After working with a number of mining companies, including De Beers Consolidated Mines, Harmony Gold, Anglo Coal and Anglo Base Metals, PM Sight (a project management company) believes there is a significant shortage of project managers that understand the mining environment.
Although there is sufficient work, resource capacity is limited which challenges the mining industry from a demand and supply perspective.
This lack of skilled resources contributes to the general consensus that project management maturity, not only in the mining industry, but in South Africa as a whole, generally is very low. Because of this, PM Sight starts every customer engagement with a detailed assessment of the project management maturity within the customer's project community.
According to Paul Viviers, MD of PM Sight, companies are assessed on processes, people maturity, supporting technology and governance structures in place. This assessment also determines the desired to-be maturity level for the customer which guides the company in building a development plan to achieve project management excellence.
The final assessment document highlights the client strengths, weakness and maturity levels with the actions to be taken over a period of 12 to 18 months in order for the client to achieve the desired levels.
Viviers maintains that companies need to put processes in place and focus on the people. To provide the quality project managers required in the field, a continuous focus should be placed on development and training programmes. Viviers believes that more can be achieved with mentoring and coaching, than with theoretical classroom training alone.
In addition to these aspects, a single repository of all ideas, requests and proposals is required to provide visibility of all information. These can then be prioritised from a strategic, business and resource perspective.
PM Sight advocates the creation of a project management office (PMO) in order to assure that the projects, which are being executed, have the right resources available to them, as well as ensuring that they are aligned to the company's strategy.
Managing the governance of projects allows for proper management of project schedules, cost alignment and the reporting back to the head office. An effective PMO should continually search for ways to make the project teams' jobs easier.
"We successfully implemented a PMO at Anglo Base Metals where we focused our attention on areas of improvement from a training and processes perspective. We were able to put processes and best practices in place through a facilitated process. We trained the personnel on the process and project management disciplines from management through to operations," explains Viviers.
He points out that the company is offering the PMO to other mining companies, as it believes it is a winning solution. Additionally, PM Sight has created a portal that includes assessments, processes, governance and technology combined in a single integrated end-to-end solution.
"We believe that we have value to offer the mining as well as the construction industries, and we understand the frustrations that these organisations have. Clients need to take ownership of project management, as well as project controls, especially governance, because outsourcing is a huge risk in the industry. Mining companies should take back accountability for project management," concludes Viviers.
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