Highlights from PGCS 2024: Accelerating projects with Agile, AI and people
What is the collective noun for a group of Project Controllers? A schedule of controllers? A baseline of controllers? Whatever it is, there certainly was a group of us at PGCS 2024!
The Parbery Cost and Finance Team attended the 2024 PGCS Project and Program Management Symposium held at the Hotel Realm in Canberra (13th-14th August) to hear a range of speakers present on all things project management, project controls and project governance. The theme of the symposium this year was ‘Accelerate Your Capability to Deliver Viable Project Outcomes.’
There were 8 keynote sessions across the 2-day event. This included Department of Defence’s Mr Chris Deeble AO (CASG) who spoke about Agile Delivery and Ms Teresa Blair (Contestability) who spoke about ‘Schedule is Sovereign’. Both Chris and Teresa are returning speakers to PGCS, and their topics always generate much discussion over the course of the symposium.
The lineup of international speakers also did not disappoint and included Mr Glen Alleman from Niwot Ridge Consulting who introduced us to the concept of digital twinning, and Mrs Christina Snyder, ICEAA Board President, who spoke about ‘How Standardisation Enables Innovation.’
During the breakout sessions, we learnt about leading complex projects, accelerated and agile project delivery, storytelling for project estimators, fusion skills and building capable organisations and people. Whilst Minimum Viable Capability (MVC) was a recurring topic throughout the Symposium, given the release of the 2024 National Defence Strategy, one of the key takeaways out of the ‘Ask the Experts Panel’ that resonated with delegates was that there is no Minimum Viable Governance! It is a challenge that projects increasingly need to navigate– delivering accelerated capability within a governance framework.
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in projects was also a hot topic and Mr Ryan Darby presented an interesting case study on how AI can be used to detect underlying issues in projects. In another session we learnt about accelerating projects using generative AI. Using AI for projects has been a developing topic over the last few years at PGCS and the presentations this year inspired the team with some interesting ideas for future Parbery blogs, so stay tuned!
On the human side, we were treated to a great presentation from Dr Anne Bamford OBE about the human aspect of projects and how we can leverage insights to supercharge workforce capabilities. Anne’s presentation highlighted the importance of investing in training and mentoring to ensure we have a capable and ready project workforce in the future. This was reinforced by Mr Collin Smith, ICCPM, who gave a presentation on Complex Project Leadership Competency Standards.
At the end of the symposium, we were inspired and tired in equal measures! Attending events such as PGCS Project and Program Management Symposium is a worthwhile investment in our people and capability, providing networking opportunities, connection to community and enabling us to stay up to date with contemporary issues and advancements in project and program management.
Attendees: Rae Macdonald, Sam Lemin, Peter Leek, Aaron Marshallsea-Dutton, Kat Tredgold
By Rae Macdonald, Project Controls Lead
