Collaboration Fosters Confidence
Under many three-year MSAs, it is fairly typical for the engineer to skip straight into detailed design, using rough estimates internally derived by the utility for developing a scope and budget. This could be characterized as an “ask forgiveness, not permission” approach.
In contrast, the five-year MSA between Tampa Electric and Burns & McDonnell reflects the utility’s detailed stage-gate process. Beginning at the 10% gate — representing long-term forecasts — the team develops a conceptual design, schedule and cost estimate for consideration and implementation into capital budget planning efforts. Tampa Electric can make better-informed decisions as it understands the long-term forecasted impacts by reviewing project deliverables, in-service dates, estimated costs and cost profiles.
The utility evaluates whether each project should progress its design to the 30% gate for further development and refinement. The utility’s capital planning team can then review the project’s overall viability. The team provides preliminary design information, schedules and cost estimates to help answer key high-level questions, such as:
- Why do this project?
- Why do this project now?
- Why do this project this way?
This deliberate stage-gate process has improved evaluation of capital projects, establishing consistent and collaborative procedures dialed in through workshops and meetings led by dedicated project managers focused on developing the scope and estimate for each project. These early-stage scoping and estimate efforts allow utility stakeholders to prioritize projects that bring the maximum benefits to customers.
One of the keys to making the portfolio management approach successful is maintaining consistency on both sides of the partnership. This includes the utility assigning dedicated project managers and technical leads for each project. The relationships fostered between the partnering teams at the management and lead levels serve as a solid foundation for working together effectively.
Dedicated teams are an important part of the value proposition. Rather than working with five different engineers on five different projects and having to train all of those teams on Tampa Electric’s standards, preferences and expectations — an especially challenging ask in a time of limited internal resources — the same dedicated team can tackle the parceled projects in a way that significantly reduces the learning curve. The earliest submittals will require some work to establish a baseline, but from there, individuals can jump efficiently into each effort.
Handoffs between team members and at the various stage gates become more seamless, based on a more defined, upfront understanding of the project scope. Working together as a unified team enables strong lines of communication and shared assumptions, with points needing clarification more easily identified. Conversations are collaborative, not adversarial.
Open dialogue also helps mitigate the amount of construction requests for information (RFIs) and helps provide the end user with a design that’s the right fit. Project checkpoints for each design phase minimize open-ended questions and avoid design misses. When everyone is pointed in the right direction on mutually agreed-upon approaches, it minimizes design rework and mitigates cost overruns and schedule delays.
Making a Plan and Sticking to It
Portfolio management, similar to program management, can be a powerful tool for unlocking efficiencies in both schedule and cost, with the ultimate goal of maintaining exceptional safety and quality standards. Successful applications of the approach, like the partnership between Tampa Electric and Burns & McDonnell, bring all partners together in a setting of full transparency.
Aligning on expectations at earlier design stages will minimize downstream impacts at the construction phase. When the engineer can act as an extension of the utility team, everyone becomes invested in the success of each project and the program as a whole.
One of the most useful cornerstones of the partnership between Tampa Electric and Burns & McDonnell has been a living document maintained at the utility throughout the program duration. In it, the utility tracks all relevant projects, target installation year, disciplines involved and at which stage gate each project stands. This regularly updated document is essential to planning for effective use of resources.
Not all utilities operate with that level of sophistication. Too often, once a project becomes urgent, that utility will quickly solicit a request for proposal (RFP), skip development and proceed directly to detailed design. Following a more methodical plan improves outcomes by aligning needs and expectations with the capital planning cycle, ideally providing multiyear foresight on projects and the necessary resources.
When staffing resources are limited, materials are at a premium, and supply chains are constricted, utilities can seize more control over the viability of their assets by planning for the long term and packaging projects into a portfolio to optimize implementation and capital expenditures. That enhances the utility’s ability to deliver reliable power, affordably, in the present and for years to come.
