How to Test Digital Solutions for Drilling and Well Operations

Much of the work in Planning, Executing, Reporting and Analyzing Drilling and Well operations involve manual tasks which cause typical problems such as miscommunication, duplicate entries and subsequent delays fixing the issues, affecting the entire process.

Fortunately, new software is now available as the oil and gas industry is being digitalized. But how do you know what software is the most optimal for your operations? By testing.

In this blog article, we will discuss what elements needs to be in place for a successful trial, and what consequences an effective trial will have for your company when selecting a digital solution.

Elements to Secure a Successful Trial

An effective software trial needs to be very concrete on what the specific objectives are, and this is usually secured by performing a very quick pre-study. This helps to determine what the exact goals are, from the perspective of the end-user, business, technical etc., whilst ensuring they are all measurable. This way you also identify metrics that should be used to measure the success of the trial.

With the following elements in place, the team will deliver a successful trial:

• Clear success criteria that enable an efficient decision at the end of the trial and ensure that the focus is clear
  
  
• Agile methodology utilized throughout the duration of the project with no pauses, to ensure a lean delivery
  
  
• Open and transparent communication to efficiently follow up, resolve challenges and celebrate successes
  
  
• Consensus regarding the idea of testing and using the software early on, to enable adjustments and course-corrections sooner rather than later
  
  
• End-user Product Champions are identified and part of the stand-ups, follow-ups, drive priorities, involve other people and teams in the company when necessary, for early release testing, driving consensus and decisions

Securing a close cooperation with all key stakeholders, teams and team members who will be using the system to get early buy-in and involvement from the user community is crucial for success. This is in addition to ensuring efficient setup of integrations, hosting solutions, data access, etc.

Read more: What are the Benefits of a Totally Integrated Digital Planning and Execution Package

Consequences of an Effective Test

Initial trialing/piloting can allow you to build on successes, deliver value quickly and makes things more manageable. With an effective trial with key-end users, the challenges with adoption are minimized.

An effective trial also helps build a strong partnership with the vendor which will return value over time.

The roll out is also about building a plan and prioritizing, so a lot of this homework can be started during the trial which helps to deliver a successful and efficient implementation.

Read more: Top Three Methods to Improve Intervention Planning

Resource Challenges

A lot of people think that software trials require dedicated resource allocations and that it takes a lot of time, which can be a challenge. If you follow the recommendations above and choose a suitable solution and partner, then the trial can actually be completed by operational teams in addition to their day-to-day activities.

In essence, the message is clear, you don’t need a big, dedicated digitalization team to do a trial!