Topic: Knowledge management

By Myrna Rickards
September 16th 2025

Enhancing value through project closure Full Report

 

Effective closure is about much more than just wrapping up a project’s activities and moving on to the next job. It is a critical phase in the project lifecycle where lasting value can be secured, lessons crystallised, and insights harvested to shape the next wave of projects within a programme.

This virtual seminar brings together leading voices from government and industry to explore how to extract more value from project closure. With a dynamic mix of project case studies, programme over views and expert analysis, this is an opportunity to:

  • Explore what “good closure” looks like across a broad range of major projects.
  • Learn how to turn closure into a value creating step in the project lifecycle.
  • Understanding common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
By Myrna Rickards
September 16th 2025

Enhancing value through project closure Highlight Report

 

Effective closure is about much more than just wrapping up a project’s activities and moving on to the next job. It is a critical phase in the project lifecycle where lasting value can be secured, lessons crystallised, and insights harvested to shape the next wave of projects within a programme.

This virtual seminar brings together leading voices from government and industry to explore how to extract more value from project closure. With a dynamic mix of project case studies, programme over views and expert analysis, this is an opportunity to:

  • Explore what “good closure” looks like across a broad range of major projects.
  • Learn how to turn closure into a value creating step in the project lifecycle.
  • Understanding common pitfalls and how to avoid them.
By Myrna Rickards
February 12th 2025

When we get it right a spotlight on success Full Report

 

While projects are often perceived as late and over budget, most actually meet intended outcomes and deliver to expectations. By reframing our thinking to focus on the successes, rather than just the failures in infrastructure delivery we can foster a more positive, solution-oriented approach that drives improvement and innovation.

This half day seminar will explore how highlighting successes can build delivery confidence, and encourages excellence, creating a replicable model for future projects. Bringing the public and politicians along on this journey is crucial for sustained support and investment confidence.

This event will help to challenge the perceptions of infrastructure project delivery. It will demonstrate how offering stakeholders a greater understanding of both the challenges and tangible benefits of projects creates a new level of trust that helps professionals navigate complex projects more effectively and secure vital support for future infrastructure.

 

Useful links mentioned in the ‘Project delivery performance reality check’ presentation by Dr. Paul Chapman OBE:

English Roads Major Schemes
Paper: Chapman, P., (2024) Project delivery performance: Insights from English roads major schemes, Project Leadership and Society Journal

Major Projects Association podcast hosted by Andy Murray with Paul Chapman and Nirmal Kotecha, former Head of Major Projects at National Highways: Project delivery performance: we’re actually quite good! Who knew and what changed? Sep 18, 2024
Public Accounts Committee (2007) Estimating and monitoring the costs of building roads in England
Nichols (2007) Review of Highways Agency’s Major Roads Programme
Swedish Rail and Road Project Performance
Chapman, P. (2024) Revisiting project delivery performance: Evidence from Swedish transport infrastructure, Project Management Journal
By Myrna Rickards
February 12th 2025

When we get it right – a spotlight on success Full Report

 

While projects are often perceived as late and over budget, most actually meet intended outcomes and deliver to expectations. By reframing our thinking to focus on the successes, rather than just the failures in infrastructure delivery we can foster a more positive, solution-oriented approach that drives improvement and innovation.

This half day seminar will explore how highlighting successes can build delivery confidence, and encourages excellence, creating a replicable model for future projects. Bringing the public and politicians along on this journey is crucial for sustained support and investment confidence.

This event will help to challenge the perceptions of infrastructure project delivery. It will demonstrate how offering stakeholders a greater understanding of both the challenges and tangible benefits of projects creates a new level of trust that helps professionals navigate complex projects more effectively and secure vital support for future infrastructure.

 

Useful links mentioned in the ‘Project delivery performance reality check’ presentation by Dr. Paul Chapman OBE:

English Roads Major Schemes
Paper: Chapman, P., (2024) Project delivery performance: Insights from English roads major schemes, Project Leadership and Society Journal

Major Projects Association podcast hosted by Andy Murray with Paul Chapman and Nirmal Kotecha, former Head of Major Projects at National Highways: Project delivery performance: we’re actually quite good! Who knew and what changed? Sep 18, 2024
Public Accounts Committee (2007) Estimating and monitoring the costs of building roads in England
Nichols (2007) Review of Highways Agency’s Major Roads Programme
Swedish Rail and Road Project Performance
Chapman, P. (2024) Revisiting project delivery performance: Evidence from Swedish transport infrastructure, Project Management Journal
By Jonathan Norman
December 20th 2022

Year in Action 2022

In a celebration of the conclusion of the Association’s 40th year of operation, the Year in Action Report reflects on our early history, marks the handover of the position of Association Chair from Sir Tim Laurence to Emma Howard Boyd, and outlines the Association’s activities and our Landmark Objectives during the previous 12 months.

 

By Jonathan Norman
July 7th 2021

Building Transferrable Skills – Lessons learned from Nuclear Decommissioning Short Report

Please note that this event will now take place via VIRTUAL means, with revised timings of 09.30 – 12.45. 

The Nuclear Decommissioning sector has gained many lessons learned in the last decade as it has made progress to safely and securely decommissioning the UK’s legacy nuclear infrastructure.

Using case studies from the delivery of a number of projects from across this challenging and highly regulated environment, this seminar will explore the lessons from the past and how they can be built into improving future delivery strategies of all major programmes.

With a focus around the key themes of programme management, collaboration and integration, community engagement and addressing the skills shortage gap, this event will be of interest to those both within and outside the nuclear sector as we hear from a range of stakeholders and encourage attendees to reflect together on how these lessons could be applie within their member organisations.

