Beyond Benchmarks – Agility and Innovation for Capital Project Performance

We've all heard the universal rule of prudent project management: “be on top of it.” So why do we, in the energy industry, keep stumbling with large capital projects? Why is it so tough to get predictable schedule, cost, and quality outcomes? Too often, we see another mega project in the headlines for start-up delay or cost overrun.

It's not like we lack project talent or lessons from past mistakes of mega project owners and their EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contractors. Respectable consultancies have been publishing analyses for years on what goes wrong and why. (Don’t roll your eyes… some of them are actually helpful.) Executives at world-class organizations with billion-dollar capital budgets are constantly benchmarking and promising to get it right next time.

I’m not here to diminish these efforts or claim to be a “guru.” But I do have some practical tips from my own experience. These insights come from a team that recently delivered a record-breaking ultra-deepwater project in oil and gas, where I looked after Capital Project Controls and Digitalization. Here are my two cents on what you should consider for improving your capital project performance.

Fit-for-Outcome Governance Model

• Ringfence if needed. Ringfencing a mega project makes sense when there’s insufficient central capability for capital project management or when the company strategy and desired outcomes (e.g., time to production) dictate it. Leverage the project to build local talent quickly. Shield the project (from the mothership) to prevent slow approval workflows, turf fights, and unclear responsibilities and help project leadership make fast, quality decisions.
• Don’t overengineer your team. Get the team concept right from the start. Onboard the core team fast and let them decide what talent to bring in and how to scale the rest. Key team members should have a solid track record, deep industry network, technical prowess, and problem-solving skills. Think Project Director, Domain Heads, PMO (Project Controls + Commercial + Digital + Risk Management), Engineering, HR, Supply Chain, and Legal.
• Assign authority in line with strategy. A large capital project’s critical path requires fast problem solving and decision making. Fires will pop up due to supply chain issues (e.g., manufacturing capacity, delays), unforeseen technical problems (e.g., nonconformance, talent shortages) and global trade disruptions (e.g., geopolitical tensions, embargoes). To put off these fires, key project executives need sufficient authority to move quickly and make agility stick.

Performance Culture Based on Ownership

• Your project is your project. Technical assurance is crucial, but talent is often short where needed. Owners tend to outsource assurance tasks to owner’s engineers, PMCs (Project Management Consultancies) or trust their EPC contractors more than they should. Only you as the owner have the full picture of your project. Optimize design while balancing technical, supply chain, constructability, and operability risks. Working with leading EPCs doesn’t guarantee they’ll minimize these risks like you would regardless how punitive contract terms may be.
• Establish ways of working early. Mega capital project should be like start-ups. Yes, you heard it right. “Mega” can thrive on agility and collaboration with a flat hierarchy, open communication and quick decision-making. Project team members can and should wear multiple hats, be creative, and live and breathe a can-do attitude. Continuous feedback and challenge across project ecosystem (e.g., war rooms) should feed rapid risk modeling and iterative schedule optimization. We did it and it works.
• Take no prisoners. No excuses, just results. It may sound tough but capital projects need firm (and fair) hands in relentless pursuit of project goals (without compromising on respect, encouragement and reward.) Picture this: you’re the gladiators of project delivery, battling obstacles with decisive action, holding everyone across the EPC ecosystem accountable, and not tolerating any slip-ups. This approach should work hand in hand with contract management, supplier performance management as well as HR processes.

Fast Scaling of Data Technologies

• Data as your performance magnifier. For project owners, the EPC domain is a goldmine of unstructured data. Imagine a project with over 70,000 documents, 4 million pages, and 200,000 design review comments. And that's just the start—think of the 3.5 million CFIHOS attributes and nearly a thousand terabytes of survey data. Don't panic! With today's technologies, all data, regardless of format, is a treasure trove for insights. Just ensure your data backend is robust and a data team ready to handle it. And include progressive data delivery as part of your EPC contract – technically and commercially.
• Break free from legacy technology. In the fast-paced world of business and technology, capital project owners can't afford to cling to outdated, "boring" technologies. Let value, in close collaboration with your technical team, dictate changes. For instance, a project risk register app that can't utilize P6 schedule activity data is as good as useless. An engineering information management system that doesn't contextualize 1D, 2D, and 3D data can cost you millions of dollars as data QA/QC engineering hours and further headaches to commissioning as well as operations teams. Technology shouldn't just be a tool for your job - it should be integral to the job itself. Stay agile, embrace change, and lead leveraging the latest advancements to drive better project outcomes.
• Sense performance, don't just report it. Picture a project owner's smart EPC twin platform powered by data ops, integrated document parsing, computer vision, domain-specific data models, LLMs, and powerful visualizations. This is where text and visual queries are answered in seconds, not days. Questions like "How has the quality of the integrated schedule changed?", "What contractor concerns should be but aren't on the risk register yet?", "Has any equipment manufacturing started without design approval?", and "What should be on my quality review agenda for Vendor X next week?" get instant answers. Imagine the productivity and performance boost for your project team and the heightened awareness across your EPC ecosystem. And that's what can help establish real partnerships.

Benchmarking should no longer be the compass to transform capital project performance. With the same information being available to everyone, you will just converge to average. That's not where you want to be.

Successful and predictable capital project outcomes are about generating specific insights from your data and sensing performance issues with help from modern data technologies. Embrace agility, collaborate, and push your EPC ecosystem to play the ball.

Cumhur Dervisoglu Özgür G. Mehmet Cicek, MSc, MBA Yavuz Gültekin Emre KAYA, MSc Asli Eryilmaz Elverici HARUN KIRMACI Bartu Karayel