When I first started writing this note, the thought occurred to me that the title looked a little dramatic. In fact, you could probably be forgiven for thinking it was the plot from some B-grade Hollywood movie about a guy who went to the races, backed the wrong horse, and got into hot water with his local unsavory loan shark!
I assure you, trying to be dramatic was not my intent!
What I really wanted this blog to be about is the challenging environment Project Managers and Project Controllers on large scale projects often face. Having worked on several big-going-on-huge projects, I know these work environments are very different to operational work environments where most days are business as usual. So, what do I mean by that?
The Bets:
Often when a project starts, there are many questions that are outstanding about important issues such as final design and cost of the asset to be delivered. Where a project will be consuming materials purchased on the open market, cost can be further influenced by volatility in the price of these commodities. As such, many projects take an educated bet that outstanding questions will be answered, problems will be overcome, and that the cost of materials will fall within a predicted range. However you look at it, uncertainty is normal in the lives of many people working on large projects.
The Debts:
Often a project’s success is judged by its final cost, as compared to what the cost was originally forecast to be. Sadly, project cost increases are common, and can be significant. As one seasoned project veteran recently stated: “These projects don’t just fail, they fail spectacularly!”. Managing the debts of a project are critical to its ultimate success. Many project costs are predictable and expected – it’s the ones that arise unexpectedly that cause the blowouts. These are the costs that projects need to organize themselves to avoid, and that takes a special mix of skills, information, data, and the right tools working in unison.
The Threats:
It’s hard to go a week without hearing about cyber security in one guise or another. These days, stories about phishing emails, computer hacks, ransomware, and viruses are commonly discussed in the mainstream media. For large scale projects, these are cyber security threats that can disable project information systems and quickly bring a project to its knees. Cyber security is increasingly becoming the major concern that keeps project managers awake at night. Project systems cannot be allowed to be down, such is the project’s reliance on its data and information to succeed.
Of course, issues such as cyber security risks are not restricted to large-scale project environments – all businesses need to be aware and mitigate these threats – but projects are an altogether different kind of beast. Large scale projects have a constant undercurrent of urgency as every project is focused on reaching a prescribed goal on time and within budget. The stresses in project environments are magnified by this sense of urgency, and projects often work at a break-neck pace to stay on target. So, when other factors such as commodity price increases, cost management issues, or malicious technology problems get thrown in the mix, the challenges to delivering a successful project increase incrementally.
The teams of people who work on large projects take great pride in contributing to the mammoth efforts that it takes to deliver world-class assets. Project workers face major challenges every day to keep their project on track, challenges that are not thought about after the asset is finally handed over. So, next time you drive past that plant, refinery, or whatever the project delivered, remember those unsung heroes that overcame the problems to ensure their project is remembered as a success. Without their dedication, the stories behind many projects would read like the bad plot from a B-grade horror movie!
– Gus
