Topic: AI, data & digital

By Myrna Rickards
March 19th 2025

Trends in major project procurement Highlight Report

 

It is not only the UK government that is linking increased spending on infrastructure to growth and addressing key economic, environmental and social challenges.  Across the globe there is ever growing demand for new energy sources for use in new locations, achieving climate resilience, addressing social mobility and urban renewal and all within a context of digital transformation.

As noted in other recent MPA events, funding is a key enabler for this increased spending (Developing new funding models for major infrastructure, 16 January 2025).  But, there is little value in having funding if those who will design, develop and deliver the required infrastructure cannot be sourced and put to work.  This is particularly the case for major projects where the supply base is often global and is able to pick and choose where it wants to deploy its resources.  In simple terms, it is increasingly as case of a “sellers’ market”, so how do project clients secure the resources they require within financial and regulatory limits.

This full-day seminar will explore at trends in the procurement of goods and services for major projects both within the UK and globally.  It will address:

  • Global Perspective – what trends in procurement can we see in other markets that may have relevance here in terms of adoption and/or impact in securing appropriate suppliers for UK projects?
  • How a major project client is securing innovation, productivity gains and greater certainty in delivery through procurement.
  • Legislative changes within the UK and how this could impact supplier landscape from a supplier perspective.
  • The supplier landscape, including constraints, market shaping, market creation opportunities, change in balance of power (sellers’ market).
  • How clients can address the challenge a changing power-balance and still ensure responsible procurement addressing wider social and environmental considerations.
  • Implications of the increasing use of AI in procurement for example:
    o If all bidders use similar AI how do we know what they can do rather than the AI says they can do?
    o AI tools reviewing bids generated by AI.
    o Could choice decline as bidders just focus on those bids where they’ve a higher probability according to the AI?

The exploration of these topics will also provide a foundation for another full day seminar in November on the ‘Rise of the Delivery Partner’ as a particular global trend that is being increasingly adopted within the UK.

Mind the Mobilisation Gap
By Myrna Rickards
March 5th 2025

Mind the Mobilisation Gap

This Perspectives Paper explores why we’re still getting mobilisation wrong on major projects, and how we can do better.

By Robert
November 5th 2024

Pace of change in AI, Data and Analytics Full Report

The ready availability, the burgeoning use of and almost constant discourse on AI is only the start. The pace and scale are increasing, for example, it took Netflix 3.5 years to reach one million users, ChatGPT on the other hand achieved this in just 5 days.  We cannot ignore it as a project professional – not if we want to stay informed, current and increasingly relevant in whatever area of the project world we work.

The umbrella term Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used by most people to cover a complex multi-layered landscape with no commonly agreed definitions or boundaries between e.g. where does AI, deep learning or machine learning start and end. Similarly for the roles involved such as data architect, data scientist or data analyst. These topics were only of interest to specialists or innovators until very recently.

Project professionals now need to understand, to varying degrees, the landscape to allow them to make informed decisions about what is and is not currently possible on their projects. To allow opportunities to be identified and seized. This is far from easy as even the increasing number of self-appointed experts in the AI landscape admit to struggling to keep up with the breadth of application, complexity and pace of development. One of the most prominent applications to date has been in and around planning and in particular around time and identifying and assessing the schedule – the credibility, predictability or risk associated with it. Multiple perspectives, ways of engaging with and services are now offered that require leaders to make decisions about the value added in delivering success.

In this half-day seminar we will aim to shine a light on the AI landscape through the lens of projects by asking experts to answer a number of pertinent questions, including:

•    What is AI and what it can do for us now and in the future?
•    What are the opportunities and threats in particular within projects?
•    What do we have to do as individuals and organisations to keep up?
•    Which roles will stay and which will go?
•    What can we learn from AI form outside of projects

By Robert
November 5th 2024

Annual Conference 2024 – The answer is AI, now what’s the question? Highlight Report

The use of AI pervades all aspects of work and life, whether that is Microsoft’s co-pilot creating notes from Teams meetings or the numerous safety features in our cars. Yet, when we look at the world of major projects it’s clear that we lag behind other domains such as manufacturing, logistics, retail and medicine.  It’s easy to imagine the things that AI could do for us, but instead of jumping to the position that AI will solve all our issues we thought we should first consider the sort of issues and opportunities that the application of AI could make the biggest impact on.

This year’s annual conference “The answer is AI, now what’s the question” will do just that. It will look at the capabilities that gives AI its superpowers and then match them to the most stubborn issues or most irresistible opportunities for major projects – looking for the sweet spot. We will also do so in a responsible way, considering governance and ethical arrangements that must also be applied before finally considering the impact on how we deliver major projects and therefore on our members.  What should we all be doing now to catch up or even get ahead of those other domains.  When discussing AI it is too easy to become hypothetical which is why our annual conference will provide real examples of what’s happening right now and will also use AI to help run the day!

