The AACE International Conference & Expo 2024 will be held at the Signia by Hilton in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from June 16 to 18, 2024. Two inspiring keynotes will be followed by an abundance of tracks covering EVM, Planning and Scheduling, Project Controls, Decision and Risk, Project Management and more! There will also be ample opportunities to collect Continuing Education Modules, the Continuing Education Units (CEUs) offered by AACE. Here’s a look at what’s planned for AACE International Conference & Expo 2024.
Monday Keynote
Kathy Parry will present a keynote, ‘Rubber Band Resilience: How to Stretch Without Snapping’. Kathy will discuss how professionals should embrace changes, especially those from technology, regulations, and staffing. The ability to apply a disruption-friendly mindset to transitional shifts is critical to serving customers, retaining personnel and growing revenue. Equipping your team with the skill set to move through transitions while continuing to produce is imperative for organizational success.
Kathy will share how devastating news led her on a journey to discovering the keys to thriving in the face of challenging circumstances. While sharing her 3-R method for resilient behaviours (React, Reframe, Re-energize), Kathy will engage the audience using questions, humour and interactive exercises.
Tuesday Keynote
Dr.Nakisa Alborz, Larry R. Dysert, Dave Kyle & Lance Stephenson. Dr. Nakisa, Larry, Dave and Lance will all form a panel discussion on the ‘Criticality of Early Communication for Project Success’. The panellists will discuss the advantages of early and ongoing communication. A clear definition and communication of objectives, goals, and requirements in the early stages of a project contributes towards a successful outcome.
The panelists will highlight strategies for implementing effective communication and provide anecdotal stories of poor communication.
Tracks
AACE International Conference & Expo 2024 has tons of tracks. We’ve categorized a selection of them below:
EVM
Basics of Earned Value Management – How & Why. Carole A. Venters, Worley will explain Earned Value Management (EVM), how it is calculated, and when it should be used. Carole will also answer the question of why we want to know the Earned Value of our projects.
AACE defines Earned Value Management as “Measurement of the value of work performed so far, also called Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP).”
Carole will discuss how several methods of calculating Earned Value all result in a per cent (%) of the work (budget) completed through a stated period. Progress end dates can be determined by a project but should often be enough to bring to light any potential performance issues and unidentified out-of-scope work being done. Both of these are two effects that EVM brings to management’s attention. EVM is important because it prevents “surprises” during a project or a loss of profits to both the Owner and the Contractors.
The Value of Earned Value. Sylvia M. Donado Arcadis, Inc and Dr. John Holincheck Acuity International.
Earned value is a technique that can improve planning and control & contribute to improved communication of project status, but it can be very challenging for many organizations to implement. Sylvia and Dr John will discuss:
- Appropriate level of detail, considering risks while developing the schedule.
- Tracking and analysis objectively across the entire project.
- Ensuring the entire project team understands and contributes to the planning and control metrics.
- Communicating with the project team to facilitate decision-making & forecasting to ensure overall project success.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love EVM and Agile. Eric Christoph, Transformative Management Solutions LLC, will explain that EVM and Agile are considered mostly useless mashups of competing project management approaches on the same project. Drawing on client successes, Eric will present the easiest and most effective method he has implemented so far and how adopting the right tool for the right job drives productivity and even enthusiasm.
Planning and Scheduling
Correcting Out-of-Sequence Progress. Ronald M. Winter, PSP, Schedule Analyzer Software, will explain how sometimes a Critical Path Method (CPM) activity starts before it is logically scheduled. Activities that begin before the CPM calculation allows are called out-of-sequence. CPM calculation routines using a retained progress process because the activity that began earlier than logic allowed to delay the scheduling of the remaining portion of work until the preceding work is complete.
To prevent showing a non-work gap in these situations, many schedulers say that they “fix” any out-of-sequence activity in schedule updates by modifying the activity or logic. This effort may be misinformed as many schedulers do not fully appreciate the number of out-of-sequence occurrences in their schedules. Ron will discuss the reasons, methods, and pitfalls involved in correcting out-of-sequence logic during updates.
How Recommended Practices for Project Scheduling are Becoming Obligations by Project Contracts. Saied Khademagha, PSP and Ali Yazdani, EllisDon Inc., will explain how having an accurate and reliable project schedule as a technical tool for planning, managing, and controlling the time and cost of projects has become increasingly apparent across all industries.
Saied and Ali will explain how project contracting parties have been trying to structure and discipline the process and procedure of project scheduling and performance measurement by putting industry-accepted principles and recommended practices into practice.
Using case studies with different clauses in their contracts, Saied and Ali will explain how the stipulated contractual requirements for some of the main components of the project scheduling procedure and their related essential actions differ.
WBS-Based Work Processes: The Missing Component in Stage Gate Processes. Richard P. Helper, RPH Consulting Ltd, will explain that the stage gate process is generally described as a project management technique in which a project is divided into distinct stages, or gates, separated by decision points known as gates. Each gate has objectives or requirements that must be met to pass it. These requirements are broadly defined, which subjects them to wide interpretation.
Richard will discuss what is missing in the stage gate process that is becoming more widely developed and implemented—defined work processes based on WBS accounts. The WBS provides disciplines for stakeholders and defined acceptance criteria for technical and managerial deliverables. These processes can be logically connected to create a roadmap between stage gates. Richard will demonstrate how to develop and use WBS work processes and why they should be the foundational element of a stage gate process.
