Episode Overview
Without the right people, the best plan fails, so plan the people first. Ahmed AbdelSalam, a senior PMO and project-controls leader who has spent the past decade on the owner’s-rep side of multi-billion-dollar programs across life sciences, healthcare and technology, walks Orion through how he actually does it: building a resource plan from strategy down to RACI, surviving a brutal talent market, standing up a PMO in 90 days, and why his PhD research says career growth, not compensation, is what keeps project people on board.
People are the plan
“When we say resources, it’s us, the people. We are the number one resource for the project.” Plan them badly and the project goes south; plan them well and you’ve bought time, budget and risk cover.
Ten years on the owner’s-rep side
Structural engineer → Purdue PhD → four years running program controls on Microsoft’s Redmond campus program → life-science and healthcare programs on the West Coast. He’s sat on every side of the table.
Career growth beats pay
His PhD survey work across three international companies found the #1 thing construction employees want isn’t money: it’s career growth. The episode keeps coming back to it.
Quotes are transcribed from the released episode and lightly condensed for readability (false starts and fillers removed, meaning untouched); timestamps are approximate (~M:SS). Biographical facts come from the on-air introduction, Ahmed’s own on-the-record account, and the episode’s prep materials. No other sources. Ahmed speaks in a personal capacity, not for any employer or client. Banner photos: Microsoft’s Redmond campus (2009 aerial, public domain; 2021 redevelopment aerial, CC BY-SA 2.0); full credits at the end of this page.
Episode Timeline
The conversation as it unfolds: eight chapters across 69 minutes, following the show’s four-act arc. The strip maps each chapter’s share of the runtime; timestamps are approximate. Click any block to jump to its chapter.
The PMO chapter is the centerpiece (19 minutes, the longest stretch of the episode), with the advice and wrap-up landing as a compact close.
The Road In: Redmond & a PhD
Cold open, the guest intro, Ahmed’s path from structural engineering to Microsoft’s campus program, and the PhD that keeps resurfacing.
Resource Planning 101
The definition, the step-by-step, insource vs outsource, one-way vs two-way doors, and the closeout-attrition trap.
The Talent Gauntlet
Owner team vs site manpower, the industry’s #1 challenge, paying for the best, remote work, and the visa wall.
AI: Amplifier, Not Replacement
What AI already does in project controls, what’s still missing, and why the human factor stays in the loop.
Sourcing & the Interview Filter
Two to three candidate interviews a day, a talent database in his back pocket, and the red flags that matter.
The Modern PMO: Three Shapes
Advisory, supporting, controlling, plus RACI, buy-in, the first 90 days, and the full function roster.
Standardize, Then Tell the Truth
Six PMs doing their own thing, radical transparency with clients, and how to actually find the truth on a project.
Advice & the Career-Growth Finding
Keep learning, pick employers who invest in you, the two takeaway tips, and the PhD’s surprise ending.
Who carried the mic
Measured across the full transcript: a strongly guest-forward episode, with Orion mostly steering and summarizing.
The Guest · Ahmed AbdelSalam
Ahmed is a senior PMO and project-controls leader with over a decade delivering large-scale capital projects across healthcare, life sciences and technology. Trained as a structural engineer (BSc and MSc in civil engineering, Cairo University), he began his career designing concrete and steel structures in Cairo, shifted into construction management, earned a PhD in Construction Engineering & Management from Purdue University (2015–2018), and added MRICS and the PMP along the way. He has held director-level roles at Turner & Townsend, Cumming Group, EXP and CBRE: from cost manager on Microsoft’s Puget Sound capital portfolio and four years running program controls on the Redmond campus program, to project controls on a $1B+ life-science R&D program in San Diego and the PMO for a healthcare construction program totaling nearly $1B in Southern California. Today, based in Irvine, California, he leads Turner & Townsend’s West Coast life-sciences sector, currently heading the PMO and integrated program controls for a $25B hyperscale data-center program in Texas, with earlier-career international experience in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
“In our world, when we say resources, it’s us, the people. We are the number one resource for the project.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · on the show, ~6:20
The road, as he tells it
Started as a structural engineer, then crossed to the contractor, subcontractor and client sides before settling on the owner’s-rep seat.
