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Conference

Defence Project Management Conference 2005

Following on from the publication of the Project control report a conference was held by RUSI and the NAO to explore some of the themes of the report in more depth. The conference explored how project based organizations can move from being ‘surprised’ to find that things are not going well, to being ‘controlled - but reactive’.

The conference explored how theory could be translated into practice:

• How do we establish common goals, objectives and realistic project targets?
• How can project stakeholders avoid the ‘nasty surprises’ of schedule slippages, budget overruns and technical failings?
• How do we benchmark what ‘acceptable’, ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ project management should be?

The conference examined how organisations can progress from ‘hindsight’, the default stage of maturity, through to ‘insight’, where many organisations would like to be, moving forward to ‘foresight’, where all the investment in leadership, people, processes and systems comes together to enable organizations to be proactive and predictive

Together, the NAO and RUSI hope to further explore how we can turn theory into practice; both through this forum, as well as smaller future ‘workshop’ type events.
Summary

There were a large number of speakers during the two day conference and there were many excellent presentations. A number of themes were covered and these have been summarised into the three key areas. The comments are followed by some of the questions that arose from them. We hope it will be useful as an ‘aide memoire’ in generating initial comments for the discussion forum. Please feel free to invite interested friends and colleagues that didn’t attend the conference to participate.

Leadership, Organisation and Behaviour - Delivering project performance through a behavioural environment that fosters efficiency and effectiveness through leadership and team work.

• Finding the right people with the right skills is vital to project success.
• A lack of appropriate training hampers any real improvement in project delivery. The development of in-house project managers is critical to achieving a good project management system.
• Openness and transparency in the relationship between client and customer is vital.
• Client and customer must share the same vision of success.
• ‘Work together, grow together’ – Behaviours should be incentivised and encouraged through building an interactive relationship with shared risks and benefits.
  • “Poor projects don’t plan to fail, they simply fail to plan”.
  • How can we make sure contracts reward collaboration not conflict?
  • “Project management is about dealing with unexpected problems”
  • What are the key skills required to deliver projects successfully? Are they currently available to the MoD and industry?

Processes - Process will always affect performance. The way in which you do something will always effect the outcome.

• Partnering arrangements promote a strong relationship between client and customer through open financial management, joint control of spending and joint working methods.
• Culture needs to be actively led so that it leads to openness and transparency between parties.
• It is important to create the right ‘win-win’ environment where people motivate themselves.
• Change management skills are crucial if deep-rooted cultures are to be changed.
  • Is the cultural aspect of project management often one that is overlooked?
  • Are processes and systems really essential to successful project management? After all, we have been doing projects successfully for hundreds of years without them.
  • Is partnering the future for ALL projects? Is it better suited to some projects than others?
  • What are the practical issues/problems with changing some of the UK’s embedded organisational cultures?

Programme Management - Achieving a balanced portfolio of risk and return with controlled investment in technology and resource to underwrite project performance across a business is easier said than done.

• Effective supply chain management and sight of the supply chain is important.
• There must be clear structures and boundaries to the programme that both sides understand.
• There is a need for collaborative contracting and programme management
• Information flows between client and customer must be well managed.
• Flexibility should be maintained in a programme so as to exploit new opportunities as they arise.
• Earned Value Management can be used as an effective risk management tool.
  • What role does technology play in project management?D
  • Do people have the necessary skills required to use project management tools.
  • What are the implications for industry that may have many projects with different management tools?
  • What can we learn from other industries?
  • Is the MoD confined in areas industry is not? (Repeatable buying cycles for example).
  • Can risk mitigation can be more expensive than the cost savings it may bring?

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