ICCPM Webinar
Tuesday 10 September 2024
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM AEST
Online
Alex Walsh
Chief Nuclear and Capability Officer, ASC
Portfolio, Program and Project Management is the discipline of selection, prioritisation and control of an organisations programs and projects to meet the organisational strategic objectives.
The availability of key resources should restrict the choice of preferred programs and projects but too often management overcommit resources and the result is portfolio delivery underperformance. Critical resources come in many forms, they can be physical, financial, human or the intellectual bandwidth to manage complexity in change.
The Cynefin Matrix will be used to consider the characteristics of Portfolio’s Programs and Projects that deliver strategy in a complex environment. Consideration of the POTI (Process, Organisation, Technology and Information) in each quadrant of the matrix can help understanding of the different leadership, culture and governance systems required in Programs and Projects.
The discussion will then move on to discuss some useful tools for managing complexity while encouraging timely decision making and risk management. This will include Decision Calendars, the management of Optimism Bias, Modularisation to reduce complexity and Project Scope and Baseline Management.
Alex Walsh is a degree qualified nuclear engineer who brings close to 40 years’ experience in the nuclear submarine and power sectors to his role heading ASC’s submarine engineering capability.
Alex joined ASC in January 2022 from Sellafield Limited, the UK government entity that manages its Sellafield nuclear site. He commenced with Sellafield as Executive Project Manager leading a complex nuclear project, before moving on to other leadership roles ahead of his most recent role, as Head of Planning Implementation.
With senior expertise in engineering, project management and managing nuclear commissioning, safety and licencing, Alex has worked in the UK, France and Australia. At BAE Systems his roles included Head of Nuclear Construction (leading the team constructing the Astute reactors) and Head of Nuclear Safety Engineering (leading nuclear authorisation and the safety case for Astute fuelling, commissioning and power range testing).
Most notably, he is a former Head of Nuclear Construction at BAE Systems UK, in which capacity he led the team that built the nuclear reactors still powering the Royal Navy’s Astute-class submarines.
He also spent time as BAE UK’s Head of Nuclear Safety Engineering, with responsibility for leading nuclear authorisation, and ensuring safe Astute-class fuelling, commissioning and power range testing.