ECITB Project Management Active Cup

Now in its 28th year, the ACTIVE Cup* is part of the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board's (ECITB) wider project management training programmes aimed at enhancing project delivery skills within the engineering construction industry.

Competing against Aker, Hitachi, Schlumberger, ODE, EDF, Wood, Subsea 7, and Costain, the Genesis and T.EN UKOC team went head-to-head in the annual Active Cup competition.  This highly time-pressured project management simulation, run by Cranfield University School of Management, takes place over 3 days and teams are assessed against 8 ACTIVE principles:

1. Effective Project Concept and Definition
2. Effective Project Team Management
3. Effective Supply Chain Relationships
4. Effective Information Management and Communication
5. Effective Project Risk Management
6. Effective Innovation and Continuous Improvement
7. Effective Performance Management

The scoring is not just on the project delivery against the original forecast, it is also based on the ACTIVE principles, and as a team, they were very consistent across those principles the entire weekend. 

It’s an intense learning experience and a snapshot of the key learnings includes:

• The importance of a good strategy and not deviating from it – making sure the plan is shared across all project members to get the buy-in and understanding of the big picture
• An appreciation of the overall impact of decisions.  When you are asking for information from others, provide context to explain why you need it and how it impacts the project
• We are usually so far removed from the big picture, and now understand the knock-on effect across a project of making changes
• Understand far more the financing aspects of a whole project as never see this in the day-to-day job
• An appreciation of the role of a Project Manager and how they have to manage the bigger picture, vs. in the day job as an engineer you can only see one small part of it.

*ACTIVE (Achieving Competitiveness Through Innovation and Value Enhancement) is a European Construction Institute industry led initiative owned by 50+ stakeholder companies from operators, contractors and suppliers who published the ACTIVE principles to support a foundation for an industry culture characterised by co-operation, trust and commercial efficiency.