Murray Easton is a mechanical engineer by profession and a consummate leader by passion. His most recent assignment was as Executive Director of Murray & Roberts, overseeing the fabrication of two large coal fired power station structures in South Africa. He is especially skilled in building tight teams from diverse cultural groups who need to be consistently productive in complex environments.

Previous to this he was Managing Director of BAE Systems Submarine Solutions where he was responsible for bringing the Astute Class nuclear powered hunter killer submarines into affordability.

Described by others as ‘turnaround specialist’, Murray is no stranger to leading groups towards finding practical solutions to complicated problems. An accomplished industrialist, Murray was Chair of Babcock Facilities Management Ltd, comprising the Rosyth Dockyard, Babcock New Zealand Ltd and Babcock Defence Systems Ltd.

He has also held roles as Operations Director and Assistant Ship Manager at Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, and as Production Director of Cammell Laird Shipbuilders at Birkenhead, on the Mersey.

Murray Easton was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2006 and a CBE in the 2008 Queen’s New Year’s Honours, for services to industry. He has a proven track record of delivering complex capability in an environment of cutbacks and uncertainty.

Murray was appointed a Governor of the UK Health Foundation in 2011, and Non-Executive Director of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in 2012. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Dynamic Controls Ltd.
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“2016 – Is this the end of the 100 year plus battle against Alzheimer’s Disease?”

Since 2000, there have been in excess of 1,000 clinical trials conducted in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with the aim of either treating the symptoms of the disease or slowing down the progression of this devastating disease. However, 99.6% of these drug trials have failed to show any effect whatsoever in treating these subjects.

AD is an increasing global epidemic with some 35 million people currently estimated to be suffering from this disease and this prevalence is estimated to triple by 2050. The disease is both progressive and irreversible and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) has estimated the global cost of caring for people with dementia at $604 billion (USD).

As the world’s population ages, these costs are expected to soar. The ADI predicts a massive increase in costs by 2030 to more than $1 trillion (USD). Moreover, AD exacts a tremendous toll on families and caregivers alike.

Huge global focus has been given to this disease with unprecedented collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry between key pharma companies.

In Q4 this year, there will be a read-out of one of the most eagerly awaited clinical trials in AD and, the outcome of this trial could, potentially, change the outlook for hundreds of millions of people in the years to come…

Dr. Lynne Hughes B Med Sci., Ph.D., PMP

Vice President and Head of Centre of Excellence, Neurology, Quintiles.

Lynne Hughes has worked in clinical research for more than 30 years and has lived and worked during this time period in both the US and in Europe. She has been with Quintiles for 20 years and is currently Vice President and Global Head of the Centre of Excellence for Neurology and also for the Autism and the Acute Care & Pain CoEs.

Lynne has worked exclusively in neurology while at Quintiles and has managed global development programs both from the operational perspective as a program director and also from the design perspective – working with many clients on their clinical development plan for their product.

She has provided consultancy advice in Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, acute care, epilepsy and pain, and has been involved in a number of investment opportunities within Quintiles. In particular, she sits on a number of advisory boards, with particular interest in neurocognitive assessment and design of appropriate studies to assess neurocognitive dysfunction.

She  is a member of a number of steering and / or executive committees for clients and  has responsibility for several consultancy programs for investment opportunities within all areas of neurology.  Her current role is in developing evidence-based strategies for the most efficient conduct of clinical trials / programs for our clients and leads both  the Neurology Centre of Excellence and the Acute Care & Pain Centre of Excellence which is providing therapeutic input and expertise for conducting trials in subjects across all neurological and pain indications..

These virtual CoE teams involve experts from every service within Quintiles and provide consolidated scientific, therapeutic and operational input and support for clients’ drug development, from a clinical trial development plan to a stand-alone trial. She has been involved, to varying extents, in the development of every neurology product on the market today.  She is PMP certified and has been since 2000 and this certification is up to date.

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I was delighted to receive an invite to hot-foot it over to Australia as the keynote speaker at the Project Governance and Controls Symposium 2015 taking place this week at the Australian Defence Force Academy, UNSW on 6 -7 May 2015.

This event in Canberra looks at the project governance and control needs of the Australian Federal Government through the lenses of; government agencies, academia and industry.

The focus is on public sector projects and engagement with Defence/DMO due to the significance and size of their projects and split into three streams; education, practitioner and new developments.

In my presentation I will be covering various initiatives by the UK Cabinet Office in relation to the Government’s Major Project Portfolio [GMPP] – such as the Major Projects Authority [MPA] and Leadership Academy [MPLA].

I also plan to explore the status of project management, governance and controls, in particular earned value; including recent developments in international standards in the UK, US and worldwide.