Project Controls
Successful Project Controls Communication. Sudhakar R. Pulagam, EVP of Comtech Group, will explain how consistent and effective communication is a key contributor to the success of any project. Effective communication with all stakeholders is a crucial success factor in project management, and ineffective communications significantly risk the outcome of the project objectives.
Sudhakar will discuss how project control professionals are key translators and communicators throughout the project lifecycle and are involved in various areas of project control. Sudhakar will use the AACE recommended practices and TCM principles throughout the project controls life cycle to highlight and identify various communication needs that project stakeholders commonly require from the project controls team and effective ways of providing them.
The Six Elements of Project Controls. Lance Stephenson, AECOM, will discuss how the business value and technical contributions can be enhanced with project controls if they are appropriately instituted. Lance will provide an understanding of the six elements of project controls and how to apply them in the project environment. These include:
- Quality and the impact that errors have on impeding project success
- Maturity and the necessary focus required on the tasks that each element requires
- Competency that ensures sufficient knowledge or skill
- The value of project controls (VOPC) that enhances the delivery of projects that appraise quality, maturity, and competency
Finally, Lance will share his thoughts on how, although project controls are simple, even though there are many moving parts and inter-dependencies that may look complex, once relationships and the inputs and outputs of project controls are mastered, their complexity diminishes. While technology constantly advances, the basics and fundamentals of project controls will remain the same.
Decision and Risk
Apples and Oranges: The Need for Comparative Project Guidelines. Alessio Loreti and Cory R. Milburn, Delta Consulting Group, will offer their insights on AACE’s Recommended Practice No. 25R-03. (AACE RP 25R-03) When a measured mile based on similar work in the same project cannot be identified or does not exist, AACE RP 25R-03) advises evaluating productivity on the disputed project and contrasting it with a project of similar attributes.
Alessio and Cory will explain that although the comparable Project Study is an important tool when assessing loss of labour and productivity in the construction industry, there is a lack of standard criteria or guidelines for selecting a comparative project. The claimant is solely responsible for demonstrating parallelism in project size, magnitude, location, weather conditions, labour dynamics and other challenges.
Alessio and Cory advocate for a standardized framework for identifying and evaluating comparative projects. With clear industry guidelines for conducting comparative project analyses, light will be shed on their challenges.
How to Manage Successful EPC Oil & Gas Projects and Reduce Their Risks of Failure With Competitive Strategy. Arnaldo M. Angelini, CCP and Sean T. Regan, CCP of LGM International. Apostolos Chatzisymeon, PE Nomitech and Grigorios Anagnostopoulos, CCP Energean, will explain how high energy prices caused by growing economies and the Ukraine war, oil & gas exploration projects are increasing in several countries. However, global experience shows that oil & gas projects, brownfield and greenfield, still experience unreliable costs and schedules.
As many as six out of ten projects fail to meet their planned cost & schedule targets due to the current economic uncertainties. During the project life cycle of the proposal, detail engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning, they will demonstrate techniques used to reduce risks of EPC contractors and owners.
Finally, they will emphasise that 0il and gas companies should apply the best quality practices of project and risk management and competitive strategies before entering new exploration.
Project Management
Enhancing Decision-Making Process through Probabilistic Schedule Analysis Across the Project Lifecycle. Abbas Shakourifar, PSP Chevron, Dr David T. Hulett, FAACE Projectrisk, Keith Hornbacher, Hornbacher Associates, and Steve Uhl McwayUhl will discuss the uncertainties of project management. They will recommend probabilistic schedule analysis to enhance decision-making in project management. By quantifying risks, informed choices throughout the project lifecycle.
They will offer practical examples that display the relevance of probabilistic schedule analysis from project initiation to completion, demonstrating its utility in the planning, definition, and execution phases.
By adopting this process, decision-makers and project management will be empowered with a view of potential outcomes, enabling better navigation of uncertainties and improved decision-making and project success rates.
Analysis of Factors Impacting Project Performance. Mohamed E. El-Mehalawi, Owl Project Management, will discuss factors that can impact a project’s performance and final outcome. A study of large industrial projects will be used to identify the major factors and quantify their impact on project performance. (The data was compiled between 2017 and 2022 and incorporated 200 completed large projects). Mohamed will describe the study’s analysis methodology, its successes and failures and some of the project characteristics.
Finally, Mohamed will discuss how the study considered twenty-eight possible factors that impact both cost and schedule. These factors include poor early planning, project team turnover, funding constraints and procurement issues.
Resourcing Strategies to Optimize for Success in Project Management. Avi Schwartz and Mohinder Singh will discuss how balancing the demand for Project Management activities against the supply of available staff and outside resources is an ongoing challenge that PMO organizations constantly grapple with. Too few resources and an overburdened Project Management team can lead to significant delays or unforeseen challenges in project delivery. Whereas a surplus of qualified staff and resources can lead to an idle, disgruntled workforce eating into the organization’s bottom line.
Avi and Mohinder will analyze two independent frameworks and demonstrate how they were applied to the staff of a PMO-style organization that supports the delivery of capital projects within a US market. The case studies demonstrate how each framework can be used independently to determine the use of each staff member to level the workload across the organization.
Registration Fees
Here are the registration fees and options for this year’s AACE International Conference & Expo 2024.
| One Day Technical Program | Full Technical Program | |
| Member | $1000 | $1225 |
| Non-Member | $1100 | $1325 |
| Student | N/A | $800 |
Registration for this event is via the AACE website.
Summary
AACE International Conference & Expo 2024 is a large event with over 100 tracks available. The tracks that we have categorized are only the tip of the iceberg. This conference is only available in person.