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Listen "Episode 85 – Oceaneering and the PMCoE"
Episode Synopsis
Hear about
Oceaneering’s Project Management Center of Excellence and a deep-water pipeline
repair operation, off the shores of West Africa, including the planning and
repair process, the challenges, and the lessons learned along the way.
Table of Contents
01:08 … Oceaneering 01:47 … Meet Joe 03:04 … The Pipeline Project 03:57 … “ROV” 04:22 … Pipeline Failure 05:28 … Project Stakeholders 06:53 … Project Design Process 09:26 … Project Planning Process 10:55 … Project Timeline 11:29 … Project Obstacles 12:58 … Tools and Procedures 14:26 … Mockups 15:15 … Weather Factors 16:42 … Lessons Learned 18:00 … Meet Brian 18:40 … PMCoE 19:27 … PM Role vs CoE Role 20:28 … Identifying Stakeholders 22:31 … Communication Management Plan 24:34 … CoE Support Portal 26:07 … Which Companies should have a CoE? 28:01 … Lessons Learned establishing a CoE 31:02 … New Oceaneering Projects 34:06 … Oceaneering Contact info 35:09 … Andy’s Book Reviewed 36:14 … Closing
BRIAN LOOS: ...a
balanced set of initiatives is important when you’re driving change. Quite often the change involves cultural
change, and that can be a journey rather than a sprint.
NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. So this is our time to talk about the things that matter most to you as a professional project manager. Our guests are involved in all types of projects, big and small, but what they have in common is this, they’ve all experienced what you’ve experienced – challenges, roadblocks, and victories. We talk with the movers and shakers in the industry. And alongside me is one with some pretty fancy moves himself, Bill Yates.
BILL YATES: I don’t know about that. You don’t want to see me on the dance floor. That’s an ugly thing. Man, I’m so excited about this podcast today. This hits on a topic, and we’ll get into it more, but this reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Clive Cussler, so he’s written a series of books that involve underwater exploration.
NICK WALKER: Yeah.
BILL YATES: And a superhero named Dirk Pitt, so we’re going to talk to a couple guys that remind me of Dirk Pitt.
Oceaneering
NICK WALKER: Real-life superheroes, yeah. All right. And their names are Brian Loos and Joe Campbell. Oceaneering International, Incorporated, which began in the 1960s as a small regional diving company in the Gulf of Mexico, then grew to become a global provider of engineered products and services. So Oceaneering International deals with all the services associated with the lifecycle of an offshore oilfield, from drilling to decommissioning. They operate the world’s premier fleet of work-class ROVs, or remotely operated vehicles, and they are also a frontrunner in offshore oilfield maintenance services and subsea hardware.
Meet Joe
So let’s first meet Joe Campbell, he’s the senior project manager with Oceaneering’s Subsea Project Group. He has 30 years of subsea construction and maintenance experience in diving and ROV projects. Joe has worked with Oceaneering for six years, working on projects in Azerbaijan, Trinidad, Equatorial Guinea, and Mauritania.
Now, I know that Bill wants to talk with you more about the Project Management Center of Excellence. But before we get into that, let’s hear a little bit more about Oceaneering. I see that one of your company slogans on the website is “We solve the unsolvable.” I love that. So you’ve recently been involved in a pretty complex and challenging project. A subsea deepwater pipeline repair operation off the shores of West Africa. Was that for all intents and purposes the type of project that some people might think of as unsolvable?
JOE CAMPBELL: Well, that’s a good question. For us it’s not unsolvable because this is something we do every day. We have the pipeline clamps that we manufacture for Oceaneering. So we have the project management group that installs them, puts them in, we manage the vessels.
Oceaneering’s Project Management Center of Excellence and a deep-water pipeline
repair operation, off the shores of West Africa, including the planning and
repair process, the challenges, and the lessons learned along the way.
Table of Contents
01:08 … Oceaneering 01:47 … Meet Joe 03:04 … The Pipeline Project 03:57 … “ROV” 04:22 … Pipeline Failure 05:28 … Project Stakeholders 06:53 … Project Design Process 09:26 … Project Planning Process 10:55 … Project Timeline 11:29 … Project Obstacles 12:58 … Tools and Procedures 14:26 … Mockups 15:15 … Weather Factors 16:42 … Lessons Learned 18:00 … Meet Brian 18:40 … PMCoE 19:27 … PM Role vs CoE Role 20:28 … Identifying Stakeholders 22:31 … Communication Management Plan 24:34 … CoE Support Portal 26:07 … Which Companies should have a CoE? 28:01 … Lessons Learned establishing a CoE 31:02 … New Oceaneering Projects 34:06 … Oceaneering Contact info 35:09 … Andy’s Book Reviewed 36:14 … Closing
BRIAN LOOS: ...a
balanced set of initiatives is important when you’re driving change. Quite often the change involves cultural
change, and that can be a journey rather than a sprint.
NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. So this is our time to talk about the things that matter most to you as a professional project manager. Our guests are involved in all types of projects, big and small, but what they have in common is this, they’ve all experienced what you’ve experienced – challenges, roadblocks, and victories. We talk with the movers and shakers in the industry. And alongside me is one with some pretty fancy moves himself, Bill Yates.
BILL YATES: I don’t know about that. You don’t want to see me on the dance floor. That’s an ugly thing. Man, I’m so excited about this podcast today. This hits on a topic, and we’ll get into it more, but this reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Clive Cussler, so he’s written a series of books that involve underwater exploration.
NICK WALKER: Yeah.
BILL YATES: And a superhero named Dirk Pitt, so we’re going to talk to a couple guys that remind me of Dirk Pitt.
Oceaneering
NICK WALKER: Real-life superheroes, yeah. All right. And their names are Brian Loos and Joe Campbell. Oceaneering International, Incorporated, which began in the 1960s as a small regional diving company in the Gulf of Mexico, then grew to become a global provider of engineered products and services. So Oceaneering International deals with all the services associated with the lifecycle of an offshore oilfield, from drilling to decommissioning. They operate the world’s premier fleet of work-class ROVs, or remotely operated vehicles, and they are also a frontrunner in offshore oilfield maintenance services and subsea hardware.
Meet Joe
So let’s first meet Joe Campbell, he’s the senior project manager with Oceaneering’s Subsea Project Group. He has 30 years of subsea construction and maintenance experience in diving and ROV projects. Joe has worked with Oceaneering for six years, working on projects in Azerbaijan, Trinidad, Equatorial Guinea, and Mauritania.
Now, I know that Bill wants to talk with you more about the Project Management Center of Excellence. But before we get into that, let’s hear a little bit more about Oceaneering. I see that one of your company slogans on the website is “We solve the unsolvable.” I love that. So you’ve recently been involved in a pretty complex and challenging project. A subsea deepwater pipeline repair operation off the shores of West Africa. Was that for all intents and purposes the type of project that some people might think of as unsolvable?
JOE CAMPBELL: Well, that’s a good question. For us it’s not unsolvable because this is something we do every day. We have the pipeline clamps that we manufacture for Oceaneering. So we have the project management group that installs them, puts them in, we manage the vessels.
In God we trust