Unknown: 0:00

Hello listeners. This is the risky planner podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Hey everybody. It's Albert. I'm flying solo today because we're doing something a little different. So if you remember episode 10 of the risky planner podcast, that was the one where I had walked the floor of the AAC conference and collected a lot of interviews with folks that I met there, very generous with their time. These people were and we had a full back and forth that you guys didn't get to hear on episode 10. So this episode is a special release for those of you who'd like to hear more of those interviews. I think you'll get a lot out of them. There was a great back and forth with all those people, and they were very generous with their time. So once again, thank you to everybody who shows up on the episode. Let's get into it. We're going to kick things off with a personal friend of mine I ran into at the conference a co worker from my faithful and Gould days, Claudette Smith. She currently works at Hess Corporation. Let's hear from her, why

Albert Brier: 1:02

don't you tell me your name, who you work for, your job title? Just real quick.

Unknown: 1:06

Claudette Smith, I work for Hess Corporation. I'm a Project Services Advisor for the Guyana project.

Albert Brier: 1:12

All right, quick one. Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is bright. Nice. Yes or No, will California High Speed Rail ever get built? Absolutely. What piece of software do you use the most every day? Apple Music. All right, that's great. No, I like that one give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls Professional.

Unknown: 1:38

Find a mentor.

Albert Brier: 1:41

Excellent advice. Yeah. Thank you. Claudette. Next up is another one of my former coworkers, Frank bangalon, from FTI. He and I were thick as thieves back in the F and G days. All right. First thing first. Why don't you say your name, job title, who you work for?

Unknown: 1:58

Gotcha. Frank bangalon, Senior Director for FDI consulting. All

Albert Brier: 2:02

right, finish this sentence. Frank, the future of capital projects is

Unknown: 2:07

AI enabled management.

Albert Brier: 2:13

You really, you really fought for that last word there. Frank,

Unknown: 2:16

I thought it was like I was getting in my head. Richard Dawson of Family Feud. You

Albert Brier: 2:22

heard it here first. The future of projects is AI enabled? Richard Dawson, okay, yes or no, will California High Speed Rail ever get built?

Unknown: 2:31

Yes, it will. What is the political party?

Albert Brier: 2:35

Someone's gonna do it. What piece of software do you use at work every day,

Unknown: 2:39

every day? I do use Outlook in some form or fashion.

Albert Brier: 2:43

Oh, yeah, me too. Give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls

Unknown: 2:48

professional. Don't let your young age or your lack of experience stop you from feeling empowered to make right right recommendations.

Albert Brier: 2:59

Make good decisions no matter how experienced you are, correct, right? Because everyone has something to offer. Very good. Frank, thank you so much. Always a pleasure. Albert, gotta say, that's not where I expected the conversation to go. You know, thinking about AI enabled Richard Dawson still makes me chuckle. But anyway, thank you again, Frank, so continuing with the trend here, I had some other folks from faithful and Gould, including Mohammed Al Rishi. So let's, let's hear from him. Okay, so real, real quick. Why don't you say your name, job title and who you work for?

Unknown: 3:32

Yeah, my name is, my name is Mohammed Al raishi, working as a senior scheduler with batkins guidelines.

Albert Brier: 3:38

Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is

Unknown: 3:43

long term value.

Albert Brier: 3:46

I like that answer, yes or no. Will California High Speed Rail ever get built? Yes, I think so. All right, lots of optimism in the room today. What piece of software do you use the most every day? Primavera p6 give one piece of advice to a new project manager or a project controls professional.

Unknown: 4:03

I think I'm looking for more like aI softwares that help you to develop dashboard and analyzing the schedule.

Albert Brier: 4:11

Yeah, a lot of people saying AI. Thank you very much. Mohammed, all right, thank you. Also from Atkins realis, we have Luis Terry, so really quickly, tell me your name and who you're with your job title and what you

Unknown: 4:26

do. My name is Luis Terry. I am with Atkin realis, Director of Project controls. All right,

Albert Brier: 4:30

excellent. Let's get into the questions. Finish this sentence, the future of capital projects is uncertain. Very good. Yes or No. Will California High Speed Rail ever get built? Yes, eventually, eventually, from Bakersfield to wherever. What piece of software do you use the most every day,

Unknown: 4:50

between Outlook, maybe primavera? I do a lot of scheduling.

