The intention of this blog is to promote discussion on standardised project management (PM) methodologies adopted (or not adopted) by Malaysian companies and organisations especially those in East Malaysia.

As Sarawak moves further into the SCORE development the adoption of standardised PM methodologies becomes more of a requirement than a 'nice to have' option. This requirement should obviously come from the client side who will want their projects completed on time, within budget and to specification but the contractors also need to look towards PM standardisation not only because of this requirement but because it makes good sense from a business point of view.

The inherent value it returns is higher profits and a greater success rate that will, in the longer term ensure more projects are awarded to them. As the new circular released by the Ministry of Finance dictates that as of 1st September if contractors fall behind schedule by 20% or 2 months then the project will be classified as 'sick' resulting in the possibility of the contractor being terminated if the project be deemed as being unrecoverable.

There really is no excuse for the number of projects that default on the triple constraints of time, cost & quality given the availability of standardised PM processes. For instance the most popular proces is the 'Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge' (PMBOK) published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) that details nine competencies for greater project success.

If PM competencies like those detailed in the PMBOK were adopted by clients and contractors alike then the chances of the projects falling behind schedule by 20% would be greatly reduced, benefiting all project stakeholders including the general public.

I look forward to all comments regarding this and future postings.