A History of Project Management in 15 Years

In his presentation Stephen will look at some of the key anniversaries that we are celebrating in 2015 and link them back historically into key aspects of Project.

Biography

Stephen Carver, a seasoned raconteur and much sought after speaker whose unique story-telling style makes him a firm favourite with audiences, will demonstrate how and help us develop our own skills.

Stephen is repeatedly rated as one of the top lecturers at Cranfield School of Management where he lectures in project and programme management. He has hands on experience in almost all business sectors from banks to oil and from construction to law firms. Stephen has a reputation of taking complex management concepts and being able to distil them down into highly informative and fun lectures. He often uses fast paced and highly entertaining ‘storytelling’ techniques as a way of conveying information and ensuring it is retained for the future.

Unusually, for an academic, he has actually spent most of his working life in real business and still undertakes management assignments for many global organisations.

His attitude is ‘if you haven’t done it – you shouldn’t be teaching it!‘

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Improving Major Projects

Sir Tim Laurence KCVO, CB, ADC
Chairman, Major Projects Association [MPA]

Sir Tim will address #eVa20 conference on how to improve delivery and value for money on major projects

In a recent newsletter he writes in the “Letter from the Chairman” section …

“With the economy recovering, confidence returning and the May 2015 election, the prospects for major projects in the UK over the next year have seldom looked better. MPA’s short-term aim has been to help members position themselves for the anticipated expansion of work across the sector.

In the first half of this year, the Association has been tackling some of the ‘enabling issues’ – issues which help us get the structure of a project right from the start.

Indeed our first full day seminar of the year tackled ‘Project initiation – making the right start’. Later in the spring we debated how we might better evaluate the net benefit which major projects bring to the UK, and why their evaluation should be different to medium-scale and smaller projects. This is the subject of further analysis sparked off by that debate.

The ‘enabling issues’ theme continues with the Annual Conference topic of how we fund major projects, especially now that PFI is dead and PF2 has not yet fully caught the customer’s eye.

Other seminars have tackled: how we leverage international capability in UK major projects; how we cope with the stress of leadership in what can be a lonely world, especially at the top; and whether the UK has the capability and capacity to deliver the massive nuclear new-build programme needed over the next decade.

On 25th April MPA ran a very successful one day conference entitled “Determining and Delivering the BENEFITS of Major Projects and Programmes” See resources and reports – Major Projects Association [from past-events]”

Major Projects Association

When the Major Projects Association was established in 1981 the key objective of the Founders was to share their experience, knowledge and ideas about major projects – both successes and failures – to help others to avoid mistakes and to incorporate good practice, in order that future projects would be better initiated and delivered.

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Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Shake off the doubts and be a project leader!

Have you ever sat in a project meeting, worrying that eventually people will realise that you aren’t as informed or capable as they think you are?

Have you ever felt that you don’t really know what you’re doing on your projects and that one day someone will find out?

Imposter Syndrome isn’t a real medical syndrome, but it’s a convenient label for the self-doubt we feel from time to time. This presentation will share my personal battle with Imposter Syndrome. I’ll tell you my story, and show you how to identify signs of Imposter Syndrome. You’ll hear tips on how to overcome the self-doubts we suffer from as project leaders. You’ll go away with practical ideas to help you become a more confident leader – or to help those around you who suffer from self-doubt themselves.

Biography

Elizabeth Harrin, MA, FAPM, MBCS is director of Otobos Consultants Ltd, a project communications consultancy specialising in copywriting for project management firms. Elizabeth also works as a practicing project and program manager. She spent eight years working in financial services (including two based in Paris, France) before moving into healthcare.

Elizabeth is a PRINCE2, MSP and P3O Practitioner, and holds the ITIL Foundation certificate. She is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management and a member of PMI.

She is the author of three books about project management: Shortcuts to Success: Project Management in the Real World (which was a finalist in the Management Book of the Year Awards 2014), Social Media for Project Managers and Customer-Centric Project Management. Elizabeth has also produced several ebooks and an online course on project reporting.

She’s particularly interested in stakeholder engagement and team communications and now offers coaching to mid-grade project managers looking to improve their skills.

Elizabeth is the award-winning blogger behind A Girl’s Guide to Project Management, a specialist blog aimed at helping project managers communicate more effectively. She is widely published on project management topics and has contributed to numerous websites and magazines.

You can find Elizabeth online at www.GirlsGuidetoPM.com or on Twitter @pm4girls.

Social Media Links

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/pm4girls
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Elizabeth.Harrin
• GirlsGuideToPM on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/girlsguidetopm
• Google+: https://plus.google.com/117569303275355944594/
• Blog: http://www.GirlsGuideToPM.com

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Organisation. Culture. Diversity – OCD in Project Management

Organisation, Culture and Diversity – how do these critical people related aspects shape and influence the delivery of projects and programmes of work?

In a world of mergers and acquisitions and increasingly large mega projects that require the forming of multi-partied consortia, the creation of effective organisational structure and establishing a positive culture with a rich mix of individuals is extremely challenging.

My talk will explore the range of issues presented by ‘OCD’ for projects and businesses and how these impact upon successful outcomes.

Biography

“Louise Hardy, BSc CEng FICE CMgr FCMI is a programme manager whose most notable role was as Infrastructure Director for the Delivery Partner to the ODA for the design and construction of the Olympic Games.

A passionate civil engineer Louise has specialised for most of her career in the delivery of complex infrastructure projects (Olympics; High Speed 1; Transylvanian motorway project; Jubilee Line Extension) with an excellent performance record in delivering commercially successful and high quality results.

