1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
This research triggered by some field observation surveys done by project practitioners, shows that 40% of organizations manage their projects with no defined project management methodology which reported that only 66% of these projects delivered on time successfully, this percentage might be increased up to 74% if those organizations use defined project management methodology and will be reached up to 82% if this methodology is customized or fully tailored (Whitaker, 2014).
This relationship between a tailored project management methodology and project success given an evidence of the importance of developing project management methodology to fit organization environment (Hill, 2014), which is the main subject of this research aiming to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the projects by designing a customized organizational Project Management methodology model for the research’s case study.
1.2 ORGANIZATION CASE STUDY BACKGROUND
The case study of this research is Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V Libyan Branch, which is an upstream oil production Company running its services within Libya and provide oil crude and natural gas that exploited domestically and exported internationally to contribute as one of potential sources of Libyan government income. Basically Oil and Gas sector is an engine of national economic for Libya. This sector provides more than 90% of the total Libyan income and directed by Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) which dominates Libya’s oil industry and own number of Companies, one of them Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V Libyan Branch ”MOG” (General National Congress of Libya 2013).
The operation is the main focusing activities for MOG that persistently demanding enhancement projects to develop, maintain and upgrade its production. These projects are very important for the Company and have to be carried out effectively in order to achieve successful outcomes coping with its targeted objectives.
The diversity and complexity of required projects are the main challenges that implicate on the level needed for managing projects. This level of project management has to be guided by defined standards within the organization so called organizational project management methodology (PMBOK 2013), which include appropriate methods, tools and procedures in order to ultimately manage the projects in terms of increasing the efficiency, effectiveness and project success. (Badiru&Osisanya 2013).
1.3 RESEARCH AIM, OBJECTIVES AND PROBLEMS
This research will focus on developing and customizing Project Management Methodology that adequately fitting to Libyan Oil and Gas environment in particular for Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V Company, in order to identify the obtained implication by utilizing such development in terms of increasing project success as result of project management enhancement, improving project progress reporting and tracking, and enhancing the integrity between different project components.
The following are the main objectives included in the study;
To compare between different project management methodologies and best practices in terms of suitability and compatibility to fit into different projects environment and scales.
To explore the links between project management methodologies and project success.
To identify the key factors and constrains impact on project success.
To deduce project process workflows modules based on a set of research data collection about existing methods, practice and procedures used in Mellitah Oil & Gas projects.
To evaluate deduced models and identify the gaps and weakness of Mellitah Oil & Gas project process lifecycle and propose solutions.
To tailor and develop project management methodology model based on the research findings and results.
The main problem of this research can be questioned as following,
How can be tailoring and developing Project Management methodology for Mellitah Oil & Gas B.V. and obtained a beneficial advantages and values from organization projects?
This is the study question that need to be answered in the context of defining the benefits of tailoring project management methodology in enhancing project success outcomes and standardize project process for sustainable achievement.
The key project management methodology requirements, area of weakness and suggested solutions are the main categories of the solution for this question that have been examined by providing an insight into Company’s projects and adopt semi-structured interviews to collect data from key professional positions, which has been used along with the findings from literature review to benchmark best practices and characterize the prerequisites that are placed on a Project management methodology designed particularly for use in Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V.
The application of best practices models and benchmarking approach are the key methods utilized in this research for evaluation and proposal solutions that led to tailored project process model for Mellitah Oil and Gas.
1.4 LIMITATIONS
This study has several limitations which need to be identified clearly to minimise the risk of scope extension. These include:
1. The Privacy and confidentiality of information obtained needed to be ensured. Thus an ethical protocol was developed and strictly adhered to; this limited the use of the information collected.
2. This study collected data from interviewees mainly located in Libya that limited the way of utilizing face to face interviews due to geographical distance instead of that telephone interviews have been taken place.
3. This study focused on operation development and maintenance projects for Mellitah Oil and Gas. It is therefore possible that some findings may not be representative of projects in different disciplines.
4. Due to time constrain, this study will limit the view of developing project management methodology to only focusing on standardize project processes. Excluding all other PMM components such as standardized tools and templates, Development of competencies, assessment of skills, and development PMO functions.
