The interaction between governance, control systems and organisational maturity in the creation of value from investments in projects and programs.

Adapting traditional ‘governance and controls’ to support ‘Agile’ project developments.

Developing an effective schedule is key to effective Earned Value. This session will look at how to develop a schedule that works covering:
– Planning, strategy and scheduling.
– Planning the schedule development.
– Linking the schedule to the WBS and work packages.
– Rolling Wave – adding detail at the right time.
– Keeping the schedule relevant, its value and its limitations (including the roles of ES, SCRAM and validation tools).

The Governance of projects and programs to create value requires a holistic, integrated approach. This paper looks at the management challenges involved in moving from traditional ‘project management’ to the effective ‘management of projects’ and shows how the Draft International Standard ISO2503 can help achieve these objectives.

A standard CPM schedule is a highly optimistic assessment of the likely project completion date! This 1-hour practical workshop identified the limitations of a CPM schedule (and why this is a good thing for managing the work). Plus the steps necessary to move from a standard CPM schedule to a P80 prediction of likely completion based on the GAO guidelines.

This workshop is designed for Business Managers and planners moving to introduce Earned Value Business Management into an organisation and is based on AS4817. At the end of the session, trainees will understand the power of using Earned Value as a practical control and monitoring technique designed to provide added value and insight to their overall project control process and appreciate the steps necessary to implement an effective EV system in their organisation.

The mission of Technical Committee 258 (ISO/TC 258) is to develop and maintain guidance standards and other ISO documentation regarding the management and governance of projects, programmes, and portfolios. The objective of the TC is to provide the global marketplace with a common understanding and vocabulary with which to practice these management disciplines. Australia is a key participant in this work and this report will provide PGCS delegates with a firsthand account of the work accomplished and in progress, based on the presenter’s personal involvement over the last 10 years.

A brief outline of Earned Value Management and the processes required to implement EVM in a business.

Technical debt refers to the costs of having to go back and resolve problems that arise because an earlier decision was made to take an easy option, instead of the best one. Based on two major rail projects in London. The £14.8bn Crossrail project will finish more than 2 years late and 20% over budget. The £7.bn Thameslink project is running to plan and nearing completion. This paper will look at three factors causing the difference:

1. The physical structure of the projects and their relative complexity.
2. The insidious effect of Technical Debt on the delayed opening of Crossrail.
3. The governance factors leading to the ‘Crossrial disaster’ and how Crossrail messaging largely caused the ‘disaster’.

There are powerful lessons to learn particularly when scoping major projects.

Is choosing an agile development methodology an invitation to anarchy? This session will canvass the options available to provide the ‘gentle touch’ needed to retain effective control whilst allowing the delivery team to be agile and creative. Agile is now a core component of the PMBOK® Guide and Practice Standard for Scheduling 3rd Ed. Based on these standards (and others) Patrick Weaver will look at the interface between Agile and ‘traditional controls’.

The concept of using performance data to empirically predict project completion seems to be a remarkably recent innovation. This presentation traces the development of EVM from its foundations, through to ISO 21508.

This webinar discusses developments in the control of projects that are not suited to traditional Critical Path scheduling (CMP). CPM assumes there is one right way to undertake the work of a project and this can be modelled in a CPM schedule.

However, experience shows there are many types of project where this assumption is simply not correct, including both agile and distributed projects. There is an ongoing level of flexibility in the sequencing of work that can be exploited to the benefit of the project and the client.

This presentation will:

(1) Define the characteristics of projects that are not suited to CPM, including agile, adaptive, and distributed projects.

(2) Briefly outline some of the contractual issues identified by the courts in attempting to apply CPM to this type of project.

(3) Describe an approach for managing this type of project based on agile and lean, while recognizing there are likely to be some mandatory sequences that must be followed.

(4) Suggest a framework for identifying progress and the predicted project completion date based on Earned Schedule concepts.

(5) Suggest a methodology for assessing delay and disruption in this type of project.

Project controls are facing a dilemma, on one hand there is a strong push to make projects agile and adaptive, on the other the need for on time delivery, organisational reporting requirements, and the law of contracts require precision and certainty from project control systems. For a wide range of projects, traditional critical path scheduling (CPM) is no longer fit for purpose, a new controls paradigm is needed. This presentation outlines the challenges and a potential solution using WPM.

This webinar looks at two processes that are ‘baked into’ standard project management estimating and control to show how recommended good practices are still optimistically biased.
– When preparing an estimate good practice recommends using Monte Carlo to determine an appropriate contingency and the level of risk to accept. However, the typical range distributions used are biased – they ignore the ‘long tail’.
– When reporting progress, the estimating bias should be identified and rectified to offer a realistic projection of a project outcome. Standard cost and schedule processes typically fail to adequately deal with this challenge meaning the final time and cost overruns are not predicted until late in the project.

This webinar highlights at least some of the causes for these problems. Solving the cultural and management issues is for another time.

Project Controls 2.0 is failing. This presentation introduces PC-3.0, a paradigm shift focused on proactively driving future success rather than reporting on past failures. Learn about Work Performance Management (WPM), a simple, adaptive control method that enables rapid corrective action to keep projects on track for success.