Monday

Tag Archives: Project Management Conferences

The PM College of Scheduling Conference and Membership

Posted on April 6, 2016 by | Leave a comment

The Project Management College of Scheduling is now officially open for business.   As you may already know, a group of us led by Jon Wickwire and Stu Ockman joined together to found the Project Management Institute College of Scheduling in early-2002.  A dozen years later, a new group (including me and many of the leaders of the former College) founded its successor, The Project Management College of Scheduling (PM-COS).   Subsequently, the PM-COS has completed the formalities necessary under USA law and is now officially open for business.

The role fulfilled by PM-COS is intended to be quite different to most member based organisations, focused on creating knowledge and capability in the scheduling profession.  As a member, you will:

  • Be a part of creating the centre of excellence for the advancement of scheduling and project controls throughout the world
  • Collaborate with other top schedule professionals, consultants and experts in identifying and instituting best practices on your projects
  • Help develop standards in all areas of scheduling including specifying, preparing, updating, software, claims, training and research
  • Provide education and training to promote accurate and ethical scheduling
  • Join in a dialog with software developers to foster implementations of new, innovative features in upcoming releases
  • Participate in mentoring the next generation of scheduling professionals

If sharing ideas and giving back to the profession get you excited and you’d like to be a part of our journey, why not Join Us now.  And, whether or not membership in the College is in your future, we’d love to have you with us at our annual conference, May 15th-18th in Chicago.

The Project Management College of Scheduling Annual International Conference, Scheduling the Future, will be held on the 15th to 18th May at the Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile.  This is a terrific opportunity to:

(1) share ideas,
(2) see old friends and make new ones and
(3) participate in this year’s premier planning and scheduling event.

We have a terrific technical program offering 14 Professional Development Units (PDU’s), with speakers and panel discussions planned to give everyone a chance to participate.  In addition, we have a social program with a Sunday night vendor reception, Monday night Gala Dinner and Tuesday night free for a night on the town.  We’re also planning a golf tournament Wednesday afternoon.

Don’t forget to check out the conference program, and drop by our website, http://www.pmcos.org/, to sign up now.  We’re offering a discount for PMCOS Members and another for early member-registration.  Finally, make your hotel reservations directly with the Hyatt Magnificent Mile at their website.  This may be the most important part since we’re visiting during peak season and the hotel has reserved a limited number of rooms for the conference.

We’ve got a lot planned, and you can help us make it a success!

Leave a comment

Posted in Project Management Conferences, Scheduling

Tagged , , , , , ,

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in Governance, Project Controls, Project Management Conferences

Tagged , , , , , ,

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/

Leave a comment

Posted in General Project Management, Governance, Project Controls, Project Management Conferences

Tagged , , , , , , ,

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/

Leave a comment

Posted in Project Controls, Project Management Conferences, Scheduling

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Directing for Performance. The AICD moves beyond conformance.

Posted on December 12, 2015 by | Leave a comment

The Australian Institute of Company Director’s (AICD) inaugural Australian Governance Summit 2016 focuses on ‘directing for performance’. The summit will explore beyond compliance to frame governance as a fundamental driver of performance outcomes.  A view we strongly support. For more information see: http://www.companydirectors.com.au/ags

The AICD have also identified a range of challenges and ‘disruptors’ that will affect organisations in 2016 presenting opportunities to organisations that can adapt and exploit the situation and threats to those who are slow. The vast majority of the threats and opportunities involve the rapidly changing digital economy which will require a radical change in the way most organisations integrate ICT into their businesses. Rather than being an enabler of business, in a connected world IT will increasingly be the business.

The Gartner IT Hype Cycle.
See: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819918

One of the major challenges for organisations of all types identified by the AICD is a chronic lack of IT skills among Board members, with many boards populated by Directors who believe the digital economy will not affect their organisation because that are in the (fill in the gap) industry, not the IT industry.  The simple fact of life in the 21st century is that it does not matter if you are in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, personal services or any other business the successful organisations will be driven by the creation and use of information. Successful organisations will be able to find and use the ‘right information’ from the ever increasing torrent of ‘stuff’ being generated minute by minute:

Recognising the challenges and opportunities is one thing, adapting organisations to benefit from the changes is another!  What’s missing from the AICD evaluation this year is a focus on the central role of governing projects and programs to deliver the performance outcomes. Every change needs a project or program to create the ability to change backed up by organisational change capabilities to realise value.

Governing for change is the focus of ISO 21505, a project I’ve been involved with for the last 6 years, due for publication late 2016. It is also the focus of the annual Project Governance and Controls Symposium (PGCS), held in Canberra each May; see: http://www.pgcs.org.au/.

The challenge for organisations of all types and sizes is to adapt their governance and management structures to exploit the rapidly changing world.

