Guild of Project Controls: Compendium | Roles | Assessment | Certifications | Membership

Ethics is not enough

7 years 49 weeks ago

One of the slow burning issues in Australia (and globally) is the flammable cladding used in lieu of the specified non-flammable cladding on many hundreds of high rise buildings.  As a consequence, many of these buildings do not comply with the Building Act and expensive remediation works are required. In Melbourne, there are more than 85 properties where non-compliance with National

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Improving the Governance of Projects, Programs and Portfolios.

8 years 1 week ago

A short while ago I posted a blog that was highly critical of the new ‘Practice Guide for the Governance of Portfolios, Programs, and Projects’.  The core of my criticism was the confusion of management and governance (and PMI’s focus on improving management functions); see:

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Governance

Statistical Uncertainty

8 years 12 weeks ago

Statistics drive decisions in every walk of life, including project management. One of the applications of statistics we’ve been exposed to more than once recently is answering the question how many meals to load on a Qantas flight? 

Qantas economy cabin seats roughly 300 passengers, dinner has 3 choices on the menu, should the flight load 300 meals distributed by the expected

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The Effect of Randomness and Luck

8 years 16 weeks ago

In our last article You are probably wrong about probability we looked at probability[1]. Randomness is a key ingredient in probability, contributes to luck, affects statistics, and can easily be confused for skill or competence!

Luck and

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You are probably wrong about probability

8 years 21 weeks ago

This is the first of four articles based on Leonard Mlodinow's book, The Drunkards Walk; looking at probability, in the next article we will look at randomness, and then how this affects everything in project controls and business.  For example, does the Rugby

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PMP Questions – getting a second opinion.

8 years 25 weeks ago

Most people when faced with a painful decision such as having a leg amputated seek a valid second opinion!  Sitting for the PMP exam is no different – regardless of whose course you have completed testing your knowledge against a different set of reputable questions developed by another person is always a good idea.

Course developers tend to write questions that are answered by

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PBS -v- WBS, is there a difference?

8 years 29 weeks ago

I was recently involved in a virtual discussion on the Association for Project Management (APM - UK) website around the use and differences between a Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) and a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).  The resulting briefing document produced by the APM is summarised here

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What’s the message??

8 years 33 weeks ago

A couple of conversations in the last week or so has highlighted the importance of effective communication if you want anyone to take notice of the project information you have carefully gathered and analysed.  Good data, good analysis and good information are useless if no one gets the message.

Far too many project controls professionals and project managers think they have done

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Measuring Culture - a new dimension for PMOs?

8 years 37 weeks ago

On many occasion we, and others, have defined good governance as balancing the needs of stakeholders and the objectives of the organisation to achieve long-term, sustainable value for the majority, if not all, stakeholders (see: Mosaic’s governance archives).  From these considerations, Dr. Lynda Bourne

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Why do so many organisations and clients accept bad schedules?

8 years 40 weeks ago

The need for effective planning and scheduling has been recognised for well over 100 years. Projects fail when they overrun the allocated time and budget and overrunning on schedule is a great way to make sure you also overrun on cost.

The elements needed to enhance the probability of project success are also well known, starting with a skilled project manager and team, with the

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