As Dr Martin Barnes’ long and successful reign as president of APM comes to an end, Project speaks to the practitioners and professionals who know him best.Dr Martin Barnes CBE has formally announced his decision to stand down as president of the Association for Project Management (APM).As a founding member of the Association, Martin has remained a constant in a constantly evolving profession. In fact, he has very much been the driver of change throughout his career, as the man himself says, “project management is management of change”.To this day, Martin’s membership number remains 10, the...
He grew from a boy born in Birmingham to the man at the very top of the project management profession. Dr Martin Barnes tells Andrew Hubbard about his journey from pupil to pioneer.Dr Martin Barnes CBE has been at the forefront of the project management long before it was ever formally recognised as a profession. He has created some of the de-facto standards used by practitioners all around the world and continues to contribute to projects at the highest level.For Martin, it all started in 1957. He explains: “At school I was keen on becoming a mechanical or civil engineer and so decided to...
Project management firm Acando has published a new report which takes a critical look at the use of time and cost as metrics for judging the success of a project.The firm says that the report – ‘Don’t measure time and cost’ – forms part of its “ongoing mission to reduce and eventually eliminate project failure from project management”. Acando hopes that the report, produced by the firm’s managing director Phil Jacklin, will spark change within the industry.Don’t measure time and cost argues that time and cost are poor metrics to use, stating that they have no value as predictors of the future...
APM created a new pan-sector standard last March to raise the bar of project professionalism to a whole new level. APM Registered Project Professional (RPP) looks to recognise the value that competent and capable project professionals can offer. This is something that Shell sees as vitally important.The global group of energy and petrochemical companies has been developing its project management capability for 100 years and continues to build a global community of project professionals. The Shell Project Academy (SPA) is at the heart of this drive, providing a world-class competence...
BAA capital director Steve Morgan has stepped down from his role with the organisation to focus on “the next phase of his career”. Former BAA commercial director John Holland-Kaye will replace him in the role of capital programme director.Mr Morgan (pictured), who led the successful transformation of the capital team over four years, leaves BAA on 31st October 2012.In his new role, Mr Holland-Kaye will take responsibility for the delivery of capital projects at Aberdeen, Eastliegh, Glasgow and Heathrow airports. This includes the £2.5bn spend at Heathrow T2.Mr Holland-Kaye said: “We’re...
In what has been a turbulent few months, the debate on whether or not Heathrow Airport should have a third runway has hit an all-time high. At the heart of this growing and continuously complex debate is a simple inevitability – failure to deal with the capacity issue will mean the UK missing out on crucial trade links with major developing economies around the world. This is not in dispute, what is though is which project should get the green light to meet the country’s needs.Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered an independent commission to investigate the options over capacity, but this...
Following 18 years of negation, Russia has joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). The announcement that Russia was to become the 156th member of the WTO was met with adulation from much of the world’s economies and is good news for the profession as Russia grants greater access to European companies and introduces a host of other measures to bring it into line with WTO trading procedures.The business secretary Vince Cable has told Project that Russia’s entry was good news for British business.He said: “The UK welcomes President Putin’s signing of the Russian Federation’s Protocol of...
Crossrail’s second tunnel boring machine (TBM) has begun tunnelling towards Paddington after breaking ground at the Royal Oak portal in west London in August. The TBM, known as Ada, is due to arrive late next year.Work to install the major conveyor system behind the TBMs will complete once Ada is fully below ground. A total of 24km of conveyer belt will be used to remove excavated material from the western tunnels.Keith Sibley, Crossrail area director west, said: “Our first TBM, Phyllis, has now successfully reached Paddington having carefully navigated under London Underground’s Hammersmith...
Following the announcement of the 2012 APM Awards finalists, Project previews the three finalists battling it out to become the first winner of the all-new Shell HSSE Award. In the Association for Project Management’s (APM) 40th year, a new category will make its debut at the APM Awards ceremony. The Shell HSSE (health, safety, security and environment) Award recognises HSSE excellence in an organisation or project.APM collaborated with the energy and petrochemical giant to create the accolade, as HSSE is at the core of Shell’s ways of working. Shell has adopted a zero harm approach to...
In Silicon Valley, Google experts are working on a scheme that could revolutionise the way we think about road travel forever. Andrew Hubbard investigates Google’s driverless car project. For many years, successive governments have fought to reduce congestion on the UK’s roads and the exhaust emissions that the more than 34m registered vehicles create. Schemes from car-pool initiatives to congestion charges have made some impact in recent years, but still the challenge remains.Over the Atlantic, internet search giant Google is working on a potential solution to this age-old dilemma through...
