Implementing a Permit-to-Work (PTW) system is a critical step towards enhancing safety, compliance, and operational efficiency in any organisation. However, the success of this transition hinges on a well-structured implementation methodology. A robust methodology not only ensures that the software meets your specific requirements but also minimises disruptions and maximises user adoption.
Enterprise software projects have historically faced high failure rates due to a variety of factors. However, over the years, tried-and-tested implementation methodologies and best practices have evolved, significantly reducing the risk of project failure. By adhering to these refined strategies, organisations can better manage their project scope, address potential issues early, and ensure alignment with business objectives, ultimately leading to more successful outcomes.
A good implementation methodology acts as a roadmap, guiding you through the complex landscape of integrating new technology into your existing permit-to-work workflow processes. It provides a structured approach to address potential challenges, from technical hiccups to user resistance, ensuring a smoother transition. By following a systematic process, you can avoid common pitfalls, such as scope creep, budget overruns, and delayed timelines, which can derail your project.
Key Phases in Any Software Implementation Project
Every successful software implementation project generally follows a series of key phases, each crucial for achieving the desired outcomes. While organisations may adopt their own specific methodologies, the fundamental principles remain consistent across the board. In this article, we will outline the following phases commonly employed in these projects, providing a clear framework to guide the implementation process.
- Planning and preparation
- Solution design and configuration
- Testing and validation
- Change management
- Training
- Deployment / Go-live
- Post-implementation support
Change management is worth a special mention. Whereas change management is sometimes grouped with training, in reality, it should ideally commence as early as possible and be sustained throughout all of the phases.
It’s important to note that the phases outlined above don’t necessarily follow a strict sequence. In any large and complex project like this one, multiple activities often occur simultaneously once the project is in progress. For instance, change management is a key activity that can span the entire project life-cycle, with its intensity varying at different stages. Another crucial activity, which ideally begins as early as possible, involves data gathering and cleanup. This process is vital for both the solution configuration phase and the initial data take-on that occurs just before deployment for each site or location.
Here’s a closer look at the typical permit implementation strategies and project phases:
Planning and Preparation
The first phase involves defining the project scope, setting objectives, and assembling your implementation team. It’s crucial to gather requirements from all stakeholders to ensure the solution aligns with your organisation’s needs. Detailed planning helps in anticipating potential obstacles and developing strategies to address them.
A framing workshop with the key stakeholders at the outset can clarify your project goals, confirm the project plan, major milestones and deliverables, and ensure that there is early alignment.
Establishing a project governance structure is crucial to ensure accountability and clarify decision-making throughout the project. Usually this includes a project steering committee that meets to review progress against milestones. The presence of senior decision makers on the steering committee can help to remove obstacles to progress. The steering committee should ideally be chaired by the project sponsor. Project managers from both the client and vendor must also be represented.
The project steering committee is usually supported by regular project progress reviews which are the responsibility of the project manager. Whereas the steering committee is focused on overall project success and strategy, the project progress review is focused on short term deliverables, allocating resources and managing the cost, schedule and quality aspects.
Solution Design and Configuration
The solution design and configuration phase that follows planning is crucial for tailoring the permitting system to meet your organisation’s specific needs.
Design Phase
During the design stage, the focus is on establishing the “business rules” for safe work and defining the approval workflows for permits. Start by reviewing your current (“as-is”) safety procedures. This review provides a baseline that allows you to identify areas for enhancement. The goal is to develop a future (“to-be”) process that leverages the benefits of an electronic comprehensive permit software solution while ensuring critical safety standards are maintained.
Industry templates can be used to make the design process easier and more streamlined. These templates will typically provide a standard set of workflows and business rules that can be verified or updated in workshops with your subject matter experts. When implementing IntelliPERMIT, Adapt IT make use of industry templates, for example a mining template to kick start the design process. These templates consist both of spreadsheets that need to be filled out, as well as an initial configuration provided with the software itself.
During the design phase, and as part of planning, it is important to start gathering the data needed for the electronic permit-to-work system. This includes lists of locations, equipment, personal protective equipment, hazards, safety controls and so on. This data will need to be uploaded into the new system ahead of testing and training, and is therefore often a critical path item.
[Sidebar] Initial data gathering can be a significant percentage of a new implementation. It is therefore important to get an estimate of how long this will take early on in the project. It may be necessary to clean up existing databases and update drawings as part of the project scope. Here Adapt IT works with partners who specialise in this type of work. We also provide templates that allow the data to be uploaded easily into the new system.