Focused on the cost side of the business; thesis split between corporate social responsibility and employee performance.
“I was a little bit lucky”: straight out of the PhD, an offer to run cost on Microsoft’s capital-planning portfolio in Redmond, Washington.
Promoted onto the multi-billion-dollar campus modernization: different PM teams, different contractors, the program-management seat where he says he learned the most.
As Redmond ramped down, a move to Southern California to lead project controls for a major life-science R&D program.
Back with CBRE (the team that became Turner & Townsend’s CBRE legacy group) to lead the PMO for a healthcare program totaling nearly a billion dollars.
Driving life-science projects on the West Coast and supporting mega construction projects across the US.
Path and durations above as stated on the record and in the on-air introduction. The dated timeline below is from Ahmed’s LinkedIn profile.
Career journey
Employers, titles and dates from the guest’s LinkedIn profile (bands rounded to half-years).
The résumé · on-air intro + LinkedIn
- Roles
- Director-level roles at Turner & Townsend, Cumming Group, EXP and CBRE, overseeing multi-billion-dollar programs for Fortune 500 clients and leading teams across the US.
- Sectors
- Healthcare, life sciences and technology; governance frameworks, cost-management SOPs and operational efficiency across complex programs.
- Credentials
- PhD, Construction Engineering & Management (Purdue, 2015–2018) · MRICS · PMP · OSHA 30 · Certificate in Quantity Surveying Practice · BSc/MSc Civil Engineering (Cairo University).
The thesis & the network
- PhD research
- Two parts (corporate social responsibility, and employee performance): surveys across three top international companies on what construction employees actually value. The winner: career growth. ~1:07
- The habit
- Interviews two to three candidates a day even without an open role, keeping his own talent database: “when the opportunity comes, I have my list.” ~28:50
- Find him
- LinkedIn: /in/ahmed-abdelsalam-01368b49 · “I always accept new invites and respond to people.”
The Host · Orion Matthews
Orion is an award-winning programmer, entrepreneur and technology executive who has spent the last decade in the engine room of major capital projects. He founded Queryon in Washington, D.C. in 2015 with a focus on data analytics and software for the construction industry, starting with bellwether client BP, whose project-controls solutions his team deployed globally, from the North Sea to Azerbaijan to Houston. Today he's a recognized expert in PMO data analytics and project-controls reporting, serving billion-dollar portfolios for owners including BP, Santos, Balfour Beatty and Turner & Townsend, a regular speaker at major industry conferences on AI and analytics in capital projects, and the host of this show.
Why this pairing works
- The data seat
- Ahmed calls his data-and-analytics hire “my key person on the PMO”: the one who configures the PMIS, sets permissions and builds the dashboards. That seat is exactly what Orion builds tooling for on billion-dollar portfolios.
- AI, soberly
- Both land in the same place on AI: a productivity amplifier, not a headcount replacement: Ahmed from the staffing trenches, Orion from the reporting stack.
Beyond the PMO
- The builder’s arc
- Founded Introspect Software out of high school; built and sold Design-PT (acquired 2015). His software has run from McMurdo Station to aircraft carriers, with write-ups in Scientific American, CNN and Maxim, and a BP Helios Award.
- The Amazon one-way / two-way door framework, applied to insource-vs-outsource: is that strategy call reversible once you’re in execution? ~10:50
- “If all your employees are 500% more productive because of AI, why would you fire them?” (his standing confusion about AI layoffs). ~25:40
- An observation from across the series: project-controls professionals aren’t complainers, and maybe complaining means you’ve lost the plot. ~32:20
- The synthesis riff: advise is “the town scribe,” support is the integrated model, control is the accountability structure. ~41:30
- “You are the speed of transparency and disclosure”: a PMO that’s working brings you news you didn’t want to hear. ~56:50
The Road In: Redmond & a PhD
A short cold open from the booth sets up the two threads the episode braids together: running multi-billion-dollar campus programs, and a PhD about what makes project people perform. Then Orion’s intro lands the résumé, and Ahmed tells the story himself: engineer, contractor, subcontractor, client, and, for the past decade, the owner’s rep.
