As government tenders continue to shift to require more social benefits for their local communities, it’s important for consultancies to understand their role and what they can do to stand out.

A project manager should know how to mitigate conflict by being able to identify the resolution that has the least impact on the project timeline, budget, and quality.

Is Buying Local a great policy that delivers long-lasting community benefits or just a set of rules to be worked around?

As a business owner, engineer, project manager, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, wannabe runner, lover of cooking and eater of too much takeaway, I certainly do not have all the answers to managing time. What I do have is a work ‘to-do list’ and a strategy of how to prioritise it.

There are so many aspects to communication that we are taught in project management, however as the world we are living in is becoming progressively more digital, that’s all changing. While email is a fantastic tool for transferring information, it is not a medium designed to completely replace conversation.

A good project team is versatile and full of potential but without the right leadership and resources, they won’t be engaged in your project.

Despite decades of experience behind any given project team with multitudes of skills, qualifications, licenses, and expertise, is it possible that the Client still carries the greatest influence over a project’s success?

The purpose of having ‘lessons learnt’ is to provide an insight into how projects can operate more smoothly in the future. However, the process itself isn’t perfect and could stand for some improvement.

One of the most valuable assets you can have as a project manager is good common sense. Unfortunately, it is not exactly something that you can study. Our philosophy to common sense is simple: if you can define it, you can practice it.

Engineers are increasingly facing more pressure to deliver solutions faster, cheaper and better than before. It can be tempting to accept third-party recommendations as they appear as credible designs. However, without performing your due diligence as an engineer to scrutinise these proposed designs, you are dismissing the importance of your role in a project.

In the workplace, and especially in construction projects, it’s easy to forget that there are healthy, alternative motivators. People want different things. Understanding what those things are can help to find similarities and unify visions. Different situations require different approaches to communication.

In Victoria, if a new lighting pole installation exceeds a height of 8m, then a building permit is required. This building approval requirement is atypical for external lighting pole installations as they are not generally associated with buildings.

Engineers have a multitude of tools at hand to assist with their jobs. These serve to greatly reduce calculation effort, improve accuracy, shorten the time required for rework and generally allow for more refined designs. An inability or unwillingness to sanity check the outputs obtained using such tools is a risk to the suitability and efficacy of the produced designs.

The evaluation and management of remote assets can be challenging. Accessing remote sites can be costly and time-consuming for the client, invasive and often inconvenient for the resident, and risky for both the assessor and the remote community.

Over the past 20 years there has been a significant decline in the number of design drafters in engineering offices. Where there used to be 3 or 4 drafters to an engineer, there are now up to 20 engineers to 1 drafter. The need for drawing is not decreasing, so who is drafting?

The public’s confidence in the construction industry has taken a battering in recent times thanks to various issues including combustible cladding and significant defects in structures. While there are differing opinions, particularly as to extent and degree of regulation, the general consensus is in favour of registration of engineers. But whose pocket does it hit?