I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
What a £100bn rail project can teach your project
Hello Reader, HS2 is the UK's high speed railway between London and Birmingham, and it's one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Britain. It's easy to read the headlines about it, shake your head and move on. But the National Audit Office's latest report, High Speed Two reset, is much more interesting than the numbers. The railway is now expected to cost between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion, roughly twice what was expected in 2020. You might assume inflation did most of the damage. It didn't. By HS2 Ltd's own analysis, inflation explains only about a third of the increase. Another third is underestimation, and almost a quarter is inefficient delivery. That means two thirds of the rise comes down to estimating and delivery, which is very much the territory of the project manager. You're probably not running a £100 billion railway (I'm certainly not), but almost everything in the report shows up on ordinary projects too, just with fewer zeros. I've read it so you don't have to, and pulled out seven lessons you can use on your own work. Read the 7 lessons from the HS2 reset here → Have a lovely week! |
Calling all Rebel Project Managers!
I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Hello Reader, How does your PMO actually work? I don't mean what it does day to day. I mean where it sits in the organization, how it's set up, and how much say it has over projects. That's your operating model. And it's not the same as your staffing model (full-time, part-time or fractional) or your maturity level. A centralized PMO can be immature. A federated PMO can be highly capable. When you're choosing an operating model, you're really answering two questions, not one: Where does the...
Sponsored content: this email is brought to you by Software Advice. 2026 Pricing Guide What does project management software really cost? A practical look at pricing models, cost ranges, and the fees nobody mentions up front. Hello Reader, If you have ever been asked to pick a project management tool, or defend the one you already use, you know the hardest part is rarely the features. It is the price. Plans are tiered, per-seat, or billed in ways that only make sense after you have signed up....
Hello Reader, I believe that some of the old comms tools aren't good enough any more. Take the communication matrix. It's a classic tool where you list out the stakeholder group, what information they need, what format you are going to provide it in, the frequency of update and the owner. Nothing is inherently wrong with it, but it describes the production and distribution of communication, not communication effectiveness. Shouldn't we be asking instead: What does the audience need to...