“I’ve been on all sides of the table: the engineering side, the contractor side, the subcontractor side, a little bit on the client side. But for the past decade I’ve been on the owner’s-rep side… I advise clients, I act on their behalf, I support their decisions. I like being on this side.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~2:40
The lucky break that wasn’t luck
“After my PhD, I received an offer from CBRE to be the cost manager for the Microsoft portfolio in Redmond, Washington… then I got promoted. I was the program controls manager for this campus for four years.” A PhD, RICS and PMP tend to make their own luck. ~3:20
The thesis that keeps coming back
“It was split into two parts. The first was corporate social responsibility; the other was the performance of employees: how corporates give back to the community and to their employees, to enhance their performance and make their people happy.” ~5:20
- The on-air intro: director-level roles at Turner & Townsend, Cumming Group, EXP and CBRE; multi-billion-dollar programs for Fortune 500 clients; Saudi Arabia and Egypt earlier in the career. ~1:00
- Structural engineering to construction management: the deliberate shift toward the cost side of the business. ~2:15
- Four years on the Redmond campus program: “very interesting to work with different project management teams, different contractors… I met a lot of people I’m still in contact with.” ~3:50
- Orion’s reaction to the thesis: “You must be a great boss with that background.” ~5:50
Resource Planning 101
Orion asks for the true 101 (what does “resource planning” even encompass?) and Ahmed gives the definition, then the method: size the project, lay out roles and RACI, and make the strategic call (insource, outsource, professional services, managed services) before pre-construction, while the door still swings both ways.
“When we say resources, it’s us, the people. We are the number one resource for the project. We run the project, we manage the project… If you’re not planning your resources correctly, the project would go south.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~6:20
Step one: strategy, not staffing
“Are we going to do it internally? Are we going to outsource a team of experts? Professional services or managed services? It will vary based on project complexity, the type of industry, the internal culture of the client.” Decide the route first; the org chart follows. ~8:20
The question owners forget to ask
“Ask yourself: what would happen after this project? You hire a team of 20 to 30 resources for two or three years. Do you have jobs for them after this project is completed? Will they transfer? Relocate? Will you fire them?” If construction isn’t your business, hire the experts. ~13:40
- The step-by-step: identify project size and complexity → lay out roles, responsibilities and scope → build RACI charts → decide when people are needed → fill gaps internally, by transfer, or by outsourcing a role or the whole function. ~8:50
- Orion imports Amazon’s one-way / two-way door test: is insource-vs-outsource reversible? ~10:50
- Ahmed’s answer: “It’s always flexible at the beginning, and it gets harder as you dive more into the project. Do your due diligence during the planning phase, before pre-construction.” ~12:10
- Cheaper isn’t better: doing it internally may save the outsourcer’s margin, but only if you actually have the talent: “their main business is life science… not real estate.” ~12:40
- The hybrid he recommends: keep an internal high-level director accountable for the portfolio, and have the outsourced expert team report to them. ~16:10
“It happens a lot during the last phase of the project, which is the most important phase, to turn over the building and close it out. People start feeling worried about job insecurity and start looking… when they get the best opportunity, they leave, and then there’s no one to close out the project and turn the building over.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · on closeout attrition, ~15:30
The Talent Gauntlet
First the boundary (site manpower belongs to the general contractor, reviewed through the project execution plan), then the market. Ask any project-controls company their number one challenge, Ahmed says, and the answer is the same everywhere: finding the right talent. What follows is his checklist, gate by gate.
