_ 08.July. 2013
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
scope
PAGE 03
IDENTITY CRISIS
– WHAT CRISIS?
PAGE 07
SCORING UK
TEAM GOALS
PAGE 12
A WOMAN’S
WORLD
The Bartlett School of Construction
& Project Management sits in The Bartlett,
UCL’s prestigious and world-famous
faculty of the built environment.
At the heart of the School are four areas of international expertise:
· Management of projects
· Management of project enterprises
· Project-based networks
· Economics and finance of built environment projects.
Management
of Projects
The School has excellent connections – we seek to break down
silos and understand the issues that arise both inside and outside
traditional professional or knowledge domains.
The School is rated as internationally excellent for its research,
achieves the highest scores in the quality of its teaching, and
enjoys a long track record of working with external
organisations on various projects and commissions.
We offer PhD research opportunities, as well as outstanding
taught courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
From this September we will be launching the groundbreaking
MSc in Infrastructure Investment and Finance, and from 2014
this will be a key part in a major new executive education
course – The Bartlett 2050 Leadership Programme.
If your world is projects and you are interested in learning what
we could do for you, then contact us via our website.
www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/cpm
Economics
and Finance
of Built
Environment
Projects
The Bartlett School
of Construction &
Project Management
Project-based
Networks
Management
of Project
Enterprises
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Distributed in
Publisher
Managing Editor
Editor
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Hannah Steer-Wood
Dan Matthews
Peter Archer
Natalia Rosek
Design
The Surgery
cover illustration: © The Surgery
Contributors
AMY HATTON
Freelance journalist, she is editor of Project
Manager Today, the UK’s only independent project
management publication.
KATHRYN HOPKINS
Economics correspondent at The Times, she
was a spokeswoman at HM Treasury and an
economics reporter with The Guardian.
CHRIS JOHNSTON
Assistant business news editor at The Times, he
is responsible for digital platforms, including the
newspaper’s website.
DAN MATTHEWS
Journalist and author of The New Rules of
Business, he writes for newspapers, magazines
and websites on a wide range of business issues.
CHARLES ORTON-JONES
Former Professional Publishers Association
Business Journalist of the Year, he was editor-atlarge of LondonlovesBusiness.com and editor of
EuroBusiness magazine.
JOHN OSBORNE
Freelance industrial journalist, he has written
extensively on construction, engineering and
maintenance.
RAYMOND SNODDY
Writer, presenter and media consultant, he
was media editor at the The Times and Financial
Times, and presented BBC Television's public
accountability programme Newswatch.
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QUIET RULERS OF
A CREATIVE WORLD
Jason Hawkes
Key to success and innovation, project managers may
nevertheless be undervalued despite their proven
track record, writes Dan Matthews
OVERVIEW
ȖȖ Project management is beset by
an identity crisis. Like a teenager
peering teary-eyed into a mirror
and asking “Who am I?” it has
struggled to define its position in
the professional world. Almost
everyone who works for a living
has undertaken – and therefore
“managed” – a project at one time
or another, and yet we are not
ready to give the discipline the credence it craves.
It suffers from its own ubiquity.
In other words it is because, essentially, we are all project managers,
(but we are not all architects,
engineers, finance professionals
and so on), that we don’t talk about
it enough as a defined and ringfenced discipline.
But where would we be without
project managers, regardless of
their zones of influence? Who
would channel the creativity, stop
budgets whirling out of control
and make sure people at the top
get what they ask for, not a pale
facsimile of the stated plan?
Where would we be? Nowhere,
that’s where. The wheel would
never have made it into production, candles wouldn’t have been
invented let alone light bulbs, and
neither you nor I would be able to
read this or any other article in this
or any other newspaper, because
none of it would exist.
Project management quietly
rules the world. It greases the
wheels of industry, keeps the
lights on and the country moving.
It creates transport infrastructure
and utilities, enormous sporting
events, such as the Olympics, and
impressive works of architecture
like The Shard in London, The
Senedd in Wales and the Scottish
Parliament Building.
But these examples, all completed in the last ten years, prove
that projects rarely go to plan even
in the modern era. Despite billions
of pounds and thousands of jobs
at stake, the industry suffers from
inconsistencies at every level.
There is a dearth of people skilled
in the practicalities of delivering
projects and, as you read these
lines, important jobs in the private
and public sectors are going to
individuals without the requisite
experience to see them through.
It explains why some projects are
applauded and others jeered. In the
latter camp are unstructured and
badly co-ordinated efforts, those in
which the risks aren’t planned for
and the benefits are not married to
the objectives of the organisation
that commissioned the work.
According to Alex Budzier, of the
Centre for Major Programme Management at Saïd Business School,
University of Oxford, too many
organisations persist in taking piecemeal approaches and continue to
make the same old mistakes.
“Projects never go according to
plan,” he says. “However, managers
can mitigate for risks and uncertainty. Our research shows that
most projects struggle because
their provisions were insufficient;
Project managers must keep a consistent
dialogue with financiers, managers, contractors
– even the general public
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a direct result of misunderstanding and misrepresenting risks.
“The reason often is the human
tendency to imagine the future
through the tinted glasses of
optimism. Project leaders should
de-bias future plans and consider
what the last 20 projects aimed
for and study the results. It gives
more robust goals, more realistic
timelines and the best estimate for
the size of the risks.”
Another area of consistent failure
lies in the realm of communication. Stakeholder perception of
the project defines whether it is a
success or not, so project managers
must keep a consistent dialogue
with financiers, managers, contractors – even the general public.
A rule of thumb here is the bigger
the project, the more people are
involved and the better the communication needs to be. Conversations and marketing materials
should be targeted and relevant
to each stakeholder, whether they
are a student on work experience
or the chief executive.
“The Shard, HS2 and Crossrail
are all high-profile projects, with
high public visibility, and as such
you could consider each member
of the public as a stakeholder with
a different vision, sensibility or
objectives,” says Sandrine Cuney,
head of project management at
Team Consulting.
“Therefore, it’s unlikely that general consensus will be met. This
is likely to get worse in the future
with the wide use of social media
as a means of sharing information
and opinions, fuelling discussions
and influencing others.”
But she adds: “Prior to implementation of these projects, consultation at the outset with the
targeted users is also crucial to
confirm that the initial intent will
meet the needs of the majority of
end-customers or users.”
For years, groups such as Association of Project Managers and
the Project Management Institute
have been the flag bearers of best
practice in this space, as well as
Building on firm
foundations, project
management is
coming of age
1.57m
addition project management roles will
be created globally every year until 2020
Source: Project Management Institute (PMI)
and Anderson Economic Group, 2012
80%
of organisations are already struggling to find
qualified project managers to fill positions
Source: PMI, 2013
60%
of hiring managers say interest in project
management careers among younger job
applicants has grown over the past decade
Source: PMI, 2013
the main firewall against slapdash
approaches and hatchet jobs. But is
the world finally waking up?
Just last year, the Cabinet Office
announced the new Major Projects
Leadership Academy (MPLA),
delivered by Saïd Business School,
from which senior civil servants
must graduate before they are
given the reigns of future public
projects.
This and other initiatives are
adding flesh to the bone of the
skeletal project management sector and raising its status across UK
industry. The sector’s self-doubt is
gradually ebbing away and, as each
new project that follows the proper
course delivers the goods for its
stakeholders, more and more
bosses are catching on.
03
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
WHY PROFESSIONAL PROJECT MANAGERS
ARE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD
The debate rages whether project management is a
profession in its own right, as Charles Orton-Jones reports
PROFESSION
ȖȖ Is project management a profession? Ask a project manager
and you’ll get a look of incredulity
because – of course it is. After all,
there are thousands of high-calibre professionals who do nothing other than use their specialist
skills to manage projects.
