APM Corporate ACCREDITATION CASE STUDY Introduction Amec Foster Wheeler is one of the worlds leading engineering, project

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APM Corporate

ACCREDITATION

CASE STUDY

Introduction

Amec Foster Wheeler is one of the world’s leading engineering, project management and consultancy companies. It has customers in more than 50 countries working in the oil and gas, mining, clean energy, environment and infrastructure markets.

The company designs, delivers and maintains strategic assets for its customers, offering services that extend from environmental and front-end engineering design before the start of a project, to decommissioning at the end of an asset’s lifecycle.

Its aim is to create a successful, sustainable company for
the long term and is proud of its core values: delivering on promises; developing full potential; and doing the right thing.

Amec Foster Wheeler employs over 40,000 exceptionally talented people around the world – ranging from scientists and environmental consultants to engineers and project managers.

The company has signed up to a call for action in the UK government’s campaign promoting diversity through a greater participation in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), especially among women.

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ACCREDITATION

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Comprehensive, consistent delivery
Amec Foster Wheeler has been providing project management services for decades and has developed
and refined state-of-the-art systems, procedures and specifications for the management and control of engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of process and industrial facilities worldwide.

The company has a common approach to project management. It combines an assurance framework for project delivery with access to a comprehensive reference framework of guidance, tools and best practice examples.

It is part of a fully interfaced set of work processes that set out the ‘Amec Foster Wheeler Way’ of working to complete successful delivery of all projects, every time.

Aspiring to consistent excellence, our Amec Foster Wheeler Project Delivery team ensures recognisable, best in class, repeatable and predictable performance across projects.”

Jim Lenton,

Project Delivery Director

This project delivery policy is applied and governed throughout the company. In Europe, the group president takes ultimate accountability to ensure that all employees within the business are developed and the Europe technical director is responsible for ensuring that all project managers are competent.

There is a global project categorisation procedure that is used on all projects to identify the level of governance required and also to provide guidance on the calibre of individuals to lead, manage, review and execute projects.

The overarching standards of competency are aligned to the International Project Management Association (IPMA) levels. In Europe, the Association for Project Management (APM), as a leading member of IPMA, is the defining body for standards, professionalism, processes and competencies.

The common project delivery lifecycle includes APM definitions for complex projects and the 17 mandatory elements for project management as defined in the APM Body of Knowledge 5th Edition. Amec Foster Wheeler’s own management system portal, iMap, gives hyperlink access to all relevant processes.

As with all employees across the company, those working for Amec Foster Wheeler have access to the Amec Foster Wheeler Academy, which helps to attract, develop and retain the best talent, with career paths designed
to provide a clear structure for career development and personal growth with a common approach.

CASE STUDY

Hunterston Nuclear Power Station. Image courtesy of EDF Energy.

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ACCREDITATION

Delivering the future

The vision of the Amec Foster Wheeler Academy for 2015 and beyond is to lead individual career and team development to meet the challenges of the future vision and aspirations of the global business through the four key strands of achieving, improving, growing and collaborating.

Career paths allows an individual to assess their current capabilities against Amec Foster Wheeler requirements for a specific role. This might be their current role or a
role they aspire to for the future. It helps to ensure that people receive the development they need in line with the requirements of the business.

For project managers, the self-assessment enables them to record their skills against each of the APM-based capabilities. Scoring both knowledge and experience, Amec Foster Wheeler has created its own competency checks and has

a Competence Assurance System. All the technical project management competencies are based on APM competencies and Amec Foster Wheeler has added some contextual competencies and also the Amec Foster Wheeler core behavioural competencies.

This self-profile reflects the level at which the individual is able and equipped to operate, helps to inform the personal development review (PDR) process and clearly maps out where they are going and what they need to get there with support from line managers, mentors, coaches, courses

and training programmes. The career path tool for project professionals ranges from guidance for those just starting out right up to the top levels of project and programme management, with an active coaching scheme to help early career path professionals to achieve their ambitions.

All of Amec Foster Wheeler’s project management development programmes are co-designed, co-facilitated and delivered by three APM accredited training providers – 20 I 20 Business Insight, Future Learning Systems

Trawsfynnyd Nuclear Power Station. Image courtesy of Magnox.

and Cranfield University – with rigorous technical and commercial evaluations and reviews. Amec Foster Wheeler always has an Amec Foster Wheeler SME at each programme, as well as the third party provider. The Amec Foster Wheeler programme is delivered totally by Amec Foster Wheeler subject matter experts.

The APM Body of Knowledge is available for all
Amec Foster Wheeler employees on the intranet for reference and guidance for delivery of projects. To ensure consistency in approach across the Amec Foster Wheeler business, employees are trained and offered experiential opportunities to enable them to develop themselves and achieve APM accreditations, notably the APM Introductory Certificate, APMP and APM Practitioner Qualification.

Employees are invited to submit a business case and commitment if they wish to take on experiential learning, and of course there is not a ‘bottomless pit’ for training costs and people have to compete for places. The business takes an overview on all training objectives and budget.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is encouraged and objectives discussed as part of the PDR process to ensure that people can deliver projects in a safe and timely manner and to budget. Attending CPD events during the working day is encouraged as long as there is a business or personal benefit to be gained.