“Go to any project management or project controls company and ask them: what’s your number one challenge? They will tell you finding resources, finding the right talent.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~18:10
Pay for the best: it’s risk money
“I worked with clients that said: if this is the best resource and this is their salary, I’m paying for it. That’s an investment in the project. I’m mitigating risk, finishing on time, within budget. Others say: that’s expensive, find me someone who can do the job, and we accept the risk. I don’t totally agree with that approach.” ~19:20
Remote, by role: judged by deliverables
“If you’re a construction manager, you shouldn’t be doing it remotely: you’re on site day to day. But cost management, scheduling, you can manage remotely… My role is to set clear expectations. If you can do it from anywhere, good; if you can’t, there’s a problem.” ~21:20
- Owner vs GC: site manpower, logistics and safety planning are the general contractor’s resource plan, but the owner reviews it all through the project execution plan before construction. ~16:40
- Gate one: has this person built this thing before? “If I’m building a data center, labs, offices, I want someone who has built it before.” ~18:30
- Gate two, affordability; gate three, location and relocation; gate four, the client’s remote-work culture. ~20:10
- The visa wall: work authorization has become the number-one US screening question: new H-1B application costs and months-long processing mean “if I want someone immediately, will I be able to hire them? Definitely no.” ~22:20
- And after all of it: “Last minute you get a call from the candidate. ‘I got a better offer and I’m going for it.’” ~23:10
The H-1B application fee Ahmed cites, “around, I think, $100K now” (~22:30), is quoted from memory in conversation. Treat it as directional; the policy and fee structure have been moving targets.
AI: Amplifier, Not Replacement
Ahmed steers the conversation to AI himself (it’s already in the reporting, analysis and communication lanes of his world) and draws the line that gives the episode its third act: a tool that lets fewer people run more projects, not a replacement for judgment.
“AI is already here… It’s not really a replacement for judgment. You should always make sense of what you’re seeing; you shouldn’t rely on it a hundred percent. It’s still being matured.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~24:10
What’s missing, and coming
“There should be AI estimating tools: if I want to estimate the cost of a data center, I tell it how I want it structured, and I rely on the estimate. It’s not there yet, but it’s coming. Definitely. Same for baseline schedules.” ~24:40
The layoff logic that doesn’t add up
Orion: “If all your employees are 500% more productive because of AI, why would you fire them? That’s like the worst time.” Ahmed’s corollary: the people who do get replaced are the ones who stopped learning. ~25:40
- Where AI already lives in his world: dashboard and report analysis with summaries and recommendations; drafting communications with Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini. ~23:40
- “Use it as a tool to help us manage more projects with the resources challenge we have today”: the resource-planning tie-in. ~25:20
- The career rule: “If you’re an expert in a specific software that is now outdated, yes, you’re going to get replaced. If you’re learning the latest technology, you’ll be hot on the market.” ~26:00
- The human factor: “I need to validate the information, whether it’s coming from a person or from AI. I don’t rely on one source… AI can document it for me, but someone needs to execute it.” ~27:20
- The honest answer to “most impressive AI you’ve seen in project controls?”: “Not yet… For me, ChatGPT is definitely a game changer. Not a hundred percent reliable, but it does what I need.” Orion: “We haven’t seen the killer app yet. I think it’s coming.” ~28:20
Sourcing & the Interview Filter
How do you actually find these people? Ahmed’s answer is a habit, not a hack: keep a tight network online and off, keep interviewing even without an open role, and keep your own database. Then, in the interview: HR questions first, technical depth second, asked by someone who has personally done the job.
