When we think of infrastructure projects, on a broad level variety of industries come to mind – power, transport, manufacturing, residential, petroleum and renewable energy. Generally these projects are different from each other. But execution stages essentially remain the same – Engineering Design, Procurement of Materials and Construction & Commissioning. So it is possible to apply same broad level project management principles across different vertical industries.

Project management principles and practices are taken very seriously in the Oil & Gas infra projects, which is evident by a higher demand of certified and experienced project managers in this industry. Project management practices championed and refined by Oil & Gas professionals are now also useful for other infra projects. Arguably Oil & Gas Industry has been the leader in setting up the project management standards and practices followed by managers of variety of different projects.

Why Oil & Gas?

For several decades, oil & gas industry benefited from high profit margins. Excess cash was then invested in technology, infrastructure, as well as in establishing standard operating procedures and project management practices. Undoubtedly, petroleum industry benefited from these practices. Efficient project management in turn ensured minimal time and budget slippages for high value energy projects.

High cost of downtime

High oil prices also meant the even the slightest of downtime or project commissioning delay would reflect into high costs of downtime. This was one of the primary reasons for investment to streamline operations and project management practices.

How others can benefit

Project management professionals across different infrastructure verticals are aware of the higher degree of standardization in project management for Oil & Gas.

Experienced project managers from Oil & Gas are valued by other industries as well. Many project managers have moved from managing Oil & Gas projects to other verticals. They have taken their knowledge and skills and successfully applied to other infra projects. So other industries have benefited from this Oil & Gas legacy.

Leveraging Technology

Well defined and well established project management practices enable frictionless execution where technology can be leveraged as a key enabler.

WorkPack which is an integrated project and document management platform for engineering & construction projects, first started being used in Oil & Gas projects. This was possible because of the standardization in those projects that can be captured within a software.

WorkPack now serves a variety of different projects –

• Construction of highways and metro rail
• Shipbuilding and retrofitting
• Renewable energy projects at utility scale
• Small scale rooftop solar EPC projects
• Real estate construction projects

However the base for these projects is the platform initially built for managing Oil & Gas projects.

WorkPack’s presently helps project managers and project owners across different industries. We welcome your feedback and experiences of working on different infra projects. Leave a comment below to share your perspective.