But there are objectors. For several years, Association of Project
Management (APM) has been
applying for charter status. Progress has been hampered by the
objections of other professional
bodies. The allegation is that other
professionals, such as marketers
and accountants, routinely manage projects, so project management is not an activity in itself.
So who is correct? Is project
management a unique skill-set?
Or can anyone do it with a bit of
tuition. And if it is easy-peasy,
perhaps firms should be wary of
hiring roving project management
specialists and encourage their
own staff to run projects.
“It’s a raging debate,” says Tony
Marks, of project management
training provider 20:20. “Some
industries, such as oil and gas, are
reluctant to bring in project managers from another sector because
of their lack of industry knowledge.
They prefer to take technical
experts and put them through project management training.”
But Mr Marks emphatically
disapproves of this. “The danger
is that those people will not concentrate on their role. They get
sucked into their comfort zone,
which is dealing with the nittygritty and technical detail they
understand and are fascinated by,
when they should be managing the
project. I’ve seen it time and again.
In those situations a dedicated
project manager is worth their
weight in gold.”
There’s another point in favour of
the specialist: complexity. Project
management may be something
a part-timer can handle when the
complexity level is low, but when
budgets rise, manpower increases
and projects interlock with others, then the skill-sets needed
may overwhelm even the most
talented novice.
“Take Crossrail,” says Ivor Bennett, capability director at project management training provider BMT Hi-Q Sigma, “You have
150,000
PMAcertified
competencybased
certificates
worldwide
Source:
International
Project
Management
Association (IPMA)
14,000
people in
Crossrail’s
supply chain
at its peak
Source:
Crossrail
immense scale in a construction
work costing billions. But more
than that is the uncertainty. Project
managers need to manage funding
across financial years and there are
multiple interfaces with other parts
of the project. You are going to need
a dedicated, experienced project
manager to handle all that.”
The cynicism by marketers and
accountants towards project management might be dissipated if
they understood the amount of
time it takes to become a top-flight
project manager. The idea that all
one needs is a Prince2 or APM certification is preposterous.
Mike Savage of Thales Training
& Consultancy, which provides
training for the Thales defence
conglomerate, points out that it
takes years of on-the-job experience to build the necessary
skills. “The International Project
Management Association has
four grades, D to A. At A there is
a minimum of five years project
management experience, five years
of programme management and
five years of portfolio management. You are talking 15 years of
experience and training. So to say
that anyone can be a project man-
ager is like saying anyone can be a
brain surgeon.”
So where does that leave nonspecialists, who simply want to
improve their capabilities by
learning project management
techniques. In fact, there is near
universal encouragement from
the project management (PM)
industry for this. “Everyone should
learn PM, absolutely,” says Ian
Clarkson of training provider QA.
“The skills, leadership, planning
and stakeholder engagement techniques are vital to all disciplines.”
The view from industry ought
to quell any debate. At BAE,
AstraZeneca or the nation’s largest construction firms, you’ll find
dedicated project managers. At
Lloyd’s Register, the 250-year-old
marine consultancy, specialist
project managers are held in the
highest esteem.
Lloyds Register energy programme director Roger Clutton
says: “Projects which are run by
engineers with project management training are less likely to
be successful than the reverse. If
there is a lack of technical expertise that will show up in the risk
assessment. But a lack of project
management skills is much less
likely to be detected.”
Naturally, both specialists and
non-specialists are needed: “An
appropriate mix is the right solution for us,” says Mr Clutton and
he’s keen to point out that demand
for project management training
among engineers and administrative staff is sky-high.
Conclusion? The debate is really
only relevant to rival professions.
For specialist project managers and
the galaxy of firms which employ
them, the verdict is obvious.
To say that anyone can
be a project manager
is like saying anyone
can be a brain surgeon
20,000
individual
members of
APM
xxxxxx
Source: APM
Page xx
£200
bn
cost of the
government’s
43 most
complex
projects
Source: APM
04
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
TRAINING BOOSTS SUCCESS
RATES AND RETAINS STAFF
Increasingly companies are realising
that staff with project management
skills add real value to a business, as
Kathryn Hopkins discovers
TALENT MANAGEMENT
ȖȖ Students and employees have
long since been told how “to do”
finance, marketing and leadership,
but rarely how they can deliver
positive outcomes, and work to
budgets, time constraints and
stakeholder expectations.
Until recently, project management had been confined to big
infrastructure, IT and consultancy
schemes, which can take up to two
years to develop, and has not been
a subject that is widely taught in
universities.
However, all that could change
as the demand for project management has increased across the
board over the last few years and is
now required in most companies,
whatever their size.
In its latest global survey on
project management, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that 97
per cent of respondents believed
that it was critical to business
performance and organisational
success, while 94 per cent said it
helped firms grow.
“Previously you would associate project management with
big-scale infrastructure and consultancy or IT programmes involving a number of direct workers,
consultants and stakeholders.
Everything is big and costly, and
you need to manage the project
so everything comes together
at the end,” says Vanessa Robinson, head of human resources
(HR) practice development at the
Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development.
“What we’ve seen over the last
five years is that, when people are thinking about smaller
pieces of work, they are starting
to recognise that having those
project management skills internally is very useful,” she says.
Stephen Taylor, a senior lecturer
in HR management at the University of Exeter Business School,
says project management is interesting because it is not generally
taught in business schools and
covered to any great extent in
management books.
“There is a general underplaying
of its significance and an assumption you can do it without needing
to be trained or learn it, and that it
is something which comes naturally
like parenting, but it doesn’t come
naturally to everybody,” he says.
“My view is that project management and project leadership are
becoming increasingly important
because we are in a much less predictable business environment,
and organisations have to be more
opportunistic and more agile, and
that means taking on shorter-term
projects of various kinds rather
than the long-term strategic planning we’ve had in the past.”
However, despite all the evidence showing that project management is becoming crucial
to firms, a recent report by the
Project Management Institute
(PMI) found training and development in in this area has waned
since 2010.
The number of global firms
providing training on project
management tools and techniques
has fallen from 65 per cent in 2010
to 59 per cent in 2012, while fewer
than 50 per cent have a process
to develop project management
competency.
What’s more, only 40 per cent
of project managers said there
was a defined career path for
project management within their
organisation and the lower the
project manager’s status in a
company, the less likely he or she
was to say there was a defined
career path.
“As such, organisations could risk
losing talented yet developing project managers who might feel the
need to look for jobs with a more
predictable career path,” said the
PMI report.
Looking at specific project outcomes among organisations that
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Project
management can
bring together a
successful team
have a defined career path compared with those that do not, the
PMI’s data showed a higher rate
of projects completed on time, on
budget and meeting goals.
Companies need to pay much more
attention to training because when
projects fail, organisations lose money
and market share, and become much
less likely to execute their strategies
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Organisations that had ongoing training for staff on the use of
project management tools and
techniques also had better project
outcomes, according to the report.
The PMI warned companies
that they need to pay much more
attention to training because
when projects fail, organisations
lose money and market share, and
become much less likely to execute
their strategies.
“With stakes this high, projects,
programmes and especially the
portfolio cannot be left to chance.
They need to be managed by
skilled, trained professionals in
a standardised way throughout
an organisation and align with
organisational strategy to ensure
success,” it cautioned.
The importance of training in the
field of project management was
further highlighted in PwC’s survey,
with 67 per cent of respondents
stating that it contributed to business performance. It also warned
that the lack of trained project managers was hampering firms’ profits.
“Talent shortages and mismatches are impacting profitability now. One in four CEOs
said they were unable to pursue
a market opportunity, or have
had to cancel or delay a strategic
initiative because of talent. One
in three is concerned that skills
shortages impacted their company’s ability to innovate effectively,” the global accountancy
firm said in its report.
