Formal Training Essential for PM’s (Borneo Post 12th March 2010)
As Sarawak embarks upon a portfolio of projects under the SCORE banner it is essential that contractors and sub-contractors alike prepare to implement standardised project management methodologies to ensure these projects are completed successfully, on time, within budget and to the clients’ specification.

Foreign investors along with local stakeholders will be keeping a close eye on the progress of these projects and as such project management competencies such as Scope, Time, Cost, Resource and Risk management need to be improved. However, the most important competency is the ability for the Project Manager to manage the project team and provide leadership if the aforementioned competencies are to provide the required benefits.

I was having a coffee with a colleague last week when a friend of his turned up unexpectedly. After the initial introductions I casually asked what his profession was to which he responded he was a Civil Engineer but had been appointed as the Project Manager some twelve months prior.
“So how do you like the role of Project Manager?” I further enquired. “I really enjoy it; the only thing I don’t like is dealing with the ‘people’ issues”. This response left me speechless!

The natural progression from a degreed Engineer to that of Project Manager is a transition that must be accompanied with some formal project management training to fulfill the requirements of this extremely responsible and challenging position. It is also very common nowadays for the Project Manager not to have any formal engineering degree or to have a degree in some diversified field unrelated to the project they are currently engaged on.

Whatever the situation the roles of Project Manager and that of an Engineer are streets apart from each other as engineering deals with managing the technical issues of a project where as project management focuses on managing the people issues. Many people think project management is about ‘project business’ but in reality it is about ‘people business’ especially when it comes to communication, motivation and negotiation. To be a successful Project Manager takes a great amount of knowledge and skill especially with regard to the ‘people’ issues which is why it is classified as both a science and an art.

The Project Manager is akin to the conductor of an orchestra (credit to Ian McKinnon for the analogy) where the conductor must exercise his ‘people skills’ to motivate, coordinate and lead. If the conductor is skillful in his role he will build synergy between the individual talented musicians resulting in a masterpiece even though he may not be able to play all or even any of the individual instruments himself. And this is where a major problem exists when we see job advertisement for Project Mangers. In the main we will see requirements like, ‘10 years in Civil Engineering’ or ‘must have experience in the construction industry’ or ‘proven track record in road construction’. But what the position critically requires is the essential skill to manage and lead a project team and, to understand the requirements of project management methodologies. Just because a person is a good Engineer it may not necessarily follow that they will make a good Project Manager.

There are three main areas a Project Manager needs to focus on namely time, cost and performance (quality) and the Project Manager cannot cover these areas adequately without the engagement of other professional project management team members. I continually hear of projects that are required to provide to their clients, on a regular basis, a critical path network diagram (CPM), project schedules, resource reports and progress ‘S’ curves, but the role to provide these critical decision making performance reports is allocated to the Site Engineer to be performed on a part time basis rather than to a dedicated Planning Engineer.

Most projects do engage a dedicated Cost Engineer because the company needs to keep track of the actual and forecast project costs, but where many companies fail is the realisation in the benefits of a dedicated Planning Engineer who can monitor and control the projects deliverables, identify any divergence from the baseline and forecast variances to the completion date.
Without this skill the project will undoubtedly result in extension of time claims, additional costs in overtime or indirect costs, additional resources to catch up and the ultimate penalty of having liquidated and ascertained damages (LAD’s) applied from the client, all of which equate to money off the ‘bottom line’.

Many years ago I was engaged as the Project Controls Manager on the design, development and implementation of the public transport contactless smart card (CSC) system in Singapore where the Project Manager openly admitted he knew nothing of CSC technology and was in fact a Mechanical Engineer. His skill was in leadership derived partly from a charismatic personality plus experience, but in the main from formal project management training. He understood the importance of time, cost and quality management and engaged the appropriate skill sets to produce the deliverables he required to manage the project which ultimately led to project a successful completion.

Formal training is now available in Sarawak at a number of institutions with Curtin University of Technology (Curtin) in Miri providing a Master of Science post graduate degree in Project Management but there are also a number of short courses available that provide basic Project Management training. Curtin also provide a short 3 day project management course based on the 9 competencies of project management as detailed in the ‘Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge’ (PMBOK) and upon completion will receive a certificate from Curtin.

Whatever project management course is embarked upon, any formal training will greatly enhance a Project Managers people skills that will go a long way in ensuring projects are completed successfully and thus keeping them out of the ‘sick’ category and being blacklisted.