The Project Oversight Guide

Abstract

Whether you are a project manager tasked with overseeing an outsourced capital project or an owner investing in a major project critical to the future of your business, you are most likely starting at a disadvantage. A savvy contractor’s project team is likely to be populated with project management professionals who have read an abundance of literature on how to maximize project value for themselves. Unfortunately, as any book search will show you, there is virtually no guidance out there for how to successfully oversee a capital project from an owner’s perspective. In project management terms, the client or owner is just a “managed external stakeholder.”

The Project Oversight Guide (POG) is intended to bridge the gap between knowing how to run a project and knowing how to oversee one. Readers of the POG will learn that project oversight and project management are uniquely different disciplines. Bad project oversight can make an otherwise good project fail, whereas good oversight can lead a substandard project team or contractor to succeed in delivering the expected return on investment. Did you know that, when done right, project oversight more than pays for itself?

By reading the POG, owners and project management students and professionals will gain insights into all facets of capital project oversight, including tools and techniques, organizational design, best practices, behaviors, and processes. The POG packages this information in an examples-based look-see at real situations and lessons learned from the field.

WORDS OF PRAISE and REVIEWS

The Project Oversight Guide is a much needed and significant addition to project management literature. Well done!
--Robert Brese, Former CIO, Department of Energy

The framework in The Project Oversight Guide drives project performance towards a "win-win" outcome for owners and contractors!
--Kelly Powers, President, Williams Industrial Services

If you read this book, it will surely improve the prospects for your capital projects ending in a more predictable and successful outcome.
--Cliff Eubanks, 36-year Oversight Senior Executive

About the Author

Herb Marshall is a retired navy nuclear officer with 30 years’ experience in the private and public nuclear power industry. At the Department of Energy, Naval Reactors, Herb worked with senior leadership on a multitude of complex projects, including power plant overhauls, refuelings, and decommissionings. He is a subject matter expert in project owner oversight. Most recently, he was the chief architect of the oversight model used by the owners of a commercial nuclear power plant overseeing the billion-dollar decontamination and dismantlement of their facility. Herb is a certified senior reactor operator, exam author, master training specialist, LSS, STEM MBA, and PMP. He is also a member of the international business honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma.