Value management on megaprojects ft. Karlene Agard
If you’ve ever heard the term ‘value engineering’ and instantly thought ‘cost cutting’, Karlene Agard is here to change your mind. Karlene works in risk and value management for megaprojects, making sure organisations optimise both the financial and non-financial benefits of investment in major projects.
Misconceptions can be a big problem for value management professionals but with between 70 and 90 per cent of megaprojects running over time and over budget, their work has never been more important.
In this podcast, Karlene shares her secrets for saving time and money without compromising results.
Points raised in this podcast:
- Value management is not just about cost cutting – but about reducing the cost without reducing the value.
- Value management centres on getting the most functionality from the resources you already have.
- With the emergence of more and more megaprojects, value management has become more important.
- Organisations want to make more use of the resources they have and ensure they are investing wisely.
- Value management can make the most impact at the beginning of the project. This is when you can be free and innovative in your thinking before you start to look at the feasibility of your ideas.
- Value management can also be used in retrospect by measuring how resources were used and how they could have been used better.
- Keeping your resources focused on achieving the intended outcome is crucial.
- Value management professionals must understand the power levels, interest levels and expectations of different stakeholders.
- It’s important to have a clear understanding of your intended outcomes and use them to inform your choices.
About Karlene Agard:
Karlene Agard is Director and Senior Risk and Value Management Consultant for Aravun, helping project teams direct megaprojects using risk and value management. She has extensive experience in the transport sector, having worked on several multi-million and multi-billion pound projects, including Thameslink and Crossrail 2.
She is on the steering committee for the Institute of Risk Management Risk Agenda 2025 and the Value Management Committee within the APM. She has a Bachelor of Engineering, Engineering Business Management from the University of Warwick.