APM Blogs

Commercial and humanitarian projects have very different missions and goals.

On 18th December 2019, I was part of a group of APM corporate member representatives who met with Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to lobby for project management apprenticeships in Scotland.

Millions wake up to no electricity after power grids are taken offline… Online banking systems crash and customers can’t access money… Drinking water ruled unsafe after water treatment facilities breached…  Such headlines are classic examples of what might happen if the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) fails.

What is change control?  “The process through which all requests to change the approved baseline of a project, programme or portfolio are captured, evaluated and then approved, rejected or deferred.

It’s not every day that I get invited to visit a nuclear fusion facility.

Whether it’s the variety, the chance to make a difference, or earn an average salary of over £56,000 per year, project management is a sought after profession.

Why has so much lack of success become tolerated on our projects, and what does that say about our attitude to failure? It’s a provocative question but why is failure tolerated — even expected — on major projects? Damning statistics that show that the majority of projects fail to meet their budgets, timeframes or expectations are shocking to those outside the profession but resignedly accepted by those working on the projects.

Towards the end of last year, the UK’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) published a paper titled A hostage to fortune: ransomware and UK national security.

From my work experience as a project manager, I have come to understand that our key role is to consistently achieve successful project outcomes by using a methodology based on the nature of that project.

‘Politics’ is not a dirty word, but it does carry a lot of weight.