Project Management Q3 Sep 2019

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PETER TAYLOR, CONSULTANT Change leaders today need to embrace this more social, decentralised and collaborative world. » p4

MELANIE FRANKLIN, CHANGE MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE You must start with the business value, not the solution. » p6

ASSOCIATION FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT This technological revolution will drive the evolution of the project profession. » p8

Project Management BUSINESSANDINDUSTRY.CO.UK

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Time to embrace new ways of working The last several decades have seen the emergence of a project-based approach to everything from manufacturing and construction to software and medical devices.

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r iven by te ch nolog ic a l advances in such areas as automation and artificial intelligence, we can see project-based approaches demonstrated by organisations as diverse as music streaming pioneer, Spotify, and global electronics giant, Haier, and in enabling the gig-driven unicorns like, Lyft, Uber, TaskRabbit, and Airbnb.

These are the world’s new ways of working. Here at PMI, we recognise that this integration of strategy and execution¬, physical and digital approaches, and speed and precision is taking hold in broader, more sophisticated ways.

More and more, work is organised around a series of defined tasks and workers are being organised accordingly. They are grouped – and regrouped as needed – according to the knowledge, experience, and capabilities they bring to specific projects. Enterprises, organisations, and governments of all sizes, and in all sectors, are rethinking how work gets done.

Teams are built for tasks and must be agile Esteemed thought leader, Roger Martin, one of the world’s top management thinkers, has called this ‘projectisation.’ Executive Antonio-Nieto Rodriguez, whose

resume spans GlaxoSmithKline, BNP Paribas Fortis, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, describes this as ‘The Project Revolution’ in an incisive book published earlier this year. Both Martin and Rodriguez are describing a powerful organisational/institutional/enterprise paradigm shift.

What Martin, Rodriguez, and progressive leaders recognise is that the disruptive impact of new technology has rendered formerly best-in-class practices too slow and static; that traditional hierarchies can now be fatal to an operation; and that next-generation knowledge workers increasingly are less interested in lifetime employment (itself an anachronism) than in fulfi lling, engaging assignments that allow them to build skills and experiences they can take anywhere.

A flexible working approach may come with its own set of challenges This shift in approach is not without challenges for organisations. How do they best mesh the efficiency of linear systems with the agility demanded by digital processes? What are the most important skills to enable success?

Which longstanding assumptions and ‘best practices’ will need to be shelved – and what new rules should be embraced in their stead?

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So how do other organisations embrace this new project-based global economy and structure themselves accordingly?

• Leadership: Managing everything from big organisations to small teams will require new perspective and insight, as expectations of stakeholders on all sides shift and intensify • Organisational structure: As standard systems give way to more creative and varied processes, the range of structures and how best to operate within them will diversify -- leading to a wider range of challenges and greater opportunities • Transformation: Moving from one system to another is never easy, yet is increasingly required. Making these shifts successfully, efficiently, and fluidly will determine success… or something less • Careers: Skill-building has long been an imperative, but the ongoing growth required by our new age puts new pressure on individuals to guide themselves.

Lifelong learning systems need to be more deeply embedded in the structure and practice of work in the years ahead

SUNIL PRASHARA President and Chief Executive Officer, PMI

Flexible working offers freedom to leaders within organisations While these new ways of working raise challenges, they also offer liberation. Once leaders start thinking of their entire organisation as a series or a portfolio of projects that deliver value to stakeholders, they have much more flexibility in how they hire, train, assign, schedule, understand, and retain the workforce – for today AND tomorrow.

There are a l ready nu merous examples of how ‘projects’ deliver value. Both operational teams and manufacturing teams are largely structured around taking products to market. Law firms are structured around cases. Consulting firms are structured around client engagements. Advertising agencies bring the right combination of talent together to craft winning campaigns.

O p e r at i n g i n a g lo b a l p r o ject-based economy requires new openness, new structures, and new skills. These specifics are something that PMI – where I have the privilege of serving as President and CEO – is dedicated to providing to its three million global stakeholders and the rapidly growing ranks of project professionals everywhere.

Many organisations are increas-

ingly looking to the project manager as the specialist who can deploy global technologies to help the company move faster. And, with the state of flux we see today and change in organisations, it means more strategic responsibility and even more operational responsibility for the project manager.

These new ways of working offer rich potential, as we optimise and extend the amazing achievements that technological advances have put at our fingertips. Let’s embrace that potential and take full advantage of all that projectisation offers to our society. Yes, it is a revolution – and PMI is proud to be leading it.

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The world of business agile demands contributions by the many PETER TAYLOR Project Speaker, Author, Coach and Consultant

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rofessor Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School has suggested that the world is entering something he calls “The Age of Agile.”

Organisations throughout history, Birkinshaw said in a speech at the Global Peter Drucker Forum in Vienna Austria, were of three types: bureaucracies, meritocracies and adhocracies.

The age of bureaucracy was where power was through hierarchy and managed by rules, the age of meritocracy was where power was through knowledge and guided by logical argument.

But now we are in the age of adhocracy where it is about action, about getting things done, and done fast. Experimentation and outcome achievement are key.

We are, I believe, in the age of the ‘business agile’ Business agile is the approach of providing greater flexibility and faster decision-making in the modern business world.

Organisations that aren’t business agile will take longer to succeed and be less flexible in this modern, demanding business world. They will likely fail at a faster rate too.