As Chair of APM Board, which is the largest national project management organisation in the International Project Management Association [IPMA], I believe that I am well positioned to make such a contribution.

I am looking forward to meeting, and sharing the stage with, Yvonne Butler, the CEO of AIPM, who will be providing ‘Project Governance and Controls – The Australian Perspective, Challenges and Initiatives’ and having the opportunity to build upon the long standing relationship between our respective Associations.

Recently this was enshrined in a Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] which includes a range of activities that support members as well as improve understanding – for example through nominated representatives at Board and executive levels. [A modern day Magna Carta if I might be so bold in the 800 anniversary year of the date of signature. See details of my own celebration event. Putting down the roots for good governance : #eva20]

This builds very nicely on my recent speaking visit to Washington DC in the US, following an agreement between APM and the National Defence Industrial Association] NDIA as joint signatories on a reciprocity agreement on EVMS [Earned Value Management System] standards [See full article in APM news]

At the time I said that these meetings are extremely important in enabling us to establish a foundational plan for joint working. This sentiment was echoed by Carol Boser, chair of the NDIA IPMD, who agreed that the ‘earned value’ memorandum of understanding would help to foster closer collaboration on both sides of the Atlantic.

 However, as far as I am concerned this is by no means the end of this programme – we all know that many of the benefits of any programme are typically only realised, by users, downstream!

Next month, my international push continues with my eVaintheUK “Putting down the roots of good governance” anniversary event. I am also excited to be working with some great people at ITER in the south of France and we are deep in the throes of organising our life-changing global event called Fusing the Project World: Q>10 on 3^rd /4^th September.

I believe that strong strategic relationships are only made possible by investing time with others who lead, and are responsible for, the professionalization of project management.

Hence me making time in my busy schedule to travel half way around the world to participate in this important conference, which in turns piece by piece to make our world a better place!

That’s it for now folks as I need some sleep and wish to make the most of the warm Australian hospitality.

Karolina Jackson-Ward, Product Manager, Projectplace

Karolina has more than twenty years’ experience in the IT industry and a variety of other roles as project manager for Projectplace, at Planview.

She ensures customer value can stay in focus in developments and that product value is communicated clearly.

She is passionate about delivering value, efficient collaboration, leadership, customer focus and having fun. 

Effective Leaders create Value-Driven Teams

What does it take to get a team that focuses on delivering value to the customer?

In her presentation at “Bringing Projects to Life” conference, she will focus on how effective leaders can apply Lean and Agile methods, supported by modern research on motivation and productivity, to boost team performance. The presentation includes;

• A clue to motivation
• Shaping behaviour – there’s a right and a wrong way to go about it
• Metrics that matter
• The role of the leader

The bottom line – when your team delivers you look good!

>> Back to conference programme <<

Richard Palczynski, Director of Programme Controls at Crossrail

Richard joined Crossrail in June 2015 as director of programme controls. In his role he is accountable for ensuring visibility and accuracy of programme performance data, and providing the executive leadership with the information they need in order to manage the programme and maintain their focus in the right areas.

His move to Crossrail is a return to hands-on programme management after having spent the previous six years in the corporate world helping to run, grow and evolve companies such as Parsons Brinckerhoff, Balfour Beatty and most recently, Mace, where he was the director of programme management for their major programmes and infrastructure division.

Throughout his career, Richard has collected a broad range of major programme experience across infrastructure projects such as the Fyled Coast waste water programme, Jubilee Line extension, Channel Tunnel rail link, West Coast route modernisation programme and now Crossrail.

With employers such as Bechtel, PB, Balfours and Mace, he has a portfolio of different roles under his belt from design and construction management, commercial and project management to six sigma and project controls to name a few.

In 2012 he was awarded his Fellowship with the Institution of Civil Engineers. He’s a Supervising Civil Engineer, very keen skier, loves triathlon, cycling and running.

Richard will be speaking at APM Conference in April this year.

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Geraldine Barker
Director at UK National Audit Office

Lessons learnt. Mining the National Audit Archive.

Geraldine is responsible for leading the development of the NAO’s approach to auditing major projects and programmes throughout government.

Geraldine has worked within central government for over 25 years and has 20 years’ experience of carrying out audits and examinations with a focus on major projects and programmes in many government bodies.

Examples of the work that she and her team have carried out are examinations of the early preparations for High Speed 2, the cancellation of the Intercity West Coast franchise competition and the completion and sale of HS1. Before joining the National Audit Office in 1999, Geraldine had experience as a consultant in both the private sector and central government, carrying out organizational and staffing reviews.

