Having a strategy for commissioning and a solid execution plan developed early in your project is critical if you want to have success during on-site testing at the end of your project. You get a map to follow that tells you the guided process or the standardized process to develop your commissioning strategies, so you know you’ll be successful at the end of your project. This is part three of five of our live workshop series where I go through ICA 005, which explains the processes and the map to follow to develop your commissioning execution plan, pulling all of your project together for successful completion in the end. Today, we’re going through really the heart of the commissioning process: everything related to commissioning engineering. This is the phase of projects where you must be focused on commissioning right from the beginning so that you can plan for success. Before we get started, if you haven’t already, become a member of the Industrial Commissioning Association. There’s no cost to join; you get access to the Industrial Commissioning Standard and a whole host of resources to help you with commissioning. You can do that at ixa.net/join, so definitely check that out if you’re not already a member. You’ll get access to tons of amazing resources to help you with commissioning and help you grow in your career to become a leader of projects, leading them to success.
The decision is yours; you can choose how you want to proceed in your career. If you want to be the one doing the testing in the field, that’s fine—we need those people on projects to be doing the testing—but we need a lot of people to step up and be the true leaders to lead projects to success. That’s when commissioning is really about leadership to lead and guide project teams for successful delivery in the end. The big shift really is that proactive element of commissioning. Many commissioning managers just react to problems, but commissioning leaders, like I mentioned before, step up and prevent issues from ever happening and guide projects to success. ICA 005, the fifth part of our ICA Global Commissioning Standard, really is that document to give you the superpower and the map on how to lead projects to success. However, not everyone is willing to step up to this challenge; some still prefer to get their checklists and go do their testing in the field and gather data, and that’s fine—we need people to do those roles. So, it’s up to you if you want to make this big shift and step into a leadership role to actually make a significant impact on projects and guide them to success. ICA 005 is your framework to do that.
There are three portions of ICA 005, and we’ll go through each one of them in more detail here. The first one is commissioning engineering, which often gets missed. Many projects don’t even implement this phase of commissioning engineering and just overlook it completely, not understanding what a true commissioning process looks like. However, the commissioning engineering phase of projects works in conjunction with your detailed design and engineering. It’s really about creating your battle plan—your game plan—of how you’re going to execute commissioning later. This is primarily defined in your commissioning execution plan before the commissioning team even mobilizes to the site, outlining what needs to be done for commissioning.
The second part of ICA 005 is the manufacturing phase. This identifies the off-site testing required during factory acceptance testing and, more critically, during integrated factory acceptance testing. These are critical stages of the commissioning process because anything we can test earlier in the project—before equipment is even delivered to the site—mitigates risk. Everything tested off-site must align with our on-site testing. So, the manufacturing phase, particularly factory acceptance testing and integrated factory acceptance testing, is a vital part of the commissioning process.
Then there’s construction completion. This is where many commissioning standards start and pick up the process, but they’re missing the entire early involvement of commissioning projects. This is the turnover process to transition from area-based installations to systems-based completion, and there’s a definite process to follow during the construction completion phase to allow this to happen. During our commissioning engineering phase, we define our commissioning execution plan. This details the specifics of how to align projects for completion during on-site testing at the end of projects, right from the beginning—day one. Like I said before, leaders don’t wait for problems to occur on projects; they control the process of how projects are completed by implementing the processes defined in ICA 005.
Your commissioning execution plan is your game plan—that guided process showing your commissioning team and everyone else on the project, from construction to design groups to project management groups, what success looks like during commissioning and how projects are going to come together for completion in the end. This is created before any of the work on-site even starts. There are lots of examples of projects that implement these processes and apply the processes defined in ICA 005. It’s pretty easy to show the benefits and the value of proactive planning for commissioning, which can save projects millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars by having a structured plan to complete.
Several inputs go into your commissioning execution plan, and depending on the size of your projects, you may choose to split these out into individual definitions—separate plans to define each aspect of your commissioning execution plan. How are you going to manage commissioning? That’s your commissioning execution management plan. Systematization is a really big part of this process to transition from area-based installations to systems-based completions, and that’s all defined in your project systematization plan—how the project is going to be broken up and segregated into functional groups of equipment and how that transition from construction completions to on-site testing during static and dynamic commissioning is defined.
There’s also the interface management plan, an important aspect because there are lots of groups working on projects and many interfaces between different contractors and groups—even physical interfaces between the various systems defined on projects. How are we going to manage all of these interfaces, and how are we going to manage the transition of groups working on one system to another? How will the interface between these two groups work? Then there’s the factory acceptance test and integrated factory acceptance test implementation plan—how that’s going to align with what’s required for on-site testing is all defined in your FAT implementation plan.
