Dr David J. from PA Consulting captures the essence of the role of the Chief Projects Delivery Officer.
Want to find out more about what this means in practice?
Join the Major Projects Association and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) at lunchtime on 8 December for 'Connecting Projects to Strategy – the Role of the Chief Projects (Delivery) Officer' to hear the experience of four organisations which have adopted the role.
The event is open to all, members AND non-members.
For registration, click here: https://majorprojects.org/civicrm/?civiwp=CiviCRM&q=civicrm/event/info&reset=1&id=1445
What are the chances that your project has a fat tail?
If you use satnav when you are driving, you will be very familiar with the concept. The minute you set off, you'll start to drift from the estimated arrival time. The further you go, the more you'll drift and whilst it is very easy to lose more time, making up time is almost impossible.
Check out Bent Flyvbjerg's paper on heuristics for Masterbuilders to find out more about Fat Tails and a whole range of other ways in which your perception and our mental shortcuts can lead you into deep water or prove the making of your project.
https://majorprojects.org/resources/heuristics-for-masterbuilders-fast-and-frugal-ways-to-become-a-better-project-leader/
Friday shared insight: We often debate just how far the data and experience from one type of project might be usefully transferred to another ... here's some interesting evidence that suggests that it is far more applicable than you think.
You can see Alex's longer video and read the case study report, AI in Action - How the Hong Kong Development Bureau built the PSS, an early warning system for public works projects, here:
https://majorprojects.org/resources/ai-in-action/
Every once in a while we interview someone from the Major Projects Community who can connect the dots and explain how some of the emerging challenges of major projects relate to (and depend on) one another.
Jonathan Hart, from Pinsent Masons, did this in his interview about the industrialisation of construction.
This is just a 50 second teaser so do take a moment to watch the whole 10 minute interview https://majorprojects.org/resources/industrialisation-of-construction/ and visit the Pinsent Masons' report on industrialised construction.
Order Osmosis Principle
Order Osmosis Principle: “The attention and the resources migrate from the difficult bits to the stuff that’s more stable, which means that the things that are ‘slightly flappy at the moment’ become even difficult to deal with.”
The principles of complex systems may have arcane names but they are wonderful and observing exactly what happens when projects start to go wrong.
Visit the complete series: https://majorprojects.org/resources/the-grammar-of-systems/
Self-Organised Criticality
"It's a bit like wrestling snakes ... in mud!"
Patrick Hoverstadt questions why we don't measure the rate of change in a project, alongside what's actually changing. Because, if you can't keep up with the pace at which things internal to the project, as well as externally, are changing, you're likely to get that sinking feeling that it's running away from you.
This is what is described as the principle of Self-Organising Criticality; where the dynamics of the system lead to its inevitable collapse.
View the whole series of videos describing the Grammar of Systems
https://majorprojects.org/resources/the-grammar-of-systems/
Major projects are often structurally complex. How this complexity behaves is the subject of Patrick Hoverstadt's latest short video. He discusses the three domains of projects: the project environment, the project task and the project organization and explains how to manage complexity in each.
View the complete series: https://majorprojects.org/resources/the-grammar-of-systems/
Have you ever noticed how things you do on major projects always come round to bite you later?
This, according to Patrick Hoverstadt, in our continuing series on the Grammar of Systems, is The Law of Reciprocity of Connections.
Check it out and view the complete series so far on the Association website
Ben Coultate from Turner & Townsend on the Climate Emergency
Continuing our series of profiles for people from the Major Projects Association Opiner Community. Here's Ben Coultate from Turner & Townsend sharing his thoughts on how to make major projects part of the solution, rather than part of the problem, when it comes to climate change.
We'll be rolling out Opiner questions for Major Projects Association members to respond to, starting in January. If you are a member of the Association and would be happy to be part of our responder community. Please add a note in the comments below and we'll be in touch to sign you on.
Lucy Hill from AECOM is the first of our Opiner Community to respond to the challenge we put out - to identify the big questions facing major projects as we go into 2022.
What are your big questions? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
https://opiner.app/wonderwall/mpa-big-questions
To understand, navigate and succeed in the complex world of major projects you need as many diverse, imaginative and fearless views and voices you can get.
To create that cognitive diversity, Major Projects Association has teamed up with an app called 'Opiner'.
Here's your chance to meet some of our first voices in this new network and you can see an example of how we have put them to work in responding to a challenging question that goes to the heart of what major projects are and what should they be.
https://majorprojects.org/resources/how-do-we-make-major-projects-part-of-the-solution-not-part-of-the-climate-and-nature-emergency-problem/
We will continue to develop this network over the coming months so keep an eye out for the questions and answers we launch using Opiner and, if you are a Major Projects Association member and would be happy to help us by adding your voice to this network then contact [email protected].
90 Seconds on Sustainable Urban Design
Reference Class Forecasting in 90 Seconds
To celebrate the launch of a programme of reference class forecasting courses by Oxford Global Projects Academy,
https://academy.oxfordglobalprojects.com/bundles/rcf Professor Bent Flyvbjerg introduces the most accurate form of forecasting available to project planners in the world today.
