The long view

The National Nuclear Laboratory has undergone an impressive journey from research department to stand-alone business. At the heart of this transformation is excellent project management capability. Tim Tinsley explains.

The history of the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) has its roots around 1996 when various research departments were brought together from within BNFL and formed into a Research and Technology Division. At this time the project management of the various projects was sporadic, variable and non-uniform. Most of the work undertaken was for other departments within BNFL, and only the larger engineering type projects had any form of modern project management approach.

Over the next seven years the division started to bring together the various ways of managing projects and started to apply some project management to most projects. However, it was not until 2003 when the department started to separate from BNFL, changing its identity to Nuclear Science and Technology Services, that project management within the newly formed business started to become the capability that is recognisable today.

Standardisation

The establishment of a project management team has provided NNL with the opportunity to standardise its approach to project management and to raise the overall standard. The approach taken was to address this on three levels: training and experience, tools and techniques, and process and procedures.

Specific training and experience requirements were established for each of the roles within the team, including standardising on the APMP qualification for basic project management skills along with IOSH training to cover specific safety accountabilities. To develop the individuals further and provide the experience part of SQEP, on the job type training was also included, ranging from mentoring by experienced project managers through to secondments into other parts of the business to help develop wider awareness.

The business had, over a number of years, developed a number of supporting project management tools. Some had been inherited from BNFL; others had grown from pockets within the business. The decision was made to standardise the use of project management software and to use systems that fitted the new business better. This included changing to a financial management system suited to the size of the business and the move to a fully integrated Enterprise Project Management system.

By moving to these tools, additional benefits were realised in terms of standardising the approach to the estimating of projects, the monthly process of financial and progress reports, and the real-time tracking of variances. In addition clear responsibility was given to the project team for the delivery of projects to cost and performance to the bottom line.

To support the matrix style organisation and the establishment of the project management team, a number of new processes and procedures had to be developed and embedded within the organisation. These were important for two reasons, first to ensure that everyone in the organisation knew what they and others should do and second to ensure that legal requirements are complied with.

(Above - Research and development works)

Challenges

The NNL is in a unique position, operating as a business on a number of nuclear licence sites which are owned by different companies. This creates a number of unique challenges with respect to the command and control of work on and off the site and compliance with regulators, including Nuclear Installation Inspectorate requirements. The new processes and procedures established the responsibilities and accountabilities within the organisation for the delivery of work in these situations.

These, along with other associated developments, have enabled the business to achieve a track record of high quality delivery to customers, a sustained financial performance, and a consistence of approach.

Another highly challenging aspect for project management within the NNL is the huge diversity of different project types delivered on behalf of customers. These cover anything from:

• Five+ year multi country EU funded fundamental research
• Large scale industry process development
• Pilot plant operation
• Laboratory scale research
• Plant construction & modification
• Expert technical advice
• Customer plant interventions

Whilst a standardised approach brings a great range of benefits, it also has a tendency to provide unnecessary constraints when one size does not actually fit all. The project management team, and indeed the business, therefore uses a flexible fit for purpose approach to its processes to achieve the best overall outcome.

Technical content

For a significant amount of the customer work undertaken by the NNL, the technical content and expertise required is highly specialised and focused onto specific needs. To yield the best value (financial and technical) for the customers, the NNL uses a type of technical programme management, grouping customer work into technical programmes of work and then managing as a collective for individual technical programme areas. Normal project management performance measures are utilised to manage the technical programme and monitor variance. All individual projects have fit for purpose baseline project plans. These are used to provide, where appropriate, variance analysis data to control and monitor performance at the individual project level.

This type of technical programme management is used by the NNL to co-ordinate , organise, and manage a collective of technical projects and activities, with the objective to yield an output greater than the combined value of individual projects. The technical programme is more than a disparate collection of projects acting independently. It is the co-ordination of project inputs and outputs, the creation of cross-cutting technical development activities, and the definition of high level strategic objectives. It also provides an environment in which to help the customer make selections of the most appropriate individual projects in which to invest and the direction of shared resources to achieve optimised technical benefit.

A technical programme management system provides a wide range of benefits. These include: 

• Maximising the benefits from projects and activities.
• Clear flow through of objectives from strategic need to individual project deliverables.
• Minimisation of rework through the control of technical data and information.
• A clear, common and effective delivery infrastructure across all the projects.
• Identification of strategically important key technical activities.
• Ensuring evolving technical needs are controlled and managed with alignment to overall strategic need.
• Prioritisation of shared and scarce technical resources.
• Identification of key technical risks.

Future objectives

The journey the NNL has taken, from its early days as a research department into the business it is now, has been supported by wholesale changes to the approach taken by the business to project management. This has been achieved through the development of a trained and experienced team, the creation of appropriate tools and techniques, and the alignment of the business to focus on customer delivery.

However the next part of the journey is only just beginning. HM Government has set clear objectives for the NNL going forward, becoming a sustainable international centre of excellence in nuclear research and development, playing a vital role in cleaning up both the UKs nuclear waste legacy, and also contributing to the programme of nuclear new build.

The future for the NNL will be both challenging and exciting, with real opportunity to continue the success achieved so far. Project management will be an essential element to help the NNL deliver this success.

• Tim Tinsley, FAPM, is a senior project manager for the National Nuclear Laboratory in the UK. He is a Chartered chemical engineer and a fellow of the IChemE

Timeline

1996 BNFL merges research departments to form Research adn Technology division.

2003 Seperates from BNFL to form Nuclear Science and Technology service (NSTS).

2005 Achieves subsidiary status with the launch of Nexia Solutions.

2009 Awarded Government Owned Contractor Operated (GOCO) contract for operation of National Nuclear Laboratory.

Lessons learned:

• Nothing stays the same for long. Make sure any project management tools or processes are flexible and ready to adapt to change.
• The balance between fit for purpose and standardisation needs to be considered.
• Project management tools are near useless without proper training and experience in place.
• Roles and responsibilities are important be clear who does what.
• Just because the software can do it does not mean you need it. Also, if the software cant do what you want, just be sure you do actually need it.
• People manage projects and they need time to do this.