LIST OF PANELS

Increasingly, project managers in large organizations are preoccupied with managing the scopes of deliverables as well as the complexities of stakeholder engagement. The root causes of such challenges, often buried in project governance structures, may remain unresolved for prolonged periods of time. Such issues can lead to unresolved escalations, decision making delays, suboptimal deliverables, inaccurate messaging, non-compliance, change requests, cost overruns and other negative outcomes. While resolving governance issues is critical, they are either glossed over during the introductory slides of charter presentations or overlooked entirely, during the overly optimistic banter of ‘kick off’ meetings. Governance risks are further ignored in the wake of sponsor changes and/or management turnover. The result can be sub optimal information flows and inaccurate reporting from project managers and business leads to senior management champions and executive sponsors.  The resulting confusion and/or conflict around roles, responsibilities, and authority in turn leads to uninformed strategic discussions.

Be these project realities as they may, governance will be an increasingly important determinant of project success across the public sector, especially as projects becomes larger, more complex, engage more stakeholders, and extend into the long-term horizon, well beyond the tenure of political appointees (5 years plus). The policy question which emerges, is what frameworks can be developed to ensure that governance discussions keep pace with project management realities and challenges?   

This panel sets the stage for a candid conversation between researchers and practitioners who engage the realities of managing project managers and in turn, spend most of their time gathering, analyzing, and comparing the root causes, drivers, and constraints to successful project delivery. The experiences of our panelists range from capital projects focussed on asset construction to information technology deployments of hardware and software. This panel avoids spending too much time on project management success, a topic which is already covered in abundance across technical disciplines. Instead, our panelist insights start with challenges and barriers to governance which are often in place well before project conception.  The conflicting directives which frame the context within which project managers operate is also discussed. We also discuss how projects which have been constrained from the kickoff, can be re calibrated through a toolbox of instruments, measures, reporting and engagement which can fend off scope creep, political influences, redirected narratives, and other factors which derail projects. After a brief introduction and opening remarks by each panelist, the floor will be opened to questions and comments from the facilitator and panel, followed by the audience. By the end of the panel, we hope to have list of tools which participants have found to be useful in coping with and recalibrating project deliverables, milestones and adhering to original goals.

This panel draws on material presented at the 74^th IPAC Leadership Conference in Toronto as well as the 62^nd MEA Conference in Toronto.  Similarly, presentation material draws on research and practitioner insights from the construction and information technology disciplines of utility management. 

Increasingly, project managers in large organizations are preoccupied with managing the scopes of deliverables as well as the complexities of stakeholder engagement. The root causes of such challenges, often buried in project governance structures, may remain unresolved for prolonged periods of time. Such issues can lead to unresolved escalations, decision making delays, suboptimal deliverables, inaccurate messaging, non-compliance, change requests, cost overruns and other negative outcomes. While resolving governance issues is critical, they are either glossed over during the introductory slides of charter presentations or overlooked entirely, during the overly optimistic banter of ‘kick off’ meetings. Governance risks are further ignored in the wake of sponsor changes and/or management turnover. The result can be sub optimal information flows and inaccurate reporting from project managers and business leads to senior management champions and executive sponsors.  The resulting confusion and/or conflict around roles, responsibilities, and authority in turn leads to uninformed strategic discussions.

Be these project realities as they may, governance will be an increasingly important determinant of project success across the public sector, especially as projects becomes larger, more complex, engage more stakeholders, and extend into the long-term horizon, well beyond the tenure of political appointees (5 years plus). The policy question which emerges, is what frameworks can be developed to ensure that governance discussions keep pace with project management realities and challenges?   

This panel sets the stage for a candid conversation between researchers and practitioners who engage the realities of managing project managers and in turn, spend most of their time gathering, analyzing, and comparing the root causes, drivers, and constraints to successful project delivery. The experiences of our panelists range from capital projects focussed on asset construction to information technology deployments of hardware and software. This panel avoids spending too much time on project management success, a topic which is already covered in abundance across technical disciplines. Instead, our panelist insights start with challenges and barriers to governance which are often in place well before project conception.  The conflicting directives which frame the context within which project managers operate is also discussed. We also discuss how projects which have been constrained from the kickoff, can be re calibrated through a toolbox of instruments, measures, reporting and engagement which can fend off scope creep, political influences, redirected narratives, and other factors which derail projects. After a brief introduction and opening remarks by each panelist, the floor will be opened to questions and comments from the facilitator and panel, followed by the audience. By the end of the panel, we hope to have list of tools which participants have found to be useful in coping with and recalibrating project deliverables, milestones and adhering to original goals.

This panel draws on material presented at the 74^th IPAC Leadership Conference in Toronto as well as the 62^nd MEA Conference in Toronto.  Similarly, presentation material draws on research and practitioner insights from the construction and information technology disciplines of utility management.