Abstract
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)
The Project Development Model (PDM) is established as a tool in the Project Management
environment. The purpose of the PDM is to provide a structured plan to develop a project. This can
assist in controlling the project and ensuring that all deliverables are met.
An informal, preliminary study was conducted on an engineering contractor who had the majority of
their projects running over budget and schedule. It was found that the organisation did not have a
PDM in place, which was believed to be a large contributing factor. The study served to find commonly
used PDMs in use in the South African Oil and Gas industry, as well as find any shortcomings of these
models.
This study makes use of a survey to find the users’ opinions of the PDM and investigate what does
not work with their models. The survey was found to be the most appropriate method for this research.
It was distributed to both Engineers and Project Managers in the Oil and Gas industry, of which 32
responded.
It was found that most users agree with the use of the PDM, but communication, documentation,
training is lacking and several organisations do not have a PDM leader. The PDM is found to be
cumbersome at times and creates unnecessary bureaucracy, and sometimes the steps are bypassed
to save time.