Enhancing Procedures
Introducing improvements to your safety procedures during the design phase can enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness. However, it’s vital to then plan to incorporate proper change management practices to ensure all users are fully aware of and comfortable with the new processes. Early engagement with a representative group of end-users is beneficial for tailoring the solution to their needs and promoting better acceptance.
Configuration
The solution must be configured to align with the business requirements. Ideally, this process should be straightforward with the help of Adapt IT consultants. However, there may be gaps between the off-the-shelf software and your specific needs. These gaps need careful evaluation and classification to determine which changes are critical and should be included in the project scope, while lower-priority “nice-to-haves” are addressed later.
Vendor Expertise
Leverage the software vendor’s experience during design to identify effective workarounds used in other implementations. If significant gaps remain, even after applying these workarounds, custom development or integrating third-party software may be necessary. However, be aware that any custom modifications will increase project costs, extend timelines, and introduce new high risks, so they should be avoided whenever possible.
Gap Management
The project team should maintain a list of identified functionality gaps and develop plans to address each one. Remember, managing these gaps effectively is key to ensuring a smooth implementation without unnecessary delays or budget overruns.
The outputs of this phase are:
- Solution Design Document (SDD) – This document includes the updated procedure, all important software configuration parameters, the workflows and the business rules.
- Take-On Data (TOD) – This includes a list of equipment, locations, personal protective equipment, isolation points etc. The use of templates provided by the vendor will help in ensuring this data is accurate and complete.
[Sidebar] In our experience the solution design phase can be expedited by using a number of spreadsheet templates. These can be used to collect data on the existing plant, such as equipment, locations, isolation points and so on. Adapt IT also recommends mapping out the permit workflows using a tool such as Visio or Bizagi. There are a number of alternative diagramming tools that serve the same purpose.
The output of these first two phases is a solution design document (SDD). The SDD might overlap or even replace the project charter document. It will typically contain the following sections:
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Section |
Description |
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Introduction |
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Purpose |
Explain the document’s purpose and scope. |
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Overview |
Provide a high-level summary of the solution. |
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Objectives |
Outline the key objectives and goals of the solution. |
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Project Background |
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Business Context |
Describe the business problem or opportunity the solution addresses. |
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Stakeholders |
Identify key stakeholders and their roles. |
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Requirements |
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Functional Requirements |
Detail the specific functions the solution must perform. |
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Non-Functional Requirements |
Describe performance, security, usability, and other non-functional aspects. |
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Assumptions and Constraints |
List any assumptions made and constraints faced during the design process. |
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Solution Overview |
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Architecture Overview |
Provide a high-level architecture diagram and description. |
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Components |
Describe the main components and their interactions. |
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Integration Points |
Identify systems and applications that will integrate with the solution. |
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Detailed Design |
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Data Model |
Include data flow diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams, and database schema. |
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Application Logic |
Detail the business logic, algorithms, and workflows. |
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User Interface (UI) Design |
Provide wireframes, mock-ups, or prototypes of the user interface. |
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Security Design |
Describe security measures, authentication, and authorisation mechanisms. |
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Performance Design |
Address performance considerations, including load balancing and scalability. |
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Technical Specifications |
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Hardware Requirements |
Outline the hardware needed for the solution. |
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Software Requirements |
List required software, frameworks, and libraries. |
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Network Requirements |
Describe network architecture, bandwidth, and connectivity requirements. |
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Implementation Plan |
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Development Plan |
Provide a timeline, milestones, and deliverables for the development phase. |
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Testing Plan |
Detail the testing strategy, including unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT). |
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Deployment Plan |
Describe the deployment process, including environment setup, data migration, and go-live activities. |
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Change Management |
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Change Control Process |
Outline the process for managing changes to the solution. |
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Training Plan |
Detail training requirements and plans for end-users and administrators. |
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Risk Management |
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Risk Assessment |
Identify potential risks and their impact. |
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Mitigation Strategies |
Describe strategies to mitigate identified risks. |
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Maintenance and Support |
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Support Plan |
Provide details on ongoing support and maintenance activities. |
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SLAs and KPIs |
Define service level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) for the solution. |
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Appendices |
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Glossary |
Define terms and acronyms used in the document. |
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References |
List any reference materials, documents, or resources used in the creation of the SDD. |
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Additional Diagrams |
Include any supplementary diagrams or documents that support the design. |
The solution design document (SDD) is the output of the design phase and ensures a clear, comprehensive plan for implementing the software solution, facilitating alignment among stakeholders and guiding the development team throughout the project.
