Project Management

Knowledge (Theories, Ideas & Concepts)

Through Professional/Personal Study Gained Through Experience

20+ years implementing a discipline requiring the application of specific knowledge, skills tools and techniques to project activities governed by a set of rules on how the work should be conducted in order to meet the project requirements
Delivering unique products or services, through quantification of value commensurate with costs and the optimal use of organisational resources by putting strategic plans into practice via the management of schedules and risk by consistent tracking and reporting mechanisms

Mastering the art of delivery from ideas right through to implementation and beyond. Setting clear goals/requirements and boundaries/dependencies, a common definition of success and quality across all stakeholders, good estimating/planning/people skills, appropriate budget and disposition of resources, understand of the underlying robust risk, opportunity, change and configuration processes

Together with Responsibilities / Accountabilities

The application of processes, methods,
knowledge, skills and experience in a huge number of roles with varying responsibilities and accountabilities.
Thorough knowledge and application of the APM 68 Body of Knowledge topic areas, and a real passion to help people get on through coaching, mentoring and knowledge sharing. Keep the teams focus through regular and effective communications; processes are great if they are appropriate, but if they don’t work, don’t be afraid to offer alternatives

Practiced methodologies from Waterfall, PMBOK, PRINCE2 through to Agile & Lean Family across Public and Private Organisations, with budgets ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions.

Together With lessons Learnt

The uniqueness of the deliverables coupled with the very different organisational cultures meant there is no one size that fits all and a toolbox of approaches and techniques that caters for these differences is the better pragmatic approach.
Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence are oftenneglected in the dash for the line when the first technical solution emerges, Karl uses Collaboration, Negotiation and Stakeholder Management approaches to get to the best solution which is often not the first option.

One prototype new product was vandalised by a user. Karl felt it was unfairly treated and provided some feedback to a supplier. They then made a number of changes, and a few months later, a new product was part of the portfolio. An example where passion and motivation can be game changers in the project management environment.

Together with Any ‘So What’ Statements of Insights

Project Management is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service which has all the characteristics of progressive elaboration where you don’t know everything at the start, but need to quickly understand the rules, constraints, risks and things that are going to make you fail, then address them.
A new product came into existence after a particularly long meeting when some users came into the office to describe their working environment. Karl stood up at the end and asked them “If you could have anything you like (except bending the laws of physics) what would you want and why”. Never stop asking ‘why’ or challenging the norm.

One prototype new product was vandalised by a user. Karl felt it was unfairly treated and provided some feedback to a supplier. They then made a number of changes, and a few months later, a new product was part of the portfolio. An example where passion and motivation can be game changers in the project management environment.