Business - Project Management Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business - Project Management - Dissertation Example Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes defining and confirming the project goals and objectives, identifying tasks and how goals will be achieved, quantifying the resources needed, and determining budgets and timelines for completion† (All about Project Management n.d.). 25 Research Design and Methodology: 27 2.6 Methodology: 27 2.7 Research Design: 27 2.7.1 Operations and Lean Strategies: 27 2.7.2 Developments and Project Management Principles: 28 2.8 Analysis Strategy: 29 2.9 Validity and Reliability 30 2.10 Summary 30 2.11 TBD 30 2.12 TBD 30 2.13 TBD 30 2.14 TBD 30 2.15 Results Model (TBD) 30 2.16 Summary 30 3 Discussion 30 3.1 TBD 30 3.2 TBD 31 3.3 Summary 31 4 Conclusions: 31 4.1 Summary of Conclusions: 31 4.2 Weaknesses of the Research: 31 4.3 Future Research 31 4.4 Summary and Concluding Remarks 31 Figure 1 - Toyota Production System (King 2009, p. 9). 13 Figure 2 - Project Management Triangle (Phillips 2007): 19 Figure 3 - Improvement Meth odology (Freire & Alarco'n 2002, p. 250). 29 1 Introduction: This dissertation is a case study of an exploration and production company in the Oil & Gas Industry that has operations in six Continents. The remainder of this document will refer to make reference to the subject of this Case Study as â€Å"The Company†. The Company has more than 50 years of history and aspires to be a leading Independent Global Exploration and Production Company (IOC). In this effort, it has grown its global production from 200,000 barrels per day in the year 2000 to more than 400,000 barrels of oil per day today. The ability for a company to grow its sales by six percent a year average over 12 years is stellar achievement, as changes in the industry make increases in production more difficult. Marathon Oil, according to Gelsi (2011), had a target growth of three to five percent for the same period and has only recently increased their target growth. This is a clear indication of the dedication t o performance of The Company during the period that allowed it to exceed the expectations of its peers during difficult times in the Oil Industry. The Oil Industry has changed over time and the number of large oil discoveries made in recent years continues to fall. Ibrahim (2007) explains that the percentage of large oil finds has fallen dramatically and most large findings are natural gas and are located in deep water or other high cost operating areas. IOC’s must adjust to the changing environment in which large discoveries are rare. A second issue that has a detrimental impact on IOC’s profitability is the Nationalization of the existing oil fields. The Nationalization of 65% of the World’s Oil fields (Fox, 2007) has dramatically changed the competitive environment for the Independent Oil Company (IOC). This reduces the number of opportunities for the Independent Oil Company and increases the level of competition between them. The increased competition caused by Nationalization has resulted in most IOC’