In this episode, Emma De Vita, editor of Project , meets Marcos Fuentes, recipient of APM’s 2022 Festival of Education and Research award for Doctorate of the Year. The focus of his thesis was how to co-create value for the long term, from the project planning stage and then throughout the development cycle of a project. The thesis originally established eight ways to achieve wider sustainable value, such as social, environmental, experiential and emotional elements beyond traditional short-term...
Apr 12, 2022•29 min
Adam Boddison, APM chief executive, meets Mark Thurston, CEO of Europe’s largest infrastructure project, HS2. The pair discuss the evolution of the project profession, areas for growth and the pressures associated with managing an era-defining megaproject. Mark also gives his thoughts on the levelling-up agenda, sharing lessons learned and what makes an effective project leader. Contact us at apmpodcast@thinkpublishing.co.uk...
Mar 29, 2022•43 min
In this episode, Project journal editor Emma De Vita meets NASA’s Bill Ochs, project manager for the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest space science telescope ever developed, which was successfully launched on Christmas Day on a journey of close to one million miles from earth. Hubble’s replacement gives humanity a new eye in the sky with infrared sensors that will peer into the farthest reaches of the cosmos to observe the universe’s first galaxies, reveal the birth of stars and planets, ...
Mar 11, 2022•36 min
In this episode, Project journal editor Emma De Vita meets Simon Fell, director of events, festivals and leisure at London’s Alexandra Palace (or Ally Pally as you might know it). He has significant experience of delivering, programming and promoting large-scale public entertainment events with capacities of up to 50,000. He set up Ally Pally’s Kaleidoscope Festival in 2018, which is a 12,000-capacity boutique arts and music festival set within the grounds of the venue. In this podcast, he gives...
Feb 28, 2022•39 min
In this episode, Emma De Vita asks what mentoring means, what benefits it brings for people and organisations and how to do it well. Our guest panellists: Vicki Griffiths, senior project manager at marine engineering company Fugro Ewelina Kruk, associate director within programme and portfolio management at Incendium Consulting Jaspal Kaur-Griffin, head of programmes at the Bar Standards Board All have experience being mentors and being mentored themselves. Vicki was part of the team that set up...
Feb 01, 2022•45 min
In 2022, APM is celebrating its 50th anniversary, so throughout the year we’ll be sitting down with some of the movers and shakers who have shaped the project profession across the last few decades. We’ll be asking them how the profession has evolved, where the untapped potential lies, and what the future might hold. In this episode, Andrew Saunders, journalist and regular contributor to Project journal, sits down with Darren Dalcher, professor of strategic project management at the University o...
Jan 26, 2022•46 min
It’s fair to say the past year has been another challenging one for project professionals, who have continued to navigate the complexities of the Covid pandemic, with schedules and budgets liable to change last minute and teams continuing to adjust to working remotely. Add to that the teething problems we saw following Brexit – and it’s clear that 2021 was a year in which project professionals had their work cut out. However, as our podcast guests have pointed out on many occasions, the most pow...
Dec 27, 2021•40 min
In our From the Frontline season, Project journal editor Emma De Vita is meeting project professionals who are working on cutting-edge projects and academics whose research is at the forefront of project management techniques. In this episode she speaks to Mike Bradley, a senior research associate at the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge; and Neil Smith, inclusive design lead for HS2 Ltd and one of the Mayor of London’s Design Advocates. They’ll be explaining exactly what ...
Dec 16, 2021•47 min
In this episode, Project journal editor Emma De Vita speaks to Tim Rose, programme manager at Energy Superhub Oxford, a four-year, £40m demonstrator project to explore potential innovation in using batteries to support grid stability, electric vehicle infrastructure and smart renewable heating. It aims to save 10,000 tonnes of CO2 every year once opened, increasing to 25,000 tonnes by 2032. Part of the Superhub is the UK’s first grid-scale hybrid battery energy storage system, led by Pivot Power...
Nov 25, 2021•42 min
In this episode, hosted by Mike Hine, online editor for Project journal, we take a look at the topic of dynamic conditions for project success. Project professionals and organisations are always on the lookout for ways to enhance project outcomes, but doing so can prove elusive. It’s a topic of great interest to researchers, too, and to that end APM has recently published the report Dynamic conditions for project success . The report identifies organisational, professional, and societal dynamic ...
