2003 Business Leadership Conference

Creating a culture of professional project management in Network Rail plc

In 2002 Railtrack made one of their key goals the achievement of a professional project management community. A clear selection and management process, based on viable business cases and a healthy atmosphere of challenge eliminates many of the dangers of poorly initiated projects.

Avoiding projects that cannot succeed and focusing on those with a sound business rationale contribute to an organisation’s bottom line. Sound governance structures and management processes have a major impact on project success, but above all a clear focus on what constitutes success throughout the wider project management community is essential.

Education and personal development was to be a central plank of this cultural change initiative; this presentation explains why and how. 

• The project management challenges facing Railtrack in 2002 – causes of success and failure 
• What we had to get right – driving change in people and processes 
• Creating professional project managers – the critical success factors
• The project management community – what happens now

Nick Dobson, Principal Consultant CITI, and Paul Wiseman, Head of Investment Strategy – Network Rail plc