Students and business leaders have come together to bring about change in some of the world’s poorest communities. Project reports on a unique initiative with professional project management at its heart.It’s three years’ worth of experience before they even join a company.” This is how one member of today’s project management generation, Donnie MacNicol, sums up the benefits for future project managers of getting involved with SIFE.SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) is an international non-profit organisation that works with university students and business leaders to manage community...
What would happen events in Fukushima, or another disaster, happened again? How easy is it to change strategic direction quickly? And how do you ensure the right programme is in place to deliver on these aims? Project reportsIt was a history-defining moment. Events at Fukushima, Japan, shifted perceptions over the safety of nuclear power and caused nations to reexamine the way in which their energy is produced.Almost overnight, long term policy planning was turned on its head, as governments sought to keep pace with the mood of an ‘uneasy’ electorate.Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Japan would...
At last year’s APM Conference, Sir Peter Gershon challenged the profession to “stand up and be counted”, saying that projects in the public sector, “do not fail for novel reasons, they fail for the same boringly repetitive reasons”. The challenge was “to learn from the mistakes of the past and promote professionalism and best practice in every aspect of project delivery.”Then in June’s edition of Project, Ian Watmore, chief operating officer in the Cabinet Office’s ERG, argued that in relation to IT projects, “To improve the chances of success projects should either be smaller, or big...
What began as a discussion among five friends in a pub is now taking shape as one of Europe’s largest and most ambitious eco-friendly community housing schemes. Project spoke to Lancaster Cohousing’s Mark Westcombe about new ways of sharing and learning PM skills. As an exercise in the development and successful use of ‘soft’ project management skills, Lancaster Cohousing’s not-forprofit scheme is probably without parallel. For it was those skills that persuaded private individuals to stump up sizeable deposits for houses that didn’t even exist on paper, with the bulk of properties sold...
Art London 2012 is not just about sport; there’s also around £83m worth of cultural events being staged. Project looks at how artists, poets and performers are partnering up ahead of next summer’s Games. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are just a few cold months away, but the torch of the London Cultural Olympiad has been burning brightly since 2008.The aim is to get all UK citizens, but especially young people, involved in London 2012 and to ‘inspire creativity across all forms of culture’.The numbers suggest it is working. Over 11m people have participated in or attended public...
What has shaped this new world?Over the past three years, whenever you turn on the radio or pick up a newspaper, there is always a surprise, whether it is the economy or some incident somewhere in the world. Before that there were also surprises but they were good – record growth, house prices and so on. The difference is that because we thought we were getting rich we didn’t mind. But the same drivers – globalisation, human interactivity and connectedness via cyberspace – have created the new world where everything moves at the speed of light.What are the key differences/ challenges we’re...
Following the announcement of this year’s Project-sponsored APM community award finalists, we go behind-the-scenes to find out what difference the projects have really made to the lives of local residents.The APM awards are a byword for technical excellence in project management – celebrating the very best in delivery against objectives. This year is no exception, with ‘worthy’ finalists in each category – including Project’s very own Community Project of the Year. Each of the community projects was delivered on time and to budget – but to put the performance indicator to the test (i.e. has...
The prospect of eight months of major environmental engineering works can ring loud alarm bells in local communities. When those works are due to take place in the heart of the Lake District National Park and threaten to cut off an entire village, its businesses and pub, the project team faces quite a challenge. Project reports.It was a challenge that the team from water company United Utilities tackled head on, and from which valuable lessons will inform the rest of the organisation’s multibillion- pound, five-year programme in the north west to improve water quality and the environment.In...
Regional paper, The Northampton Advertiser, ran a story recently about The Wing at Silverstone. The story highlighted the fact that it had been nominated for a prestigious architectural award.This got me thinking, why not prestigious Project magazine award?On the shortlist would be projects that have captured the imagination, broken new ground in terms of design, scale, cost etc.Over the past 12 months we’ve featured a whole bunch of ‘worthy’ finalists.In April ran a piece on the Mercedes Biome project – a futuristic car design that emits nothing more than oxygen. Of course, it was complete...