Nov 11, 2021•50 min
In ‘From the Frontline’, Project journal editor Emma De Vita meets project professionals who are working on cutting-edge projects, and academics whose research is at the forefront of project management techniques. In this episode she speaks to the researchers behind Project X’s latest report, published by APM, called Rethinking Capabilities: Lessons for policy, scholarship and practice . Project X is an ESRC‑funded research collaboration between government, academia and industry representatives,...
Oct 29, 2021•57 min
In ‘From the Frontline’, Project journal editor Emma De Vita meets project professionals who are working on cutting-edge projects, and academics whose research is at the forefront of project management techniques. In this episode we meet Gemma Roura Serra, strategic planning director at ABB Formula E. Formula E is the world’s first all-electric single-seater car racing series, conceived to accelerate electric vehicle adoption and demonstrate leadership in the sports world by becoming the only sp...
Oct 07, 2021•49 min
In this special episode to tie in with APM’s annual Think Differently conference, Emma De Vita, the editor of Project journal, speaks to three ambitious female project professionals to talk about how to have a thriving career despite the barriers that organisational or team culture still persistently put in the way of individual women – women who might also be contending with bias around race or age. Change needs to happen, so let’s find out how to go about doing it from women who are all flouri...
Sep 20, 2021•44 min
In this episode, hosted by Mike Hine, online editor for APM’s Project journal, we’re looking at communication for project professionals. Communication is a vital condition for project success. However well-planned, a project will not run smoothly if stakeholders are left confused and under-informed as a consequence of inefficient communication. With an ever-growing array of comms tools at their disposal, the project manager has some important decisions to make – as well as timing their communica...
Sep 06, 2021•56 min
Contracts create legally binding obligations between the parties involved in a project. They describe the nature of those obligations and the actions that can be taken if they are not met. As such, the contract is a foundational document whose content will come to define the project and how the work unfolds. It is there to provide certainty and protection to the parties. But in a post-COVID world, there may be an opportunity for contracts to be used to create ongoing collaborative relationships,...
Aug 25, 2021•52 min
In ‘From the Frontline’, Project journal editor Emma De Vita meets project professionals who are working on cutting-edge projects, and academics whose research is at the forefront of project management techniques. In this episode we meet Dr Natalie Marguet, a senior lecturer in leadership and organisational development at Liverpool John Moores University, and author of APM’s recent research paper Detect, Reflect and Adapt: Factors influencing critical project decisions . In this podcast, she sha...
Aug 10, 2021•32 min
In ‘From the Frontline’, Project journal editor Emma De Vita is meeting project professionals who are working on cutting-edge projects, and academics whose research is at the forefront of project management techniques. In this episode, we meet Emma Willson, who leads the National Audit Office’s Major Projects Delivery area of focus. She has worked at the NAO for almost 20 years, auditing a wide range of government programmes, from welfare reform to large-scale defence equipment projects. The NAO...
Jul 26, 2021•29 min
In our From the Frontline season, Project journal editor Emma De Vita is meeting professionals who are working on cutting-edge projects, and academics whose research is at the forefront of project management techniques. In this episode, we meet Jennifer Trosper, project manager for NASA’s Mars Perseverance project in its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Jennifer has worked on NASA’s Perseverance programme for eight years. When Perseverance finally landed successfully on 18 February after...
Jul 12, 2021•36 min
In this episode, hosted by Project journal editor Emma De Vita, we explore why getting lessons learned right is incredibly important to project success. We also look at the main challenges around lessons learned, what knowledge you should aim to capture and how to best share it. As APM’s Body of Knowledge 7th Edition makes clear, knowledge is intangible and complex. It encompasses much more than documents or information. It exists in people and can be tacit and difficult to express. What’s more,...
Jun 25, 2021•46 min
In this episode, hosted by Project journal online editor Mike Hine, our topic is project success, and how the definition of success is evolving to fit the challenges of the 2020s and beyond. At a time when the country is looking to build back better post-pandemic, projects will play a major role in determining the UK’s economic future. They are truly vital to the UK’s success on many fronts. But with so much riding on these projects, we need to ensure they succeed. Historically, projects have no...
