Opportunity research
Contents |
Abstract
Finding an opportunity at the right time might be the key to success, therefore, it is a key activity in the management level to be proactive and look constantly for opportunities. Opportunities might come from different ways and it is a manager's task to allocate and distribute resources into new targets [ref].
For this case, an opportunity is considered a positive outcome of a project, program or portfolio development considering its uniqueness and attractiveness to customers. The overall of the opportunity is that it brings more value to the project by improving it. In the business world, an opportunity means something that helps you to "stand out from the crowd"[NORWEGIAN DUDES]. In the project management sector, the idea is the same but usually there is no crowd. It is how to improve a project so it gives either better results or more profit.
This article is about the methodology of finding opportunities within the engineering/energy market. Project opportunities management is a set of techniques and tools to help a risk manager to identify and understand possible improvements to the project objectives [BUSCAR LA CITA DE ESTO]. In following sections it will be explained how to asses different situations keeping in mind the opportunity research. Once identified the possible opportunities, how to estimate the profit and how to address resources to overtake competitors. Finally, it will be explained how opportunities can be converted into strengths.
Opportunities as Risks
Both opportunities and risks are included in the term uncertainties [NORUEGOS]. The term uncertainty is defined as: "an unintelligible expression without a straightforward description"(http://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/5/1/209). In the project management sector, this means that a situation might affect either in a positive or negative way. Generally, uncertainty has negative connotation due to the fact that contractors, project managers and authorities want always that everything is clear and to control all the factors that might affect a project. Several authors claim that opportunities should be dealt same way as risks with the same processes[CITA DE LOS CITAOS NORUEGOS], therefore, it is suggested than an opportunity is a positive risk.
Following the action and reaction principle, an opportunity produces a threat and a threat produces an opportunity. The aim of the risk managers is to find the opportunity in a risk. In recent studies[NORUEGOS], it is shown that most risk managers focus much more their efforts in identifying and mitigating risks rather than in finding opportunities. That is the reason why opportunities often un-exploited, not because they were dismissed, but because no one saw it on time. This issue gets bigger in large projects, when, even identifying the opportunity, the difficulty that generates convince the stakeholders, change the project, change contracts makes unworthy.
Types of Opportunities
According to different authors [METER CITA DE LOS NORUEGOS], opportunities can be classified according to for whom they are and in which level they are. That is the reason why what can be an opportunity for some group of people, it might be a threat for another.
Operational opportunities
These are the lowest in a project scale, they affect the operation and daily activities of a project. These are the easiest to find and take advantage because they barely produce any risk or the risk is easily visible and avoidable. An example of these opportunities may be a variation of working plan. By re-arranging working schedules productivity can be improved. It is a task of project team and lower managers to identify them and apply them.
Strategic opportunities
Steps to follow
In order to take advantage of an opportunity, there are four steps to be followed: Identify, analyze, plan and manage. This steps are carried out by different people according to in which level the opportunity is.
Opportunities missed
In theory, opportunities are to be taken almost always, however, in practice, projects and project managers fail to identify them and take use of them. Project analysis show that the number of threats is between eight to ten times higher than the number of opportunities found [NORUEGOS]. The reason of this, is because brainstorm
