Insights
18.11.20
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2 min read
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.
10.11.20
|2 min read
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).
02.10.20
|5 min read
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.
22.09.20
|5 min read
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.
17.09.20
|2 min read
“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.
11.09.20
|3 min read
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.
19.08.20
|2 min read
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.
13.08.20
|2 min read
Improving major project performance through the right culture and leadership behaviour – PART TWO OF THREE
We live in a world where pressure to deliver value for money on high-performing, complex infrastructure projects is relentless and yet there are numerous examples of over budget and over running projects in the UK. According to the Infrastructure and Projects Association, of the major projects identified between 2012-2019, the number of projects classified as “probable of a successful delivery” has fallen from 48% in 2013 to just 17% in 2019. A transformation that delivers faster and more efficient projects is required.
06.08.20
|2 min read
Improving major project performance through the right culture and leadership behaviour – PART ONE OF THREE
At a national level, project reviews play a fundamental role in ensuring the nation’s critical infrastructure gets delivered on time and on budget. When properly run they enable the teams involved, and their leadership, to see through the fog, evaluate a project’s underlying health and make effective decisions on future activity. This all centres on the encouragement of desired behaviours and the discouragement of undesired behaviours through different consequences.