Good News (PM to control your sex life,
Human race to continue, Zero emission cement),
Chelsea, New Projects (Leicester City Railway Redevelopment,
Wylfa new nuclear, New laboratories, General election),
Artificial Intelligence in the News, Energy Issues (Supply side,
Alternative supplies, Hydrogen fuel, Energy storage, Floating
wind turbines), Professional Association News (APM,
Body of Knowledge) and Save the hedgehog!
REPORT
By Miles Shepherd
Executive Advisor & International Correspondent
Salisbury, England, UK
INTRODUCTION
The start of the summer season is a strange time and this report reflects that as we have a look at a project that has just ended, round up some new projects, survey the situation for some “green” projects and continue the hunt for good news. There is also some news about Artificial Intelligence and not just about how it affects project management and the latest from the Association for Project Management (APM). To get you in the right mood, we’ll start with he good news
GOOD NEWS
You could be forgiven for thinking this section is a little thin this month but when you look at the two leads you must agree they are pretty important. I’m not sure they are related but the first shows there is no limit to the importance of project management so that allows us to take some consolation that one of the major threats to humanity is not so scary after all.
- PM to control your sex life. If this doesn’t catch your attention, then nothing will! My Transatlantic Imp reports a story that first saw the light of day in August 2013. Back in the day, some people were using spreadsheets to monitor their sex lives. This has been widely reported on-line (try Googling it for more detail) but more recently, a story ran in an East Coast (USA) daily and was picked up here in the Economist in 2020 and most recently last month in The Times. Apparently, it is now a thing for love life to be tracked via a spreadsheet in order to “optimise your relationship”. Seems to me this is taking project monitoring rather further than the project sponsor requires.
- Human Race to Continue. Having optimised your relationship, you may now contemplate the future of the human race. There is cause for cautious optimism as news comes of sixteen companies, world leaders in artificial intelligence, have decided not to wipe out humankind with their products. This may come as welcome news to the man on the Clapham Omnibus, but other sources indicate that some of the world’s leaders think it is their task and they have nuclear weapons to do the job. Human preservation emerged as one of the themes at the AI Summit in Seoul, sponsored by the governments of UK and Korea. There is more news on the AI front so read on.
- Zero Emission Cement. Concrete recycling is not new but there is a report in the journal Nature that claims a major breakthrough in construction technology. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a new technique that can produce cement using waste concrete from demolished buildings and processing it in electric arc furnaces. According to the researchers this new technique could save billions of tonnes of carbon by 2050. Cement production is highly polluting and accounts for some 7.5 % of total greenhouse gas emissions. Hitherto, there was no known way to produce it at scale without impacts on the climate. However, the Cement 2 Zero Project, a joint research project between the Materials Production Institute and the University of Cambridge developed a potentially transformative solution to the problem. “We have definitely proved that cement can be recycled into cement,” says Julian Allwood at the University of Cambridge. “We are on course for making cement with zero emissions, which is amazing.”
See a report at https://www.mpiuk.com/research-project-cement-2-zero.htm.
CHELSEA
Readers of a certain age will recall the heady days of the Swinging Sixties and the King’s Road, while those of a military persuasion will associate Chelsea with the Royal Hospital which houses the famous Pensioners. Still others will nostalgically associate it with the Royal Horticulture Society’s annual bean feast, the Chelsea Flower Show.
More…
To read entire report, click here
How to cite this report: Shepherd, M. (2024). UK Project Management Roundup, report, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue II, February. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/pmwj142-Jun2024-Shepherd-UK-project-management-round-up-report.pdf
About the Author
Miles Shepherd
Salisbury, UK
Miles Shepherd is an executive editorial advisor and international correspondent for PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 30 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. His consulting work has taken him to Japan, Taiwan, USA and Russia. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was, for seven years, a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is immediate past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He is currently Chairman of the British Standards Institute project management committee. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To view other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at http://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/.
