How do you judge the success of a project?
Clients today demand much more than cost, time and quality products. Each project or program must supports the client’s business and realise their corporate goals, such as an upturn in sales, increased capacity or value added in operations or environment. I call it the “triple bottom line”. These are the drivers that make project management very satisfying.
You often have to appoint and manage designers and other consultants and builders to work on a client project, how do you collaborate with those professionals to achieve a project outcome?
One of the things I enjoy about project management is forming a strong team of specialists and suppliers to deliver the client’s business objectives. My approach is to take a longer term view in selecting and managing that team to achieve ongoing cost, product and service benefits over the project lifecycle. It’s about delivering the “wow” factor to a project, by working together and recognising the combined talents and efforts of all.
How do you think appointing a Project Manager makes a difference to a project?
When I first started in the industry, project management as a profession was generally seen as someone coordinating a group of tasks. Today, however, I see the role of the project manager as making a substantial difference to how a business can achieve its goals. Saving a client an awful lot of work is only part of the equation. It’s also about providing techniques and methodologies to get the best results for the client’s business while at the same time ensuring compliance to ever changing legislation; issues that can often cause a project to lose traction or even stop a project altogether.
What is the greatest compliment a client has paid to your work?
“You made it look easy!” This comment was made at the end of a medium sized commercial fitout project that involved not only new construction and relocation, but an important component of change management techniques to assist a number of staff that were unhappy with the business moving to new premises. In any project there is a significant amount of work in the start up phase to get a project through concept and then onto implementation, and this comment made me realise how much angst I had relieved the client of by delivering their new tenancy with very happy people.
So what do you think makes a good project manager?
One of the things I have learned over the last 25 years is that all projects are essentially about managing change and that the journey to the end goal is just as important as the goal itself. For example, a project manager with technical proficiency does not necessarily bring about a better business outcome for the client. To me it’s a mix of having three strong elements in your kit; proven methodology, strong tools, and superior communication skills to support, lead, and inspire the project and the team.
