I've been in and around oil refineries and petrochemical plants planning and consulting on turnarounds since I was old enough to work.  I studied computer science in school and have been leveraging my planning and consulting experience by developing project management software for the oil refinery and petrochemical industries for just over two decades now.

I've written pretty extensively on planning and management topics including:

• Applying PMBOK to Manage Shutdowns, Turnarounds and Outages - A short essay outlining the need for a specific approach
• Turnaround Project Planning Primer - Basic introduction to key concepts and techniques for planning turnarounds
• Turnaround Project Management Primer - Basic introduction to key concepts and techniques for managing turnarounds

Some of the software I helped develop include:

ATC Professional Shutdown / Turnaround Management System - Full featured project management system designed to support the turnaround specific project management methodology as outlined in the Primers and PMBOK essay mentioned above.

eTaskMaker Planning System - Front end planning tool that generates resource (manhour) loaded schedule fragnets that can be exported to numerous project management software and CMMS systems.  eTaskMaker's estimating database covers 99% of the routine (equipment inspection and repair) and non-routine (piping demolition, fabrication and new erection) work typically found in an oil refinery or petrochemical plant turnaround.