Dear Members,

Please find below this weeks' newsletter.  We hope that you find it adds value to your day.  Please visit our sponsors as they keep our servers running and without them we will cease to exist. If you would like to join our team of bloggers and content providers then do get in touch.

Introduction

This paper describes and explains the concepts and terminology behind what is today being termed as Artificial Intelligence.

Further, it describes how these concepts relate to the field of project management offering opportunity for better, more effective project planning and control.

What Exactly is Artificial Intelligence?

Read more...

Improving Change Management, Data Transparency, and Reporting at a North American Upstream Oil & Gas Company

This case study shares how a North American Upstream Oil & Gas company uses PRISM for superior change management and accurate cost reports.  Not only have they seen better control over data, trends, and overall cost management, but they have seen a reduced workload allowing for more strategic analysis.  Read more...

QUESTION - Where did the underlying knowledge for the Global Project Controls Body of Knowledge come from?

A team of senior Fellows and practitioners spent over 2 years searching around the world to find the “best tested and proven” practices and compiled them into a single “living document” designed to be updated as new or better “tested and proven” practices evolve.  This is why we call it the “Global Project Controls COMPENDIUM and REFERENCE” (GPCCaR)"

When researching and selecting “best tested and proven” practices, the Guild of Project Controls subject matter experts used 3 criteria:

• All reference material had to be non-proprietary, available under “open source” or “creative commons” license. (We did not adopt what any single professional organization advocated but selected what we considered to be the “best tested and proven” practices wherever they came from)
• All reference material had to be available at no cost.  We do not want to force people to have to purchase expensive books in order to study for our exams, nor did we want to favor one author’s perspective over another.
• All reference material had to be accessible using the internet.  As many of the people preparing for these exams are located at remote sites, we wanted access to the study materials to be open to anyone who has internet access.

QUESTION - Do the Guild Certifications ONLY require that I pass a written exam?

NO!!  As the Guild of Project Controls are COMPETENCY based credentials, passing a written exam is only part of the requirements.  The credentials consist of several equally weighted component elements and the requirements differ slightly according to the level of certification you apply for.  An example of the types of validation tools we use are listed below but check the Certification page for the details specific to your current role: 

• Experience Profile 
• Library Articles 
• 360 Degree Peer, Supervisor and Client References
• Career Path Development Plan 
• Computer Based Exam 
• Videoconference Interview
• The review and acceptance of the above by Subject Assessors and the Guild Certification Board

We hope this helps.

The INDEPENDENT Guild of Project Controls Certification Board.

Date: Thurs, January 18
Time: 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT - Register here
Duration: 1 hour

ALTERNATE TIMES

EMEA: 14:00 UTC / 10:00am ET - Register here

Large engineering and construction projects and portfolios contain complexity unlike those of other industries.  And because of this, despite efforts to plan, standardize and control, project-driven organizations face a constant erosion of returns and margins.

Whether facing internal challenges or external shocks, best-practice organizations are looking for flexibility within their processes and their tools.  The aim is to build capabilities that deliver actionable intelligence faster so organizations are more agile, more responsive and more economically successful in the face of change.

In this webinar, we discuss:

• How flexibility contributes to improved projects performance, returns and margins
• Goals for designing a flexible system
• Using flexible software tools to achieve organizational goals

We'll conclude with a demonstration of the EcoSys Enterprise Projects Performance platform that will showcase how these principles of flexibility can be easily realized in practice. 

Are you a practitioner who would like to help coach more junior practitioners and make revenue for doing it full time or part time?

Are you an experienced training provider who can deliver small or large scale training and want a new product set?

You are welcome to use the Guild of Project Controls Compendium and use your experience to help practitioners know and understand the tools & techniques associated with Planning & Scheduling, Cost Management, Forensic Analysis and Project Controls... become a trainer for the Guild.

If you would like to "get plugged in" and utilise this comprehensive competency based toolset then email us at PPAdmin@planningplanet.com

Creates the World’s Most Comprehensive Cloud Offering for Managing All Aspects of Construction Projects

Oracle announced that it has entered into an agreement with Aconex Limited, a leading cloud-based solution that manages team collaboration for construction projects.

The Aconex project collaboration solution digitally connects owners, builders and other teams, providing complete visibility and management of data, documents and costs across all stages of a construction project lifecycle. Aconex has been used in over $1 trillion in projects across 70,000 user organizations in over 70 countries.

The Oracle Construction and Engineering Cloud already offers customers the industry’s most advanced solutions for planning, scheduling and delivering large-scale projects. Together, Oracle and Aconex will provide an end-to-end offering for project management and delivery that enables customers to effectively plan, build, and operate construction projects.

“Delivering projects on time and on budget are the highest strategic imperatives for any construction and engineering organization,” said Mike Sicilia, SVP and GM, Construction and Engineering Global Business Unit, Oracle. “With the addition of Aconex, we significantly advance our vision of offering the most comprehensive cloud-based project management solution for this $14 trillion industry.”

“The Aconex and Oracle businesses are a great, natural fit and highly complementary in terms of vision, product, people and geography,” said Leigh Jasper, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Aconex. “As co-founders of Aconex, both Rob Phillpot and I remain committed to the business and are excited about the opportunity to advance our collective vision on a larger scale, and the benefits this combination will deliver to our customers.”

The Board of Directors of Aconex unanimously recommends the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2018, subject to Aconex shareholder approval and certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

More information about this announcement is available at ORACLE - ACONEX.

Spider Project software is most popular project, program and portfolio management tool in Russia. It has customers in 34 countries but still is not widely known abroad.

The first version of Spider Project was launched to the market in 1993 and since then its improvement based on its development team ideas and experience and users proposals and requirements never stopped. Today it has a lot of unique features that are not available in other tools. Look at the presentation here that describes some advanced scheduling functionality that is required in many projects but is absent in most tools.

Project models may be used as the decision making tools only if they reflect all existing dependencies and constraints. Let us know if you create project models that give reliable answers to any what if question and forecast future results. We'll be glad to discuss any issues with creating these models in Planning Planet Spider Project forum.

That's all folks... 

If you want to get involved and provide content for the next newsletter then please get in touch.