PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Outside influence
Are project managers a breed apart, utilising the same skillset regardless of the specific industry they work in? One with experience across many industries, Rob Sadler, of the Association for Project Management, gives his thoughts…
From this… To this…
To the rail industry. How useful are skills gained in other industries outside of the railways?
A
project manager, wherever they work, must draw together the team
around and under them, combining their talents into a whole that more than equals the sum of its parts.
Some skills are universal, whether build- ing a high speed railway from scratch or carrying out refurbishment works on London Underground – or managing a construction or finance project outside the rail industry.
But how important is it that the project manager understands every process in- volved along the way?
Former mechanical engineer Rob Sadler, at least, can claim experience in many different industries before he got his cur- rent role as major projects manager at TfL London Rail.
Sadler, a member of the Association for Project Management, explained: “I spent the first ten to 15 years of my working life in the nuclear industry, then I did another ten years in the automotive industry and in 2003 I moved into the rail industry. It was during my time in the nuclear indus- try that I moved into project management, almost by natural selection.
“I was in a design office and was one of those people who started organising the designers and draftsmen. I found it much more interesting and as any engineer will tell you, if you want to earn big money, you need to get out of engineering and into management.”
The ability to build relationships is key to the success of any project manager, as Sadler understands.
“My first director told me the job is easy; it’s the people that make it difficult. I have found the most challenging part of the job,
84 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 11
but also the most rewarding and interest- ing, is the people aspect.
“Whilst the engineering part tends to be quite easy, apart from when there are some difficult technology issues to be re- solved, it is organising people and keeping them on the right track that is the difficult and interesting part.
“It can be very complex. One thing I have found useful is to firstly have clear objec- tives. You should have good negotiation skills – every day will involve negotiating on some point. You also need to have good logistical and planning skills.
“You always have to put yourself into other people’s positions and to understand their viewpoints you need to be able to empa- thise with the problems people have at all levels.
“Following on from this, the main quali- ties you have got to have are patience and calmness.”
But it is not all about people – managing projects of the scale seen in the rail indus- try needs powerful and intuitive software. Sadler kindly gave RTM a peek into his digital toolbox.
He said: “In the past I have used MS Project, Artemis and the current in-vogue
project management tool is Primavera.
“Then there are also tools for identifying, recording, mitigating and reviewing risks within projects – and the counterpoint to this is opportunities management.”
Essentially these kinds of software pro- grammes allow a project manager to break down projects into a series of smaller, digestible tasks for planning, monitoring and control purposes, he explained.
“You also need some kind of document control and configuration management, because it is very important you are all working to the same issue of drawings and information. This could include things like Sharepoint or Aconexs – but there are var- ious web-based tools available.
“This is also the case in terms of knowledge retrieval and sharing, particularly now we have organisations based in a number of locations, with lots of people trying to dip into the same infor- mation – it means you all use the same information.”
Rob Sadler
FOR MORE INFORMATION The Association for Project Management W:
www.apm.org.uk
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