Jun 08, 2021•40 min
In our From the Frontline season, Project journal editor Emma De Vita is meeting professionals who are working on cutting-edge projects, and academics whose research is at the forefront of project management techniques. In this first episode, we meet Nick Elliott, who was director general of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce for the UK government from its inception in April 2020 until the end of last year. Before that he was an army bomb disposal expert, MD of Network Rail’s national supply chain and d...
May 26, 2021•40 min
As governments worldwide set targets on reaching net-zero carbon, project professionals are being tasked with rethinking working practices to cut emissions. Everything from planning to procurement to team structures is being re-evaluated to meet sustainability targets. But it’s worth remembering that sustainability encompasses more than climate change. It means balancing the environmental, social, economic and administrative aspects of projects to meet current stakeholder needs, without compromi...
May 13, 2021•52 min
In this episode, hosted by Project journal’s online editor Mike Hine, we discuss salaries and market trends within the project profession. It’s been an enormously challenging 12 months for every sector of the economy. Project professionals felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from day one, with plans, teams and working practices suddenly thrown into disarray. Project and programme managers have risen to the challenge of the past 12 months by not only keeping existing work on track, but also ...
Apr 01, 2021•47 min
In this final episode of the Project Innovators season, Project journal editor Emma De Vita speaks to Bent Flyvbjerg, the first BT professor and inaugural chair of major programme management at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. Bent is one of the big names from the world of project management. He works for the better management of megaprojects and this is the subject which we delve into here, from optimism bias when it comes to cost and benefits estimation to strategic misrepresen...
Mar 24, 2021•42 min
In this episode, Project journal editor Emma De Vita meets Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, who is on a mission to champion project management as a central issue for every CEO. He is the author of Lead Successful Projects, published by Penguin, and he is also a Harvard Business Review author and has been recognised by Thinkers50 as an influential global business thinker. Antonio is the co-founder of the Strategy Implementation Institute, and his day job is as director of the Program Management Office at...
Mar 10, 2021•34 min
As with many new digital technologies, the terminology surrounding project data analytics can be confusing or off-putting to busy project professionals. However, as we discover in this episode, the potential of project data analytics is huge – and there are several ways you, as a project professional, can begin to harness the practical benefits today. So what are some of these benefits? And how can you begin to develop better project data discipline within your organisation? To find out more abo...
Feb 24, 2021•50 min
In this episode, host Emma De Vita meets Susan Ferry, a project manager for change at Allianz, who led what she calls a ‘big bang transformation’ project that revolutionised ways of working for the global insurance company, fostering innovation through a no-blame culture where trust and honesty were paramount. We spoke to Susan at the start of February to find out more about the Motor Engineer Control System project that she led in 2019, and why it was an innovative transformation project that g...
Feb 10, 2021•33 min
From Deepwater to drones – in this episode Project editor Emma De Vita meets Benjamin Hooper, programme and project manager at Heathrow Airport, whose project won APM’s 2020 Overall Project of the Year. The project, to create a counter-unmanned aerial system (or anti-drone system) embraced innovative ways of thinking and managing for the project team, who were tasked with finding an immediate solution to the drone threat in the airport’s airspace. They only had days to fix the problem, so the pr...
Jan 25, 2021•41 min
In the Project Innovators season of podcasts, Project journal editor Emma De Vita is talking to project professionals who are leading projects in an innovative way at a time when many of us are hoping the world of work and projects can be reset for a post-COVID world. In this episode we meet Jo Stanford, head of corporate portfolio office at Health Education England, to discuss how she’s leading the collaborative development of the project profession in the NHS. It’s no mean feat. Not only is sh...
Jan 08, 2021•37 min
Resetting projects in a better way for a post-COVID world means capitalising on the best minds. Cognitive diversity, as explained by Matthew Syed in his book Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking, pays. In this episode, Project editor Emma De Vita discusses diversity and inclusion with Jenny McLaughlin, a project manager at Heathrow Airport, who is also its disability network lead. Jenny is innovative in the way she threads inclusivity through every part of the projects she manages. She say...
Dec 22, 2020•36 min
