Programme
A realistic sequence with the dependencies mapped, so it is clear what is on the critical path and what is not. Slippage is flagged when it can still be recovered, rather than reported once it is a fact.
Home/Project management
Project managementSomeone whose job it is to make sure it happens.
Design is only half of a scheme. The other half is programme, money, risk and the dozen organisations who all have to do their part in the right order. That is a job in itself, and it is one I have done for twenty years.
The problem it solves
Why schemes slip, and what a project manager actually changes
Highway schemes rarely fail because the engineering was wrong. They slip because a survey was ordered too late, because nobody chased the statutory undertaker, because the safety audit was booked after the design was already fixed, or because two parties each assumed the other was dealing with something.
A project manager is the person holding all of that in one place: knowing what has to happen next, who owes what to whom, and what it costs every week that it does not happen.
I manage projects to PRINCE2 principles: a defined scope agreed at the outset, clear stages with decision points, active risk management, and reporting that tells you what you actually need to know rather than burying it in a document nobody reads.
What is controlled
Four things kept under active control
Budget
Financial oversight and cost control across the life of the scheme, including estimates, bills of quantity, contractor valuations and the forecast of where the final account is heading.
Scope and change
Agreed scope at the outset and a clear record of what changes, why, who asked for it and what it costs. Most budget overruns are accumulated change nobody wrote down.
Risk and safety
Risks identified early, owned by someone specific, and reviewed rather than logged and forgotten. Health and safety embedded through CDM 2015 duties from the very first design decision.
Stakeholders
Keeping everyone pulling the same way
A single highway scheme can involve the local highway authority, National Highways, Network Rail, utility companies, the police, bus operators, residents' associations, landowners and your own contractor, most of whom have never spoken to each other.
Managing those relationships is a substantial part of the job, and doing it well is usually what separates a scheme delivered on programme from one that is not.
- Highway authorities and technical approval teams
- National Highways and Network Rail
- Statutory undertakers and utility companies
- Road safety auditors and independent reviewers
- Contractors, including Early Contractor Involvement
- Residents, businesses and local representatives
- Client project boards and internal governance
- Solicitors handling the legal agreement
Full lifecycle
From initiation to closure
I can pick a scheme up at any point in this sequence, including one that is already in trouble.
-
Initiation
Establishing what the project is actually for, what success looks like, who needs to agree to what, and the constraints that will shape everything downstream. Written down, agreed, and used as the reference point thereafter.
-
Planning and mobilisation
Programme, budget, resource and risk plans put in place. Consultants, surveyors and auditors lined up in the right order, with lead-in times accounted for rather than discovered.
-
Design and approvals
Design progressed and taken through the necessary consents and technical approvals, with the programme adjusted as the authority responds rather than pretending the original dates still hold.
-
Procurement and Early Contractor Involvement
Contractors brought in at the point where their input improves buildability and cost certainty, instead of after the design is frozen and changes are expensive.
-
Construction and site delivery
On-site supervision, coordination of traffic management and road space, resolution of the issues that always arise once the ground is opened, and control of cost and quality against the contract.
-
Completion and closure
Final accounts settled, defects tracked, health and safety file and record information handed over, and the scheme formally closed rather than quietly abandoned.
Not only highways
Project management beyond the road
The disciplines that deliver a highway scheme, including scope control, programme, budget, risk, stakeholder management and clear reporting, are not specific to roads.
Where an organisation needs an experienced project manager for infrastructure or construction work that is not a highway scheme, or for an internal programme of change, that is work I am happy to take on. It is often the most efficient way to use an independent: a defined number of days each month, applied wherever they are most needed.
Also available
- Full CDM 2015 Principal Designer duties
- Preparation of Pre-Construction Information
- Equality Impact Assessments
- Client-side representation at project boards
- Contractor and consultant performance management
- Recovery of schemes that have stalled or overrun
Need someone to take it on?
Whether it is one scheme that needs driving to completion or a handful of projects that need a steady pair of hands each month, tell me what the situation is.