Topic: Project controls

By Myrna Rickards
May 20th 2025

Managing change without losing control – Balancing flexibility and discipline in major projects Full Report

 

When projects have lifespans that run into years if not decades, some change is inevitable. Technology advances, the regulatory landscape shifts, stakeholder demands evolve and the economic circumstances in which the project was born can alter out of all recognition.

This creates many challenges and opportunities for project professionals. How do we distinguish between necessary adjustment to secure outcomes and undisciplined scope creep inflating costs and extending schedule? What kinds of governance and project controls are most effective in different circumstances or types of projects? What should leaders do to create an environment that supports their chosen approach to risk management?

This half day seminar will explore this topic through case studies of the very different change management challenges of Sizewell C and London’s Stratford Waterfront programmes. This will be complemented by insight from the energy and defence sectors, both of which are experiencing rapid changes to the environment in which their major projects and programmes are being delivered. There will also be an opportunity to hear from two of the contributors to the Association for Project Management’s new guide Project Controls in the 21st Century.

By Jonathan Norman
March 17th 2021

Reimagining Benchmarking Highlight Report

Over recent decades, asset owneers in sectors such as Oil & Gas and Chemicals have made a concerted effort to utilise high-quality datasets to drive improvements across the project lifecycle. This insight has helped organisations understand their own capabilities and how they drive performance and cost across a range of activities including robustness of business cases, the quality of front-end project development, analysis of execution risk & construction readiness, commissioning, and post project evaluation.

Asset owners in other parts of the Major Projects world, particularly in the public sector, have often struggled to fully embrace the power of Benchmarking. In the UK, leaders of many infrastructure progrrammes for example still suffer from a basic lack of data to support their decision making. Where Benchmarking is attempted it is not always integrated into a culture and process of continuous improvement, reducing its impact to the point wherre it can degenerate into an effort to squeeze front end costs in negotiations between owners and the supply chain.

As the world slowly recovers from the economic hit of COVID-19, projects leaders will be under huge pressure to improve performance and demonstrate that they are delivering value for money. There has never been a better time for the projects community to reimagine its approach to performance data and Benchmarking.

In this seminar, chaired by Ed Merrow of global megaproject consultants Independent Project Analysis, we will explore how Benchmarking can be used to inspire professionals in the public and private sector to take action that will deliver the value demanded by asset owners, governments and the public.

We will hear from:

  • Experts from a range of Major Project sectors on their experience of utilising Benchmarking through the project lifecycle as an integral part of a continuous improvement regime.
  • Benchmarking specialists about the practicalities of creating and maintaining high quality datasets that can generate valuable insight.
  • The UK Government’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority on its ongoing work to utilise Benchmarking more effectively across the public sector portfolio.

At the end of the seminar, attendees will have:

  • An understanding of the full range of benefits that Benchmarking can bring to major projects.
  • An understanding of the link between being an effective asset owner and the effective use of Benchmarking.
  • An insight into the processes and techniques needed to create, maintain and exploit data.

 

By Jonathan Norman
March 17th 2021

Reimagining Benchmarking Full Report

Over recent decades, asset owneers in sectors such as Oil & Gas and Chemicals have made a concerted effort to utilise high-quality datasets to drive improvements across the project lifecycle. This insight has helped organisations understand their own capabilities and how they drive performance and cost across a range of activities including robustness of business cases, the quality of front-end project development, analysis of execution risk & construction readiness, commissioning, and post project evaluation.

Asset owners in other parts of the Major Projects world, particularly in the public sector, have often struggled to fully embrace the power of Benchmarking. In the UK, leaders of many infrastructure progrrammes for example still suffer from a basic lack of data to support their decision making. Where Benchmarking is attempted it is not always integrated into a culture and process of continuous improvement, reducing its impact to the point wherre it can degenerate into an effort to squeeze front end costs in negotiations between owners and the supply chain.

As the world slowly recovers from the economic hit of COVID-19, projects leaders will be under huge pressure to improve performance and demonstrate that they are delivering value for money. There has never been a better time for the projects community to reimagine its approach to performance data and Benchmarking.

In this seminar, chaired by Ed Merrow of global megaproject consultants Independent Project Analysis, we will explore how Benchmarking can be used to inspire professionals in the public and private sector to take action that will deliver the value demanded by asset owners, governments and the public.