During the development of the SDD, the solution is typically configured with a basic equipment list and other data sufficient to proceed to the testing and validation phase. In our experience the solution design and initial configuration activities can largely run in parallel.
The next significant phase of a typical project is Testing and Validation.
1. Testing and Validation
Before going live, it’s essential to thoroughly test the configured system to identify and rectify any issues. This phase includes unit testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT). By validating the system’s functionality and performance, you can ensure it meets the expected standards and operates smoothly under real-world safe conditions.
Unit Testing
Unit testing involves testing individual components or modules of the software in isolation. The goal is to validate that each unit of the software performs as expected. Whereas IntelliPERMIT is off the shelf commercial software, there might also be custom developed integrations or additional features for your organisations unique requirements that require unit testing.
The purpose of unit testing is to ensure that each unit (e.g., a specific function or method) operates correctly, to identify and fix bugs early in the development process and to validate that code changes do not introduce new issues.
Unit testing is typically conducted by developers.
System Testing
System testing involves testing the complete and integrated software system to verify that it meets specified requirements. It focuses on the interactions between different components and the overall behaviour of the system.
The purpose of system testing is to ensure that the integrated system functions as intended, to identify issues arising from component interactions and to validate that the system meets functional and non-functional requirements (e.g., performance, security).
System testing is typically conducted by QA testers after unit and integration testing. It involves executing test cases that cover end-to-end scenarios and workflows. It also includes different types of testing such as functional, performance, and security testing.
In the electronic permit-to-work system, system testing may involve (for example) testing the entire e-PTW workflow, from creating a permit to approval from a work order in SAP, execution, and closure, to ensure all components work together seamlessly and the system handles data correctly.
User Acceptance Testing
User acceptance testing (UAT) is a critical step where end-users validate the functionality of the e-PTW system. Their feedback is invaluable for making final adjustments and ensuring the system meets operational needs.
In the electronic permit-to-work project, end user testing is typically conducted by safety officers, permit issuers, and maintenance technicians) creating and processing actual permits, ensuring the system supports their daily operations and is user-friendly. The users involved in this early user acceptance testing often become trainers or “power users” that assist other new users during go-live.
Provisions should be made in the project plan to address any issues that emerge during testing. It’s crucial that users feel their contributions are being effectively considered before moving forward. Some of these changes might necessitate updates to the core software, and as such, may need to be incorporated into the product development roadmap. In such cases, it remains important to communicate to the end users why the change can’t be implemented immediately and to outline the plans for a temporary workaround until a permanent solution is found.
2. Change Management
Effective change management is crucial in addressing the human element of implementing an electronic Permit-to-Work (e-PTW) system. It ensures that stakeholders are not only informed but also engaged and supportive of the transition. Change management involves a comprehensive strategy to communicate the benefits of the e-PTW system, mitigate resistance, and prepare the workforce for change through targeted engagement and training initiatives.
As mentioned in the introduction, change management is a process that should ideally start during project initiation and continue throughout the remaining project. Because end users will most likely be exposed to the new system during their training, change management typically peaks during the training phase.
Firstly, it’s important to articulate the tangible benefits of the e-PTW system, such as enhanced safety, streamlined permitting processes, and compliance with regulations. This communication should be tailored to different stakeholder groups, addressing their specific concerns and demonstrating how the new system will make their work easier and safer. Regular updates, feedback sessions, and one-on-one discussions can help in building trust and reducing anxiety about the changes.
Additionally, integrating change management into the training program is essential. Training sessions should not only cover the technical aspects of the e-PTW system but also address the emotional and psychological aspects of change. This means incorporating change management principles into the training content, such as highlighting the support available, providing success stories, and involving change champions who can mentor their peers. Ensuring strong coordination between the change management and training leads is critical, allowing them to align their efforts and deliver a cohesive message. By reinforcing change management principles throughout the training, you help to foster a positive attitude towards the new system and ensure a smoother transition.
3. Training
Comprehensive training programs are crucial for ensuring that all users are proficient in using the new e-PTW system. Users must be comfortable with the new system and can leverage its features effectively, leading to higher productivity and fewer errors.