“Even if I don’t have a current role, I try to interview two, three candidates a day… When the opportunity comes, I have my list. I need someone in Boston, someone in Maryland, someone in California, with this qualification. I have it in my back pocket.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~28:50
The filter that can’t be faked
“Because I’ve done it, building the templates, the process, the reports with every function, I know the challenges. Ask those questions and you can easily identify if this person has done it before, or just has general knowledge about the topic.” ~31:40
The red flag: complaints without solutions
“If you’re just complaining because someone is doing something, but you don’t come up with a solution, that’s a red flag… I always try to set up the positive culture: we’re all here to help each other. If there’s a problem, red-flag it and let’s work on it.” ~33:40
- “I’m not saying everyone should be doing this, but HR and talent acquisition teams definitely should always be doing this.” The always-on pipeline, institutionalized. ~29:40
- HR round first (fit, salary range, location, even the family’s view on relocating): “Sometimes, ‘I’m wanting to relocate,’ and then the family: ‘no, we don’t wanna relocate.’” ~30:40
- Multiple technical rounds, never one: “You wouldn’t only have one interview.” ~32:00
- Orion’s series-wide observation (project-controls people aren’t complainers) and Ahmed’s honest caveat: “You can’t identify all of this in a 30-minute interview… it really depends on the leader setting the positive culture.” ~32:20
The Modern PMO: Three Shapes
The episode’s centerpiece: nineteen minutes on what a PMO actually is in 2026. Ahmed’s typology: the advisory PMO (reports and templates, often ignored), the supporting PMO (embedded experts working hand in hand with delivery, his preference), and the controlling PMO (delivery teams report into it: one team answerable for the whole program). Plus RACI, buy-in, the 90-day plan, and the full function roster.
“PMO previously was known as an advisory role, a team responsible for reporting and creating templates, and sometimes no one is even using those templates. I’m not a big fan of that structure… The modern PMO, there are three types: advisory, supporting, and controlling.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~34:50
Why advisory fails
“If I’m a project manager doing the job, and someone who’s not involved, who doesn’t know my challenges, my risks, comes and tells me this is the way you should be reporting… most probably it’ll fail. They don’t know what I’m doing.” ~38:30
Why controlling can win
“The advantage for the client: a single point of contact, a single team responsible for the success of this program. They don’t deal with eight different project management teams and eight different contractors.” It just demands the most experienced leaders you have. ~40:50
“I walked into a team, as the PMO lead, where the delivery team didn’t even know there was going to be a PMO… I started by explaining our role: the PMO is here to support; it’s not the police of the project.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~42:40
The first 90 days
1 · Learn
Client culture, structure, authority matrix, processes in place; review the budget and the schedule.
2 · Find gaps
Against experience: where do the current processes leak, and which areas need to improve first?
3 · Streamline
Define the rules and streamline the processes: standard templates, reporting, cadence.
4 · Train
Train the teams to run it, then iterate: “six months to a year to a well-established PMO.”
His words, ~44:20: “Learning, identifying gaps, streamlining the processes, and training the team to do it.”
- When you need a PMO at all: on a small project the PM does everything; “when the scope, complexity and budget increase, you need support: you start bringing an expert in every area.” ~36:20
- RACI, worked example: responsible = the supporting cost manager; accountable = the project manager; consulted = client or PMO director; informed. Mapped across the whole scope so “everyone understands their role, their liabilities, their accountability. No confusion.” ~37:40
- The two buy-ins: the delivery team’s, earned by explaining the role; and the client’s, “if you don’t have it, don’t even try… you’re set up for failure.” ~43:40
- The function roster: project controls (cost, schedule, risk), procurement and finance as project-dedicated functions that work within the client’s frameworks, data & analytics, sometimes a design lead, communications, and doc control. ~45:50
- Procurement earning its seat: “It saved millions of dollars on some of the projects: cost savings, negotiation, getting everyone on board on time.” ~47:30
- The finance lead runs a checklist against contracts, rates and billing before anything enters the client’s system, then consolidates every team’s cash flow into one program cash flow. ~48:40
“Most important for me: data and analytics. I always recommend at least one data-and-analytics person on the team: they configure the PMIS, set the permissions, pull the information, create the dashboards and the reports… That’s my key person on the PMO, who makes sure all the information is accurate and on time.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~49:55
Standardize, Then Tell the Truth
Orion asks the hard one (the biggest lesson from a project that went sideways) and Ahmed answers twice. First: what happens when the person in charge doesn’t understand what controls is for, and six project managers each run their own templates. Second: his “school of doing things”: total transparency with the client, even when the news is bad.
