26/05/2023 Ziad Al-basir Planning, Planning & Control, Portfolio Management, Scheduling

Importance Of Project Planning and Scheduling

12/01/2019 Ziad Al-basir PMO

PMO Starts With P For People

People are the core for any initiative. That’s the fact we might forget sometimes. An important idea I am finding it everyday so important since I graduated and since I started reading about project management on 1994. After that when I got PMBOK 1996 first edition , I became so addicted to project methodologies and processes. If someone asked me to do something, I will ask “do you have a process”. If they do not, I create it for myself […]

19/08/2018 Ziad Al-basir Primavera P6 18.8, Training

Primavera P6 18.8 Training Videos

Whats new in Primavera P6 EPPM and Professional ver 18.8 which released on August 2018? Refer to our training videos pages in English and Arabic. Subscribe to our channel in YouTube and activate the alerts to receive it when we publish it. Subscribe here https://www.youtube.com/zalbasireppm

11/07/2018 Ziad Al-basir Annual Budget, Budget, Cost Control, EPMO, EPPM, Forecast, PMO, Project Cost Controls, Resources Planning, Shared Resources

How to Budget EPMO/EPPM – Part1?

Calculation of the annual forecasted cost for budgeting purposes for EPMO and EPPM is a challenge for many Project Based Organisations (PBO). I am not talking here about contracted defined projects which is easy to forecast. I am talking here about permanent staff, shared staff and non-project cost budgeting. We see this also in pre-construction stage where the development of the project studies and design are on progress. We see this mainly in the client’s side, developers, consultants, project management […]

29/06/2018 Ziad Al-basir Bidding & Tendering

Can We Increase The Bidding Price Now?

Global oil prices hit 11-year low on Jan 2016 with around $30 per barrel dropping form $115 on June 2014. Last month May 2018, it rose to $80 per barrel for the first time since 2014. The year to date average price for Brent oil is close to $70 per barrel. Historically, over the duration of 2002 to 2008, the price of oil rose from $20 to $100+ which helped the construction industry to boom to historical record. Consequently, can […]

08/06/2018 Ziad Al-basir PMO

Is It PrPMO Or PuPMO?

PMO is a new methodology to manage portfolios and projects. It is less than two decades of age. All limited publications and books are from personal experience more than approved methods which might (or not) give the right framework and processes for PMOs implementation and operation which applicable and fit for all organisation types. We can’t generalise PMOs governance and processes for public sector and private sectors. Even we can’t generalise it for computer software developments projects, micro management and […]

22/04/2018 Ziad Al-basir Cost Control

Does Client’s Contract Help To Share Resources To Reduce Project’s Cost?

The most used method to manage projects is by considering each project as a separate cost centre where you have full budget and resources allocated to deliver the project. This project might extend form a day to years. Here it comes the difficulties that, it will cost the project more if you will consider a cost for a machine or a person as a full-time for the project even he/she/it will operate not full time. For example, an asphalt paving […]

17/04/2018 Ziad Al-basir PMO

Project Portfolio Implementation Check List

Project Portfolio Management is a dynamic ongoing process of selecting and delivering projects on a shared portfolio model to achieve the maximum benefits realized from the available resources to deliver the organization vision on a long term and the assigned business plans and targets on the short term (monthly, quarterly and annually). Project based organizations (PBO) are managing portfolios, programs and projects. However, are they delivering it to the maximum efficiency. In most organizations, they would have big load every […]

03/04/2018 Ziad Al-basir Bidding & Tendering

Are You Burning Your Cash Flow?

Project Based Organizations (PBO) are struggling when market is slow on two stages. The first is what to bid stage and the later is the bidding’s markup price stage. They feel the pressure more on the later especially if they lost many bids recently and they feel like the year is finishing by burning the overhead cash flow with no results. The mark up price includes the hard cost, the soft cost and the profit. Hard cost is the estimated […]

28/03/2018 Ziad Al-basir PMO

Do You Have Portfolio Analysis Skills? – Part 2

This article is a second article for the first related article in my LinkedIn profile. please refer to it for more understanding of the article. https://zalbasireppm.com/pmo/do-you-have-portfolio-analysis-skills-part-1/ Portfolios might be defined for certain type of projects with similarity or not, with shared resources or not. The main goal is to have a director who is responsible to deliver the projects goals and the strategic goals. The following scenario is for a small consultant who defined portfolios for each region. Please refer […]