Leave a comment

Posted in Governance, IT Project Management, Project Management Conferences

Tagged , , , , , ,

PGCS 2015 is declared an outstanding success

Posted on May 23, 2015 by | Leave a comment

The outstanding success of the 2015 Project Governance and Controls Symposium (PGCS), held in Canberra last week, builds on 25 years of similar events and has been the subject of a news story posted on the APM website (UK) about Steve Wake’s travels to Australia and his presentation at the PGCS:  https://www.apm.org.uk/news/apm-chairman-highlights-contribution-project-controls-global-scale

L to R: Kym Henderson (PGCS), Yvonne Butler (AIPM), Steve Wake (APM) and Pat Weaver (Mosaic)

The PGCS is designed to make the connection between organisational governance and project controls.  Project controls cannot operate effectively without the protection of senior management. Frank and fearless reporting of status and issues cannot be assumed if the middle levels of management have the capability to restrict negative information.  Conversely, executive management decisions depend on accurate and realistic assessments of risk, schedule and cost.  Creating a culture where this type of information is not only available but accepted and used properly is the key governance issue within the project, program and portfolio domain.

To facilitate this objective, the PGCS invites prominent international and Australian speakers to its annual conference, and then works to build connections and make the knowledge available through both personal contacts and the resources section of the www.pgcs.org.au website which now has all of this years presentations uploaded.

You may have missed the Symposium, but you, and everyone on the project controls and governance communities are invited to make use of this resource, join in the conversation, and start planning for the 2016 Symposium, scheduled for the 11th and 12th May 2016.

Leave a comment

Posted in Project Management Conferences

Tagged , , , , ,

Project Governance and Controls Symposium (PGCS) Canberra

Posted on April 26, 2015 by | Leave a comment

Four years ago I was looking for a name to describe the governance and controls ‘conference’ we were intending to spin out of the PMOZ conference.  There appeared to be a real opening for a ‘focused event’ looking at the mutual interdependence and almost symbiotic relationship between governance and project controls, and Canberra seemed to be the ideal location.

The synthesis between good governance and effective controls is obvious, if not well understood or implemented:

  • Project controls cannot operate effectively without the protection of senior management. Frank and fearless reporting of status and issues cannot be assumed if the middle levels of management have the capability to restrict negative information.
  • Conversely, executive management decisions depend on accurate and realistic assessments of risk, schedule and cost. Creating a culture where this type of information is not only available but accepted and used properly is the key governance issue within the project, program and portfolio domain.

Finding a name was a different challenge….

The first bit was easy if the KISS principle is applied.  ‘Project governance and controls’ – we knew the program was intended to cover a lot more than just ‘projects’; at a minimum, programs, portfolios, benefits realisation and change management were in the mix but can all fit under the general umbrella of ‘projects’.

More challenging was deciding on what type of event we wanted and therefore what name to use……   Symposium is a slightly old fashioned word but it has a long history and a quite specific meaning that fitted perfectly with the type of event we were planning.

The modern definitions are a good starting point:

  • A formal conference or meeting at which several specialists deliver short addresses on a topic or on related topics or a collection of essays or papers on a particular subject by a number of contributors. Fits perfectly, we have a clearly defined topic, internationally recognised experts, and after May, will have most of the presentations from the last four symposia indexed and freely available on our website.
  • A social gathering at which there is a free interchange of ideas or a convivial discussion. One of the key elements in the PGCS design is facilitating the exchange of ideas both within Australia and with the wider international community.

The origins of the term are slightly less focused on knowledge transfer and learning.   Symposium originally referred to a drinking party or convivial discussion, especially as held in ancient Greece after a banquet (and notable as the title of a work by Plato).

Certainly in the late 16th century a ‘symposium’ denoting a drinking party: via Latin

  • from Greek sumposion, from sumpotēs ‘fellow drinker’,
  • from sun- ‘together’ + potēs  ‘drinker’.

The annual PGCS reception at the ADFA Officers Mess fits here although we do expect professional behaviour. The reception flows on from the conclusion of day one’s formal presentations – the hot topic for discussion this year should be the ‘One Defence’ presentation by Ms. Roxanne Kelley, accompanied by Air Vice Marshal Neil Hart.

After the reception, here is plenty of time for visitors to Canberra (not to mention locals) to move ‘down town’ and enjoy one of the many excellent restaurants in Civic or further afield. Whilst not a formal part of the conference, I can recall a number of memorable evenings for the first three years and I’m looking forward to what eventuates this year…… (but reporting on attempts, if any, to emulate the ‘Ancient Greek’ version of ‘symposium’ is proscribed by Chatham House Rules).

Certainly the three events to date have lived up to the modern concept of a ‘symposium’ and have demonstrated that both ‘governance’ and ‘controls’ can be usefully discussed in a convivial atmosphere.

It’s not too late to sign up for the next PGCS, hosted by Platinum Sponsors, UNSW Canberra; the symposium will be held at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) on the 6th and 7th May, more information see: http://www.pgcs.org.au/

Leave a comment

Posted in Governance, Project Controls, Project Management Conferences

Tagged , , , , ,

Project Governance and Controls Symposium

Posted on June 24, 2014 by | Leave a comment

A brief summary of the experiences of one of our outstanding 2014 keynote presenters, Mark Phillips, can be found at:  http://reinventingcommunication.net/2014/05/13/observations-on-australia-and-the-pgcs/

Watch this space for news on the 2015 Symposium……

Leave a comment

Posted in Project Management Conferences

Tagged , , , ,

PGCS #2 – the importance of communication

Posted on May 11, 2014 by | 1 comment

A consistent theme running through many of the presentation at both the Project Zone Congress  in Germany and the Project Governance and Controls Symposium  in Canberra was the importance of effective communication. This is particularly so when dealing with complex projects involving ‘teams of teams’ many of which may be focused on ‘their objectives’ ahead of the overall project.