But that brings about a challenge with regards to supporting this rapidly moving world of change driven through projects.

We are in a world of complexity and criticality. Projects range across the globe, resources are remotely and virtually engaged, and leaders of change are tasked with delivering the best for their organisations, while those very organisations spin ever faster on their strategic arc.

Simplicity is key for success The answer, it seems, is not to meet complexity with complexity, but to meet it with simplicity. One way to do this is to harvest the power of the 'hive mind'.

By harnessing the collective power, thoughts, experience, knowledge and wisdom of the many, rather than the few, then better decisions can be made. And, by utilising the many business social technological platforms, these more-inclusive decision making processes can be faster than the more traditional 'meet/ discuss/agree/act' physical meetings of the past.

One example of the power of this can be found in a study by researchers at Unanimous AI and Oxford University. A human swarm (large group) was used to predict the outcome of all English Premier League games. Results showed that individuals achieved a 55% accuracy, but when they were acting as a collective, accuracy rose to 72%. Power is with the many.

Change leaders today need to embrace this more social, decentralised and collaborative world in order to succeed in the adhocracy age we are well and truly in, right now.

Reduce the processes, adjust the governance and believe, really believe, in the power of the people to deliver simple success in a time of complex demand.

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We are living through a critical time for delivering infrastructure MATTHEW VICKERSTAFF Interim CEO, Infrastructure and Projects Authority

It’s hard to ignore the challenges we are currently facing on some of our biggest infrastructure projects. We are seeing delays to Crossrail and increasing cost pressures on HS2. There’s also no doubt that the construction industry is in a fairly turbulent state.

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o what can be done to improve future delivery? We need to make sure we are learning the right lessons from previous projects and t hat we are apply ing t his knowledge going forward.

The IPA has been working closely with the Department for Transport, doing exactly this. Internal analysis on recent transport projects has highlighted what we can learn to prevent t he same problems occurring in future.

We found that, while the causes of failure in each case were different, there were some shared features that are important to learn from and apply.

We’ve found, what I believe, are the critical three areas we need to up our game and adapt our approach.

Behaviours and culture are more important than processes You can have the best, most well designed governance structure in the world but, really, it comes down to the behaviours and culture of the people in the system.

There are common traits that can lead to the wrong behaviours and decisions on major projects, such as having a blind commitment to succeed without a balanced perspective.

These behavioral patterns need to be searched for, recognised when they exhibit, and actively countered through calm and objective assessment of the evidence, and by instilling the right behaviours within and between organisations.

We can do this by: • Ensuring the right level of transparency as a way of

changing behaviour, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved; • Using levers such as control gates and assurance reviews as an opportunity to step back and consider things objectively; • Investing in contingency plans to help prepare for the most significant risks and enable better decision-making.

It’s also important to invest in building relationships between projects leaders in t he depar tment, delivery organisation and suppliers, so they can agree jointly on the best route to recovery when challenges arise.

We need to get real with optimism bias While it’s important we have enthusiasm and positivity in a project, it does need to be checked regularly.

We can do this by: • Establishing clear accountabilities and holding boards to account for delivering to cost and schedule; • Providing the right amount of space to enable delivery, without losing oversight; • Evolving sponsorship over the project lifecycle, as different stages require different skills and experiences. Just because a successful approach worked at one stage, it doesn’t mean it will in the next.

Most importantly, if there is evidence of delays or cost escalations, then the sponsors need to act

decisively, rather than just hoping the situation can be recovered later.

We must pay greater attention to systems integration Technology is becoming more and more critical to delivery, but it isn’t getting the same level of attention and focus as traditional construction and civil engineering.

This issue has been present in the rail sector for some time now, and this is only going to increase and grow in other sectors.

We can address this by: • Allowing enough time for system testing; • Having clear organisational accountability for systems integration; • Reducing risk by controlling complexity.

Perhaps most importantly, we need to invest in the people with the skills to manage these technological risks and attract them to the industry.

Embedding these lessons into the system We now need to up our game and make it fit for the future.

We must see these three challenges as opportunities and speak openly and honestly so we can address them.

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Businesses need to get agile in face of uncertainty An ‘agile’ approach was once the preserve of IT projects but not anymore – enterprises today need to foster company-wide business agility as Brexit and other threats loom.

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roject management success has long been driven by the right methodology and tools.

These days, an ‘agile’ approach is seen as the forward-thinking way – especially for IT projects. But, is just having the project managers armed for future success enough in the face of myriad business uncertainties today?

Businesses taking an ‘agile’ approach may have originated with IT projects, but increasingly it is seen as an essential strategy that can underpin the future success of an entire business.

Being business agile means organisations move much faster in terms of their portfolios, programmes, projects and deliveries in order to achieve strategic goals.

Maximising business agility across the whole enterprise is critical. Now is a time when organisations need to become more nimble in terms of decision-making and employee empowerment, as they brace for the toughest market challenges yet – disruptive technologies, skill shortages, plus landscape-shifting factors such as unpredictable weather due to climate change, the next global economic downturn and the turmoil of Brexit.

Agility across the enterprise To be truly business agile, organisations must have the strategies,

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processes and, most crucially, tools in place to ensure real visibility of how work is progressing at the top of the organisation, plus creative thinking and action by teams throughout the business. This ensures everyone can move rapidly to adapt to changes in their markets.

