Factors Influencing Design Changes in Oil and Gas Projects

Although many project time delays, cost overruns and quality defects—particularly in the oil sector—are attributed to design changes, the associated issues have not yet been thoroughly investigated. This study aims to provide a knowledge-based foundation for the evaluation and prediction of the impact of design changes on project performance, by identifying and analysing the main contributing factors. Using findings from a thorough literature survey, semi-structured interviews, and knowledge-mining from completed projects in the oil industry, a total of 28 factors were consolidated and grouped into four major categories. These factors were then ranked on their relative importance, based on data from a questionnaire survey distributed to a wide range of professions in the industry. An analysis of the results found that the most influential factors contributing to design changes are project scope definition, level of schedule overlapping, and project team's work experience, respectively. Ultimately, a predictive model has been proposed for determining the impact of design changes on project performance. The outcomes of this study form part of the authors' on-going research focusing on the analysis of the casual relationships between diverse factors to develop the predictive model.

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