“Despite the challenges facing
organisations in hiring highly
talented people, it is vital to have
a project management team that
has the right skill-sets, experience and training to enable
project success.”
05
Ticking time bomb
for project management
The next wave of economic growth is likely to come from emerging
economies and new projects. To take advantage of these, organisations
need to improve their project management skills and processes today
The worst of the economic downturn may be over, but quite where
the next wave of growth is coming from remains unclear. In many
industries, the answer may be
emerging economies, which are
set to grow by 5.5 per cent this year
alone, according to a report by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Indeed, by 2025, emerging markets cities, including places such
as Shanghai, Mexico City and New
Delhi, will deliver almost half of
global GDP, the IMF predicts.
Whether the opportunities lie
in such destinations or closer to
home, growth is most likely to
come from the development of
new products or services. Some
68 per cent of global executives
believe innovation is more important now than it was prior to the
recession hitting, according to
research by Wipro and Forbes
Insights, although most organisations struggle with this. Some
80 per cent say their tracking and
monitoring of innovation performance is inadequate, management
consultancy Arthur D. Little found
in its 8th Global Innovation Excellence Study.
Crucial to the success of innovation and new programmes will be
the way in which they are managed,
with the role of project managers particularly important. Some
15.7 million new project management roles will be needed to be
created globally between 2010 and
2020, just to keep up with demand,
according to the Project Management Institute (PMI).
As things stand, however, many
organisations are ill-prepared to
handle this, both from a capacity
and a skills perspective. Research
by the PMI suggests just 62 per
cent of projects met their original
business goals in 2012, falling from
72 per cent in 2008.
Often this is down to a lack of
investment in developing project
management processes and individual skills. Organisations which
have a process to develop project
professionals report a 69 per cent
success rate, compared to 57 per
cent of organisations that do not,
according to the PMI research,
while 70 per cent of projects that
use formalised project management practices have positive outcomes, versus just 47 per cent
where these are lacking.
Having such procedures not only
06
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRENDS IN 2013
76%
54%
of projects will be better aligned with
organisational strategy compared with
the year before
of organisations understand the value of
project management
15.7m
440
new project management roles will be
created globally between 2010 and 2020
emerging-market cities are expected to
deliver nearly 50 per cent of global GDP
growth by 2025
SUCESS RATES OF PROJECTS
2008
With
With
2012
Without
Without
High-performing
PROJECTS MEETING THEIR
ORIGINAL BUSNESS GOALS
ensures the right set-up is in place
for individual projects, but can also
enable experience and knowledge
around project management to be
passed on. The PMI research suggests that for every US$1 billion
spent on a project in low-performing organisations – those which
complete fewer than 60 per cent of
projects on time, target and budget
– there is a risk of $280 million.
In high-performing entities –
those which achieve more than 80
per cent of projects on time, target and budget – the risk is just
$20 million. The message is simple: organisations that put in place
processes and systems to develop
project management skills are 14
Now is the time for organisations
to be thinking of increasing their
project management capabilities
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ORGANISATIONAL PROCESS TO
DEVELOP PROJECT PROFESSIONALS
STANDARDISED PROJECT
MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
times more likely to achieve the
results they want.
“Organisations cannot afford
to ignore this,” says Alan Garvey,
managing director, Europe, the
Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and
Asia, at project management training and consultancy firm ESI International. “They simply cannot allow
themselves to sleepwalk into starting projects designed to deliver
growth when they do not have the
requisite skills to handle them.
Without the required processes
and people, these projects and
entire business strategies could
fail, just at the time when organisations really need them to deliver.”
But according to ESI’s latest
annual benchmarking survey, The
Global State of the PMO: An Analysis for 2013, only 30 per cent of
organisations have provided or
intend to offer soft skills training to
project management professionals in 2013, compared to 41 per cent
in 2012, while only 37 per cent said
their project management organisation was challenged this year,
against 56 per cent in 2012.
Furthermore, 68 per cent said
their project management organi-
Low-performing
TOTAL CAPITAL RISKED IN ORGANISATIONS
FOR EVERY $1BN SPENT ON PROJECTS
sation reported on its own effectiveness in 2013, compared to 54
per cent the previous year, indicating there is a growing trend to leave
the function to its own devices and
not to prepare it for the increasingly
important role it is expected to have
to play in the coming years. Unsurprisingly this is already impacting on effectiveness; 44 per cent
admitted they regularly achieve
less than 75 per cent on-time, tobudget project delivery.
“Learning sustainment and the
effort to measure the impact of
training on workplace performance are key indicators of project management health,” says Mr
Garvey. “The more engaged the
project management function is
in paving a career path for project
management professionals, the
more value it is perceived to have.”
According to the PMI research,
organisations that are able to
combine excellence in tactical
project implementation with alignment to wider business strategy
successfully complete projects 90
per cent of the time, compared to
just 34 per cent for those that fail
to offer this. Despite this, in 2012,
about 40 per cent of project management professionals reported
their company had cancelled or
delayed projects and professional
development training due to the
economic conditions.
“Now is the time for organisations
to be thinking of increasing their
project management capabilities,”
concludes Mr Garvey. “Those that
are able to develop managers and
put in place the correct processes
to support them will significantly
improve their chances of succeeding in the projects they undertake
and their wider business strategy.
With this position, organisations
will be able to take advantage of
new opportunities as the global
economy picks up.”
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ESI International offers a range of
project management training and
consultancy services, and has longterm partnerships with more than
35 per cent of the world’s largest
companies. Each week over 2,000
people attend one of its courses.
For more information,
Tel: +44 (0)20 7017 7100
Web: www.esi-intl.co.uk
E-mail: enquiry@esi-intl.co.uk
5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
FOCUSING ON PROJECT
GOALS CAN SCORE
FOR THE WHOLE TEAm
Effective project management can not only achieve
focused objectives, but can also result in wider and
longer-term benefits for an organisation as a whole,
writes Chris Johnston
BENEFIT realisation
ȖȖ The economic downturn that
has blighted Britain and many
other nations over the past five
years has made life more difficult for many businesses. While
some have pulled down the shutters in a bid to ride out the
storm, the more fortunate – or
perhaps better-managed enterprises – have continued to invest
and expand. For many that has
involved some type of project that
is separate from the company’s
day-to-day operations.
However, those companies that
have continued to embark on projects have had to deal with even
greater pressure to ensure they
are delivered on time, on budget
and contribute to the wider success of the business. This scenario
has created opportunities for
project management professionals and consultancies like Project
Plus, whose managing director is
Iain Fraser.
“Organisations have realised that
aligning project-related work to
their strategic objectives allows
them to prioritise and really get
quite focused on what will most contribute to their wellbeing, compared
with things that might distract them
from their goals,” he explains.
Further, he says that project
management has allowed some
organisations to get ahead of
their rivals by taking advantage of a depressed market to
make acquisitions or launch new
product lines.
Project managers all agree that
effective communication is essential if a project is to achieve its
goals, stay on time and budget, and
help support the wider business.
Marco Formentini, a research
fellow in the faculty of management at City University’s Cass
Business School, says that leaders
must communicate a shared vision
about its scope, framework and
outcomes to everyone involved in
a project.
Measuring
project
performance
Page 08
To foster commitment, trust and
empathy among team members,
he believes that each person must
have a complete understanding
of project’s goals. “The project
leader who has good communication skills can interact effectively
By learning from projects, the whole company
can reap the benefits, and improve its structure
and organisation
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with an interdisciplinary team
because it is now very important to have a range of skills
within a project team,” says
Dr Formentini.
Communication can take many
forms and employ modern tools,
such as social media, but more
old-fashioned approaches such as
diagrams and newsletters can also
make an important contribution,
he says. “Without communication, it’s very difficult to reach your
objectives and to understand the
constraints of projects.”
