Structuring the engineering change management process around change carriers

Prior research in the field of offshore platform project execution has mainly focused on early project phases and planning, as a means to increase project reliability for offshore installations. Later phases, however, as fabrication, transport and installation have not been given the same attention. Projects of this kind frequently suffer both large and small deviations and as projects progress deviations accumulate. Deviations then have to be resolved in a timely manner not to impair quality and scheduling of an overall project. Empirical data was gathered from two offshore platform projects in the form of archival data, observations and interviews. The findings revealed that engineering change, as a tool, should preferably be used sparingly in early phases and as necessary in later phases. This research also suggests that engineering change can be organized around change carriers. In this way, it is predicted that the processes of change can become more stable and predictable.