Orga n i sat ion s t hat embrace business agility often find that decision-making processes become more efficient, enabling ‘out of the cubicle’ thinking that may not otherwise have been possible. This empowers teams to collaborate more effectively, meet their objectives more easily and embrace new opportunities.

Turning theory into reality with stakeholder buy-in Buy-in and direction from the top and input from throughout an organisation are vital to companies achieving business-wide agility.

E mpower i ng tea m members and giving them the tools, they need to understand what’s going on in the business and contribute to decision-making breeds innovation, effective problem-solving and employee engagement.

Deploy ing tech nolog ies t hat promote more effective communication, collaboration and action across teams, business units and geographies

To be truly business agile, organisations must have the strategies, processes and, most crucially, tools in place to ensure real visibility of how work is progressing at the top of the organisation, plus creative thinking and action by teams throughout the business.” is critical to enabling true business agility in the face of uncertainties and impending changes in markets.

Research conducted by Clarizen in 2018 showed that 73% of executives say that what they need to foster business agility is collaborative software that ties communication to specific tasks — helping teams coordinate workflow, track progress, align goals, allocate budget and meet deadlines.

With Brexit looming, for instance, remote and disjointed working will become more common across Europe, as Britain leaving the EU will force many companies to shut offices and move parts of their workforces.

The research found that 70% of companies already have employees, departments and teams spread across several sites or working from home on a regular basis – and that figure will only grow after Brexit.

DAVID GOULDEN Product Director, Clarizen Steps to going agile To ensure people and teams are performing to their best potential in today’s fast-changing, technology-driven marketplace, enterprises need to take steps to: • Identify the right model for collaboration, work management and oversight across the organisation • Enable visibility at all levels by sharing information across teams – not just on a need to know basis • Align team goals with organisational objectives • Put in place, cloud-based technology that aligns teams and brings clarity to decision-making at all levels of the business – making it possible to meet the above goals, recognise industry changes, understand how the organisation needs to react, and have the flexibility to do so.

The agile future The number of business leaders, project managers and teams dealing with change management and digital transformation projects is certain to increase exponentially over the next decade, as the skills, values and habits of millennials transform the way

we work in terms technologies and flexible working patterns.

The result will be massive change in organisational structures and strategic goals. Key to these digital transformation journeys is the fluidity that comes from an agile workforce that can rapidly see how markets are evolving and respond to the changing needs of customers and tough new business conditions.

To learn more about how Clarizen can help your business become more agile go to clarizen.com

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What we want from project management tools in 2020 ELIZABETH HARRIN FAPM Director, Otobos Consultants

Why is your watch smarter than some project management apps? Elizabeth Harrin, author of Project Manager, has three challenges for the software industry.

1. Give us more data Projects generate huge amounts of data. We have forecast and actual dates, timesheets, budgets, databases of lessons learned, risks, issues and changes. And yet, mostly, what we know is what we've learned from experience. Searching historical project data and surfacing relevant information is tough. Big data and artificial intelligence features should be making it easier. For example, imagine reviewing estimates from the project team. As you enter their estimated effort for tasks, the software prompts you: Claire's estimates were 20% under on her last five projects. Would you like to add 20% to this estimate? Well, yes. Yes, I would.

I'd like project management software that makes it easy to make data-driven decisions based on relevant corporate knowledge - the kind of knowledge that leaves when an experienced project manager takes a job somewhere else. We should be capturing it and presenting it to new project managers so the organisation learns and adapts for more successful project delivery.

2. Make it useable My five-year old can give Alexa instructions and get the song or joke he wants.

I want project management tools with the same level of usability. Tools that work without a huge learning curve. I know what we do is complicated. The amount of icons and menu options on an enterprise tool shows me that. I want all the features, but I also want usability, mobile apps, integrations with other tools, voice commands and contextual help for when I don't understand what to do next. I want the detail for me so I can do my job effectively, and a simple interface for stakeholders who just need to see overall status.

3. Give us time Ultimately, project managers want to win back time from being in front of computers, so they can spend that time with the people who matter for the project. Culture and leadership are what makes businesses successful.

You can't automate stakeholder engagement or motivating a team. Project managers need to spend time on the things that really drive successful delivery, and that isn't entering data into software.

We could save hours of project time with software that supports project teams by automating what can be automated, making it easy to make the right decision and surfacing information when we need it.

The tech exists out there to move project management tools on leaps and bounds. Typically, we see improvements in consumer products (like Alexa) before those improvements make it into the average workplace. I hope it won't be long before we start to see some of the fantastic AI initiatives making their way into the tools we use to deliver projects - because as our project environments get more complicated and complex, I for one could do with all the time-saving, intelligent help I can get.

How to keep clients on track when project managing change MELANIE FRANKLIN Co-chair, Change Management Institute

Digital transformation is one of the most common types of change initiatives taking place in organisations. But, ‘digital’ means different things to different people, so defining the scope and requirements is a minefield of pressures from different parts of the organisation.

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void t hese problem s by applying benefits-led change, not requirements-led change.

This means you must start with the business value, not the solution.

By defining the benefits, you ensure your scoping conversations focus on what positive outcomes are to be achieved, preventing the scope becoming a mish-mash of ill-informed ‘wants’. This gives you a strong foundation for running your initiative as an agile approach, because you can use business value as the evaluation criteria against which every important decision can be taken: • Should X be included in the transformation?