5. The study will be limited to propose a models of project process lifecycle and workflow only that considered as pilot models, need to be experimentally evaluated and further developed.
6. The implementation plan to apply proposed models is excluded in this research.
1.5 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the background of the research problem. This chapter outlines the research objectives, problems, significant contributions and motivation behind the proposed research. It also provides an outline of the thesis and boundaries of the research.
Chapter 2 starts with an overview of the literature, first defining what project management methodologies (PMM) are. And then focuses on conventional project management best practices, standards and principles which will form the theoretical basis for any methodology developed. A comparison of the three groups of leading approaches to project management practices, their merits and drawbacks, the structures and components of each are discussed. The aim of this work is to define the combination of project management practices which, when integrated together, give the optimum probability of delivering the project objectives within budget and on time, this issue has been demonstrated in the context of describing the benefits of the project management methodology for organization and the implication of the tailoring activity on the project success. In this regard project success factors and criteria have been included in order to provide a clear citation of the required components and factors needs to be examined and evaluated to assure proper customization for project management methodology.
Chapter 3 discusses the research workflow, paradigm, strategy and experimental approach utilised in this study and its rationale for adoption. The following section in this chapter explain the case selected for assessment, selective unit of analysis, data collection techniques and method of data analysis based on the examined research methodology.
Chapter 4 presents the results obtained from the semi-structured interviews conducted with key position employees of Mellitah Oil and Gas. Each interview was transcribed, reviewed and coded to generate themes for discussion in chapter 5. This chapter includes an analysis of the obtained results to further tie in together and more elaborating the findings to be easy for using to form proposal models.
Chapter 5 discusses the formation of the deduced existing PMM models derived from the extensive literature and data collected from interviews. The following section describes the evaluation, weakness and suggested improvement to develop a pilot PMM based on improving project process lifecycle.
Chapter 6 concludes by restating the purpose of the research and concludes with the key findings from each research objectives and reflecting on the limitations of this study and its direction for future research.
This chapter provided an overview of the research background, objectives, research significance and the structure of the thesis as shown in Figure 1.1 and Figure 1.2.
In the next chapter, a detailed literature review on existing PMM is presented.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
This research triggered by some field observation surveys done by project practitioners, shows that 40% of organizations manage their projects with no defined project management methodology which reported that only 66% of these projects delivered on time successfully, this percentage might be increased up to 74% if those organizations use defined project management methodology and will be reached up to 82% if this methodology is customized or fully tailored (Whitaker, 2014).
This relationship between a tailored project management methodology and project success given an evidence of the importance of developing project management methodology to fit organization environment (Hill, 2014), which is the main subject of this research aiming to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the projects by designing a customized organizational Project Management methodology model for the research’s case study.
1.2 ORGANIZATION CASE STUDY BACKGROUND
The case study of this research is Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V Libyan Branch, which is an upstream oil production Company running its services within Libya and provide oil crude and natural gas that exploited domestically and exported internationally to contribute as one of potential sources of Libyan government income. Basically Oil and Gas sector is an engine of national economic for Libya. This sector provides more than 90% of the total Libyan income and directed by Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) which dominates Libya’s oil industry and own number of Companies, one of them Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V Libyan Branch ”MOG” (General National Congress of Libya 2013).
The operation is the main focusing activities for MOG that persistently demanding enhancement projects to develop, maintain and upgrade its production. These projects are very important for the Company and have to be carried out effectively in order to achieve successful outcomes coping with its targeted objectives.
The diversity and complexity of required projects are the main challenges that implicate on the level needed for managing projects. This level of project management has to be guided by defined standards within the organization so called organizational project management methodology (PMBOK 2013), which include appropriate methods, tools and procedures in order to ultimately manage the projects in terms of increasing the efficiency, effectiveness and project success. (Badiru&Osisanya 2013).
1.3 RESEARCH AIM, OBJECTIVES AND PROBLEMS
This research will focus on developing and customizing Project Management Methodology that adequately fitting to Libyan Oil and Gas environment in particular for Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V Company, in order to identify the obtained implication by utilizing such development in terms of increasing project success as result of project management enhancement, improving project progress reporting and tracking, and enhancing the integrity between different project components.
The following are the main objectives included in the study;
To compare between different project management methodologies and best practices in terms of suitability and compatibility to fit into different projects environment and scales.