Without effective leadership,
any project will run into trouble
at some point, adds Mr Fraser. He
recounts a project that Project
Plus undertook for a bank outside
the UK in which the chief executive’s leadership was crucial to its
success. The board had appointed
the chief executive to help stabilise the bank in the wake of the
credit crunch, and the consultancy helped him and the senior
management team to map change
against the bank’s organisational
goals and objectives.
“They made some big changes and
sacrifices, and were able to turn the
ship around and have been very
successful since,” says Mr Fraser.
Most projects will face hurdles
along the way and if problems,
such as delays or cost overruns,
are encountered, he maintains
that is essential for leaders to
stop and evaluate where the
problems lie. “If there is bad
news to be told, tell it early. It
all comes back to the need to
communicate effectively and efficiently. Even if you are the bearer
of bad news, how you tell that bad
news and what actions are taken
immediately after are crucial.”
He adds that if a project has
a significant number of external stakeholders, an organisation’s reputation can be affected
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70m
passengers pass
through Heathrow
Airport a year
negatively very quickly if bad
news is communicated poorly. “If
information goes into the public
domain, it can get out of control
very quickly, so the need for transparency is absolutely crucial,”
says Mr Fraser.
Dr Formentini also identifies
a less obvious aspect of good leadership in project management that
can help an organisation support
its objectives. He believes that it is
important to identify and organise
knowledge within a project and
then use it to influence other projects within an organisation. As
companies now routinely have multiple projects underway simultaneously, sharing knowledge across the
organisation becomes even more
valuable, he says.
Given the pressure on time and
resources in the modern business
wold, he acknowledges that some
companies may find implementing
best practice in project management something of a challenge
at first. Yet aiming high can be
well worth the effort, given that
research on the impact of leadership on project management has
identified a link between project
performance and organisational
performance. “By learning from
projects, the whole company can
reap the benefits, and improve
its structure and organisation,”
Dr Formentini concludes.
heathrow
NO ROYAL DELAYS
522
metres long
Terminal 2
satellite pier
£2.5
bn
cost of the
Terminal 2 project
Source: Heathrow
Airport Holdings
The new Terminal 2 at Heathrow
Airport will be ready to welcome
its first passengers in less than
12 months, on June 4 next year.
Project director of its satellite
pier Julian Foster is one of the
executives charged with ensuring Terminal 2 stays on time and
on budget.
However, he does not think of
the £2.5-billion construction venture as a project. Rather, he talks
about it in terms of the benefits
that it will bring about for all the
stakeholders involved, such as
passengers, airlines and staff.
Building a new terminal at the
world’s busiest international
airport is no simple task. Mr
Foster says it has demanded
best-in-class project management, using people with the
right qualifications, skills and
training to keep the project on
track without disturbing airport
operations.
Communication has been an
essential component, Mr Foster
explains. Setting the right tone
from the outset has been his
goal, which requires getting the
right message to the right people
at the right time. Ensuring that
everyone involved in the project
knows what his or her contribution is to the overall success is
very motivational, he adds.
The naming of Terminal 2, when
it opens in 2014, as the Queen’s
Terminal has added another
dimension to the project. Mr
Foster says: “We have to be
ready on time – we can’t let
Wthe Queen down.”
07
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DO THE RIGHT PROJECTS
IN THE RIGHT WAY
project performan
There are many statistics about failure, many explanatory theories
and many hard-news headlines, but less prominence is given to
understanding project success and the merits of following a project
management approach. Ben Brownlee has experienced the
successes and failures of complex project delivery across several
different industry sectors, including financial services, oil and gas,
and the public sector as a project director and head of a programme
management office. He discusses defining project success, setting
out appropriate approaches, the consequences of not following them
and how to set up for a successful completion
11%
23%
2%
OPINION
08
a team, drawn from all areas
involved, with the right capabilities.
Projects often try to create
something which is hard to
achieve using business-as-usual
approaches. The need to take a
specific project approach or not
can be helped by considering several questions.
Firstly, is the solution to be
developed innovative? Secondly,
does the organisation need significant resource from outside to
deliver, that is it lacks sufficient
capability on its own? Thirdly,
will it require collaboration across
a large number of stakeholders,
not all of whom are in agreement?
Finally, is the scale of the undertaking relatively large compared
to the scale of the organisation
undertaking it, where scale can
be size of effort, amount of risk or
amount of benefit?
consequences. But keeping these
questions in mind helps to avoid
costly mistakes, such as Hoover’s
1992 offer of a free transatlantic
flight for every appliance bought
over £100, which eventually cost
the company an unforeseen £48
million, when consumers bought
appliances just for the flights.
A key to success is developing and
using the right approach. Some
organisations can follow an efficient, process-based approach, if
that fits their culture and the type of
projects that they are undertaking.
Other organisations try to adapt
their approach for each project
from a set of minimum project
management standards.
If a project is complex, then the
capability of the project team
should be matched to the challenge
at hand. Projects sometimes fail as
a result of the team’s lack of capabil-
8%
10%
36%
PMI
ȖȖ A recent study highlights that
only 2.5 per cent of companies successfully completed 100 per cent of
their projects. The study defines
success as delivering within the
deadline, costs and scope, and with
the right benefits for the business.
But what does that mean and is
this really how to define success
over the longer term? When considering projects, the long-term
outcomes have to be carefully set
out and tested throughout.
Consider the development of
the Sydney Opera House. Was this
a success in terms of a project?
The answer initially appears to be
no. It was reportedly over budget
by 15 times the initial estimate
and late by eight years when it
was completed.
However, the required outcome
was to develop something of
“national standing and character”,
putting Sydney on the map. This,
the Sydney Opera House has done,
so many now consider this a successful project.
Another successful project, the
BBC’s W1 Programme which redeveloped Broadcasting House in
London, set out success as “coming
together to serve our audiences
better”. It had to win the internal
argument that bringing the three
main output divisions of the BBC
together would create enormous
new creative opportunities. This
it did by developing the benefits
of the change with the 6,000 individuals and many groups affected,
and delivering those benefits using
10%
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Insights and Trends:
Current Programme and Project Management Practices
Share and discuss online at theraconteur.co.uk
If the answer to some of these
questions is yes, then the undertaking is complex. For these types
of projects, even in smaller organisations, a project management
approach should pay dividends, if
adopted in the right way.
Organisations try to develop
innovative new products, services or offers without necessarily thinking about these questions, or always considering the
desired outcomes and potential
ity in the specialist area, rather than
inexperience in delivering projects.
Taking time to properly set up
the project is better than relying
on identifying problems as the
project progresses and then trying
to “course correct”. Early signs of
derailment can include the business not buying into the project,
perhaps paying lip service to the
ideas, but never fully supporting
them and the inability to describe
benefits in detail.
Without adopting a project management
approach, including the structure and controls
that are part of this, organisations run the risk
of delivering the wrong solutions
theraconteur.co.uk
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type
manage
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
mance
factors used to measure project performance
do organisations use staff development programmes
to build project management capabilities?
First reason
39
Second reason
37
A B ad estimates/missed
deadlines
B Change in environment
30
26
25
C Change in strategy
27
26
15%
26
42%
D Imprecise goals
never
E Insufficient budget
22
20
F Insufficient motivation
15
14
16
H Lack of management
support
12
11
I Poor communication
9
9
6
7
6
5
4
3
35%
G Insufficient resources
6
4
rarely
8%
J Poor quality of
deliverable
often
K Scope changes
2
L Stakeholders not
adequately involved
always
M Wrong project
management
Other
None
University degree
Prince 2
Company/iInternal
Masters
organisations use a variety of factors to determine success
Methodologies used
23%
On-time delivery
17%
Quality
15%
Acceptable ROI
Sometimes it is right that the
project changes course. If the
environment changes, the organisation changes direction, or the
project is not doable in its current
form, then it is right to change
the project. Without adopting a
project management approach,
including the structure and controls that are part of this, organisations run the risk of delivering the
wrong solutions.
