Steve Elliott

Programme & Project ControlsHave we lost our way ?

October 2013

Outline

Introduction -- SE & Crossrail

A simple view of Project Controls

What is success for Project Controls

Some observations

Summary & Conclusion

Discussion

Introduction

35 years in engineering & construction projects

Chartered Engineer & Certificated PM – FIMechE, FAPM

First experienced Project Controls in Petrochem with Exxon/Esso

Project Experience

Heavy Engineering & Power, Oil & Gas, Petrochem, Pharmaceuticals

Infrastructure (Airports, Rail, Water)

Worked for contractor, consultant and client organisations

Last 2.5 years - Programme Controls Director at Crossrail

Concept of a railway in large diameter tunnels – 1941

Current scheme has its origins in 1943 – London Plan

1974 term “Crossrail” emerged – London Rail Study

1989 - proposal of standard (BR) gauge tunnels

2001 CLRL formed, 50/50 JV between DfT and TfL

2005 the Crossrail Bill put before Parliament

July 2008 – Crossrail Act 2008 received Royal Assent

Construction commenced in May 2009 at Canary Wharf

Crossrail on track to open for business in December 2018

Station mock up at Leighton Buzzard

Europe’s largest construction project

£14.8bn funding

37 stations

8 new sub-surface stations

21km twin-bored tunnel

19 Boroughs

140 main works contracts

10,000 suppliers

4,340 commitments

Crossrail route

Why build Crossrail Crossrail will cut journey times and provide additional capacity – increasing London’s rail capacity by 10%

Passengers will be able to travel from Heathrow to Tottenham Court Road in under 30 minutes,

Paddington to Canary Wharf in around 16 minutes, Whitechapel to Canary Wharf in 4 minutes

Generates ~ £42 billion in economic benefits

One of, if not the the most economically attractive rail developments in recent history.

Enables the regeneration of areas around the stations along its route

Improved accessibility likely to attract new private sector development.

8 TBM’s

Current Status

Almost 50% complete

Spent (& Earned) to date – circa £5 bn

£800m spent of property aquistions

Around 9000 people working on the programme

On schedule and within the Sponsors funding envelope

Only rolling stock left to procure – contract award in Spring 2014

Spent all my career on projects – large, small, simple, complex

Across numerous different sectors – and after 35 years I often see:

A poor grip of the fundamentals of Project Management & Controls

Too much time looking backwards – driving analogy

Too many specialisms and too few rounded controls professionals

An obsession with detail that obscures the wood from the trees

Slow take up of IM technology in some sectors – eg construction

So what am I going to talk about

We cannot change the past

It’s too late to change the present

So we are only left with the future

Isn’t that what Controls is really about ?

What is Project Controls – a simple view

Baseline

Plan

Physical

Progress

Measure

Analysis &

ForecastsCourse

Correction

Review

Knowing what has to be done(Integrated Scope, Cost, Time)

Knowing what has been done(Earned Value)

Knowing how performancecompares to the plan(So What & looking forward )

Recommendingcorrective action(Doing something to make a change)

Reviewing to checkcorrective actions have had an impact(Follow up)

What is Project Controls – a simple view

Risk &Change

What is success for Project Controls

Knowing what has to be done – the plan

Understanding the risks and opportunities in that plan

Knowing what has been done

Knowing what has NOT been done and why

Knowing how performance compares to the plan

Recommending corrective action to achieve the plan

Communicating the above - at the right time, in the right format

All at an APPROPRIATE level of detail

Observations

No 1 -- Lack of appropriate effectiveness models and structures

No 2 -- Dis – integrated Project Controls

No 3 -- Inappropriate levels of detail and unnecessary accuracy

No 4 -- A need to better exploit emerging IM/IT technology

Observation No. 1

Programmes & Projects often lack an Organisational Effectiveness framework

There is no agreed simple, robust structure – much more than a WBS

Scope and structure alignment is left uncontrolled and silo working is rife

Controls professionals need to be at the core of projects to drive this

Culture & Values

Programme Controls Effectiveness Framework

Vision &Objectives

Processes &Procedures

InfrastructureSystems &

Tools

People &Resources

Structure

Client/Sponsors

CorporateStrategy

The 7 Levels of Effective Strategy, Governance & Control

ControlsStrategy

GovernanceModel

Programme & Projectsrequired to fulfil Strategy

Risk Management

Governance

Risk Appetite

En

sure

ali

gn

men

tTo

Str

ateg

y

Crossrail Structure

Client/ Sponsors

1 - Programme

7 - Areas(Projects)

35 - Projects(Contracts)

140 - Contracts(of Control Accounts)

