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 […]
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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 […]
Read moreProject based organisations (PBO) visionary leaders must have a Visual Strategic Portfolio (VSP) within their enterprise project portfolios management (EPPMS) system. Visualisation of the SP means visualisation of your ultimate goals. The current or near future goals are business as usual. It doesn’t reflect the main existence of your organisation. Another reason to have the VSP is that the visionary leaders know they will face many challenges to manoeuvre defining initial targets to make it easy to manage. However, not […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Projects delivery KPIs are important to measure the risks and opportunities that influence the strategic performance of projects and the team involved. The project management KPIs types could be defined mainly around the following Criteria: 1. Financial: These are typically utilized when the measure is monetary. 2. Quantitative: These are for projects where the relevant metric is not financial but is something that can be quantified numerically like time delivery. 3. Qualitative: A qualitative KPI is used when the relevant […]
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In challenging market where the pressure to win new contracts to maintain the targeted profit becomes a survival risk, management tends to make very tough decisions. Some of these decisions are around cutting costs. Some are around increasing efficiency and some are about new thinking and new operation model. However, success is a habit. It is a defined process and systems. It is not a change forced to do. Therefore, when we study the successful models for big companies we […]
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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 […]
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Abstract: There are difficulties to collect actual bidding cost from the different contractors records. Many contractors consider it part of the overhead and not important to calculate. Part of this difficulties is the unidentified or different bidding process methods and where the process starts and where it end? Therefore, identification of the bidding process, will help to identify its actual cost. We will discuss here only the contractors bidding process. Although, there are similarities for consultants and suppliers process with less cost expected. […]
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Project portfolio approach and practice is still developing for many organisations. Organisations with responsibility to deliver many projects a year like utilities companies, government organisations, assets and financial management, contractors, consultants and projects developers are the most must users for it. Portfolio defined by the PMI in “The Standards for Portfolio Management – Third Edition” as a component collection of programs, project, or operation managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. On simple words, the portfolio is an engineering […]
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Leadership is a subject which always fascinate me and seduce me to read whatever it comes to my hand about it to learn more about the main characteristic of the leaders. There are different leader’s characteristics as all you know like “vision, Integrity, empowerment, encouragement, setting the example, communication, planning, sharing leadership, developing, controlling performance, flexible, supportive, team worker and many others. The researchers and writers put these skills in different ranking to figure the top 10 leaders qualities. However, […]
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We read very limited news about a structure failure. However, we hear a lot about project time and budget overrun. Which I consider it a project planning and control design failure. Small number of cases are justified and the remaining are a cause of poor project management and in particular project control management. It is not surprising to know that research is showing that business leaders identify capturing time/costs against projects” as their biggest project management challenge. Moreover, research is […]
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When you think yourself or your organization are not overcoming the market changes and challenges, think about diversity thinking. The successful leadership is the leadership which accept the challenge of its decision. This tolerance is a confirmation of the confidence on the leader’s ability to lead and the team ability to take over when it is approved, it is the time to change. Each challenge will be either a solid stone to sustainable success for the organization or a […]
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Market is always changing. Within these changes, your decision quality is based on three factors; your collected data, your data analysis system and of course the minds who operate them. In construction industry, the challenge of changing market becomes more complex due the huge investment the contractors are doing. This challenge is smaller in engineering firms comparing to contractors. However, having a sustainable business is crucial for both. Here it comes the d2b complexity the consultant and contractors face every day. […]
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It was so interesting to listen and read the in the different media the details of the PwC’s 19th Annual Global CEO Survey in Davos. What attracting me more in the survey was a point which I was advocating for long time which is organization transformation to use the latest technology related to how we do business. The survey showed that 90% of CEOs surveyed are trying to use latest technologies and inventions. However, they are being challenged to align all parts of their operating model behind customer strategies. In the field of engineering & construction, the challenge of aligning […]
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Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) is a database management system. Because it links the projects portfolio delivery schedule status with all related data in each project (Scope, Time, Resource, and Cost) from one side and the business processes in the other side. It is the future gate for managing and control projects in the project based organization like consultant, contractors and developers who work on projects delivery. The most important examples of the EPPM outcomes are: creating visual for project […]
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In bidding and tendering, we have mainly three types of pricing; actual cost, risk-averse cost and mark up price. This article is not discussing the mark up price which is the difference between the cost of a good or services and its selling price. It is discussing the pressure to reduce the total bid price to win the bid. This pressure usually comes from not winning new work after certain time. One unique situation is when the client is having a good strategy to […]
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The question we should ask during initial planning is not just “How long will it take?” Better questions would be: “How likely is it that we can make our schedule? How likely is it we will meet this cost constraint? How likely is it that our team size is sufficient?” The questions should include this qualifier: “How likely?” Likewise, the answer should not be “12 months”. It should include the risk. “It’s likely we can do this in 12 months. […]
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The challenge of organisation systems changing (lets call it “transform how we work”) while we are working is always complex and delegate process. The pressure on the staff with no interruption to clients services are key points on the new system transformation. Transfer process must consider normal work pressure to employees to get the buy in from them. In the same time, you can’t involve your clients on the transfer change. You have to isolate their services delivery from the new […]
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Integration the business strategy within the project delivery process and vice versa is the core foundation to have a sustainable enterprise growth and profit. However, it is not that sample as it sounds. It is still a challenge for many organizations to have such integration. The first challenge is having ONE project delivery process from creation to closeout based on the different organization business lines. The detail within the processes is what marks the organization as successful on efficient delivery, successful […]
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Successful business delivery is always based on client satisfaction. Understanding your clients’ needs means loyal customers and sustainable growth. Sustainable growth is a challenge on containing market changes. Market analysis history shows patterns of market expansion and recession. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the United States, there have been 11 business cycles from 1945 to 2009, with the average length of a cycle lasting about 69 months, or a little less than six years. The […]
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In PMO management, sometimes you have to present a dashboard with data visualization where you didn’t maintain its data accuracy. This happen when you start a new job for new organization or when you take over someone else responsibility. So be careful of being the scapegoat of bad and uncorrelated data. It is important to highlight your findings, the gaps and limitation on your data presentation. You should present the path forward plan. However, in some cases, you need to […]
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Considering the current market changes and torments, consultants and contractors are focused on operational initiatives that would keep the business running. These thinking blocks them from initiatives to innovate and stay ahead of the competition and maximizing opportunities. It also forces them to take more risks and make difficult cost cutting. Because of this thinking, they always delay new system implementation to avoid more cost and long investment. The excuse are there like disruption to operation (which is already having trouble). However, on […]
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