A3.2: Project Management with a Purpose

It is often viewed that project management is complex and that the town planning profession has not fully embraced it in the way in which it deals with projects. ATLAS disputes these views and sees project management as essentially being founded on ‘conscious decision making within a clear and agreed process’. Within this definition ‘planners’ clearly do project management in their day to day activity.

For large development projects the key difference is one of scale. Information Technology tools and other project management techniques can be helpful, but in the ATLAS experience are not essential. To minimise potential delay and risk, a robust management and decision making structure will need to be put in place to build confidence and consensus in the scheme before a planning application is produced and the scheme enters the formal planning process. This will need to balance the need to involve a variety of stakeholders with the need to empower specific individuals to drive the overall process forward.