We will hear from:

  • Experts from a range of Major Project sectors on their experience of utilising Benchmarking through the project lifecycle as an integral part of a continuous improvement regime.
  • Benchmarking specialists about the practicalities of creating and maintaining high quality datasets that can generate valuable insight.
  • The UK Government’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority on its ongoing work to utilise Benchmarking more effectively across the public sector portfolio.

At the end of the seminar, attendees will have:

  • An understanding of the full range of benefits that Benchmarking can bring to major projects.
  • An understanding of the link between being an effective asset owner and the effective use of Benchmarking.
  • An insight into the processes and techniques needed to create, maintain and exploit data.

 

By Jonathan Norman
September 20th 2017

35th Annual Conference. Future proofing major projects – navigating an uncertain major project world Full Report

The future never was a certain place. It used to be said that change was the only constant, but now it is clearly accelerating. Whether we consider geo-politics, technology, labour markets or customer expectations, they are all shifting before our eyes. Therefore, navigating an uncertain world has become one of the great challenges of our time, particularly for major projects and the organisations that support them.

Major projects’ organisations must have the flexibility (and the bravery) to operate within the context of change and uncertainty. And, recognising that information destroys uncertainty, the industry needs to embrace digital transformation and the mastery of information that it promises.

Crystal balls don’t work and change has become so rapid that the past is really no good as a predictor of the future. So, we want navigational aids to help steer through the uncertain landscape and we need practical new tools to future-proof major projects and programmes.

Therefore, this conference will explore the theme of adaptation in changing environments:
• What should organisations do to thrive in this world of uncertainty?
• How can projects and programmes be designed to be adaptable to future change?
• What can be learned from the models adopted in other regions and industries?

The conference will bring leading experts together to develop a toolkit of navigational aids through active participation in strategic foresighting activities:

• Horizon-scanning
• Trend-surfing
• Scenario planning

“It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most adaptable to change.” – Darwin (paraphrased).

There is no charge for this event for individuals from member organisations.

By Jonathan Norman
September 20th 2017

35th Annual Conference. Future proofing major projects – navigating an uncertain major project world Highlight Report

The future never was a certain place. It used to be said that change was the only constant, but now it is clearly accelerating. Whether we consider geo-politics, technology, labour markets or customer expectations, they are all shifting before our eyes. Therefore, navigating an uncertain world has become one of the great challenges of our time, particularly for major projects and the organisations that support them.

Major projects’ organisations must have the flexibility (and the bravery) to operate within the context of change and uncertainty. And, recognising that information destroys uncertainty, the industry needs to embrace digital transformation and the mastery of information that it promises.

Crystal balls don’t work and change has become so rapid that the past is really no good as a predictor of the future. So, we want navigational aids to help steer through the uncertain landscape and we need practical new tools to future-proof major projects and programmes.

Therefore, this conference will explore the theme of adaptation in changing environments:
• What should organisations do to thrive in this world of uncertainty?
• How can projects and programmes be designed to be adaptable to future change?
• What can be learned from the models adopted in other regions and industries?

The conference will bring leading experts together to develop a toolkit of navigational aids through active participation in strategic foresighting activities:

• Horizon-scanning
• Trend-surfing
• Scenario planning

“It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most adaptable to change.” – Darwin (paraphrased).

There is no charge for this event for individuals from member organisations.

By Jonathan Norman
February 9th 2017

Maximising Project Performance – the role of Project Controls in assuring delivery Full Report

Project controls, assurance, accountability and governance are closely related, though mutually exclusive, but combine as being essential in the successful delivery of projects.

Whilst effective project controls facilitate the proactive management of schedule and cost risk, it is arguably only effective if assured independently within a decision framework that is logical, robust and repeatable.

Successful projects, programs or portfolios of work:
• Must take account of actual performance as the basis of future risk management predictions
• Need effective assurance for timely intervention strategies
• Need a consistent operational framework within which standards may be established and trends may be detected so that decisions may be based on accurate, meaningful and focused data
The objective of this event is to provide an insight into the relationship between project controls, governance and assurance through a wide range of case-studies.

Speakers from a range of industry sectors, perspectives and from a diverse breadth of projects, will present their experiences. It is hoped that the event will be thought-provoking and lively, with some of the industry’s leading people sharing their strategies that have assisted with greater project delivery success.

