Maasvlakte 2 Project in the Netherlands receives Level 3 Maturity Award
29th June 2011, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK… APMG-International is delighted to confirm the Maasvlakte 2 project - the largest reclamation project within Europe - has achieved a Level 3 Maturity Award. The Award is an independent verification that the organization has repeatable and consistent processes, and is only achieved by those organizations whose project management capabilities are well defined.
Mr Frank Hoevenaars, Director, Project Control, Maasvlakte 2, said, “Project Maasvlakte 2 is at this moment the largest and most important infrastructure project in the Netherlands. The extension of the existing Port of Rotterdam amounts to 20%. Now we are almost half way through the first phase of the project, we are very pleased to be within budget and on time and also to have reached the required quality level.”
Hoevenaars said the organization had utilized the Best Practice Methodology PRINCE2® to help keep the project on track. “Project Maasvlakte 2 asked for a business justification, a well controlled scope which was relatively easy to implement and a method that could be audited. As a project management method, PRINCE2 fitted all these requirements.”
Hoevenaars explained that his responsibilities in the Maasvlakte 2 project - alongside two other members of the management team - include project control, overall planning, risk management, quality management, development of the business case and some administrative tasks.
“The project now is in the execution phase,” he said. “The main focus is on planning and budgeting especially because we are spending more than one million Euros a day”. Before this phase we put a lot of effort into preparation and gaining the necessary permits and licences to start the project. We have improved from Level 2 Maturity gained in 2007 to level 3 Maturity now in 2011. The improvements were mainly achieved by enhancing processes and scope management, installing a review team, professionalizing quality management and improving the project documentation of “interface” projects. These projects consists of building all the connections, junctions - rail, road, and public utilities between Maasvlakte 1 and 2.”
About the maturity assessment
P3M3 (the updated second version of the Office of Government Commerce's Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management Maturity Model) helps organizations address fundamental aspects of managing portfolios, programmes and projects; it improves the likelihood of a quality result and successful outcome and reduces the likelihood of risks impacting projects adversely.
P3M3 describes the portfolio, programme and project-related activities that contribute to achieving a successful project outcome. It recognizes not only the programme and project management activities being carried out at the individual programme and project level, but also those activities within an organization that provide focus and help sustain effort to build an infrastructure of effective programme and project approaches and management practices.
A level 3 organization like Maasvlakte 2 uses a defined standard set of processes for all its projects, programmes and the portfolio. These can be flexed on certain projects where necessary and sensible. This will tend to ensure that more of its projects are likely to be successful in both delivering the required outputs and achieving the desired outcomes.
Alan Harpham, Chairman, APMG, said, “Organizations undertaking P3M3 assessments are moving beyond an assessment of their capability based upon budgetary effectiveness and holistically looking at their processes for maximum efficiency, effectiveness and stakeholder service. When they have a P3M3 assessment, they are exposing their processes to a rigorous scrutiny. Any organization which wants to improve can benefit from the application of the model, and I am delighted for the Maasvlakte2 project that it achieved a Level 3 Score.”
Explaining why Maasvlakte 2 underwent the assessment, Hoevenaars explained, “One of our cultural goals is a continuous process of improvement. Each audit or maturity assessment is accompanied by a set of improvement measures. Following up on these improvement measures enabled us to achieve a higher performance level. Furthermore, it enables us to focus on the right things and deliver higher quality.”
Another benefit has been to give employees the tools and procedures they need to carry out their roles in a structured and disciplined way. P3M3 facilitates decision making processes and enables teams to assess lessons learned.
Maasvlakte 2 worked with Accredited Consulting Organization the Ambition Group. The Ambition Group has been tracking the progress of the organization through regular maturity assessments over the last few years.
Hoevenaars said: “Our accredited consultant, Richard Moret from the Ambition Group, is able to view our work impartially. He proved to be a good ‘sparring partner’ - a person who can make us think about issues in a different way. Both roles are important to ensure we achieve the main goals of our project and give us direction. So far, I am delighted to say that our hopes and expectations for improvement have been realized.”
He advised any organization hoping to do well in a maturity assessment to put a lot of efforts into preparation of the project in terms of human resources, preconditions, and processes. Then, he said, you should choose the right project management method which will help you achieve your main goals.
ENDS
About Maasvlakte 2
The port of Rotterdam is expanding into the North Sea. Maasvlakte 2 which involves the creation of a new world-class port and industrial area. Together with this economic impulse, the quality of the region’s social environment will also receive a strong boost.
The updated second version of the Office of Government Commerce's Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3) was released in June 2008, with a further update, version 2.1, being released in February 2010. The first version was released in early 2006 and was developed as an enhancement to the Project Management Maturity Model.
The current version takes into account the maturing knowledge of programme management, and the evolving recognition and definition of portfolio management, across a number of industry sectors. It is fully compatible with the earlier version, so organizations that have already undertaken P3M3 assessments based on the first version will see the impact of their existing improvement plans reflected in future assessments made under the revised model.
The latest version of the model can be downloaded here.
Further information:
Press Contact:
Kate Winter
kate.winter@apmgroup.co.uk
