Dates: 08 July 2010
Times: 18:00 to 20:00
Venue: The Milford Hall Hotel, 206 Castle Street, Salisbury, SP1 3TE

At the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Dr Thomas Docker, Chairman of CITI shared his insights on the topic of ‘Forensic Project Management’.

Projects do fail, but when the problem was avoidable because it was a repetitive error (one made before and the signs were known but ignored) the impact is worse. A forensic service identifies causes, may apportion blame if appropriate, but essentially identifies policies and practices to adopt to prevent a re-occurrence. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the approach is allowing an organisation to move on – with a new maturity and awareness about the factors in the project environment that trigger project failure.

Forensic project management is the process of revealing the sources of poor project performance. It identifies both the immediate cause and the predisposing causes of failure, with a view to eliminating the source. Repetition is the most wasteful and corrosive type of failure. The forensic approach dissects the project in a manner that analyses the factors that led to morbidity and, where rescue is possible, recommends direct actions to rectify or avoid the problem manifesting itself again.