Engineering consultancy today? Once the project is completed, gather your team to do a postmortem to assess your team’s performance. There’s always room for improvement so be sure to discuss any areas of concern and discuss how to do better on the next project. Be sure to highlight your successes as well and determine how you can apply that to your next project. Discuss what problems arose on the project and how you solved them. Was it the best way, or was there something else that could have been done that would have resulted in a better outcome? Did you deliver the project on time and within budget? Were you able to execute the plan and schedule as expected? If not, what adjustments had to be made? Was productivity at an acceptable level or could you have done better? Questions like these will help give you an honest assessment of your performance on the project and hopefully highlight ways to do even better on the next one.

Project managers also dedicate a significant amount of time to meetings, an average of just under 1.4 hours per day. If emails and meetings count as “managing”, this adds up almost perfectly to an 8-hour workday, with about half of the hours spent on emails and meetings, and the rest spent working on other activities that move the metrics they care about most. Impressively enough, when asked how they split their time between “managing” and “working” most common answer we received was an even 50/50 split. This not only means that these managers balance their time well, but that their perception of how they spend their time is accurate down to the hour.

The utilisation of specialist Project Management companies and their support services provides better initial planning and assessment of opportunities, risks, and threats. It provides a greater opportunity of identifying problem areas while there is still enough time to take appropriate corrective action, allowing flexibility for alternative plans of attack. The successful Project Management service offered by professional consultants concentrates on three primary areas of the process: time, cost, and quality. This approach ensures a joined-up structure for managing all three. Read extra info on engineering design.

CDM 2015 has had an impact on the industry, as does most change, however change in this case can be seen as a positive. The challenge has been to deliver the change with a smooth transition over the 6 month period April to October 2015 as the CDM Coordinator was phased out and the new Principal Designer role was established. The following duty holder roles are summarised from the CONIAC (Construction Industry Advisory Committee) guidance which is freely available to download.

PM PROjEN is a 130 strong, multi-disciplined Engineering Design and Project Management business that works across a range of market sectors for a diverse mix of clients from SMEs to multinational, blue-chip companies. We are part of international project delivery specialists, PM Group, a 2,700 employee owned company operating across Europe, Asia and the USA. Together with the wider PM Group business, we provide a comprehensive service offering delivered in a proactive and creative style. Find more information at projen.co.uk.