Please join us to help propel the world of major projects to being more impactful, more efficient and more reliable through the right use of AI in our area of work.  Please consider who in your organisation would be the best person to attend – this could be the senior leader with the keys to ‘how projects are done’ in your organisation, an enthusiastic exec that’s struggling to cut through the hype from the reality, or perhaps someone who’s fearful of the risks and therefore resisting change.

Please note due to limited availability, this event is open to Main Reps and/or nominated representatives only. Please email sascha.flint@majorprojects.org if you have any questions.

By Myrna Rickards
October 14th 2024

Annual Conference 2024 – The answer is AI, now what’s the question? Full Report

 

The use of AI pervades all aspects of work and life, whether that is Microsoft’s co-pilot creating notes from Teams meetings or the numerous safety features in our cars. Yet, when we look at the world of major projects it’s clear that we lag behind other domains such as manufacturing, logistics, retail and medicine.  It’s easy to imagine the things that AI could do for us, but instead of jumping to the position that AI will solve all our issues we thought we should first consider the sort of issues and opportunities that the application of AI could make the biggest impact on.

This year’s annual conference “The answer is AI, now what’s the question” will do just that. It will look at the capabilities that gives AI its superpowers and then match them to the most stubborn issues or most irresistible opportunities for major projects – looking for the sweet spot. We will also do so in a responsible way, considering governance and ethical arrangements that must also be applied before finally considering the impact on how we deliver major projects and therefore on our members.  What should we all be doing now to catch up or even get ahead of those other domains.  When discussing AI it is too easy to become hypothetical which is why our annual conference will provide real examples of what’s happening right now and will also use AI to help run the day!

Please join us to help propel the world of major projects to being more impactful, more efficient and more reliable through the right use of AI in our area of work.  Please consider who in your organisation would be the best person to attend – this could be the senior leader with the keys to ‘how projects are done’ in your organisation, an enthusiastic exec that’s struggling to cut through the hype from the reality, or perhaps someone who’s fearful of the risks and therefore resisting change.

Please note due to limited availability, this event is open to Main Reps and/or nominated representatives only. Please email sascha.flint@majorprojects.org if you have any questions.

 

By Myrna Rickards
June 25th 2024

Pace of change in AI, Data and Analytics Highlight Report

 

The ready availability, the burgeoning use of and almost constant discourse on AI is only the start. The pace and scale are increasing, for example, it took Netflix 3.5 years to reach one million users, ChatGPT on the other hand achieved this in just 5 days.  We cannot ignore it as a project professional – not if we want to stay informed, current and increasingly relevant in whatever area of the project world we work.

The umbrella term Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used by most people to cover a complex multi-layered landscape with no commonly agreed definitions or boundaries between e.g. where does AI, deep learning or machine learning start and end. Similarly for the roles involved such as data architect, data scientist or data analyst. These topics were only of interest to specialists or innovators until very recently.

Project professionals now need to understand, to varying degrees, the landscape to allow them to make informed decisions about what is and is not currently possible on their projects. To allow opportunities to be identified and seized. This is far from easy as even the increasing number of self-appointed experts in the AI landscape admit to struggling to keep up with the breadth of application, complexity and pace of development. One of the most prominent applications to date has been in and around planning and in particular around time and identifying and assessing the schedule – the credibility, predictability or risk associated with it. Multiple perspectives, ways of engaging with and services are now offered that require leaders to make decisions about the value added in delivering success.

In this half-day seminar we will aim to shine a light on the AI landscape through the lens of projects by asking experts to answer a number of pertinent questions, including:

•    What is AI and what it can do for us now and in the future?
•    What are the opportunities and threats in particular within projects?
•    What do we have to do as individuals and organisations to keep up?
•    Which roles will stay and which will go?
•    What can we learn from AI form outside of projects

By Myrna Rickards
September 19th 2023

The Unresolved Issue of Estimating and Forecasting Highlight Report

To be deemed a success, projects are generally judged on how well they delivered against their quadruple objectives of time, cost, scope and benefits when the project completes. To gain and maintain confidence through the journey to completion, projects will also be judged on how well they have delivered on milestones and the accuracy, or perhaps the believability, of their forecasts for the subsequent milestones through to the end of the project.

Therefore, get the estimates wrong and what could otherwise be a successful project could be viewed as a failure. Overestimating may prevent a project from getting started in the first place or it will tie up investment and resources which could be invested in other projects. Underestimating may result in a project becoming unaffordable if additional investment cannot be secured or unviable of the reduction in scope or later delivery erodes the promised benefits.

