Have you ever been in a situation where you find yourself looking at a colleague, friend, or partner and saying “But I thought you were going to do that”? It happens all the time. We assume that our responsibility starts and stops at a point that makes sense in our head and that (often by magic) someone else will have handled the other parts.
What is Interface Management?
The concept of interface management was created to tackle this problem. It is the method of identifying all points of scope or technical interface between stakeholder organizations and mapping out in detail who is doing what, and what information each party needs. Automated interface management tools support this by enabling automated workflows, forms, alerts, escalation, and a secure roles-based security model to effectively manage interface complexity and ensure compliance with the project plan.
Interface Management for Capital Projects
Modern capital projects contain a huge number of these interfaces. In some cases, they can be interfaces between teams, such as where the piping design cannot progress until the structural steel rack elevation is known. In some cases, they can be interfaces between stakeholder groups, such as where the Engineering team can’t design the connection to a piece of equipment until the Vendor delivers details of the nozzle elevation and orientation. Configuration management is crucial in managing and controlling these interface requirements, ensuring they are captured, stored, and made available to stakeholders.
With the way that large or complex projects are regularly split up between different Engineering contractors, Owners can easily find themselves sitting in meetings with their various contractors pointing and blaming each other. Managing external interfaces is essential for system and project success, as it plays a critical role in system performance, affordability, and sustainability.
O3’s Interface Management Solution
Luckily, there is a way to combat this issue. O3 provides a robust and structured capability for identifying each interface point, assigning an owner, assigning actions or deliverables, and agreeing where the scope or responsibility for each party starts and stops. Most importantly, this is all clearly documented so there can be no “I didn’t know” or “You should have told me” responses at any point down the line. Effective management and communication of interface information, including internal and external system interfaces, are key to planning coherent testing and identifying interface dependencies and risks.
And because O3 offers an unlimited user license model, all project stakeholders have access to the Interface Management capabilities. This means that everyone can check on their tasks, assess the status of all actions or deliverables that concern them, provide feedback or input on any active interfaces, and see up-to-date reporting about the status of all interfaces. Developing an interface management plan is crucial to clearly define roles, responsibilities, and expectations between owners and contractors.
Remove the Guess Work Out of Interface Management
No more guessing. No more issues with things being lost or falling between the stools. No more Excel spreadsheets and emails flying back and forth. Just a centralized collaboration tool that can become the “single source of truth” for the project. A written interface management procedure is necessary to establish and manage internal interfaces with subcontractors, suppliers, or consultants.
By using this interface management capability in O3, you get the added benefit of being able to tie the details to the work packages, which can be used as constraints so that the work package is not released until all of the required interface constraints have been closed out. Interface management systems ensure compliance, data consistency, and security, playing a critical role in managing interface definitions, development, and implementation.
Take the guesswork out of your Interface Management process. An interface manager is essential in managing the integration of different groups’ activities across project interfaces.
To learn more, request your personalized demo today!
