Monumental Delivery: The Ancient Challenges of Mega-Projects

Additional author: Emilli Crouch

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only remaining Ancient Wonder of the World. Its 4500-year existence is a longevity few construction programmes could hope to achieve. It required the coordination of vast amounts of resources and a highly-skilled workforce over several decades, in an age before Prince2 project management theory, SmartSheets, or Kanban boards.

We might like to think that our ability to manage mega-projects has evolved and improved over time, and that we are now operating in a way that is more efficient than our project management forebearers. We are supported by cutting edge digital technologies and have a wealth of human experience in construction to learn from. Every large-scale programme seeks to operate efficiently, minimising cost, delay, and risk and delivering beneficial outcomes, often relying on automated data processing and reporting to understand progress and make decisions. But perhaps we have confused reporting excellence with delivery excellence; perhaps we have more in common with those coordinating the building of the pyramids than we would like to admit…

Let’s imagine one of the overseers of the construction of the pyramids attending the Steering Committee meeting for a large infrastructure construction project.

The meeting opens with the CEO reminding attendees of the value of their work, the expected improvement to national infrastructure, the benefits to the public, and the commitments made to the government in their business case.

The pyramid overseer is reminded of his Pharaoh, directing thousands of people towards a shared goal, communicating a strategic vision, and providing clarity of purpose. The Pharaoh and the CEO’s responsibilities are similar, although the CEO emphasises the measurable benefits expected to be delivered beyond completion of construction.

The programme manager speaks next, providing a progress update and referring to a dashboard which is updating in real-time. The detailed documentation and reporting of progress to support delivery is familiar to our overseer; the aggregation of it into dashboards which can be interacted with to provide a summarised but detailed understanding of progress is staggering compared to his papyrus accounting documents and activity logs.

The dashboard includes data on employee satisfaction, social value commitments, confidence of on-schedule delivery, and RAG-rated risks. The effort that has been invested to set up systems which allow for this level of reporting is clear. Unlike the overseer’s reporting, it goes above and beyond the level of information required to understand delivery progress: it provides a full view of delivery confidence and gives the impression of control and competence. The overseer wonders whether, with this wealth of information, it could be possible for programmes to exceed their budget or overrun their schedule.

He soon has his answer. The meeting turns to risks and issues, and a new risk is raised, escalated by one of the project managers: it is extremely likely that supply chains will be disrupted, which would severely affect delivery timeframes. Alternative supplier options are discussed and a mitigation agreed. The overseer sympathises with supply chain challenges, recalling his own efforts to coordinate the quarrying and transportation of two-tonne blocks of granite and limestone to the construction site. The dependency on robust and reliable supply chains is an enduring feature of programmes; the governance layers surrounding risk escalation and mitigation are modern, designed to minimise disruption, provide confidence to stakeholders, and enable proactive decision-making. The central challenge has not changed but the way we report and discuss it has.

Finally, the CEO closes the meeting and reminds attendees that they will soon be asked to provide information for their assurance report, providing an independent delivery assessment of delivery risks. The overseer begins to understand the investment made in collecting and automating reporting. The delivery team are not just responsible for delivering, they are also responsible for proving delivery progress and providing stakeholders with confidence. A significant amount of time and money is set aside to achieve reporting excellence, not just delivery excellence.

Visibility should not be mistaken for control. Dashboards cannot ensure supply chains deliver on time, data cannot always align decision-makers, and frameworks cannot create workforce capabilities which don’t exist. They can, however, improve our ability to identify issues early and communicate them with clarity. As the overseer leaves the meeting he marvels at how far reporting technology has advanced, but is not convinced that our automated dashboards and layers of governance would help him build the pyramids any faster. Reporting excellence creates a feeling of control, improving the level of information available to support decisions, and enact interventions early. It does not guarantee the existence of enduring pillars which transcend technology:

• An unwavering, shared vision that permeates every level of the organisation, not just a business case.
• Decisive, leadership that inspires.
• A highly skilled workforce with a deep craftsmanship.
• Adaptable planning that anticipates challenges and pivots effectively.
• Robust human-system design and resource management ensuring the right materials and people are in the right place at the right time

These foundations for monumental delivery remain as critical today as they were 4500 years ago, regardless of how sophisticated our dashboards and reporting has become.

Additional contact: Emilli Crouch