Approaching Collaborative Projects: A New National Framework

On 24th May, at the Holiday Inn at Taunton a good attendance of APM members was noted for the event presented by Andy Jones of Pera Innovation Ltd.

Andy opened the presentation with some background on Pera Innovation Ltd and how their knowledge and experience have placed them to be at the forefront of adopting BS11000. Furthermore it was emphasised how naturally BS11000 aligned to the APM Project Lifecycle and that the adoption of collaboration assisted in removing glass walls that were often evident in collaborative projects; hence how it could be beneficial to project delivery.

Andy referenced collaborative projects such as the iPad which was developed within six months, due to effective collaborative working. In conflict to such promising benefits a lack of collaborative working could result if there is a lack of executive support, a lack of shared goals, a lack of issue/dispute resolution, a lack of effective communication, poorly defined measurement, poor upfront planning, poor leadership, hidden agendas and cultural mismatch.

From previous experience (2007/2009 Maastricht study) it identified 40% of business value is derived from business collaboration, 50% of partnerships fail, there is an 80% failure for ad-hoc approach compared to an excess of 80% success rate for collaborative investment. BS11000 is an eight phase framework providing guidance and an auditable process that organisations can adopt.

Finally Andy provided a useful review of how the project lifecycle responsibilities and documentation could be managed collaboratively and emphasised that whilst collaboration was of significant benefit to many it was not for all.