Many organisations group projects together into a portfolio in
an attempt to understand consequences, manage complexity and
achieve corporate objectives by
deploying resources in the best
way. This is something that phar-
None
18%
Delivery of benefits
Other
PMI
19%
On budget
In-house
Prince 2
20%
Satisfaction of stakeholders
e of certification project
managers hold
39%
9%
27%
2%
maceutical companies have been
doing for many years with their
drugs development projects, stopping them early if they don’t show
enough signs of coming to fruition.
Organisations therefore sometimes have a function that looks
across an organisation, overseeing
projects and the approach to delivering projects. This is often called
a portfolio or programme management office (PMO) which operates
under a variety of guises, doing
different things depending on the
projects and the organisation.
We can learn a lot from successful and failed projects as well as
PMOs. The London 2012 Olympic
Games have been a great success, to
theraconteur.co.uk
date, when considering the vision
of “hosting an inspirational, safe
and inclusive Games, and leaving a
sustainable legacy for London and
the UK”.
However, along the way many
lessons were learnt, and not just
about security and ticketing.
In 2007, the London 2012 programme closed its PMO that
was set up at the start of the
programme and transferred its
responsibilities to a government
department’s central programme
office. Its aim was to bring together
oversight of this vast programme,
which the original body was not
wholly successful at achieving. To
be of greatest value, a PMO should
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11%
not be perceived as a policing body,
just demanding regular reports on
progress and costs. It should proactively help delivery, advising on
how to avoid common pitfalls, and
be the project management coach,
acting as a critical friend.
The hard-won lessons from
project management are to recognise what a project is and is
not, and to be clear about what
is success right from the start.
Also important is to pull projects
together into a coherent group to
manage them more effectively and
adopt the approach most likely
to give success. Only then do you
stand a chance of delivering the
right outcomes.
09
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
WHEN A CHANGE IS NOT
AS GOOD AS A REST
Change is inevitable and can involve risk, but
accomplished project managers know how to
cope, writes Dan Matthews
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
ȖȖ A lot can happen in ten years.
A decade ago we still had Concorde
and Michael Jackson; Lance Armstrong was an inspirational sporting hero, not a drugs cheat, and no
one had heard of Justin Bieber – he
was only nine.
But ten years is a tight timescale for a major infrastructure
project to fall into place or a large
building to go up in a city centre.
In fact, from concept, consultation and blueprints, through to
breaking ground and the final
proud reveal, ten years is the blink
of an eye.
London’s iconic icicle, The Shard,
was designed in 2000 and the final
pane of reinforced glass was fitted
in the summer of 2012 – it opened
in February 2013.
Although HS2, the high-speed
train link that will eventually
connect Scotland to the Channel
Tunnel, has already been talked
about for several years, phase one
of the project connecting London
to Birmingham has an estimated
opening date of sometime in 2026.
But even this lengthy schedule
is a mere flinch compared to the
birth of Barcelona’s beautiful
church, the Sagrada Familia, which
shares HS2’s anticipated “live
date” in 13 years from now. It’s a
reflection of the project’s medieval
timescale that the original architect, Antoni Gaudi, died in 1926.
The point of all this is that our
best-laid plans are subject to influence by external forces far beyond
our control. Using our decade
timeframe, it’s easy to point at
areas that will inevitably update:
technology, the economy, the geopolitical environment, consumer
behaviour, working trends, and so
on and so forth.
For project managers, change
management is, therefore, an
essential skill. The longer the
timeframe, the more stuff can
happen within and without your
organisation, and the more open
and adaptable plans must be. Plot
a rigid course from point A to
point B, and you are likely to cut
the red ribbon on something that
looks weird and doesn’t work.
“Large programmes take significant time to deliver and the
world waits for no one,” says Paul
Dixon, a partner at KPMG, who
helped plan the London Olympic
safety and security programme.
“The external environment often
changes and can have significant
implications for the programme.
“Also, where delivering new
or innovative programmes, it is
sensible to be prepared for some
of the assumptions made at the
start of the programme to prove
to be incorrect; this is normal
and being able to respond flexibly
is crucial.”
Mr Dixon has a three-step
approach to change management. The first ingredient is
keeping focused on the endgame or “eyes on the prize” as he
calls it. It’s possible to stay flexible while sticking to important
original goals.
The second element is good communication, which helps to keep
all the various interested parties
onside and prevents dissent in the
ranks. If people are sick of hearing
about every last detail, he says,
you’re on the right track.
77%
of companies use
project management
software
45%
use Microsoft Project
software
Source: PwC
Implementing a strategy involves
changes to people, processes, products,
services and everything associated
Lastly, it’s about the leadership
skills that will keep a project on
track despite all the inevitable setbacks and scares that jump up and
bite project managers along the
way. A strong, reasoned approach
to change is vital.
“It’s essential for leaders to set
a very clear vision and direction,
and to engage others across the
organisation,” agrees Nicky Little, head of leadership at Cirrus.
“What is the purpose? It needs to
be clearly communicated. People
don’t want to feel things are being
changed around them; they want
to feel part of what’s happening.”
All this should be encapsulated in
an organisation’s change strategy.
Like a fire drill, this document
outlines what measures need to
take place, who should react and
who should be informed of what’s
about to happen when the alarms
start a-blaring.
“Typically tiered for the size
or complexity of the project or
change, it will include a communication and governance framework
to increase the likelihood of suc-
cess,” says Andrew Reid, founder
of Woovio, who has implemented
several of his own projects. “It is
important for communication to
be two-way so the organisation
can respond to positive or negative feedback as they implement
the change.”
All well and good, but they say
Women on
the rise
Page 12
prevention is the best cure and
surely it’s best to stamp on the
risks before you even get going?
The consensus on this question
is that risks can be managed,
but not erased. You can plan
thoroughly, but every project
is essentially a swan dive into
unswum waters.
“Implementing a strategy
involves changes to people, processes, products, services and eve-
rything associated,” says Ben Wales,
managing director of IT project and
programme management delivery
and consultancy Acando UK.
“Much change is driven by external factors, even things as simple
as a change affecting a supplier,
causing that supplier to behave
differently. Hence awareness of
change and how change happens
is vital to the health of every
organisation.”
“You can’t eliminate risk,” agrees
Professor Sim Sitkin, of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
“What you can do is shrink risk to
some extent and channel it. When
there are real risks, when there are
real losers, it’s better to get that out
in the open quickly and help people adjust, than it is to try to hide it
or drag it out.”
The phrase “a change is as good
as a rest” doesn’t apply in the
arena of project management.
Good project managers should be
alert to the reality of change, the
impact it will have on plans and
the measures that can steer things
back towards a happy ending.
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10
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ut earum evellore cullab idernati que denit eaqui
autempore non preheni molecestrum ide magnis volores
theraconteur.co.uk
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
SALVAGING THE SENEDD
AND A VOICE FOR WALES
After a stuttering start, the building to house
the representatives of devolved political power in
Wales won loud accolades, as Dan Matthews reports
Graham Bell
CASE STUDY
ȖȖ The Welsh Assembly building, The Senedd, finally opened
its doors early in 2006 after years
of delays, quarrels and profligate
spending. It cost £70 million –
more than five times the original
budget – and was just shy of five
years late.
A large dispute caused preparatory work to pause for two years
and it was only after a lengthy
review of the building project,
and a fresh tender issued for the
contract, that construction work
finally kicked-off again in 2003.
Richard Wilson, a chartered sur-
theraconteur.co.uk
The task was to stop the rot,
reignite enthusiasm for the building
and deliver it to an expectant public
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veyor who joined the Welsh Office
in 1986, was parachuted into this
hostile environment to lead the
project team. His task was to stop
the rot, reignite enthusiasm for
the building and deliver it to an
expectant public.
