The Preliminary Specification Part LXXXIII (General Part I)
We have now made two full passes through the Preliminary Specification generating 82 blog posts. Ultimately how many posts will be generated through this process is unknown at this time, however, I think there is significant value being generated for the user community. Therefore we will continue on for a while longer. I want to take some time today to talk about the general nature of the Preliminary Specification and the comprehensive nature of the solution. This I am sure is on every ones mind and these are my thoughts on the topic.
Whether we are talking about the possibility of a multi-billion dollar software development budget or the scope of the eleven modules, People, Ideas & Objects is big. Or dealing with multiple jurisdictions and many geographic regions adds a layer of complexity that is difficult to quantify. Making the application bigger, more complex and costlier then anything that has been contemplated before in oil and gas. It seems in many ways to be all things to all people.
It’s important however to remember that it is not all things to all people. One of the purposes of the Preliminary Specification is for the user community, of which the oil and gas producers are a critical member of, to determine the scope of the application in its initial commercial iteration.
What I am providing by initiating the discussion in these blog posts of the Preliminary Specification is to detail a vision of what is possible based on the research conducted to date. This vision could ultimately be used by the user community, however may not be available in its initial commercial release. That is for the user community to decide.
Lastly to address the scope of operations of the application I would ask, how successful have the alternatives been working out for you? That cobbling together that the bureaucracy has been doing should be ready for an upgrade soon, should it not? What’s the vision of your current ERP systems. The fact of the matter is that IT should never be about the technology. It should be about your business. And that is what we have focused on at People, Ideas & Objects.
The fact of the matter also remains that as soon as we recognize the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer the systems infrastructure has to be this way. Recognizing the partnership demands certain assumptions are given. Assumptions such as the role of operator will fade, organizational participation will increase, etc. As soon as you adopt the logic of building a system for the innovative oil and gas producer you end up with a suite of functionality that is the eleven module Preliminary Specification.
Can this be done? I don’t see any alternative. The ability of the industry to take what we have today in terms of its productive output and move it to a higher level of performance is a difficult task. What we have today is deceptively sophisticated and if we aren’t careful we could lose some of that capability without realizing it. Using a higher level of specialization and division of labor are a necessary part of the next level of performance. Does anyone believe that that level of performance will arise from spontaneous order and appear with out the role of software defining and supporting it?
We have a big job to do. Lets get it done. Tomorrow we start on our third layer of the onion, the third pass through the Preliminary Specification.
For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.
Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.