By Jonathan Norman
February 9th 2017

Maximising Project Performance – the role of Project Controls in assuring delivery Highlight Report

Project controls, assurance, accountability and governance are closely related, though mutually exclusive, but combine as being essential in the successful delivery of projects.

Whilst effective project controls facilitate the proactive management of schedule and cost risk, it is arguably only effective if assured independently within a decision framework that is logical, robust and repeatable.

Successful projects, programs or portfolios of work:
• Must take account of actual performance as the basis of future risk management predictions
• Need effective assurance for timely intervention strategies
• Need a consistent operational framework within which standards may be established and trends may be detected so that decisions may be based on accurate, meaningful and focused data
The objective of this event is to provide an insight into the relationship between project controls, governance and assurance through a wide range of case-studies.

Speakers from a range of industry sectors, perspectives and from a diverse breadth of projects, will present their experiences. It is hoped that the event will be thought-provoking and lively, with some of the industry’s leading people sharing their strategies that have assisted with greater project delivery success.

By Jonathan Norman
February 9th 2017

Maximising Project Performance – the role of Project Controls in assuring delivery Short Report

Project controls, assurance, accountability and governance are closely related, though mutually exclusive, but combine as being essential in the successful delivery of projects.

Whilst effective project controls facilitate the proactive management of schedule and cost risk, it is arguably only effective if assured independently within a decision framework that is logical, robust and repeatable.

Successful projects, programs or portfolios of work:
• Must take account of actual performance as the basis of future risk management predictions
• Need effective assurance for timely intervention strategies
• Need a consistent operational framework within which standards may be established and trends may be detected so that decisions may be based on accurate, meaningful and focused data
The objective of this event is to provide an insight into the relationship between project controls, governance and assurance through a wide range of case-studies.

Speakers from a range of industry sectors, perspectives and from a diverse breadth of projects, will present their experiences. It is hoped that the event will be thought-provoking and lively, with some of the industry’s leading people sharing their strategies that have assisted with greater project delivery success.

By Jonathan Norman
December 8th 2016

Portfolio management – can it really make a difference to improving effectiveness of capital investment? Highlight Report

Building on our 2015 seminar The Shape and Nature of PMOs this discussion dinner will explore the opportunities and challenges faced by organisations when delivering a complex portfolio of capital investment programmes and projects. The focus of the evening will be to discuss how adopting a portfolio management approach has the potential to improve outcomes and certainty. A panel, chaired by Roy Hill, will examine this subject from the perspectives of Highways England, Transport for London, the Environment Agency and NATS, covering issues such as:

• Where do projects most often experience unexpected problems and how does organisational maturity and using different delivery models help to mitigate these issues?

• How do organisations balance and prioritise a portfolio of competing projects in a cost constrained and sometimes political environment? Where does portfolio management create value in balancing these challenges?

• Integrated project controls and comprehensive reporting is the panacea to successful portfolio management – what works well to stimulate value creation across multiple projects and programmes?

By Jonathan Norman
February 20th 2013

Are we any good at Project Controls – what are the cross-sector challenges for the future? Full Report

Project Management has been around for as long as there has been a necessity to complete tasks, generally of known scope or eventual outcome, in a systematic way to a cost generally specified by the promoter. How that has been controlled to a greater or lesser extent is less obvious. From Shakespeare’s Globe to the Sydney Opera House, from the Colosseum Rome to the Olympic Park London and from the Trans-Continental Railways and Undergrounds around the world to HS1, HS2 and Crossrail, major projects, over time, have and are being successfully delivered and controlled, some more effectively than others.

This event challenges seasoned practitioners from cross-sectorial business and project areas who work in the project controls environment to share their ‘modus operandi’ from a number of standpoints. Firstly, to share how they have carried out business within the constraints of promoters that they have been involved with in the past and present. Secondly, what would they have done or do if the promoter’s constraints were relaxed and the practitioner allowed freedom to control and report in their own way. Thirdly, how they see project control developing in the future and what vision have they of the methodologies and processes over the next 5 – 10 years. It is not set in stone that practitioners will all work in the same way, some may have responsibilities that others do not and that will reflect in their span of control. There will be adequate time for open discussion and for members to share their own experiences and to input to the practitioners.

The collective outputs from this event are crucial and will be a vital input to the event later in 2013 where we will examine in detail and discuss organizational project management and governance and how control and reporting of projects has a major affect on business outcomes.