Amec Foster Wheeler has a monthly project management forum held in various locations around Europe where local project managers can present
their work to the lead team. There are also lunch and learn sessions, giving early career path professionals
the opportunity to deliver a topic or interest across the business. The Amec Foster Wheeler intranet site hosts project management web pages with direct links to IPMA and APM.

CASE STUDY

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Client testimonial

“It’s always good practice to benchmark your capabilities against industry standards, and we’ve recently worked with Amec Foster Wheeler to benchmark our project management standards against Amec Foster Wheeler’s as a reputable project management company. This is standard industry practice and something that can help us to constantly develop our own project management capabilities.

“We worked with Amec Foster Wheeler’s Learning and Development team who were very practical and came
up with a bespoke process supporting delivery of the Magnox project management development programme. Their support was very proactive and flexible to suit our needs. Throughout, Amec Foster Wheeler has had an exceptional customer focus, which made it a pleasure to work with them. Many of the Magnox people involved

in this development programme were interacting with an external project delivery company for the first time. As such, they needed to build confidence and trust with the Amec Foster Wheeler Learning and Development team. The understanding of this issue, and the subsequent empathy shown by the Amec Foster Wheeler Learning and Development team, resulted in communications between teams being fluid, which led to great productivity.

“What’s more, the Learning and Development team was able to get a full understanding of our needs and it meant that we built up a really good relationship with them.

“As a result of this collaborative working, we were able to benchmark with ‘the outside world’. I have since seen a huge uplift in confidence within the Magnox teams as they now realise that they are competing on the same playing field. Walls of inhibition have been broken down and it has led to a much greater openness within our delivery, enabling further sharing of best practices. This can only result in more effective efficiency in our delivery.”

Peter Allen, Magnox

APM Corporate

ACCREDITATION

Association for Project Management and Amec Foster Wheeler
Amec Foster Wheeler is a corporate member of APM and encourages and funds its employees to become individual members. There are currently 458 members of APM within Amec Foster Wheeler.

The APM Body of Knowledge and APM Competence Framework play a major part in the company’s structure, processes and practices for project delivery and the association’s qualifications are seen as key steps on a professional’s career path.

In the past three years, 115 people have passed the APMP exam with seven more achieving APM Practitioner level. The company is now looking to record its first APM Registered Project Professionals.

Amec Foster Wheeler is actively involved in APM activities and regularly attends the quarterly corporate members’ leadership team meetings.

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APM accreditation is an achievement that Amec Foster Wheeler is extremely proud of. The Amec Foster Wheeler Project Management career path and associated competencies were aligned to APM attributes in 2008. We developed the Amec Foster Wheeler Academy in 2009, and have been adding

a range of programmes and developmental steps since then.

“Most importantly, our key account customers also recognise the importance of project management accreditations, and this independent assessment by APM shows that

we truly are above the industry benchmark for project management skills development.

“This is also extremely important to us in times when the company is growing and we want to attract the best people.”

Adrian Fenton,

Head of Project Management Function, Clean Energy Europe

CASE STUDY

Association for Project Management

Ibis House, Regent Park Summerleys Road
Princes Risborough Buckinghamshire HP27 9LE

Telephone Facsimile Email Web

+44 (0) 845 458 1944 +44 (0) 845 458 8807 info@apm.org.uk apm.org.uk

APM Corporate Accreditation

APM Corporate Accreditation will help you stand out as
an exemplar in the development of project management professionals. It provides assurances to your customers and suppliers and allows you to attract and retain the best project management talent in the country.

APM Corporate Accreditation recognises the commitment of organisations and professional development services to the defined APM FIVE Dimensions of Professionalism, each of which is supported by an APM standard:

Breadth

The APM Body of Knowledge defines the knowledge needed to manage any kind of project. It underpins many project management standards and methods including the National Occupational Standard in Project Management.

Depth

The APM Competence Framework provides a guide to project management competences. It is part of your professional toolkit; mapping levels of knowledge and experience to help you progress your skills and abilities.

Achievement

APM qualifications take your career in new and exciting directions. They are recognised across the profession and aligned with IPMA’s 4 level Certification Program.

Commitment

Continuing Professional Development helps develop your project management practice. A targeted development plan will enhance your project management career.

Accountability

The APM Code of Professional Conduct outlines the ethical practice expected of a professional. Becoming an APM member shows your commitment to the Code and sets you apart from others.

BRO9610115

Context:

A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to provide an expected and beneficial outcome. A project life cycle is the series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure. Project goals should align with organisational goals such as improved operations or increased revenues, reducing costs or improving efficiencies.

Before resources can be committed to a project, the reason for its proposal and the benefits it is expected to deliver need to be understood by people in positions empowered to make decisions about the expenditure of an organisation's resources. The selection of organisational projects is typically performed through a method of classification and review of the project’s business case. That method of course should be applied consistently to all project proposals.

PROJ6000_assessment 2 brief_29022020

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Instructions:

For this assessment, you research different methods of selecting projects and examine the initiation process. You also consider the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide and, more specifically, explore the initiation documents.

Assessment 2: Project Selection Methods and Initiation Documents (35%)

In essay writing, use the given/approved project throughout this assessment.

Note: Master of Business Information Systems students must use an IT project as an example in this assessment.

As you have discovered in your learning resources, examine project selection methods that can be applied appropriately to the given project and processes to conduct these methods. Consider the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and describe the initial process group and project documents that are created or used as inputs for a new project.

Your assessment should contain 1500 words.