A safe transition plan is very important because everything we do during commissioning must be done safely. As systems are transitioned from one group to another, we need to ensure this is done in a safe manner. This is all defined in our safe transition plan to make sure the transition of roles, responsibilities, physical assets, and documentation is smooth and safe between all groups. There’s also the commissioning management software—or CMS—management plan: How are we going to be using commissioning software on the project? What system are we using? What expectations do we have of all other groups working on projects for how they are to interact with the software? This is an important definition of our commissioning execution.
The commissioning readiness plan addresses when we’re going to be ready to actually start on-site testing. What are the plans and processes we need to go through, and what reviews need to be undertaken to ensure we’re actually ready for testing? The alarm management plan is another critical one because our systems continue to get more complex with large, distributed SCADA systems generating alarms from all over the sites and even the planet. If there’s no plan to manage these alarms, you could quickly have an alarm system flooded with nuisance alarms, making it pretty much useless because there’s no validity to anything coming into the system. We need an alarm management plan to ensure we deliver quality HMI systems at the end of the project.
There’s a document template for all of these. You can log into the members’ area of the Industrial Commissioning Association and download each of these document templates, which show you exactly what’s in there. We’re making this as easy as possible to help guide you in creating your commissioning execution plan for your project so you can plan for success. Definitely log into the Industrial Commissioning Association’s members’ area—there’s no cost to join. You get access to all of these document templates, making completing your documentation for planning and commissioning much easier.
These documents are straight out of ICA 005 for commissioning engineering. The first one shows the transition from area-based installations to systems-based completion. It’s natural that contractors will install installations by area—just more efficient for long-lead equipment, material deliveries, and workforce planning. But at some point, usually about 60 or 70% through construction, the work methodologies must transition from area-based installations to systems-based completions. This transition will then start to align completions of the construction work to complete by system. When we’re moving into commissioning and on-site testing, we need systems delivered by system so we can test a group of equipment for functionality together. If we’re missing even just one item—like a critical instrument that’s an input to the start logic in our process control logic—then we can’t move much forward with testing because we’re missing one item. We need systems complete—100% complete—and that’s the first construction completion milestone that needs to be met as we move into commissioning. There’ll be a series of phased handovers as each of these systems is transitioned from construction to commissioning. That’s a very helpful figure you can check out in the commissioning standard.
We also have the process to develop the different levels of scheduling required. Of course, we’re going to start with a very high-level project overview schedule right at the beginning of projects when completing our project commissioning plan or commissioning strategy. But as we move through the process—through the commissioning engineering phase—we’re going to be developing our detailed schedule, our Level 3 or Level 4 and 5 schedules, which go down to the daily execution of tasks. This allows us to plan and manage commissioning work so that everything remains on track.
The next phase is our manufacturing phase, which is a really important aspect of the commissioning process to ensure we’re identifying issues much earlier. This can often get overlooked on projects or be done somewhat poorly because there’s always the discussion in the factory: “Can we skip this? Can we save some time and get this equipment to the site and test it later on-site?” The natural response everybody will say is, “Sure, yeah, we can do that.” But by doing that, you’re deferring risk to later in your project. We want to retire risk and mitigate it much earlier instead of stacking all the risk at the end of the project. Having stage testing for factory acceptance testing and integrated factory acceptance testing is very important, particularly for integrated factory acceptance testing. Some of the systems we’re working with on projects, such as control and protection cabinets, are quite complex—both from a hardware and software perspective. Without the software, these cubicles are pretty much useless. PLC logic is integral to many of these systems; everything’s automated these days. We need to be integrating both the hardware and the software in the factory and testing these systems for functionality before they even arrive at the site. If you’re doing that integration on-site much later, you’re deferring all the risk in your project until later, and it usually leads to problems.
The construction completion phase is really the part of the transition from construction to commissioning, and this requires some very particular planning to ensure it takes place precisely. On the surface, it seems pretty straightforward: install some stuff and then go test it. But there’s a lot of detail involved, and if that’s not planned very precisely, it will not go well. If the construction groups are handing over unfinished work, there’s not much we can do from a commissioning perspective because we’re missing items that aren’t complete from a construction standpoint. However, when you structure your projects around ICA 005, you’re able to transition and turn over systems on time, even if there are construction delays, so we can meet commissioning timelines and not delay the project. When ICA 005 is implemented on projects, leaders own punch lists and are able to close out issues in advance rather than delaying issues until later in the project. With the proactive system handover process defined in ICA 005, you’re able to hand over systems from construction to commissioning on time so you can proceed with on-time commissioning.
