I heard a joke recently about DoF – Digital (or Intelligent) Oil Field. It says that the most intelligent component of the Intelligent Oil Field initiative is the salesman. As in any joke, there is some truth to it. The joke clearly points to the over-emphasis placed on the technology component in deploying DoF initiatives. As we all know, the triangle People-Process-Technology requires balance for proper development to occur. There are many vendors with good technology, so there is not much of a problem in this area.
The “process” is much more of a challenge as it is more difficult to implement. In a nutshell, Project Management needs to be better implemented. We need strategic vision and better ways to plan, follow procedures, monitor, analyse, maintain safety tracking, etc.
The least developed point of the triangle is “people”. This not only involves training, management and performance reviews, a good working environment, etc. There is also a need to emphasize the collaboration between teams, working together to a common goal – keeping in mind that a set of players does not necessarily form a team.
Some people are puzzled by the lack of results achieved by their DoF initiatives. They buy and install all the required technology but forget the other two components of the triangle.
– Carlos