Learnings

Outcomes

Bespoke Methodology Developed 

The development of the methodology is specific to National Grid Gas’s processes and their requirements for the tool. This methodology would form part of the training for National Grid Gas teams onboarding for Optioneer. 

Time Saving & Resource Saving 

With the baselined previous project, time and resource savings can be reported for a similar scale of project, or expressed as a percentage for any project. The tool was proven to reduce the time required to arrive at the corridor by 93%, with a cost saving of over 65%, which equated to around £25,000 for the 10km scheme. These savings relate exclusively to resource time requirement reduction. Programme reduction, the potential for less rework and mistakes, better documentation and more robust methodology are potential benefits of the software which were demonstrated in other use cases, but not quantified within the scope of this study.

Useability of Tool Determined

The National Grid Gas team received one hour of training before being granted access to the project area. Exercises were issued that required them to carry out the main operations in Optioneer. In total this comprised about three hours of training. Upon completion the team members could consistently perform tasks requested by the Continuum Industries team that would reflect daily use of the tool with little to no support. 

Three of the team members were invited to participate in advanced training and a workshop. Of the members that completed the tasks, they were able to configure the main elements of Optioneer and access analysis tools as they required. This additional two hours of training allowed them to perform about 90% of Optioneers operations. 

Despite the successes of this project, every project space is different and the team will almost certainly require tools which Optioneer provides, but are not relevant to this project. This would be handled in the implementation plan, see Section 10. 

Lessons Learnt

Plan for a Familiarisation Period

As stated in Section 5, the methodology was revised during the project. This meant that the work done in the first few weeks didn’t contribute to the final objectives. Whilst it is a necessary step to recognise the initial methodology was not suitable for this project, this conclusion could have been arrived at earlier had a familiarisation period been factored to the programme. This would have allowed Continuum Industries to gain insight to the National Grid processes, the team's responsibility and roles in more detail before beginning the routeing exercise. 

Overall, the decision to revise the methodology didn’t negatively impact the programme or outcomes, but it would have streamlined the process. 

The Benefits of a Workshop

As stated in Section 5, a workshop was added to the training schedule. This provided the team with an engaging environment to practise what they had learned, discuss the challenges and applications of Optioneer with their peers and have assistance on hand.