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Tag Archives: PGCS

PGCS 2023 Program Outline and Dates Confirmed.

Posted on October 19, 2022 by | Leave a comment

For the 10th year Mosaic will be supporting the PGCS Symposium to be held in Canberra on the 22nd and 23rd August, followed by three international masterclasses on the 24th.

Built around the theme Competent people craft project success! The Symposium program features six Australian and international keynote speakers plus three streams:

1. Delivering complex projects and programs. This stream focuses on the challenges of delivering major projects and programs in a complex environment.

2. Controlling projects and programs. This stream focuses on the tools, techniques and technology needed to deliver successful projects and programs.

3. Governance and stakeholders. This stream focuses on designing and governing organizations to deliver the broader aspects of project and program success, including benefits realization, sustainability, and social and economic responsibility.

For more details on the event and the call for papers, plus invited and accepted speakers (on acceptance), and to plan your involvement, visit the Symposium website at: https://www.pgcsymposium.org.au/

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Project Governance & Controls Symposium 2021 – Call for Papers

Posted on April 21, 2021 by | Leave a comment

PGCS 2021 will run on-site at the Rex Hotel Canberra, & Virtually from 10-12 August 2021.

PGCS is the only annual conference, run in Canberra, that is focused on improving project outcomes in the public and private sectors by helping organisations select the right projects and programs and then manage them to deliver the right outcomes.

The PGCS call for papers is now open

The PGCS 2021 program already has 7 keynote and invited speakers plus 2 master classes locked in, with more to be announced soon. Visit www.pgcsymposium.org.au for further details. We are now also calling for industry and academic papers for presentation in the:

  • Defence and Major Projects stream – case studies are always welcome.
  • Project governance and controls stream – presented in association with the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association (ICEAA).
  • Academic program.

For further information or to submit your paper please click here for more details. Accepted papers are eligible for the Walt Lipke award and $1000 cash prize.


The call for papers closes Monday, 24 May 2021 at 5:00pm.

Program Highlights:

Keynote Speaker: Oliver Baker, UK.

Suppliers – Harmonising the Relationship

Based on his experience working on the Astute Class Submarine Programme delivering a fleet of 7 nuclear-powered attack submarines to the Royal Navy, one of the most complex engineering projects within the United Kingdom. Oliver will describe the One Team approach to operating a joint project controls model and how these lessons can be applied to a different types of project, across a range of sectors.

Click here for more details on our other speakers

Masterclass: Prof. Chuck Keating,  Old Dominion University Virginia, USA.

A Practical Guide to implementing Complex Systems Governance Concepts on Projects

The purpose of this masterclass is to provide a hands-on experience for Project Management (PM) professionals for the application of Complex System Governance (CSG) concepts. CSG is a new and novel approach to improve performance through purposeful design, execution, and evolution of essential system functions to sustain project performance in the midst of external turbulence and internal flux.

Click here for more details on our other Masterclasses.

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Posted in Governance, Project Controls, Project Management Conferences

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PGCS $10,000 Research Grant

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | Leave a comment

After 7 years of hard work we have finally made it! 

In 2013, a small group of people decided to reinvigorate the Project Controls Symposium  that had been a regular part of the Canberra / Australian conference scene for decades (see the Symposium history).  We set ourselves some big targets, the last of which was achieved today with the launch of our first $10,000 research grant.

PGCS was established as a not for profit organisation governed by volunteers; its core mission is to help improve the delivery of projects, programs and portfolios in Australia. All funds we receive are invested in one of three areas:

  • Our highly regarded Project and Program Management Symposium and Masterclasses held each year in Canberra. The next event will be held on 25th to 27th August 2020 with the outline programme and several keynote speakers on our website at: https://www.pgcsymposium.org.au/
  • Academic research grants. The initial grant of $10,000 has been announced today and will be awarded in May 2020, in future years we hope to significantly increase these awards: https://www.pgcs.org.au/research/

We are parochial though – the grant is only available to researchers working in Australia, and supported by an Australian University.  Our next challenge is deciding on the research project (or projects) to support.

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PGCS 2019 Wrap

Posted on September 4, 2019 by | Leave a comment
PGCS Delegates networking

The last major deliverable from Project Governance & Controls Symposium held in Canberra last month is complete! A core objective of PGCS is to make useful information available to the project management profession – our library is open to you and anyone you know who has an interest in project governance, management and controls. To support this aim, all of the available presentations (a few are not available for sharing) from the 2019 PGCS have now been uploaded to the PGCS on-line library.The quickest way to find a paper from this year’s symposium is at:
https://www.pgcs.org.au/library/2019/.