Albert Brier: 4:55

Congratulations for being the first person not to say Excel. Give one piece of advice to an. Project Manager or project controls

Unknown: 5:02

professional how to use AI. I think that's common and something we all need to adopt. It's good

Albert Brier: 5:08

advice. I think you're probably right. Thank you. Luis, one of the reasons I was at the AAC conference this year was to present at the Safran summit that followed the conference. Some of the folks I met there agreed to give interviews, and I had some really excellent conversations with them, so I'll let them introduce themselves, and here we go. First things first, say your name, job title and who you work for.

Unknown: 5:32

My name is Rachel Fleming. I am the service line manager of risk and facilitated services at MVP. All

Albert Brier: 5:40

right. Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is complex. Agreed, yes or no. Will California High Speed Rail ever get built? It's a yes or no question. Rachel,

Unknown: 5:57

I hope so me

Albert Brier: 5:58

too. What piece of software do you use the most at work every day?

Unknown: 6:04

Teams besides teams on our risk, we use saffron risk.

Albert Brier: 6:11

Me too. I would have thrown excel in the mix. But you know, hey, absolutely, who doesn't love Excel? Give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls, professional

Unknown: 6:22

communication. Know how to communicate clearly and well with your team, so that everyone is on the same page and that will lead you to success. Thank you, Rachel, you are very welcome. Thank you.

Albert Brier: 6:39

Okay. First things first. Say your name, job title, who you work for?

Unknown: 6:43

Ian Nicholson. I'm VP of solutions for emerald associates out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Albert Brier: 6:48

Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is dim. I just had someone say bright, so you guys can have a knife fight later. Yes or No, will California High Speed Rail ever get built? I don't

Unknown: 7:05

know if it'll get built in California. I only hope it ever get it gets built in Alberta, and I have very low expectations that it will. We've been talking about it for 20 years, and we're no further along than we were. What I've read about California is they're basically in the same situation.

Albert Brier: 7:18

Yeah, well, we share that hope as fellow Albertans and Calgarians, what piece of software do you use at work the most every

Unknown: 7:25

day? So I would say the application type I use most is teams. Type applications. So whether it be zoom or WebEx or teams, I'm on those virtually all day. You're doing a lot of customer service, right? Yeah, that's right. So I work with customers all over the place on getting their software working, so I'm always on there, and I work from home. So

Albert Brier: 7:49

give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls professional

Unknown: 7:54

focus on the basics, you know, understand what's going on, as opposed to chasing every new technology, and every new bell and whistle that's out there, project management hasn't changed that much.

Albert Brier: 8:06

Agree completely. Thank you. Ian, no problem. My pleasure. Albert, Okay, first things first, say your name, who you work for, and your job title.

Unknown: 8:15

I'm David Hewlett. I'm head of Hewlett and Associates project management consultants. So I'm president of the company. I can be whatever I want. I made myself president. It's a small, boutique kind of consulting practice with only two or three associates, but with a passion for project risk management,

Albert Brier: 8:37

and you've made quite a splash there. David, yes or no, will California High Speed Rail ever get built?

Unknown: 8:43

I think it's being built right now, but it's only between Fresno and San Jose. It was supposed to be from from San Diego to Sacramento, and I don't know that it'll ever, ever be built for that. We I think the state has run out of money.

Albert Brier: 9:01

I know the state has run out of money. It did so long ago. Finish this sentence, the future of capital projects is,

Unknown: 9:09

well, you would hope that the future of capital projects is for steady success in in meeting our quality and price and cost. I mean price and schedule objectives. There's not an awful lot of evidence that we're getting better over the years in doing so people, some people say artificial intelligence will help things. I'm not sure about that, but I don't right now, I don't see any any particular movement to improve performance generally. For instance, in government projects, I think government projects typically overrun for reasons that I think are, you know, Ben Freiberg has has documented those reasons, and I've been on on commercial projects, and they're not particularly. Absolutely well, well managed either. What

Albert Brier: 10:03

piece of software do you use the most at work every day?

Unknown: 10:06

Well, except for Outlook and excel, I use saffron risk almost every day when I'm when I'm on a job with a client. I use saffron risk all the time. So that's, that's the piece of specialist software, project management oriented software I use.

