Seminar on Success in Mega Projects – Learn and rethink with experienced practitioners and academics

At this seminar organized in collaboration between IDA (Danish Engineering Association), PMI (Project Management Institute) and CASPRO (Centre for Advanced Studies in Project Organizing) at Department of Organization at CBS we foster a dialogue between practice and academia, and as such, we explore the cutting-edge knowledge on Project Success and its application in practice. Here, an acclimated researcher will explore what it takes to make projects successful and you will learn from experienced and highly competent practitioners how they succeed.

The topic is presented by Kristian Kreiner, Professor Emeritus at Centre for Advanced Studies on Project Management at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and Uffe K. Jørgensen, CTO at COP – Copenhagen Offshore Partners.

The format of the event is a talk by Kristian Kreiner followed by a talk by Uffe K. Jørgensen, and then a moderated debate between the two.

According to Bent Flyvbjerg, despite the increasing number of larger and more complex projects, 9 out of 10 projects still exceed the planned costs by an average of 28 percent - and do not meet the original schedule. ‘Success rates’ have been consistent poor in the last decades and indicate a failure in learning to become better at completing projects on time and budget. This is frustrating, particularly in light of the blooming research and increased number and professionalization of project managers. Flyvbjerg therefore fundamentally criticizes our ability to forecast project budget and results. He argues that we either deceive others, that is we strategically misrepresent costs and budget in order to get project approved, or, we are delusional, that is, our optimism bias makes us, as humans, unable to produce realistic forecasts. 

Kristian Kreiner, who will be talking at our event, claims that we are often looking for success in the wrong places. His view on Projects and Success challenges us to look beyond the triple constraints of planned costs, time and quality. Instead, Prof. Kreiner studied projects that succeeded in creating value and satisfaction in spite of being failures in the conventional sense. Such experiences challenge project managers to act courageously, intelligently and competently when facing problems that cannot be solved by enforcing plans, contracts, and conventional managerial authority. When operating in turbulent environments and when facing futures that are unknown, conventional project management practices may aggravate rather than solve the observed performance problems in projects. 

Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP) is a leading and experienced provider of project development, construction management, and operational management services to offshore wind projects. Uffe K. Jørgensen will talk about how COP succeed in having a track record of successfully taking offshore wind projects through the most difficult phases and delivering per plan.

About Uffe K. Jørgensen:
CTO at Copenhagen Offshore Partners, Denmark. 20+ years offshore wind experience. Successful track record of development and engineering of more than 3,000 MW large-scale offshore wind projects. CTO at Copenhagen Offshore Partners, Denmark.

About Kristian Kreiner:
Professor emeritus. Centre for Advanced Studies on Project Management at CBS. Interested in organization, order, efficiency, collaboration, coordination, choice etc. as variegated effects of historical, social processes. 
And in what people learn from experience, and what might rationally be learnt. What cannot be learnt, but which is often falsely learnt, is how to manage organization, how to design projects, how to make the right decisions, etc. 

Practical information:

Following Corona-safety regulations there are only 29 places available and they will be distributed in a first come, first serve basis. If you register, please come to the event, as it will be taking the opportunity away from others.

Please register to seminar.ioa@cbs.dk no later than October 23, 2020.
 

Location

 IDA Conference
 Kalvebod Brygge 31–33
 1780 København V