“I stepped into a program, six different projects, maybe more, and each project manager was doing their own thing: their own templates, their own way of reporting. From a portfolio perspective, how would I see the entire program budget, the entire contingency? We need a standardized process, a standardized work breakdown structure.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · ~54:20
The transparency school
“We always have to be transparent with the client, even if it’s a risk that will send the project sideways. Let them know about it, let them know we’re working to solve it. Don’t hide it under the rug until you try to find a solution. Maybe you find it, maybe not.” ~56:30
When the client doesn’t want to know
“Some clients: ‘Why are you telling me this? We’ll know in six months.’ I’m telling you because you’re the one liable for the entire program… Some don’t want to know because they’d have to report it higher.” He tells them anyway. ~57:50
- The root lesson: “dealing with someone in charge who doesn’t understand the importance of what we’re doing”: why do you even need a cost manager? Look at the workload on a multi-billion-dollar project and the question answers itself. ~53:30
- Standardization as a core PMO duty: “one reporting way, one way of identifying the gaps, driving the cost and schedule of the entire program, especially if the projects are interrelated.” ~55:00
- Orion’s frame: a good PMO is “the speed of transparency and disclosure”: it brings you news you didn’t want to hear. ~56:50
- “I don’t see a problem out of transparency. It is what it is. It happened; we need to figure it out. I’m not a complainer; I’m results-driven.” ~58:30
- How to actually find the truth: leadership that doesn’t punish first mistakes (“if someone gets fired for a mistake, no one will be transparent with you”), a PMO embedded enough to spot what doesn’t make sense, and a standing rule: validate every number. ~1:00:00
- The safety story: an owner team with five dedicated safety resources, incentives and recognition instead of punishment, “which takes me back to my PhD thesis, about how to make your employees happy.” ~1:01:30
Advice & the Career-Growth Finding
The advice act is compact and consistent with everything before it: never stop learning the current tools, and pick employers who invest in you. Then the PhD finally pays off: Orion asks what the research found makes construction employees happy, and the answer isn’t money.
“You would be surprised: number one wasn’t finance. Number one was career growth: do I have career growth within this company? Do I have job security? Will I get promoted? You may have the best offer for your current position, but you’ve stayed the same way for ten years.”Ahmed AbdelSalam · the PhD finding, ~1:07:10
Keep learning, outside school
“Keep learning the new tools, keep learning the new methods, keep listening to experienced people… AI is the future: definitely learn AI tools, keep using them, and you don’t have to worry about anything.” ~1:03:30
Growth over the highest bid
“Go work for a company that invests in your growth, not just the compensation.” Orion’s echo: leadership programs are a private MBA worth more than the salary delta. ~1:04:10
Culture first; join before you build
Resource planning: “Understand the client culture and the needs of the project scope before making any staffing decisions.” PMO: “Join an existing PMO team, learn the process, then you’ll be able to build the entirety.” ~1:05:00
- The bookshelf admission: “I’m not a good reader, I would say. I learn through attending conferences, workshops… and even just asking ChatGPT.” Orion: “It’s our new encyclopedia.” ~1:05:50
- How the PhD research worked: literature review plus a practical case study: surveys distributed inside three top international companies, pattern analysis on what employees value most. ~1:06:30
- Orion’s takeaway: nobody staffs projects thinking about career growth as the retention lever: “you’re so focused on getting the project done, you’re just like: do you want some money?” ~1:07:50
- Where to find him: LinkedIn, “I always accept new invites and respond to people.” The thesis paper gets promised for the show notes. ~1:08:30
The Big Ideas
Three ideas carry the episode. Sketched here the way a program-controls war room would whiteboard them.
Same three letters, three completely different animals, distinguished by how involved the PMO is, and who answers for delivery.
