Volume X - Issue VII - July 2008
PM Research News
New Survey suggests increased Transparency A newly released survey has found consensus among leading AEC principals, counsel and professional liability insurers that many of the industry's current practices, despite being designed to shield architecture and engineering firms from risk exposure, are, in fact, increasing the likelihood of project failure. The research is available in a white paper, "Mitigating Risk in AEC Project Execution: Perspectives from Principals, Counsel and Insurers," by Spar Point Research. Newforma, Inc., a New Hampshire-based software developer, commissioned Spar Point to conduct the research based on Spar Point's success with a previous Newforma white paper, "Improving AEC Project Execution: Lessons from 11 Industry Leaders." This time the focus of the survey was to investigate the challenge of risk mitigation in project delivery. The participating executives agreed that more frequent and deeper information sharing across the entire project team can improve the team's clarity of understanding, reduce the likelihood and severity of problems, and increase control over a project's outcome. However, opinions on how best to achieve the transparency and knowledge-exchange necessary for this type of "informed control" were divided between the newly-emerging data-centric design and construction processes supported by BIM (building information modeling) and a more people-oriented investment in developing and supporting high-level project management methods and skills. Spar Point President of Research Bruce Jenkins attributes this duality to the underlying process intensity of AEC projects. "While BIM technology offers unquestionable improvement in clarity around the design, the processes required to manage the project 'outside' the model are still being defined," said Jenkins. "At transitional times like these, the need for experienced project managers with the necessary skills to identify gaps or anticipate new work processes is even more accentuated." Several interviewees were hopeful for new technologies, or extensions to current BIM technology, that would also improve the process and clarity of project communications outside the building model in order to prevent other risks to project success -- like an unexpectedly large invoice at the end of the job or an overlooked customer expectation -- that can result from project complexity, overwhelming volumes of information and increased work load. "What's surprising is the degree to which the industry has recognized software technology as an accepted, if not expected, path to improvement in communicating design intent, but is still in the early stages of investigating technology for challenges such as poor management of client expectations, inadequate project risk assessment, non-standard practices, and other sources of project risk identified in this study." Firms interviewed for the study include Ames & Gough, Barry B. LePatner & Associates LLP, Burns & McDonnell, Hanson Bridgett LLP, HOK, NBBJ, Perkins+Will, Noble & Wickersham LLP, Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, Walter P Moore, and XL Specialty Insurance Company. The full research paper, which includes detailed quotations from interviewees on every area of risk mitigation, is available from the Newforma website, www.newforma.com. Spar Point Research LLC, based in Danvers, Massachusetts, USA, investigates new technologies that improve the productivity, quality and safety of work process for creating, modifying and managing engineered products and constructed assets. Its publications, industry conferences and custom consulting help practitioners maximize the business impact of technology. Spar Point hosts the SPAR Conference, an annual conference on advanced dimensional control work processes and 3D imaging technologies. For more information, visit www.sparllc.com.
Newforma is a software company serving architecture, engineering, construction and owner/operator (AECO) organizations worldwide. Its mission is to develop and market software solutions which significantly improve the productivity of the building project team by streamlining work processes, reducing exposure from errors and omissions, improving coordination and communication, and enabling greater repeatability of project success. Newforma® Project Center, Newforma's flagship product, creates a more productive environment for project managers and the project team by organizing project information, facilitating information sharing, and enabling more effective project process. Newforma Project Center is currently implemented on over 50,000 projects in industry-leading AECO firms. For more information about Newforma, visit www.newforma.com. New Survey results: Complex Service Work Requires Oversight, Precision, Advanced Technologies & Schedule Performance New research from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company in the USA, finds that Best-in-Class service firms are turning to scheduling solutions, Business Intelligence (BI), and field-ready mobile devices to improve their management of long-duration, resource intensive, and dependency rich service projects. According to their recent press release, Aberdeen’s recent benchmark survey of more than 125 companies identified the top pressure faced by companies engaged in complex work as the need to complete projects on time. However, 35% of these same companies did not know or did not measure compliance with stated deadlines. As well, many low performing companies reported significant financial penalties for project slippage -- paying out over 30 times more in fees than leading companies. These and other related findings are published in a report entitled "Complex Service Work: Scheduling Technicians, Crews, and Physical Resources." The report finds that leading service firms are twice as likely as all other firms to centralize the function of scheduling across the entire organization.