• How important is X to the total success of the transformation?

• How much time and effort should be allocated to X? Benefits-led change focuses on the realisation of the benefits and recognises that there is no point undertaking the change unless it leads to measurable improvements.

How to make sure the desired change is necessary This approach needs a shift in thinking. It’s often easier to define things that we want because we are listing tangible things that we can imagine using. For example, it is easier

to state: ‘I need a drop-down menu pre-populated with the most common values for a customer order,’ rather than to step back and say why I want this. The ‘why’ is the benefit I’m trying to achieve, and means I have to work through a longer thought process: • A drop-down menu will reduce the time taken to process the customer order; • A drop-down menu will reduce the probability of entering the wrong information.

• Shortening the process – and making the process more accurate – means more orders can be processed by each member of staff.

• This increases productivity and cost efficiency.

• Shortening the process makes it quicker to on-board new staff, reducing training time, which reduces the cost.

Defining the ‘why’ requires thinking more deeply about what is needed, what ‘good’ looks like and how the desired result fits with the end-to-end running of the process.

Step-by-step processes clarify the benefits to clients Walk your customers through a stepby-step process to articulate all of the benefits of a digital transformation.

For example, you can use a ‘5 whys’ technique where, after each statement, you ask: ‘Why it is important?’

My favourite technique is the Benefits Dependency Network, which is a series of ideas that build upon each other. If the benefit is to simplify the process, it enables people to work out a simpler process takes less time, which leads to faster answers, which means more answers, which means higher productivity, leading to lower costs.

Of course, it is not easy to stop people giving you a list of features and functions that they must have, but you can help stay focused on the benefits by asking supplementary questions: • ‘How will this help you do your work more easily/accurately?’

• ‘Is there anything else that needs to be in place for this to be effective?’

Prioritise the benefits to stay on track during a project Once you have a range of benefits, ask those involved to rank them in order of priority. When additional requirements emerge as your transformation gets underway, you can evaluate what you are being asked to do against this benefits list, to know how important the new idea really is, and stay on track with your ultimate goal of improving the capability of your organisation.

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New project management process delivers quicker results PIP PEEL Chief Executive Officer, P2 Consulting

Businesses spend millions on big projects that do not deliver for years.

But there is a better option, called P2 Adaptive Delivery®. It prioritises tasks and adds business value early.

What is P2 Adaptive Delivery®?

For years, organisations have spent millions executing big transformation programmes that take years to deliver value.

P2 Adaptive Delivery® provides an alternative by balancing the best elements of traditional ‘waterfall’ methods around stability and scale, with trusted agile methods that bring pace and cultural benefits quickly. P2 Adaptive Delivery® is not simply a new framework; it represents a new attitude towards project management. Many large organisations, from finance to retail, are already adopting it.

Is it really necessary?

Yes. Businesses are demanding more speed and certainty when investing in major projects. Every stakeholder wants to see a quick return on investment and lower delivery costs. This can only be achieved if risks are managed more effectively and business disruption is diminished.

What’s the science behind the P2 Adaptive Delivery® framework?1 It’s all about improving stakeholder confidence that a project will deliver maximum benefits.

There are five key characteristics: 1) The business case is deconstructed to identify and prioritise which parts will add value and deliver benefits early 2) The project design is de-coupled to show which components can be executed in isolation 3) A flexible yet robust learning environment is implemented that drives predictability and reduces risk 4) A Sense-Respond-Adapt approach is taken to hunt down problems early and build in high-quality and focused decision points so everyone remains engaged

5) There is a commitment to building, testing and delivering outcomes incrementally and at pace.

Why are you so confident that this third approach to business transformation is the way forward?

Organisations are craving a better way of managing and running major projects. They have to react to disruptors (think Amazon and Uber) and move quickly and act differently to get real value. They need a fresh approach to launching into new markets or unveiling new products.

What are the key strengths of P2 Adaptive Delivery®?

It acts as a controlling ‘wrapper’ around both agile-based and waterfall-based methodologies.

In a waterfall methodology, the ‘increment’ acts as a substitute for the end-to-end project with

the key stages truncated within the timeline of that increment.

In an agile methodology, the ‘increment’ acts as a self-contained ‘feature pack’ with its own acceptance criteria and clear value statement. This allows the sprint approach to comfortably operate within the adaptive delivery system. Both methodologies can be adapted based on the learning milestones.

Are organisations ready for such a new approach?

Organisations need to ask themselves w hat they can deliver, within the first few weeks of a project, that will engage customers and staff.

For example, if you were building a new restaurant the value is in the kitchen, so, build the kitchen first. Train staff, research what people want to eat and get value early by launching a delivery service.

You can start to make money quickly to invest in kitting out

the fully functional restaurant, which might not be ready for months.

How will P2 Adaptive Delivery® evolve?

Data, such as AI and predictive analytics, will play an important role because organisations wan t t o m ake p r e dic tio n s and hunt down risks using the smallest of data sets to inform decisions and track progress.

Analytics can demonstrate how decisions taken by a project steering committee might either derail the roadmap or enrich the learning milestones.