A review conducted two years
after The Senedd was completed
stated it was delivered “broadly
on time, cost and quality” once it
restarted; quite an achievement
for a project that had barely swung
a digger arm during its first four
years. What changed?
“We approached the project with
a huge degree of trepidation,” says
Mr Wilson. “The challenge around
the building involved a contractual
element; in other words making
sure it was physically built on time
and to budget. There were many
challenging architectural and
engineering aspects that had to
be delivered.
“But really that was the easy bit
compared with managing the wide
range of stakeholders, namely the
Welsh Cabinet and Members of the
Welsh Assembly, but also the wider
public and the media challenge,
which was extremely robust.
“There was some controversy
over whether The Senedd was a
good thing to be spending money
on at a time of economic stringency. The Holyrood [Scottish
Parliament] example of overspend
was fairly fresh in people’s memories, so we had to keep underlining
the benefits of the project.”
Holyrood, inaugurated around
18 months before The Senedd,
although it started later, was
famously controversial. Almost all
aspects of the build were argued
over; it was late and cost more than
£400 million – ten times higher than
even the loftiest initial estimate.
“Partly because of this, there was
a big pressure to deliver our building within the specifications,” says
Mr Wilson. “It was important to
identify and communicate what
was required at the beginning of
the project, so we had a clear vision
of what success would look like.
“We took more time at the outset to ascertain exactly what was
required so that the risk of further
changes were kept to an absolute
minimum. Change is inevitable,
except from vending machines, but
there is a big difference between
managed change and unmanaged
change. In the latter case you have
lost control of the project.”
The resulting building located
in Cardiff Bay won accolades for
innovation, particularly regarding
its environmental credentials, and
much of the early wrangling is longforgotten. But, for Mr Wilson, the
most important aspect of the project
was meeting the original objectives,
despite fundamental changes.
“There’s no point sticking to an
original plan if the business has
moved on,” he says. “Organisations
are dynamic and people are unpredictable; your handling of a project
must reflect that.”
11
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
RINGING THE CHANGES
IN CITY OF PROJECTS
putting in another floor at what
is currently the deep end of the
swimming pool for a dance studio,” she says. Earlier in her career
she was deputy project manager
on a world-famous development
– the Eden Project – personally
responsible for the 29 main planning applications involved.
Apart from the Barbican, Ms
Bell, who runs the project department under the City of London
project director, is also involved
with the multi-million refurbishment and modernisation of the
Central Criminal Court – the
Old Bailey.
An essential aim is to avoid disrupting the work of the courts or
attracting complaints from judges
about noise.
“There is an enormous amount
of work being done, but mostly
people won’t notice it happening.
We don’t want to stop the sitting
of the courts so that an enormous
Raymond Snoddy interviews a leading
woman in the role of project manager
and discovers that women are on the rise
WOMEN
Carol Bell, senior principal project
manager, City of London
ȖȖ By chance London’s Barbican
Centre has played an important
role in the career of Carol Bell, a
senior project manager with more
than 25 years’ experience.
While working for construction consultants Robinson Low
Francis, she faced the challenging task of carving two 150-seat
cinemas, complete with café and
restaurant, from an old Barbican
exhibition hall.
“It was really quite challenging, but
it’s a lovely place to be in and I think
they are very pleased with it,” says
Ms Bell, who began in construction
as “a hard-hat and muddy-boots”
person and then added expertise in a
wide range of disciplines to become
a project manager.
While completing the Barbican
cinema project, by coincidence
the City of London Corporation,
owners of the Barbican, decided
to expand its project management
team by adding a senior principal
project manager.
Apart from the Barbican, the
Corporation is responsible for
many historic buildings in the
Square Mile, including the Mansion House and Tower Bridge, plus
more recent additions.
Ms Bell got the job and returned
to the Barbican again – this time
to create more space for the City
of London School for Girls in
the Centre.
“We have fairly innovative ways
of looking at how we can gain
more space – building into a
courtyard at the lower-groundfloor level and also perhaps
Women already make up 30 per
cent of the profession – and rising
amount of the work is being scheduled out of hours,” says Ms Bell,
who was the first winner of the
property category in the Women
in the City awards.
In fact, disruption of normal
services has to be avoided in any
project in the City of London.
“It is important, wherever we
are working, that we allow the
City to carry on doing its business as it needs to do without
interruption, because interruption in the City is very, very
expensive,” she emphasises.
Her knowledge covers everything from issues of cost, time
and quality, to risk assessment
and being an expert witness in
property disputes.
“You keep adding to your various areas of expertise until you
have a big comprehensive set and
that is when you become a project
manager,” says Ms Bell, who notes
women already make up 30 per
cent of the profession – and rising.
Apart from encouraging young
people to consider employment
in the construction and property
sectors, she has another project in mind – the Little Britain
Challenge Cup, the regatta for
the construction industry raced
every September.
She captains a Woman in Property boat and, while the boat is
probably fully crewed for September, being a project manager,
she is already looking for names
for 2014.
An absolute intolerance of failure
Association for Project Management chairman Mike Nichols explains
the idea behind the association’s challenging and inspirational vision
Association for Project Management (APM) celebrated its 40th
anniversary in 2012, the year many
argue that project management
came of age.
Amid the plethora of project success, APM launched its vision of
a world in which all projects succeed. It is a bold vision, but one that
is achievable, as demonstrated by
the projects that came to fruition in
2012, such as the London Olympic
Games, the Shard and the completion of the digital switchover.
12
theraconteur.co.uk
We needed a challenging and
inspirational vision that would
stretch and excite us. We wanted
to change the perception that has
dogged project management for
many years that projects do not succeed, which is evidently wrong.
It is very frustrating when people
suggest projects are more than likely
to fail. By starting a project with that
mentality you are inviting failure; you
have to plan for and ensure success.
When you look at projects that
don’t succeed, it is normally for a
small number of the same reasons. Once you realise that, you can
take action to avoid or minimise the
impact of those causes, thus greatly
enhancing the likelihood of success.
The idea of APM’s vision is clear,
but it is important to note that this
is not a short-term objective: it is
a rallying cry to everyone involved
in projects.
After all, every project should succeed and, if they are approached in
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the right way, they are highly likely to.
The message is simple: by doing
the right things, you can make a
huge difference to your project’s
outcome. It is not rocket science; it
is about having an absolute determination to succeed and an intolerance of failure. If you have that, then
the likelihood is that projects will
be successful.
A similar approach in other areas,
notably a zero tolerance of defects in
car manufacturing and of accidents
in construction, has resulted in dramatic improvements in reliability
and safety.
At APM, we are of course supporting the vision by providing
guidelines to define and achieve
“success”, by developing professionalism and by encouraging everincreasing levels of knowledge and
professional competence.
In short, we will not stop until we
completely eradicate the presumption that projects fail.
With APM at the heart, we have
started a movement of professionals
and organisations that are intolerant
of project failure. The new expectation will be that all projects succeed.
To achieve this exciting vision,
APM needs the support of everyone
involved in the creation and delivery of projects: from sponsors and
project professionals, right through
to end-users, from government
departments to other professional
bodies, and across all sectors.
It doesn’t matter who you are or
what your role is. If you are involved
in projects, you too can help change
the world. Preventable failure is
just that, so join us and help us
move towards a world in which all
projects succeed.
