Black Lion Group: coordinating an oil-drilling project with Leera

Black Lion Group uses Leera to manage end-to-end delivery of an oil-drilling project. Its use brings a practical business need into focus: keeping a complex delivery effort connected from the first work package through the final handover.

For a project manager, that means being able to follow the work across team boundaries. When one team needs something from another, the plan should make the requirement, owner and next decision clear. A document awaiting review deserves the same visibility as the activity that depends on it.

Privacy note: This story reflects the customer’s use of Leera. Workflow details are presented as representative examples to protect customer privacy. Information covered by confidentiality agreements or NDAs is excluded.

Use the following workflow to organize that coordination in your own project, with tasks for deliverables, documents for decisions and a clear record of each handover.

Start with the handovers that matter

A delivery plan needs more than a list of activities. It needs to explain what one person or team must provide before another can act. A document may need review. A supplier response may be outstanding. A work package may be ready for coordination review while a required external approval remains open.

In Leera, an issue can represent one of those deliverables. Give it a recognizable name, an accountable owner and a definition of completion. Use a linked document for the longer brief, references and decision history. The Planner then provides a place to track the work as it moves.

For example, name a work package “Prepare the mobilization coordination pack.” State which records need to be collected, who checks the pack and where the approved versions live. That gives the owner a concrete deliverable and the reviewer a clear basis for checking it.

Make the next team’s input an explicit deliverable.

Build a delivery map around real ownership

Adapt this management outline to your project’s deliverables and review records. Have the project’s authorized specialists determine its engineering, operational and approval requirements.

Group related issues beneath a larger work item when that helps the team understand scope. Use dates for actual planning information and keep the reason for a change with the affected work. Leera’s roadmap shows dated epics and their child issues, providing a view for schedule discussions. Engineering validation remains with the responsible specialists.

Keep ownership specific enough to be useful. A work package assigned to one coordinator can still depend on input from several parties. The coordinator makes those dependencies visible and gets the right decisions recorded. Each contributor retains responsibility for the input or approval they provide.

Make an unresolved dependency visible

Consider a handover pack waiting for a supplier document. The downstream team needs that document to complete its review. A status update saying “mostly ready” leaves the important condition unclear.

Instead, create or link the supplier-document issue and show the dependency on the handover-review issue. Record the request, the response owner and the next follow-up. The handover issue should explain what remains unavailable and how that affects its review.

Leera supports issue links such as blocks and depends on. Use them to trace the relationship, then ask the responsible people to assess its effect on the plan. Record any agreed deadline change or acceptance decision separately.

If a revised document arrives, link its current location and record the next action. If it does not arrive, preserve that open condition in the update. The plan becomes useful when its uncertainty is visible to the people making the decision.

Keep decisions close to the work they change

A project can accumulate decisions across meetings, messages and document revisions. A task title alone rarely explains why a date moved or which version a reviewer accepted.

Use a Leera document to hold a concise decision record: the question, the responsible decision-maker, the decision, its date, the supporting reference and the work affected. Link that document to the relevant issues so a teammate can follow the reasoning without reconstructing the entire conversation.

For example, a coordination decision might change the order in which two handover packs are reviewed. The record should identify both work packages and the reason for the change. It should also distinguish a proposed order from an accepted one.

When an authoritative record belongs in another approved system, keep the reference current. Link to the controlled document so the project team can find the evidence in its approved location.

Write a progress update that supports the next decision

An update should identify movement and the decisions still needed. A long list of completed tasks can obscure the one unresolved input that affects the next handover.

A useful update could follow this structure:

1. Completed since the previous review: the work packages that met their stated coordination criteria, with references.
2. Next handovers: what is expected next and which team will receive it.
3. Open dependencies: the missing inputs, their owners and the next follow-up.
4. Decisions required: the question, authorized decision-maker and affected work.
5. Changes to the plan: what moved, why it moved and what still needs confirmation.

Adapt these fields to the project’s existing reporting and approval practices. Keep a clear distinction between an update written by a coordinator and an approval issued by an authorized reviewer.

Treat closeout as work with evidence

End-to-end delivery includes the work after a major activity finishes. A receiving team still needs to understand what it has, where the relevant records are and which exceptions remain open.

Create a handover index that links the deliverables and their review records. Give each remaining action an owner and a next step. Keep unresolved items visible even if other parts of the project are complete.

A closeout review might find the document index complete but one supporting record still awaiting confirmation. Record those as different conditions. Closing the parent task should not erase the open action or imply that somebody supplied an approval they did not give.

Black Lion Group’s use of Leera brings end-to-end project management into an oil-drilling delivery context. Teams working across similar handovers can apply the same planning discipline: start with a deliverable, connect its dependencies, record the decision and preserve the evidence needed by the next person.

To adapt the approach to your own work, start with one handover and a small set of linked tasks. Talk with Leera about the workflow your team needs to coordinate.

Frequently asked questions

How does Black Lion Group use Leera?

Black Lion Group uses Leera to manage end-to-end delivery of an oil-drilling project. The story explores that use of project management beyond software and gives delivery teams a workflow for organizing ownership, dependencies, decisions and handovers in Leera.

Can a non-software project use Leera Planner?

Yes. Issues can represent work packages, reviews, document preparation or handover tasks. Teams can assign ownership, track status, connect dependencies and organize dated work. The labels and completion criteria should describe the actual business work rather than forcing software-development terminology onto it.

What belongs in a project handover record?

Record the deliverable, responsible owner, relevant document revision, review decision, outstanding actions and the next team receiving the work. Link the authoritative evidence and preserve exceptions. The exact required records and approving roles depend on the project’s established procedures.

How should technical and site approvals be recorded?

Obtain approvals through the project’s authorized people and established processes. Link the resulting decision, document revision and approving role to the relevant Leera task. A task status tracks the work; the referenced decision establishes the approval.

What should a delivery team review in a weekly project update?

Review completed deliverables, upcoming handovers, open dependencies, decisions required and changes to the plan. Include owners and supporting references so the team can act on each item. Compare progress with the agreed plan and preserve the reason for any revision.