WRITTEN BY: STEVE HEMSLEY

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Business Performance Analytics

Excellent execution

Set up for success

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Value-focused Design

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Reap the rewards

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Core transformation skills & experiences Delivery focused culture mixes with analytical curiosity

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Brexit or no Brexit, project management is the future of business RICHARD WHITE Events Director, Project Challenge

You’re probably sick of hearing about it, but Brexit really is the biggest challenge facing the UK (and the EU) since the second world war. But while the political elite play toy soldiers with the fortunes of millions throughout Europe, organisations of all types and sizes are in the firing line.

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hree years (and counting) since the referendum and no one, not even those in charge of the process, can predict the course of events. Will there be a hard Brexit in October or a last-minute deal? Even a second referendum, general election and revocation are all possibilities. Anyone who claims to know the future is telling porkies.

This is a thorny scenario for organisations in the private, public and charity sectors. Planning relies on sensible predictions about the future and, while under normal circumstances, contingency planning can alleviate some of the risk, these are anything but normal circumstances.

Yet, even when you extract Brexit from the equation, a vast number of uncertainties remain, from climate change to political upheaval to technological advancement. With each year that passes the world is becoming more and more turbulent and, with globalisation, shocks are felt around the world.

Survive Brexit with robust and adaptive project management Project management, then, stands alone as the essential tool for the future. Organisations that adopt robust and flexible methodologies, recruit skilled people and incorporate the best planning and communications tools can stay on course amid all of the change.

It is the key skill; and project managers must perform at the highest level if they want to secure future growth and prosperity while avoiding the pitfalls.

Project managers can’t stand still; they must get up to speed with the latest developments, advice and solutions, while drawing inspiration from the experiences of experts who have succeeded in the face of adversity.

The Project Challenge Expo Project Challenge covers Agile, digital, work management, cloud, the PMO, risk, devops and more besides, making it the essential event for executives at all levels of the career pyramid. There will be keynote presentations from government project chiefs, leading software vendors and renowned experts in methodology.

Robust yet flexible project management is the central theme of Project Challenge, the free-to-attend expo featuring 40 expert seminars covering all aspects of the project management universe.

More than 50 exhibitors will be showcasing the latest products and services to give project professionals the upper hand.

It takes place at Olympia London on 26 September.

Read more at businessandindustry.co.uk

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Successfully navigating an automated future of work DAVID THOMSON Head of External Affairs, Association for Project Mangement

The fourth industrial revolution (4IR or sometimes referred to as ‘industry 4.0’) is set to transform nearly every aspect of how we live and work and, in many areas, is already doing so. The astounding pace of digital change over the past decade will pale in comparison with the transformations promised by automation, artificial intelligence and robotics in the years ahead.

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roject professionals are often at the sharp end of delivering change, so it is important that profession is f lexible and adaptive. But how will change be achieved and who will deliver it?

Technologists, business leaders and policymakers, for sure: but at the heart of change will be a frequently overlooked group – project professionals.

This technological revolution will drive the evolution of the project profession in the years ahead and the emergence of what we have dubbed project management 4.0. In every sector, project professionals will be tasked with delivering the future and realising the benefits promised by new technologies. Whether it is implementing digital transformation programmes in business, digitising key government services, or building technology-enabled infrastructure, project professionals will have a key role.

Up to 800m global jobs could be replaced with technology New technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain and nanotechnology all carry huge potential. Combined, they will profoundly change how we work. In many cases, technology promises to

We must think critically about the likely implications of change.” replace human labour: as it advances, we will be able to automate increasingly sophisticated tasks.

A ndy H a ld a ne, t he B a n k of England’s chief economist, has said that as many as 15 million jobs could be lost to automation in the UK over the next decade. Globally, reports have suggested it could be 800 million.

But such forecasts are far from certain. As eye-catching as they are, they can risk overshadowing the enormous upsides and opportunities created by 4IR technologies. The automation of standard tasks will generate huge productivity gains, which could add billions of pounds to the UK economy.

Automation could create new, more exciting, creative jobs New jobs and new companies will be created, and they could be better, more engaging jobs, oriented around creativity and human relationships, rather than the execution of repetitive tasks. Seizing such opportunities is a critical challenge for project managers in coming years.

The project profession’s capacity

to provide expertise and leadership through these changes will be vital and we must think critically about the likely implications of change.

How we develop that capacity is at the heart of Projecting the Future,1 a ‘ big conversation’ that we’re leading throughout 2019 and would encourage you to get involved with.

We have to ask: how will 4IR affect the project profession over the next five to 10 years? How much of what project professionals do today could be adapted with automation and AI? How do we accelerate the adoption of new technology? Which parts of the profession’s work should remain human-led? And how do we ensure the profession has the knowledge, skills and leadership capacity to deliver value through the adoption of 4IR technologies?

It’s no exaggeration to say that the fourth industrial revolution could change nearly every aspect of our lives.

But the implications for project management are equally far-reaching.

Read more at businessandindustry.co.uk

1:We must think critically about the likely implications of change.”

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STAND OUT AND BECOME CHARTERED Join the community of proud project professionals making a difference to society by becoming a Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) with APM.

“Chartership represents a badge of honour and an independent recognition, something that I am 100% certain will really help with anyone’s progression in their career.”

Simon Maxwell ChPP MAPM Programme Lead, Dyson

Start your journey today at apm.org.uk/chpp MEDIAPLANET

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£170m to transform the construction industry OLLIE HUGHES Cofounder & Director, Digital Construction Week

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n 2011 the Government's Construction strategy set out plans to mandate the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) by 2016. At the time Paul Morrell, former Chief Government Construction Advisor referred to it as; a 'Trojan Horse' for change in the sector. The real aim was to get industry thinking about data, collaboration and digitisation.

