5 things Systems & Technology projects can learn from large scale Engineering & Construction Projects

Both Systems & Technology and Engineering Construction as disciplines are heavily reliant on project execution in order to deliver value to their customers. Both industries continue to improve their project management practices. This blog looks at some of the things that Systems & Technology projects could learn from Engineering & Construction. 

 This is intended to be a fun look at the differences of the two different disciplines and is presented only as ideas that may trigger inspiration to improve your own project execution processes.

 Disciplined Cost Estimation

Engineering & Construction has a disciplined estimation process that involves an increasing level of detail in the estimate as the project definition is more mature. This mature estimation process is well integrated with the overall design activities and later the project cost management. Whilst some Systems & Technology projects implement estimation discipline, overall the engineering & construction projects have built a versatile system for estimation.

Design Review, Value Optimisation & Design Acceptance

The design review approach that brings all disciplines together with the customer to review the design of the project is particularly advanced in Engineering & Construction. This process can be used as a means of integrating the design across disciplines, value elements in the design, check it for safety, and ultimately check its suitability for operations. This multi-disciplinary approach with a willingness to scrutinise the every aspect of the design would serve many Systems & Technology projects in delivering a more successful outcome.

Project Shaping

The early phases of large engineering & construction projects have a preceding study phase. This phase seeks to shape the project for success by ensuring costs and risks are understood, stakeholders are properly engaged. Engagement includes community, regulatory authorities, wider public and investors. Ultimately this process of de-risking the project, and focusing on its success factors can be the difference between a successful project and a failure. Systems & Technology projects often have similar challenges in driving project success and shaping as a concept can be easily applied to maximise success.

Benchmarking Productivity

Engineering & Construction projects use global indexes in productivity that can be used to weight different delivery teams and differing locations productivity. Globally there is a benchmark productivity index that can be applied to different trades and forms the basis of estimation in different regions. Whilst agile project management measures burn rate of a project team and ultimately encourages them to improve, Engineering and construction measure the team against the global and regional benchmarks.

 Business Case Development

This may be a little controversial in that I am sure many Systems & Technology projects claim to have a business case. However, the overall level of rigour applied to understand and model the business case of the construction is considerably different in most cases. Whilst it may be easy for an engineering project to more tangibly measure its business case this doesn’t diminish the importance of understanding why something is being done and that benefits you expect to get from doing it. Systems & Technology projects struggle with measuring more intangible benefits, however, the step of linking the intangible benefits against tangible ones would drive many technology projects to better understand what they are really trying to achieve.

I hope this list provides some inspiration around areas you might be able to improve your Systems & Technology project.