While on the page, you can explore presentations and resources from the last 7 years a well. If you want more information on a specific subject, all available papers grouped into categories are available at:
https://www.pgcs.org.au/library/library/

As good project managers, our 2020 Symposium is already being developed, if you have ideas to contribute or simply want to be kept up to date register your interest at: https://consec.eventsair.com/pgcs-2020/registration-of-interest/Site/Register

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PGCS 2019 voted the best ever!!

Posted on August 25, 2019 by | 1 comment

The Project Governance & Controls Symposium held in Canberra last week saw 200+ people enjoy: 2 international keynote plenary presentations, 5 Australian keynote plenary presentations, 27 stream presentations spread across 5 streams, and 2 panel sessions; making PGCS 2019 one of the busiest and best symposiums ever! 

One highlight from the 2 days was the opening address, and presentation of the Walt Lipke award, by the Hon. Andrew Gee MP, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister.  This year’s award recipient was Professor Shankar Sankaran from UTS.

Our international speakers then conducted two outstandingMaster Classes on day 3: A Practical Guide to Implementing Complex SystemsGovernance Concepts on Projects, and Integrating Systems Engineering andProject Management. The Match Made in Heaven Which Increases the Probability ofProject Success.

We are now working on uploading all of the presentations and workshop notes to the PGCS website – project managers are good at multi-tasking and time management, but no-one can be in five rooms at the same time……  These papers will also form part of the PGCS library and can be accessed by anyone interested in improving their project management knowledge. Planning for PGCS 2020 is already underway, the Symposium will be on the 18th and 19th August 2020, followed by Masterclasses on the 20th.  

For updates see: https://www.pgcsymposium.org.au

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Two exceptional workshops at PGCS 2017 – 1st May

Posted on April 20, 2017 by | Leave a comment

PGCS 2017 is offering workshops by Dr. Lynda Bourne and Dr. Keith Joiner in Canberra on Monday 1st May. Both offer a unique international viewpoint on very different aspects of project management.

My (Lynda’s) workshop ‘Leading Successful Teams’ focuses on collaborative teams which are key to success in any business activity. The most effective teams consist of individuals who can work independently on their own tasks, but also recognise the need to work collaboratively with other team members toward the activity’s goal and the organization’s success.

The leader of the team contributes significantly to team success through inspiring all team members to work together to achieve this goal, but must also intervene to reduce conflict and to motivate team members to continue to work collaboratively.

This session will focus on the needs of first-time team managers and will consist some theory, and a little practice, on the following topics:

–  Motivation

–  Delegation

–  Giving feedback

–  Resolving conflict.

This full day workshop is based on my Master’s course I’ve been running at EAN University in South America for the last 5 years and offers exceptional value at $450 (catering and GST included)

Keith’s workshop ‘methods for test design and analysis prescribed in U.S. Industry & Defence’ will introduce and illustrate the new methods in test design and analysis are, and how they are used to:

– screen for significant design factors;

– model design factors;

– screen for operational factors;

– model operational factors; and

– where equipment is taken off-the-shelf, improve the efficiency of validating performance.

Participants will use an instructional toy system and study several example uses to reinforce how the methods work.

This half day workshop is great value at $330 (Afternoon tea and GST included)

Both workshops offer exceptional value and are open to everyone – you do not need to attend the PGCS symposium to enjoy these process…… For more information and bookings see:  http://www.pgcs.org.au/program/workshops/

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Two ‘Not-to-be missed’ Conferences in May

Posted on April 20, 2017 by | Leave a comment

The PGCS program for 2017 is now complete and offers two overseas speakers as well as Professor Peter Shergold – author of the landmark project management report to government “Learning From Failure”. To see what’s on at PGCS in Canberra between the 1st and 4th May go to:  http://www.pgcs.org.au/program/

In the USA you can attend the Annual Project Management College of Scheduling Conference in Atlanta from May 7th to 10th.  They have a terrific program, with speakers and panel discussions, prepared to give everyone a chance to participate.  In addition, we’re planning something special every evening.  Sunday night is the vendor reception, Monday night is our Gala Dinner and Tuesday night is a night to explore Atlanta.  For more details see: http://www.pmcos.org/

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Posted in Governance, Project Controls, Project Management Conferences

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Project Governance and Controls Symposium 2016.

