INTERVIEW

Interview with Alan Stretton

Project Management Pioneer

AIPM Life Fellow

Editor’s Note: Alan Stretton is one of the world’s most respected authorities on the subject of professional project management. A witness to and participant in many of the historic developments in the project management field, Alan has managed projects and programs, been an executive in one of Australia’s largest project-based companies, has been a researcher and professor of project management, and continues to provide advice to leaders in the field. We hare honored to provide this further glimpse into his personal history.

PM World Today (PMWT): Alan, how did you first learn about and become involved in project management so many years ago?

Alan Stretton: My first jobs after graduating as a civil engineer in 1947 were in construction - canals, roads, townships and the like. As most Australian construction engineers saw themselves at the time, we were simply engineers progressing construction projects. We did not see ourselves as construction project managers (or sometimes as design-and-construct project managers), although that is what many of us were most certainly doing.

This engineering perspective changed from 1961, after I had joined a company called Civil & Civic Pty Limited. (I had had four different employers in the meantime). Civil & Civic had already been in the project management business for some time, but not yet on a large scale. It is probably worthwhile discussing the evolution of project management in Civil & Civic from the mid-1950s, because it evolved quite independently of any external influences.

PMWT: OK, tell us about project management in Civil & Civic.

Stretton: Civil & Civic was formed as a construction company in 1951, operating primarily in the building industry, which in those days always operated on the basis of architects designing and construction by competitive tender. At that time in Australia there was no established concept or practice of managing the design process, or value analysis, design efficiency/effectiveness, or the like. As constructors, Civil & Civic was very aware of the inefficiencies, particularly in terms of constructability, that were inherent in most building designs.

From around 1954, Civil & Civic began doing its own development projects, starting with a major property subdivision, and then moving into commercial building projects. On the subdivision project, a “rescue” design analysis process achieved a 40% cost reduction from the original consultants’ designs and projected capital expenditure. As a result, from that point onwards, Civil & Civic appointed its own "project engineers" to manage the design phases of all its own development projects, and to ensure quality control during construction.

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