فرآیند مدیریت پروژه استراتژیک فعال در بخش های ارشد نفت و گاز در بریتانیا

This paper reports on an investigation into strategic project management in the UK upstream oil and gas sector. The management process is represented by a set of elements which covers context, content and output and are balanced across financial, internal business, external environment, and learning and innovation perspectives. The paper uncovers elements that appear to explain successful project management and compares these with the elements to which managers pay greatest attention. There appears to be a mismatch between those elements which are associated with success and those receiving significant management attention.

This paper reports on an investigation into the strategic project management process in the UK upstream oil and gas sector, and is concerned with understanding the effective management of the process. The research objectives are as follows; first, to understand the extent to which the strategic project management process can be characterised by a set of elements which are both recognised by management and consistent with a wider literature; second, to explore whether the set of elements emerging provides coverage of context, content and output elements, and whether it is balanced across financial, internal business, external environment, and learning and innovation perspectives; finally, to analyse whether there is a close match between the elements that appear to explain successful project management and the elements to which managers pay greatest attention. Section 2 of the paper discusses the nature of strategic projects and the management process allied thereto. The process is divided into evaluation and control stages, and is characterised by a set of elements, obtained from an exploratory empirical and theoretical investigation. Section 3 outlines the research methodology adopted. The chosen approach involved the collection of both qualitative (an exploratory phase consisting of nine exploratory interviews in a single oil and gas company, and a literature review) and quantitative data (a main phase, consisting of a survey of 54 projects across 15 oil and gas companies) in order to enrich the overall results of the study. Section 4 of this article covers the data gathering for the main research exercise, which was via questionnaire. In the following section, the data analysis and research findings are outlined, and two sets of elements—one associated with the successful management of strategic projects, and one receiving significant management attention—are identified and compared. Finally, a conclusions section discusses the implications for successful strategic project management.

This paper proposes that the strategic project management process can be characterised by a set of elements which are recognised by management and consistent with a wider literature. The elements were initially identified by a number of interviews held in a single oil and gas company, and were thoroughly validated against theories about strategic project management. These elements also provide a comprehensive, balanced coverage of context, content and output on the one hand, and financial, internal business, external environment, and learning and innovation perspectives on the other [49]. Amongst the proposed elements, it was instructive to identify the subset of elements that are associated with a strategic project's success. A questionnaire was designed for that purpose, and applied to a wide range of big, medium and small integrated, international UK-resident oil and gas affiliates. As discussed earlier, the concept of success was measured via managerial perceptions of success, along four dimensions (financial success, strategic success, successful completion and successful management). The analysis of the data indicates that internal business elements are key drivers of success, but management pay considerable attention to only one half of these elements. Some key elements such as flexibility, interdependency, and learning and innovative routines, appear to be broadly neglected. It appears that managers do not always fully appreciate the potential for interdependent options embedded in strategic projects; such options may represent intangible value as they offer flexibility [42]. Managers also suffer from an “illusion of control” [14]. They avoid taking flexibility into account while managing their strategic projects. They prefer to adopt a single scenario for the future, and tend to compute a single value for a project. Additionally, managers tend to overlook synergies between projects, and between projects and ongoing activities. The lack of attention to learning and innovative routines may reflect a short-term management style focusing on current activities at the expense of future improvements in management processes. Management also expend considerable effort on financial, environmental (green) and geological aspects of the process, although these do not appear to be critical to success. Managers may focus on environmental (green) aspects, for instance, partly because such a focus is effectively a requirement for public companies today. A traditional engineering perspective on project management still seems to dominate the UK upstream oil and gas sector. This sector appears to be attached to financially orientated decisions, focuses on financial and environmental (green) issues, seeks to control the efficiency of tangible assets, resists changing current routines and overemphasises short term interests such as those of shareholders, sometimes at the expense of customers and employees. The concern with financial elements is understandable. The upstream oil and gas sector is based on financially oriented decisions. However, many financial elements are effects rather than the causes, and they record rather than explain success. The concern with environmental (green) and geological elements is also understandable. These elements are of prime concern to all organisations operating in the oil and gas sector. On the one hand environmental elements impact upon a company's image and credibility, and on the other hand geological elements represent their core business. Both types of elements directly affect a company's financial outcomes. The overall research finding of the current study therefore is to alert managers that there appears to be a gap between the elements to which managers often pay considerable attention in managing strategic projects, namely financial, geological and environmental (green) issues, and the elements that appear to explain successful strategic project management, namely internal business issues. Managers seem to focus on the symptoms rather than the underlying causes, and on the results instead of on the process itself, although results record rather than explain success. As a strategic planning manager observed, “I used to work for a company where such a gap existed, ultimately leading to the demise of the company”. This article suggests that the convergence of financial, environmental (green), geological and internal business issues might be a healthy route for the UK upstream oil and gas sector towards successful strategic project management. In the case of specific situations, namely overseas projects, external environment (e.g. social, political and economic) issues might also be taken into account. The next step of this research study addresses the role of techniques in facilitating successful strategic project management. Sets of techniques that tackle success critical elements are proposed in order to help managers evaluate and control their strategic projects in a proper manner. The respondents to the questionnaire validated the proposed sets of techniques through evaluation sheets. The evaluation sheets proposed comprehensive, theoretically supported instruments that help systematise strategic project management, as well as acting as effective facilitators for such a process. The evaluation sheets complete the triangular methodology adopted by this research study: (1) exploratory interviews, to identify and define the elements that thoroughly represent the strategic project management process; (2) questionnaires, to highlight success critical elements involved in such a process, and the gap between success critical elements and those elements that receive considerable managerial attention; and (3) evaluation sheets, to validate sets of techniques that tackle success critical elements and help managers deal with their strategic projects in an effective way.