Louise now undertakes a portfolio of non-executive director positions, providing strategic input and advice to businesses and clients on managing projects effectively.

Most recently Louise was AECOM’s European project excellence director, driving for effective and profitable delivery across all business lines throughout Europe.”

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Governance is the key factor for project success

Martin is the owner and Managing Director of 3pmxl Ltd, a consultancy that specialises in helping organisations to transform their business using structured PPPM approaches.

He has over 30 years management consulting, change, project,  programme and portfolio implementation experience in both the private and public sectors, in the UK and internationally.

He has directed and contributed to a number of complex business change programmes to fundamentally reshape and improve business performance, often enabled by technology.  He has also led a number of assignments to improve an organisation’s capability to better manage portfolios, projects and programmes.

Martin is a mechanical engineer by training and an experienced project and programme manager having started his career in major capital project contracting in the petrochemical sector with Foster Wheeler.

He moved into consulting with The Nichols Group and thence to Impact Plus and Hitachi Consulting before starting 3pmxl, helping organisations to implement change in a more structured project and programme oriented way.

Martin is Chairman of the APM SIG on Governance.  This group has developed guidelines for Governance of Project Management, including ‘Directing Change’, ‘Governance of Multi-owned Projects,’  ‘Sponsoring Change’ and currently developing a guide for ‘Agile Governance’.  He has also previously been a committee member for the APM SIG on Portfolio Management.

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Constructing the Future

HS2 Ltd, the company designing and building Britain’s new high-speed rail system recently launched its Design Vision, a framework document to guide the work of its engineering, architectural and design teams to help make High Speed Two an exemplar national project.

Developed with the input of leading UK designers, the HS2 Design Vision aims to ensure that all aspects of HS2 will add up to create one transformational experience and that design is used effectively to achieve the ambitious social, economic and environmental goals for the nation.

There are three major themes in the HS2 Design Vision on People, Place and Time. The full vision can be found on the HS2: high speed rail site.

Biography

Jonathan joined HS2 as the Director of the Programme Management Office in January this year with specific responsibilities for programme management,  governance, management information, knowledge management and the Centre of Excellence.

With over 30 years’ experience in project delivery, Jon has held project-focussed and functional roles on major projects in the UK and overseas, including

• Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong where he led the fit-out contractor for the check-in and baggage reclaim areas

• and the Terminal 5 Project at Heathrow where he was responsible for the design and implementation of the full project control solution.

Most recently, he led the global project control function for a major sub-sea contractor in the oil and gas sector which was operating 85 projects in 13 countries around the world.  This involved the standardising project controls, including the design and implementation of a hierarchical global reporting dashboard.

Jon was originally a chartered quantity surveyor and moved into the field of project management and project controls early in his career.

He is an active member of the APM, and has participated in various special interest groups and conferences.

Jon is also a keen cyclist and can be found cycling in the Surrey Hills most weekends

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The Anti-Sponsor, and other Animals Difficult Stakeholders

Jake is a survivor of a hundred or so IT and Business projects and wants to share some things with the group!

Based loosely on his upcoming book, A Practical Guide to Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders, he will introduce some of the characters that populate real organisations including the Anti-Sponsor, the Maliciously Compliant Gatekeeper and the Mutinous Team.

His assertion is that to be an effective Project Manager you really need to understand social psychology before worrying about a project management methodology!

Biography:

Jake Holloway is from Xceed Group, who specialise in IT Transformations, Migrations and Change.  He first cut his project management teeth at Artemis (the PM software and consulting house) where he was Global Head of IT Project Management.  Subsequently he has largely worked in Digital Programme Management.

• Email: jake.holloway@xceedgroup.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeholloway
• Web: http://www.xceedgroup.com/

Organisation

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Every Board needs Programme Management Expertise

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The Interplay between Leadership and Diversity

This presentation will focus on the behaviours required of leaders to facilitate a change towards inclusive cultures in their organisation as well as, present LEAD³ – a leading-edge analytical tool that offers an integrated change management process for building global leadership and diversity capability.

Biography

Sylvana Storey is an organisational change management consultant, and a business psychologist.   The Managing Director of Global Organizational Integrators, Sylvana advises organisations and is a guest lecturer for several business schools.

She is the author of ‘The Impact of Diversity on Global Leadership Performance: LEAD^3’, published by Palgrave Macmillan in July 2014.  Sylvana can be contacted via her website, www.sylvanastorey.com

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Project Ethics – A Critical Path for Professional Project Management

In the presentation some core concepts of project ethics are defined and the basic idea behind the Project Ethics Tool (PET) is explained.

Also a brief overview of the creation of the IPMA Code of Ethics and Professional Ethics is given.

Biography

Dr Haukur Ingi Jónasson Formaður stjórnar MPM-náms, lektor / Head of the Board of the Master of Project Management (MPM) Program / Professor Háskólinn í Reykjavík / Reykjavik University

Haukur Ingi Jonasson (Cand. theol., University of Iceland; STM, PhD, Union Theological seminar); clinical training in pastoral counselling, Lennox Hill Hospital; psychoanalytical training, Harlem Family Institute New York City; is an assistant professor at the Reykjavik University School of Science and Engineering.

He heads the MPM (Master in Project Management) programme at the university. He is a psychoanalyst in private practice and a management consultant at Nordica Consulting Group ehf; As a consultant, his clients have included the energy companies, banks, hospitals, the government and other public and private organisations.

Link to Helgi Thor Ingasson

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