When this bold strategy launched, apple's iPad had only just been released, Instagram was launched the year prior, and the UK's first 4G mobile service the year after. In 2011, ideas about using this type of technology on a construction site couldn’t be further from most people's imaginations. Many in the built environment still argue the benefits of BIM. But what's sure is the fact that technology, data, and innovation has had an everlasting impact on our sector and we're now working in an industry that will never be the same again.

16-17 October 2019, London Incredible advances in technology Excel Digital Construction are now being applied in our sector; Week is an industry leading drones, AI, robotics and much more. exhibition and events series Turning the heads of some of the dedicated to technology biggest tech companies in the world, and innovation in the built including Microsoft – whose HoloLens environment. DCW seeks to (among others) is now as common further educate and engage place in our industry as any other visitors through an extensive and even Boston Dynamics who have seminar programme covering started trialing their Spot 'dog' Robot core areas, including: Industry for use on construction sites.

Transformation, BIM, What's really exciting is that these Geospatial, Visualisation, innovations are genuinely helping Industry 4.0 and more. This change the way we design, deliver, and year, DCW will again provide manage built assets. The aim of the an insight into the future of Government Construction Strategy our industry and the tools was to improve industry. Eight years and trends that will shape our on, we're seeing genuine change – built environment. not just in our use of technology but the entire industry business model.

Last year, the Government launched the Transforming Construction Sponsored by Challenge with £170m of funding to help maximise the potential for change E X C E L L O N D O N 16 - 17 OC T 2019 in our sector. They'll be presenting at DCW this year giving you an insight in to the next four years and what it Read more at holds in store. digitalconstructionweek.com

10 BUSINESSANDINDUSTRY.CO.UK

Is there a job in the PMO* for you?

EILEEN J RODEN Consulting Director of PMO Learning Lead Author of P3O® Best Management Practice

As PMOs have become more prevalent in every industry and sector, the everincreasing variety of roles makes it one of the most exciting places to work within project and programme management (PPM).

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ot only do PMOs provide career oppor tun ities at all levels in the organisation, but they also offer the chance to work at the leading edge of the digital revolution.

For those with no project or programme management experience Those working in and around PMOs have spent many years fighting the traditional image of the PMO as a purely administrative support function or a starting point for a career in project management. Even though PMOs are so much more than this, there continue to be roles for those with no project management experience.

As a PMO Administrator or a Projects or Programme Coordinator, you will be able to work with some experienced project managers and learn the systems and processes associated with project delivery.

As you gain experience, there are opportunities to undertake delivery activities on behalf of the project or programme manager. You will also gain experience in the setting up and delivery of services (many incorporating a level of process automation) to the varied customers of the PMO. One of the rapidly increasing roles within the PMO is in relation to data analytics. Even if we don’t have a sophisticated project system, there is increasing recognition of the myriad data available that can be used to improve the predictability and success of projects. So those with technical skills can also fi nd a role in PMO.

For those with project or programme management experience The PMO is no longer a one-way street into PPM. For those with del iver y ex per ience, t he PMO provides the opportunity to support ot her proje c t a nd prog ra m me managers through a variety of services, including coaching and mentoring. Having delivery experience provides real credibility with project and programme managers.

The role allows you to see how the processes and systems can be tailored to be effective across different types and sizes of projects.

A key role of the PMO is the ongoing deve lop me nt a nd c ont i nuo u s improvement of the processes and systems that are required in PPM delivery. The role can provide opportunities to explore advancements along with emerging technologies.

For those with broad business experience We often describe an organisation as having two interlaced areas of focus – running the business and changing the business. The VUCA environment within which organisations now exist, demands an increasing level of change, which means, in turn, an increasing number of projects.

Many organisations are recognising that having a documented business process model is key to having a controlled transition to the new ways of working delivered by projects.

As the central body overseeing the changes being delivered into the organisation, the PMO is often the custodian of this process model and

therefore needs business analysis skills to help the organisation navigate from the old to the new while maintaining a coherent endto-end business model.

For those of us working within PPM, it is easy to forget that there are many people within the organisation (often at senior levels) who have not had experience of working in a project context. It is not unusual for the fi rst experience of PPM for a senior manager to be when they are appointed as a sponsor of one.

More and more organisations are looking to their PMOs to perform portfolio management in alignment with their organisation’s strategy.

Undertaking this role often includes facilitation of the development of the organisation strategy. Here, it is not project delivery experience that is key, it is real industry and business experience.

If you’re a senior operations manager, a portfolio management role in the PMO gives you the opportunity to use your knowledge of how the business works to ensure the right changes are being delivered to achieve the strategy in the right sequence.

Behaviours are key K nowledge and experience are u ndoubte d ly i mp or t a nt when moving to a role within the PMO. However, it is worth noting the recent Infrastructure and Projects Authority Report that highlights the importance of behaviours in project success. This also applies to those working in PMOs. Read more at businessandindustry.co.uk

*PMO is a generic term we use to cover Project Management Offices, Programme Management Offices, Portfolio Management Offices and Centres of Excellence (as well as the myriad other names used across the industry).

