The Perfect Storm - Time to Adapt
by Rob Lock
The ever-changing face of construction which has been forced upon us through the never-ending pandemic, global supply chain issues, political and civil unrest, and global warming can only be termed as The Perfect Storm, where this rare combination of events has blighted our industry and made us change the way projects are delivered.
Once we were guided by the iron triangle; three constraints made up of Time, Cost & Quality – typically based around a waterfall delivery system, then depending on what sector you were based in, we had several more methodologies to choose from. However with all these differing approaches, one has remained constant in all project manager’s minds – that being the iron triangle.
Time, cost, and quality have now been joined by transparency, wellbeing and sustainability. With these additional constraints, the iron triangle as we know it has evolved into a more complex shape and this evolution will mean that as project managers, we too will have to evolve and adapt to this new delivery system.
To adapt we must first understand each constraint and how that relates not only to the project and its outcome but to all stakeholders that we have a duty of care to. With this, we must prioritise the need to not just manage a project but to engage, influence and lead our stakeholders into this new adaptable way of thinking.
We must be transparent in highlighting the uncertainty or risk whilst clearly managing the client’s and stakeholder’s expectations of time and cost, without numerous variations or notices of delay of days gone past.
Construction projects are typically predictive where we know what we want, and we know how to get it, however, here at Incorp, we adopt a hybrid-delivery approach wherein both predictive and adaptive methodologies are used to obtain the optimum results.
To put simply, at Incorp our delivery teams pre-empt change, respond appropriately and collaborate with our stakeholders in response to the ever-changing landscape, sharing in both the risks and opportunities for the duration of the project.