By Jonathan Norman
July 7th 2021

Building Transferrable Skills – Lessons learned from Nuclear Decommissioning Highlight Report

Please note that this event will now take place via VIRTUAL means, with revised timings of 09.30 – 12.45. 

The Nuclear Decommissioning sector has gained many lessons learned in the last decade as it has made progress to safely and securely decommissioning the UK’s legacy nuclear infrastructure.

Using case studies from the delivery of a number of projects from across this challenging and highly regulated environment, this seminar will explore the lessons from the past and how they can be built into improving future delivery strategies of all major programmes.

With a focus around the key themes of programme management, collaboration and integration, community engagement and addressing the skills shortage gap, this event will be of interest to those both within and outside the nuclear sector as we hear from a range of stakeholders and encourage attendees to reflect together on how these lessons could be applie within their member organisations.

By Jonathan Norman
July 7th 2021

Building Transferrable Skills – Lessons learned from Nuclear Decommissioning Full Report

Please note that this event will now take place via VIRTUAL means, with revised timings of 09.30 – 12.45. 

The Nuclear Decommissioning sector has gained many lessons learned in the last decade as it has made progress to safely and securely decommissioning the UK’s legacy nuclear infrastructure.

Using case studies from the delivery of a number of projects from across this challenging and highly regulated environment, this seminar will explore the lessons from the past and how they can be built into improving future delivery strategies of all major programmes.

With a focus around the key themes of programme management, collaboration and integration, community engagement and addressing the skills shortage gap, this event will be of interest to those both within and outside the nuclear sector as we hear from a range of stakeholders and encourage attendees to reflect together on how these lessons could be applie within their member organisations.

By Jonathan Norman
October 21st 2020

Major Projects in a Disrupted World – How should we deal with Radical Uncertainty? Highlight Report

In March 2020, Mervyn King, ex-Governor of the Bank England and John Kay, published Radical Uncertainty – Decision Making for an Unknowable Future in which they argue that many more of the uncertainties facing governments and businesses have the quality of being mysteries and not puzzles. In short, two men who have spent their careers building numerical models (and still defend them as an aid to organising our thinking) urged decision makers not to be seduced by the spurious accuracy they can provide.

Days after King and Kay’s book hit the shelves, we were hit by an example of this phenomena in the form of the Covid-19 lockdown, the single most disruptive event of many of our professional lifetimes.

Pandemic viruses have been at the top of many country’s national risk registers for years and modelling existed on the likelihood of an outbreak in any given year and its impact. What remained unknown was exactly when a pandemic would strike, what form it would take, how governments and the public would react and a host of other factors. This meant that in the autumn of 2019 we knew something about pandemic virus but nothing that led us to take action to avoid the devasting impact of COVID-19   

How should the major projects community respond to the challenge of Radical Uncertainty? Should we really place so much weight on the analyses of factors such as the value of time savings to be created by a transport scheme, projected decades into an uncertain future.

Equally how can we make sure that models do not lead us to miss or ignore threats that fall outside of their assumptions but in some sense, we know are all to real. The response of many project professionals to the issues identified in National Audit Office’s 2019 Completing Crossrail study was yes of course, we always knew that would be a problem.

To unpack the challenge of decision making under conditions of uncertainty, this session will explore:

  • The role of narratives in shaping and stabilising an uncertain project environment through the lifecycle
  • The relationship between strategic and economic business cases in HM Treasury’s Green Book and similar assessment methodologies and how these and other tools can help projects navigate an uncertain environment
  • The relationship and trade-offs between resilience and efficiency and how project professionals are assessing them.
By Jonathan Norman
October 21st 2020

Major Projects in a Disrupted World – How should we deal with Radical Uncertainty? Full Report

In March 2020, Mervyn King, ex-Governor of the Bank England and John Kay, published Radical Uncertainty – Decision Making for an Unknowable Future in which they argue that many more of the uncertainties facing governments and businesses have the quality of being mysteries and not puzzles. In short, two men who have spent their careers building numerical models (and still defend them as an aid to organising our thinking) urged decision makers not to be seduced by the spurious accuracy they can provide.

Days after King and Kay’s book hit the shelves, we were hit by an example of this phenomena in the form of the Covid-19 lockdown, the single most disruptive event of many of our professional lifetimes.

Pandemic viruses have been at the top of many country’s national risk registers for years and modelling existed on the likelihood of an outbreak in any given year and its impact. What remained unknown was exactly when a pandemic would strike, what form it would take, how governments and the public would react and a host of other factors. This meant that in the autumn of 2019 we knew something about pandemic virus but nothing that led us to take action to avoid the devasting impact of COVID-19   

How should the major projects community respond to the challenge of Radical Uncertainty? Should we really place so much weight on the analyses of factors such as the value of time savings to be created by a transport scheme, projected decades into an uncertain future.

Equally how can we make sure that models do not lead us to miss or ignore threats that fall outside of their assumptions but in some sense, we know are all to real. The response of many project professionals to the issues identified in National Audit Office’s 2019 Completing Crossrail study was yes of course, we always knew that would be a problem.

To unpack the challenge of decision making under conditions of uncertainty, this session will explore:

  • The role of narratives in shaping and stabilising an uncertain project environment through the lifecycle
  • The relationship between strategic and economic business cases in HM Treasury’s Green Book and similar assessment methodologies and how these and other tools can help projects navigate an uncertain environment
  • The relationship and trade-offs between resilience and efficiency and how project professionals are assessing them.