Have you ever witnessed a project that is about to go live when all of a sudden it stalls and the implementation fails? The failed project was kicked off with fanfare and had encountered no major problems (at least that you were aware of) until now! This article provides advice on using project controls to steer you away from project failure and towards success. Firstly I will establish the importance of using effective project controls and explain how they work.

The failed project scenario introduced above points to a lack of adequate project control. Gregory Balestrero, President and CEO of the Project Management Institute identified in a recent keynote presentation that “50% of project failure is traced to poor (or no) project management”. Between starting and finishing a project controlling delivery is vital to a successful implementation.

Project management purists will argue that you need industry knowledge or technical expertise within the domain or area you are project managing. For example a construction project requires ‘s a background in engineering, a software development project in coding, a FMIS project a background in financials or accounting etc.

I say “bullocks” to that.

Reflecting on some recent project successes, some of the most successful projects I have delivered involved having absolutely no technical knowledge of the end product being produced. So that got me thinking, what made these a success and is there an ideal formula? 

The recent disaster in Christchurch has made a number of businesses in New Zealand ask the hard question - if faced with such an event - how would we cope?  Sadly, a number of Christchurch businesses will fail.  A survey in 2005 indicated that almost two-thirds of New Zealanders had no confidence in our disaster management services to be able to cope.  As a slient viewer of the constant news updates I think they have done an outstanding job.  Could we say the same of our businesses ability to respond and cope?

This key issue in the spotlight highlights the need to have strategies and mitigation procedures already established, ensuring the business is in a strong position to be able to cope or recover from the effects of these events.

What are the technology trends for 2011 that HR Managers need to consider as an input to their People Strategic Planning?

If kicking back, sharing the love, looking cooler and eating the right stuff sounds like you for 2011, then read on….

Coming off the back of a pretty tough year, more for less is still the philosophy for HR systems investment.  Vendors are hungry for business, and customers are positioned well to now leverage off some great technology.

Anyone can call themselves an "Accountant" but you're only allowed to call yourself a "Chartered Accountant" if you are:

• an NZICA member who has trained for 7 years to attain your qualification
• subject to the professional bodies code of ethics
• continuing your education programme; and
• subject to disciplinary procedures

In short if you employ a Chartered Accountant you are at least ensuring that some important boxes have been ticked.  Can the same be said for Project Managers?  The short answer is no.

We had our doubts that the conference theme – ‘Restoring the trust’ - would offer a broad enough palette to make the content of the conference interesting. However we were pleasantly surprised – the speakers were informative with plenty of ideas that we could take away and apply to our Project Management and consulting practice.

Developing and retaining our consultants is a key to our ongoing business success and ensures that we can continue to deliver you with the best in Project Management consultancy. When we are working with you it is important that we are treated as a trusted advisor – so the conference theme was a great reminder of the importance of this to our business.

BPX are proud to be associated with all things sport.  When the question was posed “what does the value of sports sponsorship mean to our business” by a local Sports Trust it made me sit down and consider the “why” and what did we expect in return…

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey has reported:

• 80% of higher performing projects use a certified Project Manager;
• and 50% of project failure is traced to poor (or no) project management.

It is difficult to empirically express the value project management delivers because to compare one project to another is to compare an apple with a pear, or a dingy with a yacht – they are simply not the same.