The Major Projects Association has looked at estimating and forecasting on three prior occasions. In 1984 through the lens of scenario planning, in 2013 through the lens of project controls and lessons from the 2012 Games, and in 2021 through the lens of benchmarking. Scanning the reports from these previous seminars highlights that while we have sought to improve our ability to estimate and forecast over the past four decades that the challenges we face have increased in parallel and frankly, it remains an unresolved issue. In many ways it could be argued that the level of market volatility we are currently facing means the gap between estimating performance and capability has never been greater. A project estimating 4% CPI for inflation on materials two years ago could be facing with a ten fold error as some materials have increased by more than 40% since. How can we estimate when there is such volatility? Do we need to place more emphasis on forecasting and mechanisms to adapt projects as assumptions upon which they are based veer to extreme alternatives?

Join us for this seminar where we will explore the unresolved issue of estimating and forecasting. We will gain insights from and an update on best practice guidance from the Association of Cost Engineers (ACOSTE), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) and from Oxford Global Projects on Reference Class Forecasting (RCF). We will then explore the practitioner’s view from both a client perspective before looking at how estimating and forecasting might evolve or even transform. Join us to give your best prediction and help us resolve the unresolved issue of estimating and forecasting.

This event is followed by an evening Data and Digital Showcase on how projects are embracing data analytics, AI benchmarking services and date trusts to improve project controls. – you will need to register separately for this if you would like to attend both parts.

By Jonathan Norman
June 15th 2022

Pace of Pace – What have we achieved? Full Report

The Project Speed initiative was launched by the UK government in the Summer of 2020 with a promise to review every part of the major project lifecycle in persuit of Faster, Greener, Better delivery.

A series of pathfinder projects followed in the Spring of 2021, and in September the Infrastructure and Projects Authority published its Transforming Infrastructure Performance Roadmap to 2030, setting out a vision and action plan for reforming the delivery of major projects in the public sector. All of this work coincided with the COVID 19 pandemic during which a number of crucial projects had to be delivered at pace.

Chaired by Infrastructure and Projects Authority Chief Executive, Nick Smallwood, this seminar will explore what has been learnt from Project Speed and efforts elsewhere in the major projects world to accelerate delivery and secure benefits earlier.

Drawing on this insight, we will explore issues including:

  • Which projects are good candidates for acceleration and why?
  • What risks and opportunities are created by accleration and how can they be managed?
  • How can projects embrace digitisation, Modern Methods of Construction, new delivery models and other innovations to deliver outcomes faster and more effectively.
  • How should sponsorship and project leadership adapt to successfully deliver at pace…
  • … and how do project controls, assurance and other key processes also need to adapt?
By Jonathan Norman
June 15th 2022

Pace of Pace – What have we achieved? Highlight Report

The Project Speed initiative was launched by the UK government in the Summer of 2020 with a promise to review every part of the major project lifecycle in persuit of Faster, Greener, Better delivery.

A series of pathfinder projects followed in the Spring of 2021, and in September the Infrastructure and Projects Authority published its Transforming Infrastructure Performance Roadmap to 2030, setting out a vision and action plan for reforming the delivery of major projects in the public sector. All of this work coincided with the COVID 19 pandemic during which a number of crucial projects had to be delivered at pace.

Chaired by Infrastructure and Projects Authority Chief Executive, Nick Smallwood, this seminar will explore what has been learnt from Project Speed and efforts elsewhere in the major projects world to accelerate delivery and secure benefits earlier.

Drawing on this insight, we will explore issues including:

  • Which projects are good candidates for acceleration and why?
  • What risks and opportunities are created by accleration and how can they be managed?
  • How can projects embrace digitisation, Modern Methods of Construction, new delivery models and other innovations to deliver outcomes faster and more effectively.
  • How should sponsorship and project leadership adapt to successfully deliver at pace…
  • … and how do project controls, assurance and other key processes also need to adapt?
By Jonathan Norman
October 20th 2021

Major Projects Metamorphosis Highlight Report

Advances in data analytics and digital innovation have truly transformed some sectors and some aspects of everyday life, but practices and performance on major projects have largely remained the same.

What can be done to drive digital (or data) transformation in major projects beyond that of having more data/digital savvy organisations and stakeholders involved?

This session will be asking what the opportunities are, what barriers need to be overcome to seize them, what can major projects learn from other sectors and what can we be doing now?

We’re delighted to confirm Richard Corderoy, Managing Director, The Oakland Group as Chair for this event.

Project:Hack 11 Awards Evening will take place immediately after this event. Delegates are encouraged to join us for this networking opportunity by following this link.