Albert Brier: 10:25

What's one piece of advice you'd give to a new project manager or project controls professional? Oh,

Unknown: 10:33

keep it real. Keep it honest. Fight against management that doesn't want, want to rock the boat at management who who doesn't necessarily act in a way that the project will be any better than any other project that they've had in the past, make sure that you're honest when you talk to people and treat your treat your staff and Colleagues. Well,

Albert Brier: 10:59

great advice. Thank you. Dr Hewlett, bye. The conference this year was very well attended by people representing software companies, as it usually is. So a lot of these software packages are very forward looking in the areas of Project Control, scheduling, risk analysis and assessment. So it was real pleasure to talk to these folks. So I'll let them introduce themselves and their their companies as well. Here we go. First things first, say your name, who you work for and what you do

Unknown: 11:26

there. Okay, so my name is David Emanuel. I'm a vice president for active risk manager at risk Connect.

Albert Brier: 11:33

Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is

Unknown: 11:39

digitally integrated. 100%

Albert Brier: 11:42

agree, yes or no. Will California High Speed Rail ever get built?

Unknown: 11:47

Not how is it was originally envisioned. I think the Central Valley will get finished, but I don't see it going to San Fran and LA and that just too many obstacles that are just too big, including the price and then political

Albert Brier: 12:05

Well, the state of California seems to agree with you. So what piece of software do you use the most at work every day? Active Risk Manager. Great answer, David. Give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls professional,

Unknown: 12:22

learn to tell a story from the numbers from the data. So data is important, so we'll understand the risks and understand how you can actually extract that and see the more holistic view and the more holistic story behind the data.

Albert Brier: 12:36

Great answer. Thanks, David. Very much. Thank you very much. Okay, say your name, job title and who you work for.

Unknown: 12:43

So my name's Jordan Brooks. I work for Nate. I am the Product Director for schedule and risk.

Albert Brier: 12:48

Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is,

Unknown: 12:51

oh, man, the future of capital projects is centered around technology. I think, I think you gotta have advancements in technology. A lot of people say construction is behind technology advancements. I don't think that that's true. I think construction has kind of been on the cutting edge. You think of things like welding. You have machine welders today that do that work for people, but I think that they need to dive more into figuring out exactly where that technology wants to take them. Like, what do you want to do with that technology? In my opinion, yeah, we've got the fun tools. What are we going to do with them? Exactly which ones are effective and efficient, which ones are just kind of, I don't vaporware, I guess you'd call them, right? It's like, Yeah, that's great. But what does it actually do to help me? And I think we're trying to feel

Albert Brier: 13:34

our way through that. So speaking of vaporware, yes or no, will California High Speed Rail ever get built?

Unknown: 13:38

Great question. I would say, certain segments, yes. That's probably the most political answer I could ever give, right? I think some, I think some segments of the high speed rail will get built. Will it ever end? I've been on a couple light rail jobs, I would say no, it probably doesn't ever end. It's always going to have something else to do. But I think some segments will get built. It'll be great when it

Albert Brier: 13:57

is too. So totally Yes, with an asterisk, we'll go with that one. What piece of software do you use the most at work every day?

Unknown: 14:03

Oh, the most innate schedule. Obviously, that's easy, easy one to answer. If it's not innate schedule, it's probably what most people say, which is Excel. I mean, it's constantly Excel spreadsheets. People

Albert Brier: 14:14

have definitely been saying Excel give give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls

Unknown: 14:20

professional one piece of advice, I would tell them, to look outside the box, whether that is what you've used in the past in just your role, or what you use in your organization. As far as finding a new technology, go out there and see what else is to offer, even as innate schedule product, you know, Product Director of innate schedule and risk, I go see what's out there to offer. Especially with AI becoming a big thing, there's always a new AI thing. I'm not afraid to go say, hey, are they doing something better than we're doing? And should we consider doing it? Should we consider adopting that into our tool? It's something you should always be looking to is, how can I do my job better? And on my side, it's, how do I provide something better for our clients, or possible potential clients?

Albert Brier: 14:59

So good. I. Jordan, thank you very much for your time. Yeah, thank you, Albert. Real quick. Why don't you say your name, job title, who you work for? So

Unknown: 15:08

my name is Santosh Bart. I'm co founder of a software product called turbochart.