Effective training should be customised to address the diverse needs of different user groups, such as safety officers, permit issuers, supervisors and field workers. This tailored approach ensures that each group receives the most relevant information and skills needed for their specific roles.
The training program should include a mix of hands-on sessions, where users can interact with the system in a controlled environment, and practical exercises that simulate real-world scenarios.
Providing detailed documentation, including user manuals, quick reference guides, and FAQs, will support users in their daily tasks. Additionally, offering ongoing support through helpdesks, online forums, and regular refresher courses can help maintain high proficiency levels and address any issues that arise post-implementation. By ensuring that training is thorough and accessible, you empower users to embrace the new system confidently, enhancing overall adoption and operational efficiency.
Training should not be done too early, ideally just ahead of go-live so that users can put their new skills to practice as soon as possible. E-learning has proven to be effective where large numbers of people require training, and where it is difficult logistically to get people who work shifts together in a classroom setting.
4. Deployment / Go-live
Once testing is complete and training is underway, it’s time to deploy the system in line with the go-live plan.
The deployment phase involves rolling out the e-PTW system across the organisation. It is often executed in a controlled manner, often starting with a pilot (proof of concept) site before full-scale implementation. The deployment is reliant on trained users, therefore the training program should be substantially complete before deployment commences.
The deployment involves migrating data, setting up user accounts, and conducting additional training sessions. Go-live might involve a period of “intensive care” where the vendor consultants and power users are available to assist new users with the live system and to resolve any issues.
5. Post-Implementation Support
The electronic permit-to-work project doesn’t end with deployment and go-live. Providing ongoing support and maintenance is crucial to address any post-launch issues and to ensure continuous improvement. Regular feedback from users can help in fine-tuning the system and adding new features that enhance its value over time.
As part of the safety management system, regular audits of the electronic permit-to-work system will also assist in providing feedback for ongoing improvements.
After deployment, a post-implementation review with the project team and the vendor is recommended to evaluate the system’s performance against the project’s objectives. This phase also involves identifying any areas for improvement and planning for ongoing support and maintenance.
Common Pitfalls
Implementing electronic permit-to-work software as described above will greatly help your chances of a successful project. There are however several common pitfalls to be aware of that have emerged as lessons learned from previous projects. Some noteworthy pitfalls include:
Lack of a strong project sponsor / leader: It is vital that a safety project be led by senior person who can stress the importance of the new system in terms of the organisations goals. The senior leader must be visible and relatively accessible to the project team.
Resistance to Change: Engage stakeholders early and often to build buy-in and address resistance through transparent communication and involvement.
Lack of access to subject matter experts (SME’s): Subject matter experts must be available to directly support the design, configuration and testing activities, as well as many of the other project tasks. SME’s should therefore be allocated to the project and this could require that they are removed temporarily from their other responsibilities.
Inadequate Training: Invest in comprehensive training programs and provide continuous learning opportunities to ensure user proficiency. E-learning modules that are easy to access can provide opportunities for individual refresher training after go-live.
Poor Data Quality: Establish data governance policies to maintain the integrity and accuracy of information within the e-PTW system.
Underestimating Resources: Ensure that the project plan includes realistic resource allocations to avoid overextension and burnout.
By following a structured methodology and being mindful of these common pitfalls, any organisation can successfully implement an e-PTW system that enhances safety and efficiency. Remember, the key to a successful implementation is not just the technology but the people and processes that support it.
Final thoughts
Implementing an electronic Permit-to-Work (e-PTW) system involves several critical phases, each essential for a successful transition. The project begins with Planning and Preparation, where objectives are set, stakeholders are identified, and detailed requirements are gathered. Next, in the Design and Configuration phase, the solution is tailored to fit specific workflows and safety procedures. Testing and Validation follow, ensuring that all components function correctly through unit, system, and user acceptance testing (UAT). The Deployment and Training phase involves migrating data, setting up user accounts, and conducting comprehensive training sessions to ensure users are proficient and comfortable with the new system. Finally, Post-Implementation Support ensures ongoing maintenance, addressing any issues and continuously improving the system based on user feedback.
Recommendations for a successful e-PTW implementation include: maintaining strong coordination between change management and training teams, involving end-users early in the design phase to tailor the system to their needs, thoroughly testing all components, and providing ongoing support and training. Emphasising clear communication of the system’s benefits, addressing stakeholder concerns, and preparing the workforce for the transition are also critical to fostering acceptance and ensuring long-term success.