Reports and templates from outside the work. Not involved, doesn’t know the risks, and its templates often go unused. “I’m not a big fan.”
Experts embedded in delivery: cost, schedule, risk, procurement working hand in hand with the PM, who stays accountable. His preferred shape.
Delivery teams report into the PMO; one team answers for the entire program. A single point of accountability, if the leaders have the experience to carry it.
Every gate must pass before an offer exists, and the market can still take the candidate at the finish line.
What staffing plans optimize isn’t what candidates are actually weighing: the gap his PhD research measured.
What staffing plans optimize
- Rate vs budget
- Immediate availability
- Onsite presence
What people actually ask
- What happens after this project?
- Will I grow, will I get promoted?
- Is there job security here?
Bookshelf & Links
Ahmed’s honest answer to the bookshelf question is that he doesn’t have one: his stack is conferences, workshops and AI. Here’s what he actually points to, plus where to find the people and the show.
Ahmed’s go-to stack
- The admission
- “I’m not a good reader, I would say. I learn through attending conferences, workshops… and even just asking ChatGPT.” ~1:05:50
- The tool
- ChatGPT: “For me, ChatGPT is definitely a game changer. It’s not a hundred percent reliable, but it does what I need.” (Copilot and Gemini get nods for drafting and comms.) ~28:20
- The paper
- His PhD thesis on corporate social responsibility and employee performance: the title escaped him on air, and he promised to send it for the show notes.
The episode
- Listen
- Episode page (Podbean) · Apple Podcasts · Spotify
- The guest
- Ahmed AbdelSalam on LinkedIn: he posts regularly and accepts new invites.
- The host
- Orion Matthews on LinkedIn · Queryon
- The show
- themajorprojectpodcast.com: new conversations from the people building projects over US$1 billion.
Banner photos: Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington campus, the program Ahmed spent four years on as program controls manager. Left: aerial view of the West Campus, August 2009 by Jelson25, released into the public domain. Right: aerial view of the campus redevelopment, September 2021 by Atomic Taco (via Flickr), licensed CC BY-SA 2.0. Both via Wikimedia Commons.
Quote Bank
The best on-the-record lines, gathered in one filterable place. “Highlight” marks the lines most worth scrubbing back for; quotes are lightly condensed and timestamps are approximate.
The Road In 0:00–~6:00
- “I’ve been on all sides of the table: the engineering side, the contractor side, the subcontractor side, a little bit on the client side. But for the past decade I’ve been on the owner’s-rep side.”
- “I was a little bit lucky: after my PhD I received an offer from CBRE to be the cost manager for the Microsoft portfolio in Redmond… then I was the program controls manager for this campus for four years.”
Resource Planning 101 ~6:00–16:00
- Highlight“When we say resources, it’s us, the people. We are the number one resource for the project… If you’re not planning your resources correctly, the project would go south.”
- “Are we going to do it internally? Outsource a team of experts? Professional services or managed services? It will vary based on project complexity, the type of industry, the internal culture of the client.”
- “It’s always flexible at the beginning, and it gets harder as you dive more into the project. Do your due diligence during the planning phase.”
- “Ask yourself: what happens after this project? You hire a team of 20 to 30 resources for two or three years. Do you have jobs for them after this project is completed?”
- Highlight“People start feeling worried about job insecurity… when they get the best opportunity, they leave, and then there’s no one to close out the project and turn the building over.”
The Talent Gauntlet ~16:00–23:00
- Highlight“Go to any project management or project controls company and ask them: what’s your number one challenge? They will tell you finding resources, finding the right talent.”
- Highlight“If I find the best resource and this is their salary, I am paying for it. That’s an investment in the project… You will definitely save money, you’ll definitely save time.”
- “If you’re a construction manager, you shouldn’t be doing it remotely: you’re on site day to day. But cost management, scheduling, you can manage remotely.”
- “I wouldn’t just dictate my terms and then ask why you failed. My role is to set clear expectations: we have deliverables. If you can do it from anywhere, good.”
