Lessons From Our Archive – 40 Years of Major Projects

Summary

As part of the celebration of our 40th anniversary in 2021, we have invited members to review the reports from our extraordinary archive which stretches all the way back to the early 1980s and offers perspective and insights from many of the generation-defining major projects.

Lessons from our Archive – Climate and Sustainability: Delivering Net Zero

Dr. Jeni Giambona from Imperial College chooses the most recent of the Association reports to feature to-date, the 2019 report “Climate and Sustainability – Delivering Net Zero”. She’s chosen it for some very particular reasons. It plays to her sense of what is overwhelmingly important in today’s world; it correlates strongly with her two areas or research, which are complex systems and framing narratives.

Lessons from our Archive – Are We Any Good at Project Controls?

Philip Isgar’s choice of this 2013 report is no coincidence. At the time, Philip was on the Association’s Programme Committee and he was responsible for helping to design and deliver the seminar from which the report is drawn. Project Controls are now far better integrated in the decision-making processes of most major projects but, as the volume of potential data ramps up, with the advent of project analytics and automation, how do they need to adapt to keep the PMO and project from drowning in information?

Lessons from our Archive – Unresolved Issues of Project Organisation

Forty years ago, the report from the Major Projects Association seminar identified a raft of problems associated with the way projects were organised and the bodies established by the main stakeholders to deliver the assets and outcomes. The introduction to the report flagged “economic uncertainties, technical complexities, political influences and organisational conflicts’. So what’s new!

Dr. Christine Unterhitzenberger offers some insight on how and where things have improved in the intervening period since 1982 but equally flags those areas where the report card remains a definite “could do better”.

The Jubilee Line Extension 20 Years On – Lessons from our Archive

When it was conceived back in the 20th Century, few project planners could have conceived just quite how far the Jubilee Line Extension would reshape modern London. Nick Smallwood, CEO of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, reviews the Association’s report from 2000 and offers his 2021 perspectives on the project.

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link 20 Years On – Lessons from our Archive

The Victorians were the first to attempt seriously to build a Channel tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, way back in 1880. Given the gestation period of this extraordinary project it’s no wonder that successfully delivering it towards the end of the 20th Century was fraught with problems: change of ownership, funding issues, temporary interruption of the project.

As part of our series to celebrate 40 years of the Major Projects Association, Tayo Oyetan, Transport Sector Lead at Moorhouse Consulting, reviews the Association’s report on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from 1999 and offers his 2021 perspectives on the project in a series of three videos.

Project Initiation: Making the Right Start – Lessons from our Archive

When it was issued in 2014, the Association Report, Project Initiation: Making the Right Start came hard on the heels of a number of Government and Industry reports that placed the focus firmly on the front-end of major projects.

As part of our series of interviews, Lessons from our Archive, that celebrate an extraordinary collection of reports going back to our very first seminar, 40 years ago, Denise Bower, OBE, (Executive Director, External Engagement at Mott MacDonald)  champions the report captured at the first seminar following her appointment in her previous role, as the Association’s Executive Director.

The Management of Difficult Projects – Lessons from our Archive

Fiona Woolston, Group Account Director, West Midlands is a communications specialist and her choice of reports from the Association’s archive, The Management of Difficult Projects (1994), provided a wonderful perspective on the role of communications in major projects as she reviewed this report that drew on the lessons from the London Stock Exchange, Channel Tunnel, Nimrod AEW and Inland Revenue programmes.

The Learning Organization – Lessons from our Archive

Al Simmonite, Managing Director of The Advance Consultancy has a particular interest in knowledge management and learning, which made his choice of reports from the Association’s archive, The Learning Organization (1999), a bit of a no-brainer. As he reviews the report, he reflects on what has changed in the last 20 plus years and how technology has both facilitated and complicated the challenge of learning.

Lessons from our Archive – the Thames Barrier

The Thames Barrier project was completed in 1982 and arguably created a piece of infrastructure that has achieved the elusive elements associated with Cathedral Thinking. The Barrier represents both form and function; a beautiful piece of engineering that has already protected London and those living and working within it for 40 years and will continue to do so until the end of the 21st Century.

As part of our series to celebrate 40 years of the Major Projects Association, Dr. Stuart Pritchard offers his perspectives on the Major Projects Association report from 1993, which captured the lessons from the Thames Barrier project, completed less than a year earlier.

Lessons from our Archive – Creating a Workforce Fit to Deliver Major Projects

In 2002, The Major Projects Association ran a full day seminar on Creating a Workforce Fit to Deliver Major Projects. In this short series of ‘Lessons from our Archive’ interviews, Dr. Frederick Levy of Turner & Townsend introduces the associated report from this seminar, explains its significance today and reflects on how things have changed in the intervening 20 years.