ESI to hold seminar on how to turn around 'troubled' projects

"With budgets squeezed ever tighter and deadlines being pushed, project managers have to cut down on the unexpected surprises which put projects at risk," said Raed S. Haddad, Senior Vice President of Global Delivery Services at ESI International.

Illustrating the scale of the task, Haddad cited a recent report by research house Proleads Global showing more than $200bn worth of projects on hold or cancelled in Gulf Arab countries in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors.

Haddad will be delivering free breakfast seminars on Sunday 8 November 2009, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Doha; on Tuesday 10 November in Cairo at the Holiday Inn CityStars; and on Wednesday 11 November 2009 at the Abu Dhabi Crowne Plaza during a Project Management Institute dinner.

Haddad, an internationally renowned project management expert, will present the top best practices in the areas of risk identification, risk analysis, risk mitigation, and risk evaluation and knowledge management in a presentation on 'Root Causes for Project Failure - How to Leverage Risk Management Best Practices for Better Project Outcomes.'

"There is no shortage of literature documenting project failure rates. With success rates only around 40-50% there is certainly plenty of room for improvement. To be sure, studies have shown that using a structured risk management approach can improve project success and reduce sub-par performance. In a highly competitive business world, unrecognised, unplanned for, and unmitigated risks could sink a project, a company, or even a career," Haddad said.

Using results from ESI International's recent survey in the Middle East on Project Management Success and Failure Reasons, Haddad will also provide an insight into the current challenges and how they differ from has been seen on a global basis. In addition, he will highlight best practices on how to turn a 'troubled' project around and present the top five tactical recommendations on how to make better and faster decisions to help implement risk management.