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Our Approach · Scope

Is this work worth doing in the window?

The Scope Challenge tests every proposed work-package before scope freezes: what must be done, what the rest is worth, and what it costs to carry. The scope your team freezes is one it can defend line by line.

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Every item on the list is necessary to the person who raised it

Turnaround scope lists grow by accumulation. Each request has an owner and a reason, and few are ever weighed against each other. Work that could be done online, work that removes little risk for its cost, and work that arrives after cut-off all compete for the same window, the same crews and the same critical path.

Scope is the first input to everything downstream: the work-packages, the schedule, the resource curve and the budget. A schedule cannot be better than the scope it carries: Gold In → Gold Out. The Scope Challenge is the checkpoint at the scope stage, before the list becomes the approved master scope every planner and scheduler builds on.

Turnaround Excellence Framework lifecycle with the Scope Challenge at the Scope phase StrategyPremisePlanning SchedulingReadiness ExecutionCloseout &learning Scope Scope Challenge scope freeze scope control: Added Work, then Found Work (Schedule Readiness Review) (Critical Mass Control)
The challenge runs at the Scope phase of the Turnaround Excellence Framework (TEF), up to scope freeze. After freeze, the same rules apply to Added Work and Found Work as it arrives, through to execution.

Three tests, in order

Every proposed work-package goes through the same sequence. Each test removes items from the next, so the facilitated discussion is spent on the work that needs judgment. Together, the three tests make up a complete risk-based work selection (RBWS) process, with the J-Factor as its economic test.

1

Must-do work

Regulatory, legal-to-operate (LTO) and instrumented protective function (IPF) work, and Temporary Flow/Containment Measure (Temp FCM) items, qualify automatically. Work that can be done online comes out of the outage.

2

Risk-Based Scope Review

Everything else is rated on the site's risk matrix, severity of consequence by likelihood, for an AA, A, B or C risk ranking.

3

J-Factor

Each rated item is tested for return: how much risk it removes for each dollar spent, against the hurdle set for its risk category.

The J-Factor in plain arithmetic

Unmitigated risk
$100K
$1M consequence × 10% likelihood
Mitigated risk
$10K
$1M × 1% once the work is done
Cost of the work
$9K
for $90K of risk removed
J-Factor
J = 10
$10 of risk removed per $1 spent

A J-Factor of 1 is break-even. Below the hurdle for its risk category, the work does not earn its place in the window. The hurdles are set by the site, visible to everyone in the review, and recorded when they change.

Scope Challenge dashboard for a sample review in progress: 160 work-packages, 67% reviewed, 29 approved, 48 not approved, 53 still to review, and $6.3M committed against $12.3M rejected so far
The live dashboard part-way through a review, on the sample engagement built into the tool (illustrative data, not client results): two-thirds of the list reviewed, scope-freeze status against the T-0 date, the risk-category sort so far, and the dollars committed against the dollars rejected as the room works through the remaining items.

How a challenge runs

A facilitated session with the people who own the work, sized to realistic throughput: the list is preloaded and segmented by unit or area, so the room rates work rather than formats spreadsheets.

  1. ImportProposed work comes in from your work-order list, by unit or area.
  2. SortMust-do and online work is separated before the session.
  3. ChallengeThe room rates severity, likelihood and cost; risk ranking and J-Factor update as it does.
  4. FreezeThe approved master scope is frozen against the Plan2Plan scope-freeze target.
  5. ControlAdded Work and Found Work go through the same tests as they arrive.
A J-Factor is a decision input, not a decision. Steering can add work that failed a test or remove work that passed one, with a name and a reason on the record. Regulatory work cannot be overridden. Nothing on the approved master scope is deleted; work is reclassified, and every change shows who made it, when and why.

What you get

Sorted master scopeEvery work-package in a category your planners can act on: regulatory, Temp FCM, AA-A, B and C risk, and hurdle not met, with removed work and duplicate work-package references flagged for review.
Decision recordRatings, hurdles, overrides and reasons for every item, with a full change log. The scope can be defended at the readiness gate and questioned at closeout.
Scope-freeze statusReview progress against the T-0 date and the freeze target, for each unit and for the event as a whole.
Capability in your teamAn experienced turnaround lead can facilitate the challenge without specialist spreadsheet skills. Your team runs Added Work and Found Work themselves; the aim is that the next event needs less of us.
Your data stays with youScope data is held in the browser and in files your team saves. It is not uploaded to or stored on a PPI server.

Start with a scope list you have already executed

Send us the scope list from a past turnaround. We will run the challenge on it with your team and compare the result with what was actually executed and what was found in the field. That comparison is the fastest way to judge whether this approach is worth applying before your next scope freeze.

Request a pilot challenge

Part of Our Approach, delivered under the Turnaround Excellence Framework. Next in the lifecycle: Schedule Readiness Review, then In-Event Critical Mass Control.