Critical success factors for instrumentation and control engineering projects in the South African petrochemical industry

Organisations are increasingly delivering their products and services in project specific environments with emphasis placed on the success of the various projects. The instrumentation and control engineering (ICE) department at Sasol Secunda executes a lot of projects for a number of business units at Sasol Synfuels in Secunda. The projects are characterised by maintenance, as well as introduction of new technology where renewals and improvements on existing systems are performed. The research study explores the subject of project success by attempting to identify the critical success factors for ICE projects at Sasol Secunda. It becomes apparent that some characteristics of ICE projects contribute to their perception of success. The research strategy and methodology involved evaluation of literature, informal interviews with some ICE personnel, and a survey through a questionnaire distributed to a population of 110. Various critical success factors were identified, with the following factors considered most critical for ICE project success: appropriately skilled people and trained personnel, understanding of the technology to be implemented by all those involved, proper documentation of decisions including design decisions throughout the project life cycle, and adherence to the change management procedure. The study however revealed that currently factors not directly related to the projects (external factors) contribute to success. Various recommendations are made for improvement of ICE project execution and a focus group study is suggested as necessary for further research.