Geraldine graduated from University College of Swansea with a degree in history, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. She is currently studying for a graduate diploma in Global Business at Said Business School.

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Interview with Steve Wake

IPM [Integrated Project Management] is still I think a very emergent way of managing projects – I think it is. Many of us execute our projects very well but not in a completely integrated fashion.

Our maturity levels are still very low and a lot of work still needs to be carried out to fully understand how to make the changes that we embark upon within project management – to actually make changes happen – and make them stick!

People, processes and tool sets

Deltek has an approach to its customers of people, processes and toolsets and I like that … It is a recognition that there is more to project management than running a software tool. It’s not just knowing which button, or buttons, to push. It’s knowing why they’re being pushed and how they relate to other people.

How do you explain the information that the software generates? How you can use that to manage and to, ultimately get what we all want? Which are projects that are successful and are of benefit to our own organisations and as part of the wider picture to society and the broader community?

The approach that Deltek is now adopting with people, processes and toolset is far more likely, in my opinion, to have a successful outcome and is very much along the same direction that we at the APM recognise as being …

The right way to approach project management

The right way is to introduce and secure the foundations of project management in everyday life. So move away from just selling software in a box to it becoming more or less a way of behaving, a way of carrying out your life whether its working or outside of work. It’s a far better way to engage with the community at large so I think Deltek have got it right.

How to improve project maturity

Well the best way for an organisation to establish it’s project management or project control maturity is obviously to make an assessment of where it is. It has to understand where it sits in its ability to manage and direct projects.

Even if you find that the organisation or project under assessment is not quite as mature as you need it to be – it may still be OK … but with some adjustments and that I would characterise as a risk based management decision.

Again you are making that under control so it’s that thing of keeping calm and carrying on with good measured process and stuff that can be measured and benchmarked right across many, many organisations or within all the projects of your own organisation.

The value of earned value

The value of EV outside its heartland of the US Department of Defense is, I believe, immeasurable. So many companies and organisations outside that particular pool which is big, but a small pool in relation to the rest of the world’s economy, don’t do earned value particularly well – or at all!

What they miss then is the ability to, in a very standardised internationally recognised way, assess the status of their projects and provide the most timely and accurate status data that can be provided for a project. It’s the gold standard for project control.

I will go down to my grave saying “if you don’t use earned value then you are not really in charge of your project.” I would say that, in my opinion, 90% of the business community is in that situation at the moment.

Back full circle to IPM

So the opportunity to rectify things is enormous and so this is what brings us back again full circle, I suppose, in that Deltek has listened. It’s changed and became focused on people, processes and toolsets and again – that’s a good place to be.

If they weren’t prepared to do that then I think, firstly they’d be out of business and secondly they would find it very hard to have a conversation with the people they are trying to engage with.

Deltek are loyal sponsors and supporters of eVaintheUK and will be with us at Putting down the roots for Good Governance #eVa20 on 16-17 June.

‘We are unique individuals with unique experiences’ John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is a book written by an American author and relationship counsellor John Gray. It has sold more than 50 million copies (yes that is one or two more than my own best-selling book The Lazy Project Manager) and spent 121 weeks on the US bestseller list.

The book and its central metaphor have become a part of popular culture and so I found myself, as I thought about the ongoing Campaign for Real Project Sponsors that I began back in 2011, that maybe we could think of project managers and project sponsors in similar terms.

The book states that most of common relationship problems between men and women are a result of fundamental psychological differences between the genders, which the author exemplifies by means of its eponymous metaphor: that men and women are from distinct planets – men from Mars and women from Venus – and that each gender is acclimated to its own planet’s society and customs, but not to those of the other.

Now it is possible that this comes in to play if say the project manager is a man and the project sponsor is a woman – as in the book Strategies for Project Sponsorship (Management Concepts Press) by Vicki James, Ron Rosenhead and myself – to aid the understanding in the book of the two inter-playing roles we (a suggestion from the lady from Venus, Vicki, actually) agreed to separate the roles by gender. But let’s not go down that path for now – let us assume that gender plays no part in this and that the two roles, the two people, are both from project ‘Planet’ (sorry maybe that was just a tad too corny but you get my meaning).

For project success many sources of authority boldly declare that good project sponsorship is critical but sadly the reality of the situation is less than perfect. Often—very often – project sponsors will have received no training or support for their critical role. In Strategies for Project Sponsorship we confirmed that with 85% of organisations declaring that they ‘had sponsorship’ in place but 83% confirmed the worrying truth that they did nothing to support or train or guide these project sponsors.

