Mega Projects not Mega Problems

With

Intro

Customer success – ALEC

Aconex demo

Q&A

Agenda

Janet Poses

Sean McQue

Ed Surgeon

Janet Poses

Senior Manager - Global Industry Solutions

20+ years in the Construction and Engineering industry

2/3 FAILStrategic Program Management LLCBob Prieto - rpstrategic@Comcast.net

PM THEORY MUST CHANGE

Management endeavors to introduce regularity in a world that will never allow that to happen.

Fayol’s plan, organize, direct, coordinate, and control are now expanded to include confirming, monitoring, engaging, influencing, and evolving.

Project management must create context, capacities, and capabilities.

“It’s not about perfecting an imperfect model, it is about creating a new one.”

EXTENDED FOCUS OF LARGE COMPLEX PROJECTS

Classical Focus Extended Focus

Project readiness Owner readiness

Output focus Emergent outcomes (Multi-finality)

Tasks and transformative flows

Flows including emergent influencing and induced flows

Stakeholder management Stakeholder engagement (partners in success)

Organize, direct, coordinate, and control

Confirm, monitor, engage, influence, evolve

IMPLICATIONS OF SCALE & COMPLEXITY

In a Nutshell• Expanded/Strengthened

Foundations• Transformational Process

(Traditional) View Not Enough• Focus on Flows

• Semi-Permeable Boundary

Simple Risk Relationships

Complex Risk Relationships

MEGAPROJECTS REQUIRE CHANGED LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS

Traditional Leadership Behaviors New Leadership Behaviors

Individual leadership vs. Group Cross Project Leadership

Control and order vs. Motivation and movement

Scientific management vs. Transformative leadership

Outputs focus vs. Shared outcomes focus

Assignment and directive vs. Agreement and acceptance of goals

Hierarchical and siloed vs. Project-wide flat communication and information

structures

Acceptance of normative vs. Questioning (assumption, process, outputs)

Adversarial or transactional approach vs. Collaboration and information sharing with

stakeholders

Management of tasks vs. Management of flows

Centralized decision making vs. Engaged and decentralized decision making

MEGAPROJECT ADVICE FOCUS ON FLOWS

Manage the arrows not just the tasks

Manage the “white space”

Ensure packaging and phasing enhances project schedule

Create supply chain opportunities through packaging

Drive program logistics plan

Project management must strengthen its focus on flow management

MEGAPROJECT ADVICE RECOGNIZE MEGAPROJECT IS NOT BOUNDED

We Need to Improve Performance Assessment

Weaknesses

1. We do not “see” leading indicators well

(They get lost in the volumes of data)

2.We do not see the complexity of challenges embedded in the project plan

Opportunity – Big Analytics

(We already have Big Data, now we need to be able to use it)

NEW PARADIGM FOR PROJECT CONTROL

•Attention to flows arising from outside the project • Increased use of big analytics not only on project

performance data but also on a myriad of external data sources.

•Project controls must be outward and forward looking

Sean McQue

Director of Operations

ALEC

“ALEC core values are the foundation of everything we do. It’s how we operate as a business.”

ALEC

• ALEC (ALEC Engineering and Contracting LLC) is an award winning, multi-disciplinary construction company based in Dubai with operations in Abu Dhabi, Oman and Qatar.

• Since inception in 1999, ALEC has grown to over USD $1 billion annually.

“Quality is not an act. It is a habit. We embed this in all our projects.”

6 Keys to mega project success

1. Leadership

2. Environment

3. People

4. Delivery

5. Information

6. Plan

1. Leadership

• Open

• Collaborative

• Innovative

• Flexible

• Forward looking

2. Environment

• Cooperative

• Productive

• Efficient

• Professional

• Non confrontational

• Interactive

• Motivated

3. People

• Accountability

• Clear roles and responsibilities

• Collaborative

• Integrity

• Right skills for the job

• Decisive

4. Delivery

• Cross project alignment

• Communication

• Risk awareness

• Constructive relationships

• Removing constraints

• Working toward project-wide goals

5. Information

• Right information

• Right time

• Accessible by the right people

• Accurate

• Complete

• Consistent

• Supports delivery

6. Plan

• Baseline

• Alignment

• Ownership

• Buy in

• Adaptable

• Measurable

• Attainable

Cross organizational leadership

• Challenges of shared responsibility and risk

• Importance of leading by example to set the culture

• New tools needed to manage this type of structure

Evolution of cross organizational collaboration to cross organizational leadership

Project-wide processes

• Across organizations

• Across project phases

• Across disciplines

• Across the leadership team

Project set up – setting up for success

• Owner readiness

• Scope definition

• A healthy ecosystem• The right contract style

• The right players

• The right processes

• The right tools and systems

• The right MINDSET

Connected BIM

• Better information

• Reviews earlier in the project

• Access to model and data by more people

• Better decisions

• Fewer errors and less rework

Risk on Mega Projects

• Not traditional

• Need to share to succeed

• Partnership

• Mitigate as a project team

• If one team member loses, the project loses

What to look for in project-wide systems and tools

• Security (neutrality)

• Visibility

• Configurability

• Insights (forward looking)

• Proven

ALEC Results

• 1-3 days SAVED by immediate uploading and improving the availability of completed third-party inspection records.

• TIME and COST SAVINGS from on-site capture, logging, managing, and resolution of defects.

• REDUCTION of 3-7 days in average review cycles by using Aconex workflows.

• 50% FASTER mail response times through training and process optimization.

Mega Projects not Mega Problems

Ed SurgeonManager – Strategic Accounts

Aconex

Field Inspections

Connecting teams project-wide

OperateConstructDesignBidPlan

Document Control

RFIs & Change Orders

Bidding & Tenders

Workflows & Approvals

BIMCollaboration

Submittals Handover to Operations

CostManagement

Dashboards & Reporting

In projects executedon the platform

$1+trillion

Documents managed with complete auditability

1.2+billion

User organizationsInterfacing efficiently

60+thousand

Foresight and visibility to prevent surprises

Portfolio

Project

Process

Tasks

Every project member on a connected platform with a single view

Enterprise-wide Collaboration

Line-of-sight into issues

Early Warnings & Predictive Insights

Unified project controls for a single view of project performance

Integrated Project Controls

Connected Cost: Integrated, Configurable, Enterprise-wideA modern collaborative project controls solution integrating cost, schedule, contracts & project information

Packages: Improved efficiency, productivity and quality

• Allow documentation and correspondence to be broken down into discrete controlled sections, or ‘packages.’

• Better manage the many project processes through design, construction and completion of the project.

Design Management

Configuration Management

Work Packaging

Demo: Mega Projects not Mega Problems

• Overview

• Insights

• Project controls

• BIM

• Packages

• Configurable workflows

We presented a live Aconex demo. Please view your demo at aconex.com/Demo.

Recap: Mega Projects not Mega Problems

• Implement tools and processes that support collaborative leadership.

• Use flexible systems that support your project team and structure.

• Ensure project-wide insights so you get advanced warning into any project impacts.

Mega Projects not Mega ProblemsOur thanks to ALEC

Learn more at aconex.com/Demo