Posted on April 4, 2016 by | Leave a comment

We are only a few weeks out from PGCS 2016 and this year’s  Symposium is shaping up to be the best yet.  The Symposium will be held in its usual ADFA, Canberra venue on Wed. 11th and Thur. 12th May 2016.

Governing for performance was the key theme of the AICD’s Australian Governance Summit held in Sydney last month. But organisations cannot perform sustainably if they cannot govern and control their projects effectively.  Unfortunately as the Shergold Report has highlighted (consistent with the findings of many other surveys), most organisations struggle to achieve the full potential value from their projects and programs – literally $billions are wasted annually by poorly governed and controlled projects.

PGCS was created to focus on the gap between intention and delivery – and to help build Australia capability in the governance and management of projects by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas between international experts, leading Australian practitioners, the people responsible for governing projects within their organisations, and the people responsible for making the governance and controls systems work.

The 2016 program is on target to fulfil this ambitious objective 100%:

  • We have speakers from the UK National Audit Office and the Australian National Audit Office, both of who lead the push for improved performance in government projects.
  • Controls and surveillance of projects is well covered with both international and Australian experts. Lisa Wolf’s pre-symposium Masterclass ‘A Practical Guide to Project and Contract Surveillance’ is a sell out, fortunately Lisa is also one of our Keynote Speakers.
  • The needs and expectations of organisational governors is covered by among others, Ms. Jane Halton the Secretary of the Australian Department of Finance who will be outlining her perspectives on improving the performance of major projects.
  • AIPM, PMI, IPMA and ICCPM are all supporting the Symposium and providing high quality speakers.
  • We have our inaugural Academic Stream – this aspect of the Symposium will become increasingly important as we direct any surplus funds towards Australian based research into the governance and control of projects and programs.
  • And there’s more – click through to our program page to download the full event program.

Thanks to the ongoing support of our Platinum Sponsor, The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra, the cost of the symposium, including 2 full days and our reception at the ADFA Offices Mess is only $990 (early bird available prior to the 25th April).

To make the learning opportunity provided by the Symposium available to more junior staff, we also have a unique 2-for-1 offer in place with a number of ‘supporting organisations’; each senior manager who registers can nominate a more junior staff member to attend the Symposium at no additional cost (We are always happy to extend this arrangement to new organisations).

PGCS is designed to be a very different type of event compared to the traditional, and well loved, annual conferences run by the major associations – we are very focused on accessing and creating knowledge focused on ‘governance and controls’ – as part of this process all of the available papers from previous years are also made available to attendees and others via our on-line library.

The open question is can you afford to miss this world class event?  For more information visit our website at: http://www.pgcs.org.au/

Note: Patrick Weaver is a member of the PGCS Organising Committee.

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Australian Defence White Paper requires a major increase in project delivery capability.

Posted on February 25, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The Australian Defence White Paper 2016, released today, will require a major increase in project delivery capability across defence.   For the first time, an integrated approach to capital investment planning is being used which will provide the framework for a more coherent and efficient approach to managing the development of future Defence capability. However, whilst a single investment program will reduce the risk of incomplete or fragmented approaches to investment, there will be a corresponding need to seriously ramp up capabilities in program[1] and portfolio management.

Coupled with a more complex (but potentially beneficial) management environment, there is also a major increase in the volume of projects and programs with an expenditure of approximately $195 billion (in today’s terms) planned for the next decade. Some of the projects and programs in the pipeline include:

  • Increasing the submarine force from 6 to 12 regionally superior submarines with a high degree of interoperability with the United States.
  • Three Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers (under construction).
  • A new class of nine future frigates.
  • New replenishment vessels.
  • More capable offshore patrol vessels,
  • New manned and unmanned aircraft for border protection.
  • A new large-hulled multi-purpose patrol vessel, the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Protector.
  • The F-35A Lightning II program.
  • Twelve E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft.
  • More air-to-air refuellers will be acquired to support future combat, surveillance and transport aircraft.
  • New personal equipment for soldiers.
  • A new generation of armoured combat reconnaissance and infantry fighting vehicles, as well as new combat engineering equipment.
  • A new long-range rocket system to further enhance fire power,
  • Armed medium-altitude unmanned aircraft to enhance surveillance and protection for the land force.
  • Extending the life of and acquiring new weapons and equipment for the amphibious ships.
  • New light helicopters will be acquired to support Special Forces operations.
  • Upgrades to ADF bases and logistics systems, including fuel and explosive ordnance facilities.
  • Upgrade training and testing facilities, health services and information and communications technology.
  • Air lift capability will be increased to comprise 8 heavy lift C-17A Globemasters with additional heavy lift aircraft to be considered in the longer term, 12 upgraded C-130J Hercules, 10 C-27J Spartans and 10 CH-47F Chinook helicopters. Sea lift capability will be strengthened by extending the

