Insights
APM podcast: how to be a great project leader
This APM panel podcast focuses on the evolving role of a project leader with Gordon MacKay from Sellafield, Mike Bourne from Cranfield University and Costain’s Claire Fryer. Listen to their expert opinions of what makes a ‘good’ project leader and how the most important part of any system, links back to the individuals in your team.
Engineering Matters Podcast #81 Zen and the art of programme management
Our experts, Sue Kershaw, Claire Fryer and Pete Mill have teamed up with Gordon Masterton from the University of Edinburgh and Engineering Matters to discuss how project reviews are the cornerstone of any major project for the regular and formal review of performance reporting and decision-making. They have the potential to improve project performance and potentially the performance of our industry.
Understanding the Big Picture to ensure successful project delivery
In this article, Costain's chief systems engineer, Hazel Woodcock explores the types of boundaries and connections for major programmes. Overall, the goal is a ‘one team’ mindset. Know where the boundaries are, know who the stakeholders are, but work in an open 'zero defects attitude' culture.
The role of leadership in risk management
Our head of risk services, Andrew Abu-Bakar, discusses the ways in which project leaders can influence the effectiveness of risk management through active participation, a dose of realism and a collaborative environment.
Engineering Matters Podcast #74 Weaving a new data fabric for infrastructure
Our expert, Tim Embley and has teamed up Neil Robertson from the National Skills Academy for Rail, Stuart Harvey from Transport for London and Engineering Matters to talk about a major programme that is being spearheaded by the UK’s transport sector: The Transport Infrastructure Efficiency Strategy Living Lab (TIES Living Lab, or just ‘the Living Lab’ for short).
Rolling wave planning (part two) - can it break on a fixed year financial funding model?
On all critical national infrastructure and major complex programmes, there is a continuous conflict between the funding cycle and the planning process. While funding is necessary to progress, it is sometimes out of sync with the overall programme.
Rolling wave planning (part one) – the ebb and flow of planning major projects
How far ahead can you reasonably build a detailed plan for a large, complex programme? Six months ahead? Probably. 12 months? Hopefully. Two years? Five years? Probably not. How far ahead should we try to plan in detail? Maybe a much shorter time period.
“There is a view that we must invest and the best thing to invest in to get people back to work is infrastructure.”
Our transportation managing director, Sue Kershaw, shares her views on investment in infrastructure in the first interview of a series published by Burges Salmon, an independent law firm.
Delivering decades of operational efficiency and certainty with through-life thinking
We live in a world where #servicedelivery is non-negotiable and the safety, resilience, reliability, and security of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) is paramount. So what steps have you and your organisation taken to ensure timely service will meet demand without fail? In this article, Nick Jacques explores how important it is for those involved in delivering an asset to understand that their role is to deliver decades of operational capability not just handover a nice new shiny, high-profile asset.
Improving major project performance through the right culture and leadership behaviour – PART THREE OF THREE
The urgency to build better resilience for our economy, the environment and communities is stronger than ever before. But realising this imperative requires transformation at pace across the lifecycle of infrastructure and one way to encourage this, to date overlooked, is by improving the behaviours of those leading project review meetings.