In Capital Projects, Less is More!

Article initially published at Velocity Quarterly

Misconceptions on what successful project management looks like has led to a shift towards the reliance on software tools and practices over people’s skills and competencies. This is largely due to the acceptance in the industry that capital projects are just too complex to handle. However, accepting this mindset can be likened to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, a former king punished by the gods to push an immense boulder up a hill and watch it roll down, only to push up again forever. If we are not careful, capital project managers and their teams, could be left with a fate similar to that of Sisyphus doomed to repeatedly start (again and again) from scratch the process of project formation and embarking on a project delivery journey without any given advantage.

Fortunately, there are successful project managers and project directors who are delivering superior value to industry, and it is because of one common trait: they are exceptional decision makers with their own unorthodox approaches to defining their management priorities. For these successful project professionals teams are more important than practices and flexibility and predictability do not have to contradict each other. This makes them successful and it is what the industry as a whole needs to move towards. The magic lies in the magician, not in the wand. Let's build upon that!

Olfa Hamdi

January 7, 2017