Blame culture a barrier to learning in complex engineering projects

A green paper released by Engineers Australia has revealed that, in some sectors, up to 75% of complex projects with budgets greater than $500 million fail.

The paper ‘Mastering Complex Projects’, which will be reviewed at the Mastering Complex Projects conference as part of Engineers Australia’s Convention 2014, defines failure as exceeding the original budgeted cost or program by 25%, or having significant production problems in year two of operation.

“The past decade has seen the rise of multibillion-dollar complex projects with such poor track records for completion on time and on budget that they are threatening Australia’s reputation for reliable construction. This is an issue that cannot be ignored,” said Nolan Bear, chair of the Mastering Complex Projects conference.

Projects may fail through inadequate communication between stakeholders and participants, critical skill and knowledge gaps for key personnel, or poor conceptual planning. The ineffective transfer of lessons learnt between similar projects is another reason for failure.

“The adversarial relationships and blame culture at the close of projects keeps us from talking about what went wrong and how we can improve,” Bear says.

Factors highlighted by the paper include the need to identify and resolve potential ‘show stoppers’ - risks that can cause project termination - at the start of the project, and to make allowances for unexpected risks in the schedule and budget. The need for reliable project control systems with the capacity to support project complexity is also flagged.

After discussion and review at the conference, a white paper will be released to inform professional engineers, project managers and project clients.