- “If I want someone immediately, will I be able to hire them? Definitely no, the process takes months.”
AI: Amplifier, Not Replacement ~23:00–28:00
- Highlight“The AI tool is not really a replacement for judgment. You should always make sense of what you’re seeing; you shouldn’t rely on it a hundred percent. It’s still being matured.”
- Highlight“There should be AI estimating tools… It’s not there yet, but it’s coming. Definitely. Same for baseline schedules.”
- “It’s not a replacement for the resources. We should use it as a tool to help us manage more projects with the resources challenge we have today.”
- “If all your employees are 500% more productive because of AI, why would you fire them? That’s like the worst time.”
- “If you’re an expert in a specific software that is now outdated, yes, you’re going to get replaced. But if you’re learning the latest technology, you’ll be hot on the market and everyone will be looking for you.”
- “There is always a human factor… I need to validate the information, whether it’s coming from a person or from AI. I don’t rely on one source.”
- “Not yet… For me, ChatGPT is definitely a game changer. It’s not a hundred percent reliable, but it does what I need.”
Sourcing & the Interview Filter ~28:00–34:00
- Highlight“Even if I don’t have a current role, I try to interview two, three candidates a day… When the opportunity comes, I have my list.”
- “Because I’ve done it, building the templates, the process, the reports, I know the challenges. You can easily identify if this person has done it before or just has general knowledge about the topic.”
- “If you’re just complaining because someone is doing something, but you don’t come up with a solution, that’s a red flag.”
The Modern PMO ~34:00–53:00
- Highlight“The modern PMO, there are three types: advisory, supporting, and controlling.”
- “If someone who’s not involved, who doesn’t know my challenges, my risks, comes and tells me this is the way you should be reporting, most probably it’ll fail.”
- “The client has a single point of contact, a single team responsible for the success of this program. They don’t deal with eight different project management teams and eight different contractors.”
- Highlight“I walked into a team where the delivery team didn’t even know there was going to be a PMO… The PMO is here to support; it’s not the police of the project.”
- “The other buy-in, if you don’t have it, don’t even try, is the client buy-in… you’re getting resistance from the team and the client is not backing you up, so you’re set up for failure.”
- “It typically takes six months to a year to mature your PMO strategy. The first 90 days: learning, identifying gaps, streamlining the processes, and training the team to do it.”
- Highlight“Most important for me: data and analytics… That’s my key person on the PMO, who makes sure all the information is accurate and on time.”
- “It saved millions of dollars in some of the projects: cost savings, negotiation, and getting everyone on board on time.”
Standardize, Then Tell the Truth ~53:00–1:03:00
- Highlight“Each project manager was doing their own thing, their own templates, their own way of reporting. From a portfolio perspective, how would I see the entire program budget?”
- Highlight“We have to always be transparent with the client, even if it’s a risk that will get the project sideways… Don’t hide it under the rug.”
- “Some clients: ‘Why are you telling me this? We will know later, in six months.’ I’m telling you because you are the one liable for the entire program.”
- “I don’t see a problem out of transparency. It is what it is. It happened; we need to figure it out. I’m not a complainer; I’m results-driven.”
- “If someone makes a mistake and they will get fired, if that’s your approach, no one will be transparent with you. We’re not here to police, we’re here to help. Mistakes happen.”
Advice & the Career-Growth Finding ~1:03:00–1:09:00
- Highlight“Go to a company that invests in your growth, not just the compensation.”
- “Understand the client culture and the needs of the project scope before making any staffing decisions.”
- “Join an existing PMO team, learn the process, the cost management, the scheduling, the communication, the data analytics, and then you’ll be able to build the entirety.”
- “I’m not a good reader, I would say. I learn through attending conferences, workshops… and even just asking ChatGPT.”
- Highlight“You would be surprised: number one wasn’t finance. Number one was the career growth… You may have the best offer for your current position, but you stayed the same way for ten years.”