Management of Large Complex Projects
McKenna, Wilczynski & VanderSchee (2006) studied a pool of projects with an annual budget greater than US$100 billion spread all over the world. More than 40% of the projects had experienced significant schedule and cost overruns due to inadequacies in performance and risk management, initial project planning and problems with human resources. The above study is by no means an isolated example. Major IT/IS projects continue to have a poor success record. Most failures are ultimately traceable to management shortcomings, particularly not understanding the complexities and dimensions of large projects and programs and their life cycles. IT/IS projects are called transformational projects in that they seek to transform the performance and capability of an organisation. Unfortunately most IT/IS projects fail to deliver the target benefits to their host organisations. Up to now client organisations have been applying normal project management control techniques to these projects. However, research shows that such techniques do not adequately represent the complex nature of change brought about in an organisation through the implementation of such projects. Our research team has developed a unique diagnostic tool Project Health Check or PH-Check, to apply against 18 criteria to assess the health of a project at intervals from the onset of project activities through to final project delivery and hand over.
Client organisations wishing to apply this system are invited to contact us. The service is in the form of an independent health assessment for the project under consideration and advice in terms of where the project is going versus the client organisation´s goals and targets. We are happy to train client executives to apply our system but full benefits will arise if our team conducts the assessment as we will be seen as independent of both the client and the contractors or vendors. The actual assessment may take anything from a few days for simpler projects to a couple of weeks for larger projects. The potential benefits are wide and far reaching.
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Consulting and Independent Expert Advice
Our consulting track record spans many years of international engagement in many countries of the world, spanning projects and programs in diverse areas, such as infrastructure, institutional building, education and government projects and programs. Our team will be pleased to provide input and advice to any project or program that needs independent expert advice or assistance with organisation design, governance and administration.
Online Competency Assessment Tool (CAT)
CAT is an online system used to assess individual professional competencies against 54 competency units divided into 156 elements covering a range of competencies such as project, program, leadership and socio-cultural, communication, finance and portfolio, risks and organisation management. The assessment is at 5 levels, ranging from aware through to informed, involved, competent and transformative. Registered users of CAT can maintain, obtain reports and archive the records of their competency acquisition and development over time.
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