Several Hundred - Control Accounts(of Work Packages)

Thousands of Work Packages(of Activities, where the work gets done)

Bo

ard

/Ex

ec

uti

ve

Pro

jec

t M

an

ag

em

en

t

Tas

k

Ma

na

ge

me

nt

Pro

gra

mm

e

Ma

na

ge

me

nt

Str

ateg

y &

Go

vern

ance

Co

ntr

ol &

Rep

ort

ing

Fundamental – usually not given the attention it requires

• If not well developed and controlled – control will be virtually impossible

• Challenging in early phases – teams prefer flexibility and will resist

• Different specialisms want different structures

• Misalignment occurs vertically and horizontally

• Its for ALL the programme – i.e. not just a WBS (Typically focused at Levels 5,6 & 7)

Its all about being in control – NOT – being controlled

Structure

Observation No. 2

Lack of integrated controls

Commercial, Planning, QS’s – not joined up

Often each discipline has it’s own structure, processes etc.

They could be working on different projects

Controls professionals need to get a grip of this

Dis - integrated Controls

What happened to Cost & Schedule Engineering – Ingegneria Economica

Oil & Gas vs. Construction vs. IT -- Worlds apart in approach & capability

Procurers, Planners, Estimators, Contract Administrators, Cost Engineers.

The UK is too focussed on developing specialists

In fact the various Institutions promote this – it’s in their interests to do so

We produce professionals who know more and more about less and less

We need Project Controls professionals – rounded, experienced, multi-skilled

We need standards to drive and ensure skills and competence

Glaxo -- Stevenage versus Glaxo – North Carolina

One facility cost twice the other – guess which one!

Same Client, similar approach:Client Team + PAE + Management Contractor with LS Subs.

TypicalProjectMeeting

Observation No.3

Three parts to this and each feed of the other and create a spiral which is difficult to stop

1 --- A drive for more and more detail – does it mean better control – NO!

e.g. the 10,000 activity costed programme > 1 million activities in Crossrail – P6

2 --- An unnecessary quest for decimal point accuracy

e.g. Anticipated Final Cost £10,925,863,253 --- HS2 – Budget £42.6 bn

CPI and SPI 0.957, CPI 0.893 – 3 decimal places - who is fooling who?

3 --- Reports with pages and pages of data and detail – but little analysis

Clients and Sponsors, usually persuaded by consultants and government

departments often request excessive levels of information and metrics.

Which they then do very little with.

Greater levels of

detail

Create an illusion of greater

control and accuracy

More data to manipulate & information

to report

Leads to more

resources

Observation No. 4

We must exploit the full power of emerging information technologies

BIM and 4, 5 D models – real integrated Project Controls software/tools

Portable devices -- still too much paper

Simple to use software – the days of PM tool experts are numbered

There are some really good examples, but they are few and far between

The petrochem/oil & gas/IT sectors are way ahead of construction

What could it be like in the future

• BIM and 4, 5D -- the virtual project world

• Automated progress measurement using intelligent components

• Smart handover of projects to operators and users

• The capture, cataloguing and Intelligent use of life cycle data

• Realtime reporting instead of month end snapshots

• Clients will expect much more automation and less resources

Summary --- Need to focus on the fundamentals & move forward

The application of a robust Strategy, Governance and Control model

Need to develop more rounded Project Controls Professionals

Need to constantly remind ourselves what the real purpose of controls is

Need to develop standards for competency and excellence

Really embrace BIM/4 & 5D technology to improve efficiency

So what should we be doing to address these issues

Ensure that Planning and Controls is at the CORE of projects & programmes

not an add on function or a support function or a PMO

The pilot/navigator analogy

Carefully consider the level of detail you are getting into

Challenge – why do you need this – remember the first slide – plan/measure/recover

We cant change yesterday or today – too long in the rear view mirror causes crashes

We can and should all develop and broaden our skills

Get involved in other disciplines – planners in cost; QS’s in schedules – radical!

To conclude --- Have we lost our way?

In some areas, I think we have – but we can easily find it again if

we focus on what matters -- the fundamentals

Put more effort in developing rounded PC Professionals

Fully exploit information technologies and emerging devices

And stop wasting precious time, resources and money creating

overly complex, too detailed, fragmented control models which don’t

provide Sponsors, Project Directors, Managers and colleagues what

they NEED. Which is :

Knowing what has to be done – the plan

Understanding the risks and opportunities in that plan

Knowing what has been done

Knowing what has NOT been done and why

Knowing how performance compares to the plan

Recommending corrective action to achieve the plan

Communicating it all at the right time, in the right format

Thanks for listening