This is really the critical milestone on every project: your construction completion milestone. You may be familiar with this labeled as “mechanical completion.” We’ve transitioned to the term “construction completion” for a more complete mechanical, electrical, and automation definition of completion. This very critical milestone on projects often gets blurred, and if you blur any of the aspects of construction and commissioning, that just leads to a whole host of problems. This figure, straight out of ICA 005, very precisely defines what this construction completion milestone means—what is taking place prior to construction completion by construction groups to achieve it and what is taking place after the construction completion milestone by the commissioning team for static and dynamic commissioning. This is a very precise milestone, and if it’s not defined precisely, there’ll be lots of confusion about who’s responsible for what and what “complete” actually means. You’ll often find on projects that everybody will say they’re done, but everybody’s definition of “done” seems to mean something different. That’s why this needs to be very clearly and precisely defined for every tagged piece of equipment, every test item that must be complete, and all the documentation that must be complete, so there’s no ambiguity about what construction completion actually means. With a payment milestone associated with it, this is really the critical milestone that defines the contract milestone for the completion of your construction contract. It must be very clearly defined so everybody knows what the end of their scope of work is and where the commissioning team’s scope of work starts. Focus on this construction completion milestone—it is the most critical milestone on your projects. One of the main reasons commissioning folks need to be involved early in projects is to make this crystal clear in construction contracts before they’re even awarded, so everybody has a clear vision of what this milestone looks like and a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved to lead to completion.
If you’re not using a standardized process on projects—if you’re not using ICA 005—then it’s very common to be frustrated by delays and rework. Issues arise, there’s incomplete construction, and without a structured process, everything is always reactive. You’re essentially just waiting for problems and troubleshooting issues rather than proactively leading projects. I’ve heard for decades that the commissioning industry is struggling to be heard; they’re begging for a standardized process. Well, this is the process to follow in ICA 005 to structure your projects for success before construction contracts are even awarded. Lots of people maybe aren’t as interested in that—they’re more interested in being a follower and just want to do what they’re told—but when you’re implementing ICA 005 on your projects and structuring them for success right from the beginning, this is the commissioning leadership we’re looking for to determine project outcomes and direct projects to success. When you’re implementing ICA 005 on your projects, you’re in control of project outcomes and able to lead your projects and commissioning to success.
So why do you want to implement this standard right now? Projects need your help. Projects all over the world are struggling to meet cost and schedule objectives, and they need your help to become that leader and step up to lead them to success. When you look at the data out there, 9 out of 10 projects are late and over budget, and 99% of commissioning professionals are stuck—they just feel there’s no method or way to engage on projects, elevate these issues, and structure them for success. However, the 1% of people who follow the ICA Commissioning Standard with a commissioning-first approach are the leaders in the industry. These are the true respected and trusted commissioning leaders—the sought-after industry experts who lead projects to success. I really encourage you to become a true commissioning leader in the industry and step up to lead projects to success. It’s very rewarding and a great achievement when you can plan projects in advance with a standardized and structured process like ICA 005 and then execute that plan for project success.
For anyone who wants a bit more help or guidance in planning projects for success, we do have some additional resources you can check out. The first one is our ICA Commissioning Project Audit, a four-part process to review your commissioning processes and ensure you’re aligned with standardized and best practices in the industry. This includes an audit of your digital data management processes. If you’re thinking that you have document control and you’re managing your PDFs, that’s not data management—that’s document management. What we’re talking about with digital data management is the true use of the data-rich environment that exists on projects and implementing it in a way to help you and your project leaders guide projects to success. When we have high-quality data on projects, it allows us to make high-quality decisions. We want to be taking advantage of the advanced systems out there to manage this data and truly put it to good use on projects.
The second one is a strategic audit—looking at your strategic commissioning planning aspects that take place during project concept and project FEED phases. How are you implementing commissioning from a strategic standpoint to get the value and benefits it allows? There’s also a contractual audit: How are you implementing the ICA Global Commissioning Standard in your contractual documents? How are you actually implementing the commissioning process in a structured, contractual way to enforce compliance and ensure you’re getting the results you want on projects? From a standardization perspective, the industry has been very disjointed and all over the place. Standardized processes, just like every other industry has done, help everybody understand the benefits of commissioning and follow standardized processes to guide projects to success. If you want to check out our project commissioning audit process, you can go to icxa.net/audits, and we’ll be able to help you plan and implement your projects for strategic commissioning success. This is for you if your organization lacks any mature commissioning processes or perhaps has more outdated processes following an older standard from a decade or two ago. This is to bring your projects up to the level of expertise required to deliver them for success. If your organization lacks a cohesive, integrated data management plan, this is something you’ll want to look at to bring your organization up to the right levels. If your projects are late and over budget, then this is definitely something you want to check out—you can transform your commissioning project delivery. Go to icxa.net/audit.