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Leaders must adapt to huge growth in project-based work

CHRISTOFFER ELLEHUUS CEO, Strategy Execution

Leaders are spending less time on operational tasks and more on project-based work, says project management training experts Strategy Execution, but do they have the right skills to deliver success?

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he world of work is changing from being operations-led to being increasingly proje c t- b a s e d, b ut org a n i s at ion s can struggle to change their leaders’ mindset.

Christoffer El lehuus, CEO at proje c t m a n agement t ra i n i ng experts Strategy Execution, says professionals and managers are less involved in tasks associated with running the business and more immersed in dynamic project-driven work designed to ultimately change the business.

“In the past, about 90% of leaders’ time was focused on operational tasks and only 10% on changing the business. That has now completely changed and 70% of time is spent on changing the business, which is the main driver of the project-based economy growth,” says Ellehuus.

“Digitisation is changing the nature of work and we estimate a 20% growth in project-based roles over the next decade.”

As an increasing amount of traditional, operational and repetitive jobs are digitised, employees’ remaining work will be focused on running various projects and finding innovative ways to ensure businesses remain competitive and sustainable.

Are organisations ready?

As companies become more global, net worked and complex, t heir leaders often lack the necessary adaptive mindset required in today’s work environment. In fact, 83% say this is the biggest barrier to future success.

“The situation is complex because things are changing so fast and everyone has to learn as they go along, but leaders must become better at managing projects,” says Ellehuus. “Many are grappling with what this shift means for individual employee’s jobs and to their organisations.”

He says leaders need a combination

of critical technical, creative and softer people skills and behaviours plus a good understanding of how their organisation makes money.

Understanding your own business purpose Ellehuus is also adamant that in this new world of work companies must understand clearly what their purpose is. Why do they exist and what difference do they make?

Priorities often change at any time during the year. A business m ig ht have to respond to t he actions of a competitor, for example.

As such, the big three- or five-year strategic plans have become less relevant, while the organisation’s purpose should remain unchanged as a guide to individual project priorities.

E l lehuu s s ays orga n i s at ion s can develop the right leadership mindset, but managers need to have the authority to act like a leader and learn from their mistakes.

They shou ld a l s o b e i nc ent iv ised to be more creat ive and adaptive.

Critical skillsets for the future Five top skill areas that organisations need to tackle to help their leaders, drawn from the results of the ‘Emerging Trends in ProjectBased Work’ study:

86% 86% 83% 83% 8/10

said leaders require stronger business skills felt leaders need help to develop a problemsolving mindset want more focus on building the right adaptive leadership

In a bid to improve project management training, Strategy Execution has partnered with Duke Corporate Education to deliver the Adaptive Strategic Execution Programme.

This is a combination of classroom and online courses that help industry leaders obtain the change management and project leadership skills necessary to execute the strategic projects that will drive their companies forward.

Sponsored by

felt project managers need to build a portfolio of management skills believe attention needs to be paid to improving softer interpersonal skills

Read more at strategyex.co.uk

1: Reference ‘Emerging Trends in Project-Based Work’ study here

Emerging trends in PMO Organisations of all sizes continue to respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution – the digital revolution that delivers innovations and breakthroughs at increasing speed and at the forefront of that response is project management.

LINDSAY SCOTT Director of PMO Learning Founder of PMO Flashmob & The PMO Conference

rogrammes and projects are an organisation’s approach to delivering change and as the change environment becomes i n c r e a s i n g l y V U C A (vo l at i l e , uncertain, complex and ambiguous), new ideas and approaches are needed to help adapt and flex the way projects are implemented.

The PMO is the part of the organisation that provides guidance and support to all those involved in the delivery of project and programmes - from senior executives to end users and customers.

The role of the PMO right now includes scanning the horizon; exploring new ideas; concepts; technology and frameworks that will help organisations to deliver change at pace while delivering the outcomes and benefits all their customers want.

saved on the repetitive elements of reporting and time-sheeting with homegrown bots.

Machine learning, with its ability to identify patterns, is already starting to find a role in lessons learnt and progress reporting. PMOs are starting to explore the technology and tools that can make AI a reality and take their role of providing guidance and support that step further. To make gains on AI it is intertwined with the next theme:

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What PMOs are exploring today The PMO today sees emerging trends MEDIAPLANET

that can transform how projects are delivered; how decisions are made; how to maintain control in projects while delivering faster, smarter, better, cheaper and easier.

The three latest trends that PMOs are currently getting to grips with: 1. Business agility and agile at scale Businesses continue to utilise agile frameworks and approaches in order to deliver projects faster. The PMO has been working on the need to incorporate projects delivered using an agile approach alongside the traditional waterfall approaches (hybrid approach), leading to new practices in governance; benefits management; risk management; planning and reporting.

W i t h a n e m b e d d e d hy b r i d approach becoming the norm, corporations now look to the next phase with an enterprise-wide agile

adoption. Business agility philosophies and mindsets lead to organisations being “adaptive, creative and resilient when dealing with complexity, uncertainty and change,” (Agile Business Consortium).

With myriad different frameworks available to assist with the adoption of business agility – collectively known as, ‘agile at scale’ – the PMO has a role to play in the education, adoption and successful implementation of what is arguably a big cultural shift for project management.

2. Artificial intelligence No longer just a concept that could change the workforce in the future, artificial intelligence (AI) and sub themes such as machine learning and robotic process automation are finding their feet in project management today.

