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Assurance

Definition
Not to be confused with Quality Assurance, the term 'assurance' when used in the context of the ORA™ process refers to establishing a 'level of confidence' in the progress of the project towards the establishment of 'Ready to Operate' status.

The definition given below, clarifies that reference:

In the context of the ORA™ process, assurance refers to the act of providing confidence to the various stakeholders in a project or venture that both their asset and supporting organisation has achieved a state of 'Readiness to Operate', (or that it will be able to do so by the time the acceptance / handover to the Operations Team occurs).

The methodology used and the way this is disseminated is described in some detail on this page.

Providing Assurance of 'Ready to Operate' Status
The first step in providing any type of assurance is to determine what is being assured. This is explained in the above definition and as such is quite different to establishing the 'Ready for Start-Up' status declared by an EPC Contractor when declaring that construction and commissioning of a newly constructed (or modified) asset is ready to be started up.

This is made clear by the definition below (reproduced from the ORA™ process) which defines the term 'Operations Readiness' and what this means for the continued operation of an asset after start-up:

The process of preparing the custodians (owner/operator) of an asset under construction (and the supporting organisation) such that, at the point of delivery/handover, that organisation is 'Ready to Operate', (i.e. is fully prepared to assume ownership of the asset, accepts responsibility for, and is capable of, performing the efficient operation of that asset, in a safe, sustainable and environmentally friendly manner).

By default, this includes participation in the activities of the Project Team to ensure the needs of the Asset Operations Team (to enable them to implement this process) are recognised and addressed during the development of the asset.

Measuring Assurance
In order to be able to provide a real-time indication to demonstrate the current level of assurance of progress towards the achievement of 'Ready to Operate' status, the ORA™ process must measure the following parameters:

Know the total Scope of Work comprises:

- Follow the Project Plan to identify the planned scope of work;

- Know what is ‘Deviated’ from the scope;

- Know what work is in progress or completed;

- Know what work is ‘Too Early’ to measure;

Measure progress of the activities currently in scope, and then:

Demonstrate the level 'Operations Assurance'’ by:

- Constantly monitoring the readiness status;

- Recording progress as soon as it comes into scope;

- Reporting the status of the work as it is performed
(and subsequently completed to the appropriate level and quality).;

Disseminate the current, real-time level Operations Assurance’ by:

- Constantly displaying real-time status information on the ORA™ Solution summary dashboard;

- Assurance Level displayed on dashboard, updated in real-time;

- Availability of reports generated on-demand.

Calculation of Current Assurance Level

The methodology used to calculate and display the current real-time assurance level involves the following logical steps:

1. Discount all ORA™ Subjects, Activities or Tasks which are currently deviated from the ORA™ process, (using the controlled deviation process in the ORA™ Solution) as these have no effect on the current Assurance or 'Ready to Operate' status;

2. Discount all ORA™ Subjects, Activities or Tasks which are recorded as Completed in the ORA™ Solution as these also have no direct effect on the Assurance or 'Ready to Operate' status;

3. Discount all ORA™ Subjects, Activities or Tasks that are recorded as 'Too Early' to begin working on, as these also have no direct effect on the Assurance or 'Ready to Operate' status.;

4. Use the special algorithm unique to the ORA™ Solution) to drive the Assurance Level Indicator and display the current real-time Assurance status of the progress towards 'Ready to Operate' status. provide the ;

This process occurs continuously, with all input to the system updated instantly, meaning all users can see the current status irrespective of their physical location (i.e. anywhere they can access the internet).

Comparing Apples with Apples
We are often asked why our software does not provide an 'S-Curve' like all the 'proper' Project Management Systems do.

The answer is quite simple, the ORA™ Solution is NOT a Project Management Tool. It is a system dedicated to ensuring that the input from Operations is considered at every stage of a project. Their involvement can be explained by three simple statements which identify the reason for using an ORA™ process:

1. Project Deliverables

Most (almost all) of the deliverables required by Operations are specified in the EPC Contract and are therefore managed and delivered by the Project Team;

2. Operations Requirements, advice & contributions
(from OR A, aligned to the Project Plan)

The involvement of the ORA Team in Project activities, such as. checking operability, maintainability, reliability and availability data, reviews and output of design, confirming modes of operation of equipment, participation in HAZID, HAZOP, FAT, SAT, punch-listing, commissioning & start-up activities;

3. Operations needs that are not Project deliverables

The readiness of the Operations Team, ISSOW implementation, rationalisation of long term spare parts, training and competence of Operations Team and Operations, Management Systems etc;

So far as an S-Curve is concerned, the output from the ORA™ Solution will not produce an S-Curve but rather a 'sine-wave' which indicated the calculated readiness status as the project progresses, as illustrated below:

ORA™ Assurance Level vs. Project S-Curve

The graph shows a typical Project S-Curve which effectively shows a steady increase in %Progress as defined by the Value of Work Done (VOWD) leading to the point at which the EPC Contractor declares the asset as 'Ready to Start'.

Conversely, and in accordance with the measurement methodology of the Assurance Level described earlier, the Assurance Level, measuring only those ORA Subjects, Activities and Tasks that are currently in scope, produces a sine-wave of sorts due to the way work comes into scope, progresses to completed status and then is excluded from the measurements.

The current value of the Assurance Level, at any point in time (for a healthy project), will vary between 75% and 90% (approximately).

Any excursion outside this range would therefore indicate an issue that needs to be further investigated and is therefore a key leading indicator that helps the ORA Manager identify issues, enabling mitigating action before they have a detrimental effect on the project.