The E&P Approach to Product Assurance Capability

In today’s fast-paced digital world, energy industry companies are being challenged with transforming existing teams and building new teams to deliver modern digital products. So, how do you build teams and commercial models to support this new way of working and deliver successful products?

The traditional IT ‘Programme and Project’ approach is not well suited to deliver these products. Today, teams need to be able to build products, adapt to changing requirements, and add new functionality in 'days and weeks', rather than 'months and years'.

As deliverables for modern digital products are typically measured in the short-to-medium term and can vary frequently, traditional fixed price IT project and managed services are rendered unable to support these products. Customer expectations have also changed. Companies now expect to have new content and functionality, faster and more frequently.

Modern digital products are now seen as essential for the energy industry to gain efficiencies and competitive advantage, as well as to attract the next generation of talent. Renewable Energy sources require a ‘factory’ approach to the build, deployment and maintenance of large infrastructure like wind and solar farms. Digital products are a vital building block in delivering these new forms of energy and powering this transition, where they can help to accelerate development and maximise operational efficiency.

To build these new products, people with the right digital and domain expertise are critical. Product Teams need to be ‘best of breed’ where a combination of ‘in house’ and third-party partners work together to gain maximum value. These Product Teams cannot afford to carry underperforming team members, or those with skills that no longer fit the development and support of the product.

Whilst existing team members can be upskilled through coaching and training, integrating new team members with digital product experience from elsewhere – be it inside or outside of the energy industry - will bring instant gains on many levels. Flexible, adaptable teams that have the right mix of required skills and experience are required to deliver successful products.

Businesses are now seeing the benefits of moving away from multi-year service contracts in favour of adopting flexible contracts that can support these new ways of working. Flexible contracts can be adapted quickly to match changing product requirements (e.g., length of engagements, type of resources, level of skills and experience, location, etc.) and are now becoming more prevalent in the energy industry.

E&P Consulting understands the energy industry, and our global network of consultants are experienced in digital product management. We have a track record of supporting client product teams with capability, such as domain experts, product ownership, product management, change management, business analysis, scrum masters, and data expertise.

With our flexible, responsive approach to Product Assurance, we ensure that our customers can not only build teams that simply create and deliver products, but teams that drive significant business value.

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Ian Stewart is E&P's Upstream Lead, responsible for developing and promoting E&P’s services to ensure that value is realised from technologies supporting the functions within exploration and production organisations.