The new expectation will be that
all projects succeed
theraconteur.co.uk
20,000+
individual members
making APM the
largest professional
body of its kind
in Europe
521
organisations have
joined APM as
corporate members
200+
good practice events
and webinars held
each year
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5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
FINDING HARMONY
IS ABOUT MORE
THAN GOING GREEN
Such are the pressures on the planet, sustainability
must now be incorporated into project management,
as Amy Hatton discovers
SUSTAINABILITY
ȖȖ Last November, the World Bank
published a report somewhat
alarmingly entitled Turn Down the
Heat. By the end of this century, it
says, we’ll see the globe warm up
by 4C unless policymakers intervene. The stage will be set for widespread environmental chaos. This
is getting serious.
For businesses involved in large
projects, the responsibility has
never been so great. The case for
sustainability is morphing from a
box-ticking exercise into a meaningful commitment. Sustainability
must now be incorporated into
project planning as well as organisational culture to stay ahead of
the game.
Construction and industry are
historically the bad guys in this
arena, but in recent years the key
players have started to step up. The
corporate construction race gained
momentum in 2011 when two of
the world’s biggest accounting
firms, PwC and KPMG, went head
to head to deliver flagship sustainable office builds.
Solutions included not just the
usual suspects, such as solar power,
but also some clever and more
unusual solutions, including power
generation through recycled biofuel and green roofs that attract
and protect wildlife. The bar has
been well and truly set for other
firms to follow suit.
In response project managers are
deploying new tools to assess the
environmental impact of construction. Concrete mixes, for example,
can now be analysed to predict
Preserving local resources,
protecting human rights and
reinvesting into local communities
are embedded in project planning
the environmental impact at each
stage of a building’s life cycle.
Business information modelling
technology – the newest kid on the
construction block – is transforming the ability to analyse the future
impact of a building even at the
planning stages. Not only does this
Share and discuss online at theraconteur.co.uk
help businesses to achieve those
all-important green credentials, it
also helps to anticipate risks and
plan future-proofing measures to
ensure that today’s green builds are
up to tomorrow’s challenges.
For those operating on the global
stage, sustainability now goes way
beyond the nuts and bolts. Preserving local resources, protecting
human rights and reinvesting into
local communities are embedded
in project planning.
Particularly in controversial
industries, such as oil and gas, business leaders themselves are being
global warming 1.8
at every stage of a project and, as a
result, the supporting technology is
evolving to facilitate project-wide
communication at a highly sophisticated level.
For modern businesses committed to sustainability though, it’s
not just about where we work and
live any more. It’s about how we
work and live. Business leaders are
increasingly recognising that performance and staff retention are key
to sustainable development, not just
environmentally, but financially and
socially as well.
In 2012, PwC published a report
15m
parts per
million increase
in carbon
dioxide a year
year high for
carbon dioxide
concentration
15-20cm
1.7cm
0.8C
average thaw in ice cap
per decade
rise in global mean temperature
compared to pre-industrial levels
Source: Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4C Warmer World Must be Avoided, World Bank, 2012
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held more accountable for their
practices. A spate of newsworthy
controversies – privacy invasions,
tax evasions and man-made disasters – has focused the media and
government spotlight firmly on
those at the top. This means boards
must have their finger on the pulse
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rise in sea levels during
the 20th century
which found that 80 per cent of
business leaders believe innovation drives efficiency, which in
turn drives commercial growth.
Approaches like serendipity theory
and social capital embrace the
notion that innovation comes from
people, therefore people should
be nurtured within a working
environment that enables flexible,
imaginative interaction.
Innovation champions Nesta,
for example, has introduced randomised coffee trials. Staff who
would never otherwise meet are
randomly connected and encouraged to chat in informal one-to-one
meetings. The result? Hundreds
of new connections in just a few
months, each one potentially generating new conversations and
new ideas.
This is just one way in which
project managers are adapting to
modern times and creating a culture where people are seen not as
expendable resources, but as the
beating heart of business growth.
Professor Herbert Girardet, cofounder of the World Future
Council, recently suggested that
we should throw the sustainability
concept out altogether. Better, he
argues, to focus on regenerating
our natural resources – soil, forests and water – than to flog finite
resources that are already in a
sorry state. Ventures into this area
can be seen in projects, including
Crossrail, where 4.5 million tonnes
of excavated clean earth are being
reinjected into an RSPB nature
reserve at Wallasea Island, Essex.
Admittedly that’s a lovely public
relations story for Crossrail. But
it’s also a solid regeneration step,
tipped to combat rising sea levels
and protect the very environment
that Crossrail will serve. In addition, Crossrail has injected financial planning into the project to
ensure that environmental risks,
such as the discovery of protected
sites during excavation, are anticipated before they happen and can
be dealt with in a sensitive way.
There’s a long way to go to
find genuine harmony with our
planet. But the signs are encouraging. One thing’s for sure: today’s
green expectations mean that
the project manager’s responsibilities will never be quite the
same again.
13
Recruiting the best
project managers
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY...
Mike Hesketh, programme
manager, Hermes Europe
As a turnaround programme
manager, my job is simple enough
– take accountability, get the programme back on track and put in
place a competent team to deliver
it when I’ve moved on. The first
two are my stock-in-trade, but
the latter needs experience and
knowledge of the market.
In the last 15 years, I’ve worked
with Programme Recruitment
exclusively. The rea l cost of
recruitment is trawling through
hundreds of potential candi-
Nicole Smith, director and founder, Programme Recruitment
The way organisations perceive project management has shifted dramatically in the last 20 years. Now
that the benefits are clear, businesses
are vying to bring in the best people in
permanent positions rather than
implementing projects one by one.
Nicole Smith founded Programme
Recruitment in 1996 in a response to
her perception that the way organisations used project and programme
managers could be improved.
Before then, change projects were
often outsourced to consultants
on short-term contracts and the
result was a cost-driven piecemeal
approach that sometimes failed to
meet expectations.
Generally speaking, an area in
desperate need for change was IT,
where the goals of the department –
even the individual – were regularly
divorced from the goals of the business. To combat the problem businesses would bring in outsiders.
Adding to the need for a new
approach was the realisation among
big organisations that change is an
ongoing feature of business and not
something that happens every now
and again. So dedicated teams started
being created to lead and manage
projects, programmes and portfolios.
“At that time IT departments drove
the change and that would cause
problems because instillations happened without establishing whether
there was a requirement,” says Ms
Smith. “People didn’t think too hard
about cost, training and disruption.
“Project management has evolved
a lot in the last 20 years because of
how organisations manage their
change and who they use to see the
job through. The value of project managers is still only just being realised.”
Ms Smith says she identified a gap
between an “outsource provider and
a generalist supplier”, and realised
there was room for a new business
that really understood project management and could supply top talent
to businesses with a long-term view.
The problem wasn’t a lack of
skilled individuals, it was that organisations often found it hard to categorise them or to match required
skill-sets with live projects. Large
organisations needed to find out
who they had internally before they
could recruit fresh talent.
Programme Recruitment began
helping such organisations to evaluate project managers in order
to spot skills gaps and measure
skills linked to different levels on
the career ladder. It helped them
benchmark, promote and allocate
tasks much more efficiently.
“We piloted this system ten
years ago through NTL/Telewest, who are now Virgin Media, and
then used that evaluation to start
recruiting where there was a need
within the organisation,” Ms Smith
recalls. “We put external candidates
through the same evaluation process and it helped us deliver exactly
the right candidate for each role.
“On top of all that is the cultural fit;
in a way it supersedes everything.
Someone could be the best project
manager in the world but, unless
they are right for the business, it
simply won’t work. So we run ‘soft
tests’ too.”
Programme Recruitment prides
itself on a consultative approach – a
far cry from firing CVs at the client
and hoping for the best. According
to Ms Smith, the approach saves
clients money too because they can
see exactly what they need and not
over-hire.
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14
Mark Paden, head of group
services, Towry
I needed to bring in project management and business analyst
resource for a number of transformation projects, operating
across the organisation, in a very
short time-scale.
