James Prater
When Yes doesn’t really mean Yes!
(How do you manage a project when you have team members in 3 countries, who work for 4 different companies?)
Over the last 5 years, Santos, a large oil and gas company based in Adelaide Australia, has been aggressively focusing on growing its business by investing in countries overseas.
As part of this strategy, two off-shore facilities were commissioned in 2006/07 and this paper will discuss the cultural issues associated with project managing the IT components of these projects.
Outline of the presentation
This presentation will discuss the significant cultural and logistical challenges of managing a project, where different parts of the project had to be undertaken in the following countries
• Singapore
• Indonesia (including Jakarta and Batam)
• United Arab Emirates
Whilst the project manager was located in the head office of Santos in Adelaide and the project team were also spread through out the world and finally the engineering component of the project was a production platform, located approximately 40 kms offshore from regional Indonesia.
Learning Outcomes
The major outcomes learnt from this project included
• Recognising that the application of cultural norms from Australia to project team members from overseas is fraught with danger
• Recognition that email/sms are useful communication tools but do not replace face to face contact to develop relationships.
• Overseas business travel is not all that it is cracked up to be, nor are some other forms of transport.
• Not to underestimate the logistics of simply getting to the project site, especially once it has commenced production.
• Instilling within the project team a common goal when each of the team members were employed by different vendors is a significant challenge and in some cases impossible to do so.
• How to say yes in a variety of languages!
Biography
Eight years in IT project management roles within the Resources and Manufacturing industries. Currently, employed as a Project Consultant with Santos specialising in managing projects that linking a variety of controls systems to web based reporting software.
Prior to Santos, part of the IT management team at FH Faulding and managed the installation and configuration of the IT systems required for a new warehouse.
Qualifications
Master of Business
Bachelor of Business (Management Information Systems)
Diploma of Computer Programming
Diploma of Business
PMP Certification
PRINCE2 Certification
ITIL Foundation Certification
Professional Memberships
Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (S.A. Branch). – National Award for Meritorious Service.
Member of the Australian Computer Society.
Member of the inaugural EDS Mentoring program.
Alumni Association of the University of South Australia
Former Board Member of the Institute of Information Management
Project Management Professional.
