members and stakeholders to effectively use commissioning software is essential for maximizing its benefits. Configuring software to provide user-friendly interfaces, comprehensive training materials, and ongoing support can be challenging, particularly in projects with diverse skill levels and technical backgrounds. You want software that helps your team get the job done, not makes their job more difficult. Effective on-boarding is essential to show your team the value the software provides and how it makes their job easier.

Adaptability and Scalability: Configuring commissioning software to accommodate changes in project scope, requirements, and stakeholders’ needs over time is essential for long-term success. Ensuring the flexibility and scalability of software solutions to evolve with changing project dynamics can be challenging, particularly in projects with long durations or evolving requirements.

There are quite a few considerations when configuring your commissioning software. Most systems are a blank sheet, and quite flexible to meet your project specific needs. Which means you need to spend some time configuring your software with your project specific needs and workflows. Remember the saying – garbage-in, garbage-out. Configuring your commissioning software is a critical activity done by someone that truly understands commissioning, so you can get the most value from your commissioning software, and so that you can complete commissioning as efficiently as possible.

To get you started, download the complete commissioning software list of the 25+ software platforms that are available. You can download the list here.