Change Management in The Digital Oilfield: We know we need it, but where's the roadmap?
Authors: Berger Tina , Crompton Jim 
Published: February 2015

Objectives/Scope:

This paper will: • Examine change management challenges, specifically those related to digital oilfield projects, as experienced from 4 distinct perspectives (1) the executive sponsor / stakeholder (2) the project team (3) the business unit leadership and (4) the petrotechnical end-users • Describe specific change management activities needed during each phase of a digital oilfield project • Highlight lessons learned and good practices for each phase• Review a framework of requirements for a successful change management program for a digital energy project Methods, Procedures, Process: In the initial stages of a digital oilfield project, the change management effort serves to ensure the team identifies, engages with, and relentlessly incorporates the perspectives of the impacted audiences, including cross-functional end-users, business unit leaders, and project sponsors. Effective change management brings these perspectives to bear on project framing, scoping, and design activities, with the aim of steering the project in a direction that leaders will consistently and visibly support and end-users will readily adopt. This work is particularly critical in digital oilfield projects because the existing legacy applications are seldom decommissioned. As the project moves into deployment planning, the change management effort is focused on identifying the most receptive business units and audiences for pilots, advising on a realistic pace for deployment, and recommending the appropriate scaling and staging for the implementation to create quick wins. For digital oilfield projects, in particular, it is often necessary to manage change in two waves; the first wave involves supporting end-users in learning to use the application, and the second wave addresses the collaborative processes and optimization of the solution. This second wave is often missed in deployments of digital oilfield technologies. Change management work also includes strategic planning and implementation of project communication, training, and end-user support strategies, each of which should be consistent and targeted to reduce the particular kinds of resistance encountered with digital oilfield projects and support the development of the awareness and skills needed for rapid adoption and value creation. Results, Observations, Conclusions: Ideally, the change management effort begins during the earliest stages of a digital oilfield project and extends through post-implementation until the new processes and technologies are adopted and in use as designed. Novel/Additive Information: While there is an abundance of generic articles and resources on the topic of “change management,” there is currently not much available in the way of industry-specific guidance that provides a clear, targeted approach to change management and describes how its practices and processes relate to the design and deployment of collaborative, digital oilfield technologies. This paper will provide a practical roadmap for digital oilfield project teams to use in planning a comprehensive change management effort.