A presentation given by Dr James Smith on 26 May 2020. https://www.apm.org.uk/news/how-to-get-started-in-project-data-analytics/

1. How to Get Started in
Project Data Analytics
Presentation to APM
26 May 2020
Dr James Smith
CTO
jamessmith@projectingsuccess.co.uk

2. Introduction
• The potential impact of utilising data within
projects
• How to prepare yourself for the future
• How you can get started

3. Why am I here?
• ~4 years ago Projecting Success realised that
project data wasn’t being utilised
• We founded the project data analytics
community with >5,500 members
• We love to inspire people and upskill them
• We are helping to provide thought leadership
• It’s an area we can make a massive difference
• We’re convinced it will be transformational
A bit about me:
• Mathematician by training
• PhD in Applied Mathematics
• Ex university lecturer
• Data scientist, analyst, data
engineer
• Scope includes creating
predictive models to training
apprentices

4. Where are we now?
Machines can already:
• Automate road design
• Layout buildings, understanding the specific
demands of each role
• Predict the weather using huge datasets and machine learning models
• Predict your likelihood of cancer and detect breast cancer as good as a
human
• Identify patterns in data to detect fraud
Image credit: Bryden Wood
But we struggle to leverage data in project delivery.

5. But just imagine if…..
…a machine has the potential to:
• Read a spec and automatically
schedule a project
• Assess the probability of
benefits being realised and
how best to influence success
• Identify the effectiveness of
project management
• Pre-empt change

6. Imagine if…
…we could use data to transform how we perform risk analysis

7. A different role?
https://www.goconstruct.org/learn-about-construction/find-the-role-for-you/career-explorer/risk-manager/
OR…
• Collate risks from
the team
• Document
• Assign actions
• Monitor progress
• Report
• Data driven
• Forensic
• Augmented decision
making
• Statistical analysis
• Automation
• Review the probability and (actual) impact of risks
• Conditionality of risks and what drives them
• Success of management/mitigation action
• Effectiveness of risk investments
• Identify lead indicators
• Scenario modelling to inform decision making

8. Another example: Functional manager
Head of function for risk management
Every function emits a forensic data trail
But we rarely leverage it
• How well do they describe risks?
• Do they capture the risks that I would expect them to?
• How good is my team at predicting risk?
• Do they manage them effectively?
• Did they take account of the knowledge that we had or did we make the same mistakes?
• Which risks were foreseeable but we didn’t see them coming?
• How have they discounted other risks? Opinion or analysis?
• How well did they identify bias?

9. Another example: Stakeholder manager
Credit: https://www.projectpeople.com/jobs/stakeholder-engagement-manager-contract-gloucester
• Engagement plan should leverage previous work
• Identify relationships
• Identify degrading relationships
• Identify critical relationships based on schedule
• Relationship issues, similar to CRM
• Tailored comms based on interest and style
• Check understanding
A data driven role, supplemented by personal engagement style

10. Project controls
"Project Controls are the data gathering,
data management and analytical
processes used to predict, understand
and constructively influence the time and
cost outcomes of a project or
programme; through the communication
of information in formats that assist
effective management and decision
making."

11. Does this apply to every role?
We will still require leadership
and people management skills
But roles will rapidly evolve
All will involve evidence based
decision making
• Scheduler/Planner
• Cost estimation
• Procurement
• Benefits Management
• Project Management
• Resource
• Supply Chain Management
• Sponsors

12. This isn’t a pipedream
It can all be done today…
BUT…..
There are challenges…
Let’s talk about some of
these challenges now

13. Challenge 1: Vision
Image credit: Logikal
• 49% not thought about it
• 8% already using it, but use cases tend to be
quite low level
Increasing amount of work in descriptive
analytics (e.g. Power BI). Early adopters are
having dashboard overload and rethinking it
because they’re not use case focused

14. Challenge 2: Data
• Lots of data, but how do we leverage
it?
• What is it’s quality and completeness?
• Is it aligned to our use cases?
• What/are there any patterns in the
data?
• Do we have big enough data volumes
for machine learning?
• How do we process/clean and curate
the data?
• Do we trust the data?

15. Crossrail

16. Exhaust plume
from project
delivery
An Example: Crossrail

17. What happens to the data?

18. Data Trusts
• Securely pool data
• Collaborate on defined use cases
• Advance faster together than alone
• Reduce barriers to innovation
Develop
use case
Data
Audit
Gap
Analysis
Address
Use
Case
Refine
data
model
• Develop use cases
• Refine data that we collate and how we collate it
• Link data together
• Work across sectors
• Considerable read across at a functional level

19. Challenge 3: Capability
• We lack the capability and capacity across the industry
• Most aren’t yet planning for this
• It isn’t just about one profession - cross fertilise between:
• Data scientists/anaylsts
• App developers
• Data engineers
• Project professionals
• Project managers
• Other project professionals
Things are beginning to happen
Early adopters will outperform
Image credit: Logikal

20. How can we respond?

21. Central team or upskill existing staff?
A specialist project data
analytics role in a central team?
A hybrid role, bringing analytics
to transform the function and
profession
Data Analyst
Vs Data
capability
Project
controls
Project
manager
Engineer
Document
Controller
Cost
estimator
BIM
Logistics
Risk
Manager
Benefits
Manager
Scrum
Master
Project
manager
Project
controls
Benefits
Manager

22. Is this a brand new set of roles?

23. How specialist do I want to be?
This will drive how technical you become
Translator
Generalist
Practitioner
Specialist
Practitioner

24. What are the opportunities?
Pathfinders
• Deriving new insights & capabilities
• A new career path
• Emergent capabilities

25. Mentimeter.com

26. So where does my organisation start?
Option 1: Random Option 2: Experimental Option 3: Strategic
• Driven by enthusiasts
• Ad hoc
• Typically under the radar
• Uncoordinated
• Personality driven
• Fades when people
move
• Small experiments
• Business case driven
• Incremental development
• Iterate via pilots
• Share good practice
• High level vision
• Exec agreement
• Data strategy
• Roadmap
• Champions/pathfinders
• Pool data
• Share code/algs
Mentimeter (68 38 95): Which option are you following?

27. How Do I Start?
See next slide
Do you have
a passion &
time for this?
Yes
Maybe
Not really
Keep an eye on it
Understand what’s possible
Pick a niche and work at it
Understand what may influence your decision
• Fear – how hard is it?
• Unknown – understand what’s possible
• Lack of time – evening sessions or structured training
Understand the impact on your role/career
• Impact on some roles e.g. QS and doc control could be significant
How is your market moving?

28. Getting started – understanding
MOOCs
Start Communities
Competitions
Events
Code/Blog
Increasinglevelofcommitment
Hackathons Project:Hack
Or more
structured
training

29. Develop technical competence
Reporting Dashboards Data cleansing
Data Apps
Text analytics
Insights
Benchmarking
Predictive analytics
Machine Learning
Collate
Data
Auto-Collate Data
Automation
Connect,
Qualify and
Integrate Data
Extract
Predictive
Insights

30. The learning curve…..
What are your aspirations?
Analyst
Or
‘Operative’

31. Structured training
Project Data Academy
Foundation degree apprenticeship
95% or 100% funded by government
We run 4 cohorts/year
For all ages and experience. See it as CPD.

32. Further webinars
Masterclasses
If there is interest I am happy to run
‘how to get started’ webinars on:
• Power BI
• Python
• Automation
• Data engineering
Please vote on Menti.com (68 38 95)

33. Community events

34. Contact details
James Smith
Dr James Smith
CTO
jamessmith@projectingsuccess.co.uk