Written By Adam Gazaleh
Presentation Overview
Tom McDonald, Consultant at Sherlock Resources, John Josserand, Partner Manager at Data Gumbo, and Peter Dumont, PE, Principal at OS2/PrairieDog Project along with members from the PMI Houston Chapter joined us for a thorough and groundbreaking presentation about a new way of managing construction projects. McDonald introduced the movement that is underway, which the team calls OS2 or Operating System 2. Through a question-and-answer format presentation, McDonald and Dumont explained how construction project management is only in its first generation of methodology or OS1. OS2 aims to increase the business performance of capital projects which continue to lag behind all other increases in productivity and efficiency. The core problem is that projects cost too much to build and profit margins are razor thin because of inefficiencies around processes that add no value to the project. OS2 is about financial health, keeping your company intact, and building a trusted network of suppliers that Dumont refers to as the network.
At its core, OS2 is an R&D project focused on business outcomes that investigates how emerging technologies like block chain, can be utilized to create a single source of truth that allows all stakeholders on a project to access the most up to date risk registers, contract statuses, and transaction information. Dumont along with Josserand, who joined DataGumbo during the pandemic, described how emerging technology could be used to translate legal terms in contracts into business logic that a software program could use to automatically check that terms have been met and automate an otherwise time consuming payment transaction process. The philosophy of OS2 is that a project team is made up of a network with no central point of failure, and where anything that can be automated is automated, so that companies are able to preserve as much profit as possible.
Takeaways
- Capital Construction Project management is still in its first generation of methodology and is in need of a technology based over haul.
- The nominal cost of construction projects has risen significantly over the past decade and will continue to rise if something is not done to automate inefficient processes.
- OS2 aims to utilize new technology like block chain to increase efficiency among project stakeholders and help companies preserve more of their profit.
Next Event
Join us at the next Architecture, Engineering & Construction Forum event on May 11, 2021
Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar