Independent Project Analysis‘ Paul Barshop highlighted the importance in using the stage-gate process for process manufacturing and production capital projects during his plenary presentation at the Petrochemical Engineering & Construction conference in New Orleans. The typical project loses 22% of the expected net present value when not following the process.
He’s working on a book targeted to a senior executive audience to be released this fall, but here are his top 10 things to teach executives on the path to successful projects:
- Critical importance of project sponsor role (owns business objectives)
- Benefits of framing a project before identifying scope (now, how we get there, where we want to be)
- Steps for developing clear business objectives (trade offs scope, schedule, cost)
- Requirements for building and supporting the owner project team
- Relationship between project definition and project risk
- Ingredients for an effective steering committee
- How to use risk management effectively
- Rules for setting cost contingency
- Cost = project scope = cost
- Stage-gate process doesn’t work w/o strong stage gates