Prog ra mme Recr uitment
helped by considering the organisational, cultural and team fit,
balanced with the core skills and
capability for delivering the projects required.
The up-front qualification of the
role requirements complements
their approach to suitable candidate qualification, assessment
Programme Recruitment prides
itself on a consultative approach
– a far cry from firing CVs at the
client and hoping for the best
dates’ CVs and then interviewing
many of these, just trying to find
the perfect match. Programme
Recruitment is the only recruitment consultancy that seems to
understand that.
Whether I’m working on a new
executive terminal for Virgin
Atlantic, restructuring retail bank
operations for Barclays, rolling out
cutting-edge video on-demand
technology for Virgin Media,
or building hubs and depots for
Hermes Europe, Programme
Recruitment always finds the right
people with the right experience to
build a strong delivery team.
and short-listing for interview.
The assessment has also been
extended to the current team to
aid personal development.
The competency-based assessment ensures my time is not
wasted when interviewing and
that I have all the necessary supporting information to enable a
like-for-like comparison of a candidate’s strength and their areas
for development.
I successfully recruited interim
and permanent roles delivered in
a short-time frame to meet the
needs of the transformation project, successfully delivering the
outcomes and moving the organisation forward.
The service also caters to organisations that do not have a mature
approach to project management or
are relatively new to the concept. In
these instances it’s all about instilling fundamental project management principles within teams such as
finance, marketing and sales.
She says: “There are different levels of maturity. Organisations like
Virgin Media are well on their way to
the perfect approach, but we are still
working with very immature companies where project management is
still not used to its full effectiveness
and companies are still losing money
hand over fist by implementing stuff
that is not properly prepared.
“It’s because this skill-set has
only really taken off in the last three
years and it’s only now that I can
tell organisations to cut down on
contractors and hire top managers, who can cover multiple disci-
plines, save money and help push
the business further.”
And it’s not just large organisations
that can benefit from the project
management approach, small businesses with big ideas can also take
advantage. Programme Recruitment
works with companies across the
size spectrum.
Recruiting good project managers who can help build businesses is
clearly a primary concern for ambitious organisations. Hiring the right
people, offering skills commensurate with the needs of the business
makes simple sense. The alternative
is more waste and less direction –
and who needs that?
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For further information, please contact us
Tel: 0845 260 3363
Email: mail@programme-recruitment.com
Web: www.programme-recruitment.com
5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
STRONG LEADERSHIP
AND MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Increasingly in the mainstream,
what does the future hold for project
management? John Osborne finds out
FUTURE
ȖȖ Project managers are used to
juggling competing priorities, but
now they are expected to go far
beyond the traditional role of balancing the sometimes conflicting
needs of different disciplines. In
the past this has meant ensuring
that a building was not only aesthetically stunning, but also a living, functional structure.
Architects and engineers are
used to the fast-track method of
working in which some aspects of
the design are worked out while
the structure is being built. However, in a tough economic climate,
construction is getting harder
because there are now usually so
many stakeholders involved.
Tony Marks, managing director of 20|20 Business Insight, a
project management consultancy,
has worked on high capital value
projects with clients including
Centrica Energy, AMEC, Magnox
and Lloyds Register.
“Significantly more effort has to
be put into specific areas of project
management, such as stakeholder
management and risk management,” he says. “One of the biggest
pitfalls is a version of the ‘too big
to fail’ banks scenario in projects.
Typically, once politicians commit to a project and back it, it then
becomes political suicide to cancel
it and admit failure – even if the
projected budget, timescale or
reduced scope means the original
business case is now invalid.”
A good example is the Edinburgh
Trams project, says Mr Marks. It
has been widely criticised with
claims including that it is years late
and millions of pounds over budget.
Edinburgh Council says that snow
and sub-zero temperatures have
hampered work, but that it is confident trams will be running in the
Scottish capital by next summer.
“From experience,” says Mr
Marks, “it is the politically supported projects that are most likely
to fail because they have deadlines,
budgets and scope expectations
often set for political expediency,
rather than against measured
estimates and properly evaluated
risk-analysis plans.”
Another pertinent project is
The Shard near London Bridge.
Hamish McKenzie, development director for Sellar Property Group, says: “The Shard
presented one of the toughest
project management challenges
of any building in the world. Not
only is the building extremely tall
– 75 metres taller than any other
building in London – but it’s also
built on one of the capital’s major
transport hubs, London Bridge
Station. And The Shard had over
12,000 workers on site, a feat
that required its own degree of
project management.”
Increasingly, project managers
will have to keep a vast amount of
financial, legal and technical information at their fingertips to ensure
they can keep projects on track.
Project
management
is set to
become a
profession
of note
An increasing focus on leadership
and management skills will result
in better performing projects over time
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Daniel Henn, a partner at building consultancy Tuffin Ferraby
Taylor, explains:
“The planning system increasingly requires financial contributions from developers [community infrastructure levy],
stipulates proportions of affordable housing on commercial projects and demands that projects
meet stringent sustainability
standards. As a result, these projects are often difficult to manage,
negotiations can become pro-
tracted and project viability ends
up hanging in the balance.”
One of the challenges project
managers face is keeping buildings flexible enough so they can
accommodate the needs of different tenants in the future. Stephen
Simister, director of project and
programme management at Henley Business School, says it is critical to take a strategic view.
“You often find that the project
requirements are static, but the
business [the client] has moved on.
The traditional approach is to lock
down the project and not allow for
any changes,” says Dr Simister,
who adds that greater flexibility
will be needed in future.
However, the biggest challenge
likely to affect project management is professional. AMEC is a
major engineering and project
management company. Peter Bailey, its director of project management, believes “recognition
that project management is itself
a profession with a specific skillset will continue to grow in the
coming years”.
He says: “Project management
people have had to spend their working lives in the industry ‘learning the
ropes’ to qualify as project managers,
with technical knowledge being
seen as more important than good
management skills.
“The salient requirements for
good project management going
forward are strong leadership
and management skills. After all,
assembling, leading and managing
a team of several hundred or thousand people over a three to five-year
period can often offer more challenges than being a chief operating officer of a mid-size company.
That is why an increasing focus on
leadership and management skills
will result in better performing
projects over time.”
OPINION
INFORMATION AND GOOD JUDGMENT
Project management as a standalone discipline
is barely half a
century old, but it
has more than made up for lost
time. It is now taught to Mastersdegree level, and practitioners
have studied and analysed every
aspect, says Steve McGuckin,
UK managing director of global
programme managers Turner &
Townsend, whose projects have
included The Shard and Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5.
But the most important element
of the job – good judgment – cannot be taught. It is learnt through
experience. Behind every successful project is good judgment,
and the best project manager is
the one who gives the client the
information and advice they need
to make good decisions.
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That fundamental role – of
equipping the client with the
tools they need to make the
right decision – is getting harder
as projects have to navigate
evermore complex economic and
socio-political conditions.
In future, successful project
managers will be those who
remember the mantra of “great
information plus great people
equals great decisions”. The goal
for us all will be to reduce this
greater complexity to a few clear
options for decision-making.
For a long time, project management was all about providing
defined services; project managers concentrated on quantifying
and managing atssets, systems
and time. But in future we will
focus as much on behaviour
as on output and deliver much
broader services to our clients.
Project managers will increasingly be responsible for their
clients’ benefit realisation, from
the creation of shareholder value
to the management of change.
The industry has seen a lot of
consolidation in the lean economic years following the 2008
crash. But I’m not convinced the
mergers will continue indefinitely. Many clients appreciate
the genuine impartiality that
comes from independence.
As the construction industry
becomes more complex, it will
require more project management capability than ever
before. Just as the solutions
themselves become more
sophisticated, the challenge for
us as project managers will be
to keep them clear and simple,
while continuing to provide
great information.
15