By Kostas Tzanakakis, Railway and Transport Expert

Do we need to apply project management? There are challenges to building effective project management capabilities. Increasingly, Governments are called upon not only to manage the routine operations of ongoing project programs but also to undertake large, complex new projects and services and to adapt and improve ongoing projects in a rapidly changing environment. The public sector is under more pressure than ever to make responsible, reasonable decisions around the right investments.

Fortunately, a management discipline—project management—has evolved over the past few decades to address the challenges of managing large, complex change initiatives. Project management has been embraced by the private sector with demonstrated success across a range of industries. However, the adoption of project management in Governments has been uneven. With some exceptions, project management capabilities in the public sector are generally weak.

The growing scope and complexity of programs funded by the Government have made the need for Project Management more important than ever. While Government plans to spend billions on operational investments, they’ve had difficulty providing adequate oversight of these investments. Managers of the Government are required to do more with fewer resources and must continuously justify the funds they request for both new and existing investments.

This presentation aims to

• an awareness of the importance of applying Project Management in projects of any size.
• to the understanding of essential elements and processes of project management, including Project Planning, Risk Management and Stakeholder Engagement.