Project Controls Down Under

For those that know me, July brought about the realisation of a new challenge. That challenge manifested itself in packing all my worldly possessions into 1 sea container, uprooting my young family from a happy stable life in the UK and an arduous 17,030km trip on 3 planes.

The challenge was a recent move to Australia, to commence a new role on Sydney Metro, working at the PMO for the client. Sydney Metro is Australia's biggest public transport project. This new standalone railway will deliver 31 metro stations and more than 66km of new metro rail both above ground and in twin bore tunnels.

The challenges that Sydney Metro face are the same that every major client faces trying to realise such a huge project. This is why I am proud to be supporting them with T&T as an integral part of the PMO.

Walking into any new job on day one can often be daunting, let alone starting a new job in another country, where you have never worked before and working for a client that is new. What was refreshing this time was the set-up and the culture which shone through from day one. There was something familiar about the team, the office and the business culture. I was still hearing the often used words and phrases about collaboration, key milestones and earned value. The team and individual projects have a very similar set up and they strive for a common standard in terms of Project Controls.

Many of the issues I have faced with running robust controls on projects are still occurring, in many instances, these are valid reasons. There are still core foundations to robust controls that cannot be ignored, and the key word in this instance is ‘foundation’. It highlights the requirement to get common structures in place and agreed, taking things to a baseline position, in order to look back and understand where we are placed is good, bad or on par. Projects and programmes are diverse environments, they face constant pressures as they get realised, right through to getting funding delivered. This can often add strains to a project that require rapid resolution during project delivery.

My final observation is the re-enforcing of a lesson I was taught many years ago by a colleague. That lesson was the introduction and constant improvement of Project Controls always comes down to one thing and that is people. Over and above anything else, the behaviour of people, their actions and responses, is what makes Project Controls effective or not.