"This report, the first to cover the topic of complex work, provides a benchmark against which firms can measure themselves," stated Jack McAvoy, Research Director, Aberdeen Group. "The sheer number of moving parts, people, and processes -- as well as a hierarchy of dependencies -- can make complex work projects overwhelming without proper oversight and automation. Better managing these long-duration, resource intensive projects has become a required best practice for leading service organizations to meet regulatory requirements,financial valuations, and customer satisfaction metrics. The adoption of scheduling software, coupled with BI, project management, parts management, and smart field devices can make organizations' financial and operational goals a reality." A complimentary copy of this report is being made available due in part by the following underwriters: Aspective, ClickSoftware, Hitachi Consulting, and ViryaNet. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, go to http://www.hartehanks.com. Update & Invitation to join the PMUni Network! Reported by Martina Huemann and Gregor Sellner in Austria PMUni is an international social network of universities, research and education insti-tutions from different countries such as Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Norway and Slovakia and Austria. The objective is to promote professional education and research in process and project management by exchanging experiences between education and research institutions as well as process and project-oriented compa-nies. The benefits of the PMUni Network include creating cooperation potentials be-tween the partners in education and research and performing education quality management projects and research projects.
On May 28th 2008 the PMUni partners and new potential partners met in the PMUni Workshop in Vienna. The workshop was hosted by the WU-Wien, and organized by Roland Gareis and Renate Prantner. This time the focus was on project management education. Some of the participants presented their project management education programs: Lynn Crawford, Bond University (Aus), Christian Malus, University of Applied Sciences Bfi Vienna (A), Pernille Eskerod, University of Southern Denmark (D), Christophe Bredillet, ESC Lille (F), Mihaly Görög, Corvinius University of Budapest, (H), Anne Live Vaagaasar, BI Norwegian School of Management (Nor).
A central part of the workshop was the presentation of the first results of the PMUni project pm education mature. In this research project the maturity model “pm education mature” was jointly developed by the PMUni partners. First pilot analysis of the project management education programs of the PMUni partners were analysed and benchmarked. One of the major benefits of this research project is to encourage and foster the knowledge transfer between the cooperating universities concerning content, working forms, evaluation forms, etc. in project management education programs.
Guests like Roger Aktkinson, Bournemouth University (UK) presented PMNetwork – Project Management for Excellence in Learning & Teaching. Edwin Andrews, PMI (USA) reported on PMI’s planned Education programs and service initiatives. Patrick Fritz, University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg (A) introduced Jahooda, a project and process management platform launched by his university (http://www.jahooda.org/).
Further information can be found at www.pmuni.net. Value of PM Study to be presented at PMI According to the Project Management Institute (PMI®), attendees at PMI's 2008 Research Conference in Poland in July will hear the preliminary findings of a three year-long research study on the "Value of Project Management." Academicians, scholars and project management professionals from throughout the world will gather in Warsaw, Poland, on 13-16 July 2008 for PMI's bi-annual project management research conference. Commissioned by PMI and conducted by researchers at Athabasca University in Canada, the study will look at more than 60 case studies from a globally dispersed array of industries. The study will provide benchmarks for organizations to calculate their return on investment from implementing standardized project management programs.
“The Value of Project Management research findings have attracted special interest at our fifth biennial research conference,” said Edwin J. Andrews, PhD, director of Academic and Educational Programs & Services at the Project Management Institute. (pictured at left). “This is the most definitive research ever commissioned to study the value of the implementation of project management. The findings are expected to quantify that project, program and portfolio managers are making significant contributions to organizations by implementing standardized project management programs to deliver projects and programs on time and within budget. Full report findings will be published and released in October.” The Warsaw conference will feature seven plenary presentations and 51 double-blind peer-reviewed papers across a variety of management topics. Program highlights will include:
Registration for both the research conference and the academic forum are available at www.PMI.org. The conference is being held at the Marriott Warsaw.
With more than 265,000 members in 170 plus countries, the Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI) is the world’s largest membership association for project management. As a leading advocate for the profession, PMI is actively engaged in setting professional standards, providing a professional career path for project managers and maintaining a family of professional credentials: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®), Project Management Professional (PMP®), Program Management Professional (PgMP)® and PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)SM. The PMP is held by more than 267,000 project managers and professionals worldwide. PMI provides members with access to PM knowledge, skills, education, and networking opportunities. PMI is also highly regarded for its research, accreditation of colleges and universities, and Registered Education Provider program. PMI was founded in 1969. Please visit PMI.org for more information. New Research Project launched in Austria - Reported by Martina Huemann in Austria The pilot project Sectoral Process & Project Management is a new research project of the PROJEKTMANAGEMENT GROUP at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Objective of the research project is to define relevant sectors and identify within these sectors specific process and project types. Specific requirements of different sectors for process and project management are also identified together with partners from corresponding industries, and standards are developed for the process and project management.
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