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The new the Complex Projects Contrac

Blog

The Complex Projects Contract 2013 (CPC2013) focuses on managing time to ensure projects are delivered to specification on budget and without delays. Unlike existing contracts, which target failure by requiring financial compensation for late complet...

Oct 29, 2013

Spreadsheet error is normal!

Blog

There is not a project in this world that does not use spreadsheets from time to time and many are run exclusively by spreadsheets – in numerous surveys Microsoft Excel is listed as the most common / popular project management tool.  And generally sp...

Sep 30, 2013

Spreadsheet error is normal!

Blog

There is not a project in this world that does not use spreadsheets from time to time and many are run exclusively by spreadsheets – in numerous surveys Microsoft Excel is listed as the most common / popular project management tool.  And generally sp...

Sep 30, 2013

Project Controls – A Definition

Blog

The Guild of Project Controls is in formation, and most people have a view of what is involved in ‘project controls’ but what is the ‘dictionary’ definition of ‘project controls’?  To answer this question, my proposed definition for ‘project controls...

Nov 26, 2013

The Scheduling Conundrum

Blog

The scheduling conundrum is simple:We know effective scheduling makes a significant difference to project success and we know what effective scheduling looks like but in most projects, the schedule is ignored, bad scheduling practice is the norm and ...

Jan 22, 2013

Synchro Professional User Conference Birmingham UK

Event

Synchro Software Ltd is pleased to announce that the city of its origin, Birmingham, England, will host the First EU Synchro Professional™ User Conference on Thursday, 2 May 2013. This full day conference will take place at Copthorne Hotel Birmingham...

Mar 26, 2013

Synchro 4D BIM for Delivery

Event

Synchro 4D BIM for Delivery [[wysiwyg_imageupload:1564:height=38,width=156]]pcss_logo.jpg  PCSS Consultancy Sdn BhdCordially invites you to a FREE seminar to discover the power and benefits of  Location:        Centre for Construction IT, BCA Academy...

Mar 27, 2013

"The Project Must Be Finished On This Date - Or Else!"

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These are words of desperation, a client or senior manager who's got his back to the wall.I was faced with this exact situation on a consulting job a few weeks back, the business owner, facing heavy penalties for late delivery was desperate for answe...

Nov 24, 2012

Good Planner - The foundation

Blog

It is failry common to come across lots of people in planning who are actively engaged in planning but have never visited or worked on the site. This is deeply disturbing. It also applies to other industries as well as you must have noticed. Well, in...

Nov 14, 2012

A though on PMOs and Project Controls

Blog

The quality guru W. Edwards Deming said ‘In God we trust, all other bring data’. However, developments in the Victorian Government health system (Australia) offer a salient reminder to any PMO manager on the value of data.Victorian hospitals are rewa...

Nov 16, 2012

Building Information Modelling Project Controls Ideas Workshop

Event

Dear Friends,Due to the growth in interest in Building Information Modelling and the Guild of Project Controls’ professional standards, we are facilitating an ideas-workshop in Central London.  It is free to attend and will be lead by David Philp who...

Aug 23, 2012

One Contractor + One Employer + One site + Two Contracts = Disaster

Blog

The situation where a contractor has been awarded two or more different contracts for different phases on the same site must be failry common because I have encountered it three times so far in my career.It is a recipe for disaster for the Employer b...

Oct 29, 2012

Let Us start Planning

Blog

A long time back, late Seventies to early Eighties, it was quite a fun to prepare Plans and programmes for Projects. It used to be challenging, creative effort involving lots of hard work but quite satisfying and enjoyable. This went on for quite som...

Nov 3, 2012

Distributed -v- Consolidated Contingencies

Blog

Distributed contingencies are normal in most aspects of project management but often result in sub-optimal use of resources. Typical examples include allowing some safety margin in each CPM duration estimate (eg, setting the durations at an 80% proba...

Jan 6, 2013

Project task durations

Blog

 Probably the most common action undertaken by project planners everywhere is assigning a duration to a task; most of us do this almost automatically. Generally it is only when a dispute arises that the complex interaction of the factors discussed in...

Jan 9, 2013

A Brief History of Scheduling

Blog

 The science of ‘scheduling’ as defined by Critical Path Analysis (CPA) celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007.  In 1956/57 Kelly and Walker started developing the algorithms that became the ‘Activity-on-Arrow’ or ADM scheduling methodology for DuPo...

Feb 5, 2013

The CPI Stability Myth

Blog

Undoubtedly the longest running ‘urban myth’ in circulation within the general project management community, arising from US Defence based research from the early 1990s, that the Cost Performance Index (CPI) always stabilizes at the 20% completion an...

Nov 27, 2012

My Project Is Making No Progress!

Blog

I had a situation recently where a client stated that despite his people working as fast and seemingly efficiently as they could, he was seeing next to no progress reflected in his performance reporting, his end date was pushing out, his efficiency w...

Dec 7, 2012

Scheduling For Effect

Blog

As the end of 2012 approches, and assuming the world won't end of the 12/12/12 I have a few thoughts for every scheduler’s New Year resolutions.You can’t change the past, the present is being managed by the project workforce, the only thing you can i...

Dec 11, 2012