28/03/2018 Ziad Al-basir PMO

Do You Have Portfolio Analysis Skills? – Part 1

Project Portfolio Analysis is so sample for a trained person. So for some of us, it will be very easy to understand the charts and tables very fast and for some, it might be new skill to gain. So please for the trained ones, give some insights to what the charts and table data are telling us. In a fast track and busy time for management, they would like to have a tool to tell them a lot by one […]

22/02/2018 Ziad Al-basir Business Transformation

Are You Ready For The New Construction Technology Disruption?

I was privileged to be invited to two important innovation events happened on the same day which I tried to divide my time between both of them. Because the subject and the type of participants on both. They are linked because they are about new solutions and innovations. Let me say that getting knowledge about new trends and innovations opens new prospective always in my mind on how I think and how I adopt new business models. The challenge of […]

18/01/2018 Ziad Al-basir Business Transformation

Carillion Collapse What Went Wrong ?

UK Construction giant Carillion, the second largest construction company with 200 years’ work experience (19,000 employee in UK with 49,000 in all over the world) announced on 15th Jan 2018, that it has to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect after they couldn’t secure a dial with government and banks to cover their £1.5 billion debt pile. The negative impact of the news is not only to their shareholders, current employees, and previous employees (on their pension payments), it […]

12/12/2017 Ziad Al-basir Planning & Control

What type of Project Controls System Fit You More in Functional Organization Environment?

We published many articles about PMO and EPPM because it is the best model for Project Based Organisations (PBO) for best results on such continuously changing and competitive market. However, many organizations are still using traditional functional structure including project controls departments. Therefore, the question which persist in such work environment “What type of Project Controls System Fit You More in Functional Organization Environment?” Although, the training workshop includes a lot more. we are happy to share with you the […]

10/10/2017 Ziad Al-basir PMO

Who Plan and Deliver the PMO / EPMO ?

Most organizations plan and implement their strategic initiatives all the time. However, delivering it faces difficulties and even failure. One of the important initiatives for government, developers and contractors is the PMO implementation Initiative which is a restructuring initiative which make it more difficult to plan and implement. The good news I read in the recent PMI Pulse of The Profession 2017 report, is that: ” We have learned in the past: that when proven project, program, and portfolio management […]

03/07/2017 Ziad Al-basir Business Transformation

What Went Wrong?

One of the most difficult situations is when a decision maker faces the three Ws (WWW) What Went Wrong? The situation becomes more devastating for the investors who invested billions. One example of this is one of the world’s biggest mining company who had put one of their big assets in USA up for sale in October 2014 after a slump in oil prices. The company bought the assets from Chesapeake Energy Corp. in 2011 for $4.75 billion but was […]

26/06/2017 Ziad Al-basir Business Transformation

Do You Find It Difficult To Get Your Organisation Financial Report?

Many organizations growing very fast. They expand their business year after year using the same systems they started with until they find difficulties to report where they stand financially. They wake up with the fact that there is no proper records not just to use internally but more importantly to provide for shareholders and auditors as credible reports. The finance department panics before every due report date to collect the needed data from the different departments. It becomes big headache […]

03/03/2017 Ziad Al-basir Business Transformation

Retaining the Know How?

Availability of key skills comes on number 8 for business threat which makes US CEOs extremely concerned about in their organisation strategic planning (PWC 20th CEO Global Survey Report – Jan 2017). The picture becomes more concerning when another survey in USA released on 9th Feb 2017 by Willis Towers Watson research reveals that almost half of employees think they would need to change companies to advance their career. This is a high trend from 2014 Willis Towers Watson research […]

17/10/2016 Ziad Al-basir Bidding & Tendering

Earthwork Tender’s Schedule – What Level of Details You Should Include in it?

The planning and scheduling of earthwork are of major importance in obtaining an efficiently bidding pricing for multibillion construction projects. To plan a schedule, the quantities of clearing, grubbing, and stripping, as well as the quantities and balancing of cuts and fills, must be calculated. Then, the most efficient type and number of pieces of earth moving equipment could be defined, the proper number of personnel assigned, and the appropriate time allocated. Earthwork computation involves the calculation of volumes or […]