Mark Phillips  a keynote speaker at  PGCS highlighted some of the concepts in his new book ‘Reinventing Communication: How to Design, Lead and Manage High Performing Projects’.  Several of the concepts align closely with our views.

The first ‘reinvention’ we fully agree with is the importance of in-person communication – in-person allows energy top build within the communication and facilitates knowledge development by the parties to the communication!  Remote communication is limited to knowledge transfer (see more on communication theory).

More important is the need to design your project’s organisation to allow success to be created. The hierarchy of design is:

  • Setting the right governance systems, policy and regulations
  • Designing the organisation structured to facilitate communication
  • Developing the people and the networking environment
  • Encouraging open, effective and fearless communication (frightened people won’t communicate bad news)

With the right communication structure and attitudes in place, innovation can thrive leading to problem solving and the creation of the outputs needed for success.  Conway’s law (1968) states that ‘that organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations’.  A fractured communication landscape leads to disjointed project deliverables.

With communication central to success, one of the key strategic intents of the project design should be to engineer an effective communications environment and then to measure the effectiveness of the communications taking place.  However, when setting KPIs it is important to measure the effectiveness of the communication, not just the volume!

This is not easy, some of the challenges associated with creating an effective communication environment are discussed in this RSA Animate video – Re-Imagining Work!

1 Comment

Posted in Communication, Project Management Conferences

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

PGCS 2014 Update – I’ve been proved wrong!!

Posted on May 7, 2014 by | 1 comment

The Project Governance and Controls Symposium 2014, Canberra, is in full swing with wall-to-wall interesting presentations!

The focus of this post is the presentation by Stephan Vandevoorde on the work he is involved in at Ghent University, Belgium focused on developing  processes for the validated testing of project control tools entitled ‘If Time is Money, then Accuracy is Important’.

The problems with studying the effect of project control processes in live projects are many, the most significant being:

  • The control function generates information that influences management action causing different outcomes.
  • The ‘Hawthorne Effect’ where people being ‘observed’ change behaviour because they are being observed.
  • The uniqueness of each project, its team dynamics, luck, and the overall operating environment making replication of an ‘experiment’ difficult.

As part of their on-going work to validate Earned Schedule (ES) the Ghent team have developed a set of project networks using different topologies to emulate schedules ranging from those that are largely sequential, through to those that have a high level of parallel working.  The models are updated with a range of 9 different progress options leading to a total of 2.8 million unique data sets. This resource provides a unique test bed for evaluating the effectiveness of various predictive and preventative tools and techniques.  For more on this valuable resource, which is available for research, see http://www.or-as.be/research/database

One of the earlier studies (on a smaller simulation) focused on testing the effectiveness of various techniques in predicting the final schedule outcome of a project. And this research has proved me wrong!  In a blog post following last year’s PGCS ‘Earned Schedule comes of Age’  I lamented the fact that a detailed study proving Earned Schedule (ES) was significantly better at predicting project completion than the traditional Earned Value SPI had not taken the extra step and also demonstrated its predictive effectiveness compared to traditional CPM.  My paper Why Critical Path Scheduling (CPM) is Wildly Optimistic highlights the issues but lacks statistical validation.  As it happens, the ‘missing’ studies had been done and the outcomes presented by Stephan showed the results of a 2008 study by Prof. M. Vanhoucke (also of Ghent University) that demonstrate the superiority of Earned Schedule as a predictive tool designed to complement the true focus of CPM which should be the optimisation of resources and workflow (rather than the projection of the overall project completion – for more on this read my paper).

So the basic research has been done, the results are conclusive and based on the research the effective controlling of projects needs a combination of CPM, EV and ES for optimum results!  The research frontier is moving towards effective early indicators such as the ‘P factor’ and intervention and with the data tools now available, statistically  significant analysis becomes feasible.

With the steady stream of papers validating Earned Schedule, I hope the flow of misleading information from a few die-hard traditionalists in the USA is finally extinguished and comments from leading authors such as Quentin Fleming and Joel Koppelman in the  4th Edition of ‘Earned Value Project Management’ (2010), that ‘The authors do not endorse [earned schedule]. Nor have they ever read any scientific studies that support [it]’ disappear.  It really does not matter what Fleming and/or Koppelman have bothered to read, making misleading statement like this helps no one.

The challenge is developing tools and techniques that help manage projects in an environment of increasing complexity – and as one of the other presenters, Stephen Hayes from the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM), traditional tools such as CPM and EV are important, but simply not sufficient in the emerging domain of complex project management, or  as my paper to the PGCS suggests, Agile projects.

1 Comment

Posted in EVM & ES

Tagged , , , , , ,