Central project management offices help to boost skills, delivery and oversight across departments. At a recent GGF webinar, experts highlighted the need to balance greater coordination and governance with the flexibility and autonomy required by frontline staff.

It’s something of a dichotomy that governments are responsible for delivering some of the biggest projects in the world – from mass urban mass transit schemes such as London’s Crossrail, to international events like the Olympics – and yet face unique organisational challenges that can hamper delivery.

Infrastructure projects, for example, can be years if not decades in the making – so it is inconvenient, to say the least, when general elections regularly lead to sharp changes of direction. Incoming ministers may have no knowledge of the project, and may even have campaigned against it. Projects funded by public money attract close media scrutiny, and many programmes involve complex, interlinked delivery projects controlled by multiple departments and agencies. READ MORE

All digital journeys hinge on end users accepting end results. So if your enterprise is looking to transform itself into a digital business, you must involve end users in evaluating, selecting, testing, and deploying the technology and services that will make your digital transformation possible.

Internal employees, customers, business partners — anyone who will experience the results of your transformation firsthand should be part of your digital strategy. To do otherwise is to court failure.

“End users are the closest to the source of knowledge,” says Carlos Sanchez, CIO at Suez Water Technologies and Solutions, a company that provides water processing tech. “They are the ones that understand the challenge. They know the true needs of the operation. If you don’t include them, if you add too many layers to building out the digital tools, you run the risk of something being lost in translation — which ultimately impacts speed and adaptability.” 

Consulting firm The Hackett Group in its 2021 Key Issues Study found that companies have “a less-than-optimal record for meeting expectations when it comes to things like automation, smart data capture, cognitive computing, and so forth,” says Chris Key, senior director and global IT advisory practice leader at the firm. READ MORE

Project management is a complex discipline rife with enough key phases, knowledge areas, and terms to fill a glossary. To simplify the key components of successful project management, CIO.com offers the following comprehensive guide to project management, including tips, strategies and best practices.

Project management definition:

Project management is a business discipline that involves applying specific processes, knowledge, skills, techniques and tools to meet project goals and deliverables successfully. Project management professionals help drive, guide, and execute company-identified value-added goals by applying processes and methodologies to plan, initiate, execute, monitor, and close all activities related to a given business project in alignment with the organization’s overall strategic objectives. READ MORE

Recently we hosted our second joint webinar with Elevate, looking at the single source of truth in data. We were joined once again by Royale Price, the Director of Pricing and Matter Management at Greenberg Traurig; and Stephen Allen, Vice President of getting sh*t done at Elevate (yes, we also think more job titles should sound like this). Our own CEO, Pieter van der Hoeven, joined to set questions and share insights from the Clocktimizer perspective.

The focus this time round looked more squarely at the role of data in managing resources. Our panelists shared the role data can play in accurately staffing matters, in supporting diversity efforts, and in improving the communication between your LPM and Pricing teams. Given how useful this information is, we are sharing a wider wrap up of all of their advice for those who couldn’t make the webinar. A recording of the session is available here. READ MORE

Construction Project Management

Construction project management is the coordination and supervision of a project's construction process, from early planning to erecting and finishing the product for project close-out. It is a function of overall development management.

Project management is a specialist role in the project development process with responsibility for the project management plan and project delivery according to the cost budget and construction project schedule. It calls for the management of commercial risk by managing the contractual arrangements and checking deliverables to ensure compliance with agreements.

A construction project manager (CPM) is tasked with planning, coordination, budgeting, supervision and running the construction project. The project manager oversees the day-to-day work of the project team, ensures that the construction works meet building codes and specs, controls costs, and proceed according to the project management plan. READ MORE

The Project Management Professional (known as PMP, which has been registered) certification exam, though not mandatory, is a crucial tool for prospective project managers to test and showcase their ability to perform their duties as a project manager. Administered by the Project Management Institute (known as PMI, which has been registered), it often affects the ability to secure a career in the field thanks to the merit the certification holds. For 36 years, the PMP exam has been an extensive test of the domains and related tasks of being a project manager that are required for success. However, starting Jan. 2, 2021, this exam will be undergoing one of its most drastic changes in history through a complete reorganization of the exam's structure and ramping up of the exam's difficulty in its entirety.

Changes like this aren't uncommon for the PMP exam; every three to five years, it undergoes a review due to what's called a Role Delineation Study. This study is designed to examine the test under a modern lens to determine whether the exam's contents are still relevant to the project management role's current climate. The necessity of this study means that the exam never stays the same between intervals. READ MORE