CONSERV: A methodology for the management of capital projects and concurrent engineering design using knowledge based technology

Project management is a complex process that does not lend itself to traditional line management theories. Projects fail more times than they succeed, the measures of success and failure vary widely depending upon the management strategy and the focus of the project at the time of the assessment i.e. Cost, Time or Quality. Most of the commercially available software packages developed for the use of project managers employ dated management theories and limited reasoning ability. With over 300 variations of software tools available to the project manager selecting the most appropriate packages is becoming increasingly more difficult. Projects are managed by employing a subtle combination of elements of interdependent software tools and human expertise. Project management systems include a variety of management tools and techniques that are not equally applicable across all projects. This submission introduces ConSERV, a project management technique that uses a knowledge based risk driven approach, in which key elements of a multidisciplinary capital project are identified using the Win-prolog Flex facility. ConSERV identifies the main project elements, including the risks, sensitivities and the project success criteria. The further use of knowledge based rules provides a framework in which the decisions made by the respective users can be challenged. ConSERV advises on the project management system best suited to manage the specific needs of the engineering design and project management issues. The aims of the research described in this thesis are i) To research and analyse project management decision making processes over the life of major capital projects, undertaken in accordance with established procedures. ii) To identify, from the industrial case studies, failure mechanisms resulting from flaws in human decision making, the use of inappropriate management processes and the application of unsuitable project execution procedures. iii) To apply an established KBS development technique (KLIC) in developing the ConSERV concept and selecting the demonstrator tools. iv) To compare the effectiveness of traditional project management concepts and justify the need for a customised project management system. vi) To build two limited application demonstrators of the ConSERV concept employing advanced reasoning and knowledge based technology. The thesis argues that the complexities of managing multidisciplinary projects in a competitive technologically advanced environment demand more sophisticated methods to those presently offered. The methodology aims to minimise project failure by providing a structured risk driven procedure able to identify and customise a dynamic project management system designed specifically to meet the real needs of a project over its life cycle. Using case studies the thesis aims to contrast the effectiveness of traditional project management software, against the proposed knowledge based alternative. In support of this research work three academic papers have been published by the IJPM (International Journal of Project Management) Ref. Appendix B8 (Table 8).