The PMO is starting to explore how parts of the project management methods and processes can be automated – how time can be

3. Data science and predictive analytics The ideal role for any PMO is to provide the data, information and insights from projects and programmes so decisions can be made by the right people at the right time.

That’s insights that are real-time, based on clean, accurate data and delivered in a way that compels people to take action.

All of this relies on the ability to collect decent data; clean it, qualify

it and integrate it; be able to use it to make decisions today and predict what is coming down the line tomorrow, next month and next year.

The tools are available now, yet the skillsets of data scientists and analysts needed to drive them are not yet fully recognised or utilised in the project management environment.

The opportunity is there for the PMO to move from the passive role of data collector and monitor to the people who proactively provide insights into future outcomes; hopefully, more successful project outcomes.

Read more at businessandindustry.co.uk

BUSINESSANDINDUSTRY.CO.UK

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From best practice to next practice

Would you have the confidence to set project targets that had never been achieved in your industry? And would you know how to make sure they are hit?

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f you follow perceived wisdom in managing 'megaprojects', then Embraer's E-Jet E2 should not be flying until 2021. It entered passenger service in early 2018.

Reference Class Forecasting (RCF) is used to validate project estimates, particularly on public sector infrastructure projects, helping overcome the problems of Optimism Bias and Strategic Misrepresentation popularised by eminent Oxford Professor Bent Flyvbjerg. RCF seems sensible - ensure your estimate is consistent with the achieved performance of compatible projects.

Had Embraer - the world’s third-largest civil aircraft manufacturer - used RCF on the $1.7 billion E-Jet Upgrade project, it would not be flying yet.

Since 2000, new aircraft development projects followed a similar path - estimating a five-year project, then taking eight to ten years to finish! Boeing, Airbus, Mitsubishi and Bombardier all learned the hard way that it takes eight to ten years to take a new plane from concept to commercialisation. Embraer set themselves the target of five years.

But unlike their reference class, they hit their target and showed that RCF did not always give the right answer.

Five years!! How is that possible?

According to Edy Aparecido, senior

programme manager at Embraer in Brazil, the project had all the hallmarks of a difficult project.

The new plane had to meet tough performance targets that required new technology, new suppliers, and new approaches to manufacturing and supply.

So, what did Embraer do to beat the odds? Aparecido told me their most important change was how they planned their project and managed its execution. Embraer u s e d a pl a n n i n g a nd c ont rol approach known as ‘critical chain project management’ (CCPM).

Critical chain (not to be confused with critical path) simplifies how you plan and control projects, allowing the project team to focus on the work of getting the project done. Potential issues are flagged early, so the team can resolve them when they are small. The difficulty in using critical chain is that it does many things differently from project management convention, requires new habits to be learned and may not work w ith your expensive software system!

Embraer is now a member of an elite group that has discovered that by changing something that is often seen as trivial - how you plan and control projects - you can deliver significant performance improvement.

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What can we learn from Embraer?

"A couple of things intrigue me about the Embraer case," says Ian Heptinstall, Lead T utor on the University of Birmingham's Masters in Industrial Project Management programme.

Firstly, why has CCPM not been exploited by many more organisations when there are hundreds of case studies like this story from Embraer? Why are most project professionals unaware of CCPM? We in academia have some responsibility to raise awareness, as do project clients who claim they want to improve but won’t change how they procure and control projects.

Secondly, in a profession that is awash with 'good practice' recommendations, how do project leaders decide which practices help, which practices sometimes help, and which actually cause more harm than good? Would you have had the confidence to set a project target that had never been achieved in your sector like Embraer did? And to know what to do differently?

Projects - from Chaos to Control to Flow On our Masters’ degree, we use a very simple maturity model: ChaosControl-Flow. Performance improves

IAN HEPTINSTALL Course Leader, Masters in Industrial Project Management, University of Birmingham

as you move towards Flow.

The main PM Bodies of Knowledge, methods, and software focus on the first part of this transition - from Chaos to Control. However, if you want to move to Flow performance, you must stop some of the things that helped you gain control. You don’t improve project flow by simply doing more of the things you used to gain control over projects.

That is what Embraer did in the case study. RCF is a well-known estimating method, and it has an important role. But one of its drawbacks is that it can inhibit innovation and continuous improvement.

In Embraer’s case, they had been testing CCPM for a few years, and in 2013 when the E2 programme was launched, they were confident enough to use it on this megaproject.

They stopped using the techniques of Control, such as critical path planning, earned-value management, and fixed-price, arms-length contracting. And they replaced them

by Flow techniques, including CCPM. Heptinstall adds: “Scheduling and project control – where CCPM is relevant – is just one of the elements of project management that need different thinking when you develop beyond Control to Flow. Others include ‘hard’ aspects such as stagegate processes, procurement, and

risk management, along with ‘soft’ skills such as project leadership, collaboration, facilitation, and leading across contractual boundaries.

The University of Birmingham supports project leaders globally through their Masters in Industrial Project Management programme, a part-time postgraduate MSc qualification delivered by distance learning, developed in collaboration with industry.

Going beyond today’s common practices, graduates learn to assess and critique new and existing practices, as the foundation for a career in successful project leadership.

Sponsored by

Read more at birmingham.ac.uk/ipm MEDIAPLANET