Albert Brier: 15:13

All right. Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is uncertain. Agreed, yes or no. Will California High Speed Rail ever get built,

Unknown: 15:21

I'd have to say, no, oh yeah,

Albert Brier: 15:24

you've got some personal history with this kind of sort of, but not really.

Unknown: 15:28

Yeah, I guess I'm not from California, but the country I'm from has a checkered history with developing any sort of rail infrastructure projects.

Albert Brier: 15:36

So any country other than France, Germany or Japan, I guess, or China, yeah, pretty much. What piece of software do you use the most at work every day? It's going to be Excel. Yeah? Totally. Give one. The whole world is built on Excel, right? Exactly. I had somebody say that if Excel ceased to function, the entire world economy would collapse. They're probably right. Give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls professional.

Unknown: 16:01

My advice is always be curious. Ask questions.

Albert Brier: 16:04

That's excellent. Thank you very much. Santosh, thank you. Okay, first things first, say your name, job title and who you work

Unknown: 16:11

for. Rohit, sinhas, CTO smart, pm technologies.

Albert Brier: 16:15

Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is data agreed? Yes or No. Will California High Speed Rail ever get built?

Unknown: 16:25

Well, eventually, but I don't know if we'll be around for it to experience

Albert Brier: 16:30

it. Our great grandchildren will ride the high speed rail. What piece of software do you use at work every day?

Unknown: 16:37

Well, smart. PM,

Albert Brier: 16:39

of course, give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls

Unknown: 16:45

professional really put think about how you're going to bring all the data together, right? I mean, historically, everything's kind of been very, very siloed, where you've got your cost guys using their tools, you've got your schedule guys and p6 primavera, you've got your side teams and your pro core ACC, but really work together and work as a team to solve the problem, right? Don't try to keep your data to yourself, and the earlier you do that, the cleaner the data is going to be, and the better your project outcomes will be.

Albert Brier: 17:17

Thank you very much. Rohit, no problem. First things first, say your name, job title and who you work for.

Unknown: 17:23

Hey, my name is Michael LaPage. I'm the founder, CEO and chief learning officer at plan Academy.

Albert Brier: 17:29

Finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is

Unknown: 17:35

good scheduling

Albert Brier: 17:37

agreed, yes or no. Will California High Speed Rail ever get built? Absolutely, I hope so. What piece of software do you use the most at work every day? Primavera p6 give one piece of advice to a new project manager or project controls professional.

Unknown: 17:54

Don't just focus only on technical skills. Focus on soft skills. Become an excellent communicator and be impeccable in everything you do. Excellent. Thank you very much. Michael. My pleasure.

Albert Brier: 18:07

Michael, not exactly a software company person, but I really enjoyed talking to him, and he was a very familiar face, so it took me a moment to place where I knew him from, and then I was very excited that he agreed to an interview. So if you haven't checked out plan Academy on YouTube, please go do that. You'll thank me. Last but not least, my interview with Franco yasuyama from pattern energy. Now this one is longer than the others, so I thought I'd save it for last. We had a deeper conversation than I did with the others. This was the first interview I gave at the conference. So I hope you enjoy it. First off, can you say your name, your role, your organization, and just give me quick idea of what brings you to the conference.

Unknown: 18:46

Franco yasuoma. I am a senior project controller with Potter Energy Group. It's my first actually conference, so nice. I'm just here to try to learn a little bit more on controls and see what's out there in the industry?

Albert Brier: 19:02

Start with some general stuff. What's your number one takeaway from the conference

Unknown: 19:06

so far? So far. Good question. You should have sent me these questions. So I would say again, this is you have a broader view of how the industry is looking at Project controls. Because when you when you're so focused on what you do in your organization, it's sometimes hard to you can't see the forest for the trees. Yeah, exactly, exactly, yeah. Well, there you go.