Many speak of the ‘accidental project manager’ but the reality is that the current generation of project sponsors can also be considered the ‘accidental project sponsors’. Although they may not have any background in project management or project-based activity, having reached a senior level within their organisation based on other achievements, they have assumed or have been given that role. Remember that there is not currently any official body of knowledge for project sponsors to help them understand best project sponsorship practices.

And yet project sponsors don’t just need to support projects; good project sponsors also support the project manager and project team. It is said that a project is one small step for a project sponsor and a giant leap for the project manager. Wouldn’t we all feel so much better if we knew that the project sponsor’s one small step would ensure that the complementary giant leap would lead to a safe and secure final landing?

The project sponsor/project manager partnership is one that really needs to be a good partnership built on a relationship of trust and mutual objectives.

‘If I seek to fulfill my own needs at the expense of my partner, we are sure to experience unhappiness, resentment, and conflict. The secret of forming a successful relationship is for both partners to win’ John Gray

Project sponsorship is not about an ‘either/or’ situation but a ‘win/win’ for both the project sponsor and the project manager, it is, after all, about the project and therefore about the business benefit.

If we look at the flip-side of project success we can see this inter-connection and the consequences of getting it wrong:

This is a list of top project failure issues and clearly the lack of good project sponsorship can contribute to the unrealistic goals, the poor alignment, lack of resources and lack of leadership – in this case the project manager from Mars has one heck of a gaping hole to try and fill. Equally with a lack of good project management this contributes another vacuum of leadership, team engagement issues and poor risk management – in this case the project sponsor from Venus has no hope of dealing with the consequential impact.

In the book we found that the best of project sponsors operated in a very balanced way, being involved in the project, being objective about the project, being supportive of the project and project manager, and being reactive to project needs. The project manager clearly needs to be as equally balanced.

We also found that the best project managers understood what a good project sponsor should do and how they, as project managers, needed to behave within the reality of the partnership that they had, and with the project sponsor that they were ‘given’. Like the saying goes ‘you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives’ it has to be appreciated that the same is true of project sponsors.

Each project sponsor (and each project manager) will be different, will be imperfect, will have strengths and weaknesses but if the combined relationship of the two roles, the two people, both understand each other’s responsibilities and capabilities then the best balance possible can be achieved for an effective and positive relationship (and subsequent project success).

‘Relationships thrive when communication reflects a ready acceptance and respect of people’s innate differences’ John Gray

If you work in an organisation that needs to develop your project sponsors from Venus (and maybe also your project managers from Mars) then maybe check out the book, or contact me to find out how I can help. And spread the word, we do really need everyone to join the Campaign for Real Project Sponsors; there is a lot (a lot) of work to be done.

You can find out more at www.strategies4sponsors.com and you can also join the LinkedIn group – Projects Sponsors, to continue the discussion.

Come and join me for a workshop at #eva19 on Monday 19th May and / or book a conference place the following day at our top London venue. If are able to make it on the Tuesday then you must join us for a banquet in the evening.

Project management in the UK today is, if you look back 10 years, far more recognised as a term

We are actually finding that there is more interest in behavioural sciences and social sciences that go onto what I might characterise as the bread and butter building blocks of basic project management. So, it’s project management plus it’s project management made to work – made to relate to human beings rather than to big processes.

How to shape your projects via an APM special interest group [SIG]

One of the best ways to engage with the work that you do and shape the work that you do is to become an active volunteer member of the APM and you do that generally by joining a SIG [a Specific Interest Group] and following what it does.

The payback both for individuals and organisations is that they are there when we are at the coal face cutting out new text books, new handbooks and new ways of doing things. And we are doing that amongst people who all share the same passion, interest, drive, and incentive for doing project management well.

The smart organisations send their people along to work, sometimes with their competitors, but it is a very good environment to share information without thinking you’re selling off trade secrets. What comes out is normally the very best because it is a broad consensus-based view, of our view on the subject.

The world we are living in now is not the world that we were in 5 years ago and things are going wrong. I think that every project which is created to change for the better has the project professional there. We need to make sure that the project professional is of the best quality is competent and is impartial in the professional sense. And so is trusted, full or integrity, reliable. It’s what we want project managers to be.

Why partnering with Deltek?

I think that they have always been consistent in their approach. I can say that because they have been around for more than long enough to demonstrate that to me personally, and organisationally, and in their support of the APM. They are long-standing corporate members of the APM as well. Quite often, that support is given, with almost no expectation other than support of the profession, and the idea and the community.

So in that sense I support them because they are good individuals but again, individuals that reflect the culture and ethos of the organisation. It seems to me that the organisation is prepared to change and it also seems to me that the organisation is prepared to listen and in so doing bring about change which is good.