If you’d like to start commissioning leadership programs, we’ve got two options for you there as well. Our commissioning leadership programs are really for those who want to step up and become true commissioning leaders. If you’re just interested in being a follower and filling out your checklist, that’s fine—you can do that on projects—but if you want to step up and be a leader, this is a program that can help you get there to become the go-to expert leading projects to success. You can check that out at ixa.net/leadership. This is really for you if you’ve worked on projects and just know there must be a better way—at the end of projects, it just seems like a lot of chaos. If you’re done, sick of poorly managed projects at the end, and you know you need a better way—and you really want to be the one to step up, become that leader, and make a bigger impact—this is the leadership program for you to help accelerate your career and get to that point. Visit ixa.net/leadership, and you can become the trusted commissioning leader in your industry.
Some other resources: if you don’t already have the commissioning standard, there’s no cost to get it. You can go to ixa.net/join—that’ll get you access to the members’ area, and you can download the standard in there. All nine parts of it are available, so if you haven’t already checked that out, go to ixa.net/join. Also, there’s a good one-page brochure if you’re talking to your management and explaining this standard to them—why you want to use it on projects. This is a good one-page overview sheet of the standard that can help you explain it to others, help them understand the benefits, and hopefully get them on board to implement these processes on projects for successful delivery.
This is ICA 005. The next workshop we’ve got is March 19th—that’s next week—and we’ll be going through ICA 006, which covers manufacturing, installation, and construction completions and what that process looks like. Definitely check out any of the resources I mentioned if you’re interested, and I definitely want to see you at next week’s live workshop session where we go through the next part of the standard.
I’ll go back to the comment section here and review any questions. First one: “Do you also include troubleshooting?” Yep, troubleshooting is a very important aspect of commissioning because, despite our best plans and efforts, we will run into challenges and problems. That’s why we love commissioning—we get to solve those problems. Whether it’s troubleshooting technical problems in the field, project management issues, or sequencing with our scheduling or test activities, this is all part of our troubleshooting activities. That’s why we go into these careers—because it’s always the fun and exciting part when we run into problems and challenges, solve them, and move on to the next challenge to take projects toward success. You’re right—troubleshooting is definitely required as well.
A question from Rodell: “How are you? Good to see you. Is cybersecurity also included now in the commissioning test?” Absolutely, it is. The whole aspect of NERC cybersecurity is such a big topic—similar to operational readiness in parallel with commissioning. NERC cybersecurity testing covers all the aspects of testing and the compliance methods to gather evidence to confirm cybersecurity compliance as well. Those factors are huge on projects and becoming more so as projects get more sophisticated and integrated with systems. Cybersecurity is a massive issue to protect our critical assets from bad actors out there. Definitely a good point—cybersecurity is now included in commissioning tests. If cybersecurity is something you’d find helpful for a future presentation—specifically on safety, going through all the details of that concept—then maybe shoot that in the chat, and we can have a specific session on cybersecurity for offshore oil and gas or wherever you’re working.
“Yes, I have heard of CIRs, and when we reopened the Global Commissioning Standard, that was the discussion—do we include the CIRs or not? We chose not to at this time, to focus everybody on the standardized process for A’s and B’s processing. Some implement CIRs as well. It does help sometimes when you’re pairing commissioning software to align A, B, and CIRs, so that might be a preference depending on your access to implement CIRs as well.”
I mentioned again that ICA 005 is really the heart of your early commissioning planning. If you’re skipping this process and not implementing this commissioning execution planning phase of your projects, you’re not really following a commissioning process—you’re just winging it and lacking any sort of commissioning strategy, only focusing on testing in the end. Everything defined in ICA 005 is really the aspect of holding projects for success, and it’s not a process to be skipped. I see too many projects that overlook commissioning engineering and only focus on construction completion onward. If that’s your plan, then you’re not really implementing any type of commissioning process that’s even different day-to-day.
Definitely come back next week and check out our next session on ICA 006 for manufacturing, installation, and construction completions. Thanks for joining today, and I hope to see you again!
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