Albert Brier: 19:36

So if you could change one thing about capital, project delivery, what would it be

Unknown: 19:41

in my company, or in general, everywhere, whole world? Oh, tough question. I don't know. Maybe I would have, I don't know. I have to think about it. I would. Change a little bit how people in general, or projects in general, look at contingencies. I think that there is a lot of maybe effort to make it so discrete that it loses a little bit the purpose of what a contingency is for. And I've experienced that in the past, and it can be like, a lot of work for for something that's not going to bring a lot of

Albert Brier: 20:25

value. Man, I'm with you 100% on that one. Like, I'd love to stop getting it carved up in all these tiny little useless chunks. You know, one big pot for one big pool of risk, right? Yeah. So how has project delivery evolved since you started at Potter, or really, since your career began,

Unknown: 20:42

all it evolved a lot. It evolved a lot. Like, pattern is a company that grew so fast over over the last years that they, they were, like, focused a lot on getting things done and and I would say, like, left project controls a little bit to the side, and now that they're, they're big enough, they're kind of putting a little bit more effort into, into building project controls, team, into having proper project control. So a lot has changed, but still, there's a long way to go. We're, we're not even halfway there.

Albert Brier: 21:18

I would say, oh, there always is a long way to go. So here's a, here's a, here's a, really, this should be an easy one. What's the number one tool of your trade, and what do you like about it? What do you hate

Unknown: 21:29

about it? Number two

Albert Brier: 21:30

for what? Sorry, the number one tool that you use, like the tool of your trade?

Unknown: 21:34

Well, Excel 100% Yeah. Well, if, if Microsoft takes Excel out, like, the word would stop everything runs on Excel. So, like, there's great tools out there for for project management and project controls, but I think that, like, Excel is always the base for for these things.

Albert Brier: 21:55

Yeah, it's the elephant in the room. So what? What doesn't it do well enough? In your opinion,

Unknown: 22:00

integration, I think that's that's the only thing that Excel lacked. I mean integration and standardization as well, right? Because it's so you have so much freedom and flexibility to do whatever you want, which is why it's widely used, right? And it's a great tool. But when you go for these big projects or even big portfolios, you need more integration. You need standardization of how data, data is entered and how the reports are ran. So I think that that's what Excel lacks, and I don't think you'll ever get there, but that's why we have all this, this software companies building this great, great platforms for us to run.

Albert Brier: 22:42

And there is some cool stuff here at the conference, some really cool packages, right? 100% so if you could fully integrate your cost, your schedule, your risk, your reporting systems, what would that mean to you?

Unknown: 22:55

Well, it would mean a lot. That's, I think, that that's the end goal for every company that that has large projects, or even smaller, smaller projects, right? Is to have that visibility on on how things are working together and in real time. So it would mean a lot that's, that's, that's what you're aiming for, at pattern. And again, as I said, like we're not even halfway there, but it would change a lot the way we deliver the projects and the way that the senior leadership of the company look at the projects

Albert Brier: 23:29

as well. So does it feel like this goal is within reach for you at pattern? It

Unknown: 23:32

is, it is. That's what I mean. You have to believe it, right? Otherwise, yeah, otherwise I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be trying to see how to how to do better, and what I can bring from this conference back to fodder, and how it can help us achieve our end goal.

Albert Brier: 23:51

That makes sense to me. So we're gonna do we're going to the lightning round now. Okay, super fast answers. Okay. Number one, finish this sentence. The future of capital projects is

Unknown: 24:02

integration

Albert Brier: 24:04

Excellent? Yes or No, will the California High Speed Rail ever get built?

Unknown: 24:08

I have no idea. I don't live in California. Good answer.

Albert Brier: 24:11

Last one, one piece of advice for a brand new project manager or project controls professional,

Unknown: 24:18

just start getting things done. Don't, don't, don't worry too much in the beginning of your career, in in trying to learn from theory, I think, and get out there. Just get some experience, get get in the field. If you can get to the in the field for some time, it's great because that that gives you that knowledge of how things get viewed, and not only looking at papers and drawings and schedules. So I think that that helped me a lot at the beginning of my career. So

Albert Brier: 24:49

just get out there and do it. Yeah, exactly. That's perfect advice. Franco, thank you very much. No problem. Thanks, Albert, pleasure, thanks once again to Frank and everybody I spoke with at the AAC conference. It was a real pleasure getting to know everybody, and that's the end of this special episode. So hope you enjoyed it. This podcast was an idea from a listener. So if you have a similar idea that you'd like to share, maybe leave a review or a comment wherever you get your podcasts, or feel free to reach out to us directly. Check us out at risky planner.com or@docamish.com for everything, docaneish and Company, thanks again, and we'll talk to you soon.

Unknown: 25:42

You