To explore the links between project management methodologies and project success.
To identify the key factors and constrains impact on project success.
To deduce project process workflows modules based on a set of research data collection about existing methods, practice and procedures used in Mellitah Oil & Gas projects.
To evaluate deduced models and identify the gaps and weakness of Mellitah Oil & Gas project process lifecycle and propose solutions.
To tailor and develop project management methodology model based on the research findings and results.
The main problem of this research can be questioned as following,
How can be tailoring and developing Project Management methodology for Mellitah Oil & Gas B.V. and obtained a beneficial advantages and values from organization projects?
This is the study question that need to be answered in the context of defining the benefits of tailoring project management methodology in enhancing project success outcomes and standardize project process for sustainable achievement.
The key project management methodology requirements, area of weakness and suggested solutions are the main categories of the solution for this question that have been examined by providing an insight into Company’s projects and adopt semi-structured interviews to collect data from key professional positions, which has been used along with the findings from literature review to benchmark best practices and characterize the prerequisites that are placed on a Project management methodology designed particularly for use in Mellitah Oil and Gas B.V.
The application of best practices models and benchmarking approach are the key methods utilized in this research for evaluation and proposal solutions that led to tailored project process model for Mellitah Oil and Gas.
1.4 LIMITATIONS
This study has several limitations which need to be identified clearly to minimise the risk of scope extension. These include:
1. The Privacy and confidentiality of information obtained needed to be ensured. Thus an ethical protocol was developed and strictly adhered to; this limited the use of the information collected.
2. This study collected data from interviewees mainly located in Libya that limited the way of utilizing face to face interviews due to geographical distance instead of that telephone interviews have been taken place.
3. This study focused on operation development and maintenance projects for Mellitah Oil and Gas. It is therefore possible that some findings may not be representative of projects in different disciplines.
4. Due to time constrain, this study will limit the view of developing project management methodology to only focusing on standardize project processes. Excluding all other PMM components such as standardized tools and templates, Development of competencies, assessment of skills, and development PMO functions.
5. The study will be limited to propose a models of project process lifecycle and workflow only that considered as pilot models, need to be experimentally evaluated and further developed.
6. The implementation plan to apply proposed models is excluded in this research.
1.5 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the background of the research problem. This chapter outlines the research objectives, problems, significant contributions and motivation behind the proposed research. It also provides an outline of the thesis and boundaries of the research.
Chapter 2 starts with an overview of the literature, first defining what project management methodologies (PMM) are. And then focuses on conventional project management best practices, standards and principles which will form the theoretical basis for any methodology developed. A comparison of the three groups of leading approaches to project management practices, their merits and drawbacks, the structures and components of each are discussed. The aim of this work is to define the combination of project management practices which, when integrated together, give the optimum probability of delivering the project objectives within budget and on time, this issue has been demonstrated in the context of describing the benefits of the project management methodology for organization and the implication of the tailoring activity on the project success. In this regard project success factors and criteria have been included in order to provide a clear citation of the required components and factors needs to be examined and evaluated to assure proper customization for project management methodology.
Chapter 3 discusses the research workflow, paradigm, strategy and experimental approach utilised in this study and its rationale for adoption. The following section in this chapter explain the case selected for assessment, selective unit of analysis, data collection techniques and method of data analysis based on the examined research methodology.
Chapter 4 presents the results obtained from the semi-structured interviews conducted with key position employees of Mellitah Oil and Gas. Each interview was transcribed, reviewed and coded to generate themes for discussion in chapter 5. This chapter includes an analysis of the obtained results to further tie in together and more elaborating the findings to be easy for using to form proposal models.
Chapter 5 discusses the formation of the deduced existing PMM models derived from the extensive literature and data collected from interviews. The following section describes the evaluation, weakness and suggested improvement to develop a pilot PMM based on improving project process lifecycle.
Chapter 6 concludes by restating the purpose of the research and concludes with the key findings from each research objectives and reflecting on the limitations of this study and its direction for future research.
This chapter provided an overview of the research background, objectives, research significance and the structure of the thesis as shown in Figure 1.1 and Figure 1.2.
In the next chapter, a detailed literature review on existing PMM is presented.