Add the White Paper’s commitment to Australian industry involvement in most of these projects and the volume of work that will require effective project governance, management and controls becomes apparent. To download the white papers see: http://www.defence.gov.au/WhitePaper/

Fortunately Australia already has an effective forum focused on improving the capability of government and industry to govern and control its projects and programs.  The Project Governance and Controls Symposium, hosted by the University of Mew South Wales Canberra (ADFA), is focused on developing this capability and providing a forum for exchanging learning and ideas.  The 2016 Symposium is scheduled for May 10th to 12th, see: http://www.pgcs.org.au/

The Australia government has laid out the plans, its up to the project management profession to realise the intent, effectively and efficiently[2].   Watch this space…….

 

[1] Where the term ‘program’ is used to mean a series of projects (of very different types) managed together to achieve benefits that would not be available if they were managed separately. See: www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1022_Program_Typology.pdf

[2] Improving the project delivery capability of Australian government departments is the focus of the separate Shergold report, see: /2016/02/20/the-shergold-report-calls-for-better-governance-and-better-project-controls/

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Construction CPM -v- PGCS

Posted on February 10, 2016 by | Leave a comment

We have just returned from a very enjoyable and successful trip to New Orleans for Construction CPM and now its time to focus on making our Project Governance and Controls Symposium (PGCS) in Canberra equally successful!

Construction CPM is probably the world leading event for project scheduling tools and advances in the field of major project scheduling. There were nearly 300 delegates, speakers and partners attending events over 7 days (the Construction CPM conference was 3 days in the middle).  The papers we presented were:

The emerging trends in New Orleans were firstly risk, new tools and many papers on the challenge of uncertainty and surprisingly ethics and stakeholders (more on these later).

Project Governance and Controls Symposium (PGCS) is designed to enhance the connection between governance and project controls in government department and corporations. It’s too soon to identify the trends that will emerge in May but we already have an impressive line up of Keynote Speakers. See more at: http://www.pgcs.org.au/

Both events have an emphasis on building knowledge through networking and social events.  However, the PGCS program, which includes a reception in the ADFA Officers Mess pales in comparison to Construction CPM.

Some of the things you will not see or experience in Canberra include:

Plated hot breakfasts starting at 6:30am with the first presentations at 8:00am (we run a more ‘civilised’ program starting around 9:00am……).

Our own Mardi Gras Parade……

 

 

 

 

 

The Konstruction Krew consisting of 250+ project controls professionals following a jazz band (complete with police escort and waving umbrellas) in their own Mardi Gras Parade through the French Quarter to Bourbon Street.

Last drinks and a locally rolled cigar at the Bourbon Heat from 9:00pm to 2:00am (if you have the staying power) When I bailed out at midnight, Bourbon Street was still going strong!!

A totally different definition of ‘Float’ – several of the official Mardi Gras Parades – each organised by a different ‘Krew’ passed in front of our hotel in Canal Street.

Charmaine Neville and her band playing inthe conference ‘Jazz Club’ from 9:00pm……..  PMOZ was renowned for its parties – Construction CPM is at least as good! In total there were 11520 ounces of alcohol consumed at the official events (plus cash purchases).

One final ‘only in New Orleans’ – ice cream daiquiris in the place they were invented……

Add  4 Keynote Speakers, 79 Breakout Sessions a mock trial, pre-arranged dinners with ‘5 new friends’ each evening and you have an intensive enjoyable learning experience.

The next Construction CPM is earlier then usual, December at the Swan Resort, Walt Disney World, Orlando Florida.

Our PGCS Symposium in Canberra will be a bit more subdued (after all there is only one ‘New Orleans’).  Where we will be as good, if not better, is in the quality of the speaking program.  PGCS speakers already confirmed include Lisa Wolf of Booze Hamilton Allen, Melinda Penna of Telstra, and Kim Terrell of Department of Human Services.  For regular updates on the progress of PGCS  see:  http://www.pgcs.org.au/

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