Summary
Sydney Metro, Australia’s largest public transport program, needed to manage three mega rail projects with 70-80,000 activities each while keeping scheduling credible, risk-adjusted, and resilient through pandemic disruptions. With Deltek Acumen, implemented alongside partner Prescience Technology, Sydney Metro improved resource allocation and risk-managed scheduling at mega-scale, letting its 200-plus person PMO team model scenarios and work remotely without losing transparency or delivery confidence.
Sydney Metro is the NSW Government agency tasked with delivering the high–capacity, high–frequency metro network across the Greater Sydney region — Australia’s biggest public transport program.
Industry
An interview with Loretta Bayliss, Group CEO at Prescience Technology & Josh Watkin, Deputy Executive Director of PMO at Sydney Metro
This year’s recipient of Deltek’s 2021 Most Valuable Project Partner Award goes to Prescience Technology and Sydney Metro. With three metro projects in delivery and one in operation, Sydney Metro is Australia’s biggest public transport project. This innovative project is delivering the necessary step change in rail infrastructure to support Sydney’s vision of three connected cities and safe, fast, frequent, turn-up-and-go services. Working with Prescience Technology, Sydney Metro implemented Deltek Acumen resulting in significant time and cost savings. By leveraging Deltek, Sydney Metro has improved resource allocation and effort prioritization through risk-managed scheduling, allowing for successful management of their mega projects.
The Journey
A Deltek Acumen user for nearly seven years, Sydney Metro has grown from a single capital mega program into three capital mega programs, with roughly 70-80,000 unique activities per program in delivery. During this time, as Sydney Metro matured, they developed a better understanding of how to deliver a solid, credible and risk-adjusted schedule to their many teams. Their journey with Deltek has been one of growth and understanding of how integration works at mega-scale, and also a more sophisticated understanding of their teams and how they can best sequence their activities to minimize overall risk and optimize delivery.
Deltek Acumen as a powerful part of their day-to-day business.
Shifting with the Pandemic
As COVID-19 upended processes and practices worldwide, the impact of the pandemic also resulted in lockdowns in Australia. Sydney Metro’s team of over 200 project management professionals, including approximately 30 schedulers and planners requiring access to Deltek solutions, were forced to work from home.
Sydney Metro worked internally with their technology partners to understand what capabilities were available to help them adapt and model as many scenarios as possible. Through the use of Deltek’s Acumen suite, they were able to demonstrate transparency, creditability and allow Sydney Metro to run as many scenarios as needed to optimize outcomes for taxpayers and future customers, while delivering a fantastic end product. Additionally, Acumen allowed for continuity and ease while operating remotely.
Ultimately, Sydney Metro’s long-term relationship with Prescience allowed them to access specialist advice regarding the best configuration, as well as respond in real-time to the government, contractors, and the community.
Prescience Relationship
The relationship Sydney Metro has with Deltek and Prescience Technology, Deltek’s exclusive Australian Acumen partner, has been a long standing one. It dates back to before the establishment of Sydney Metro as a separate agency in 2018, and from the commencement of the Northwest Rail Link project with rapid transit in 2013. Initially, Prescience worked directly with the individual project teams, however, now they work with the PMO on a broader scale to support schedule quality, risk leadership, and risk management in terms of people, processes, and technology. According to Loretta Bayliss, Group CEO at Prescience Technology, “It is quite a material relationship across both business and technology and it has been a delight to see their (Sydney Metro’s) growth with the Deltek Acumen suite over this period of time”.
Award Winning Duo
Sydney Metro’s mission is to deliver a world class metro system, for the city and to support Sydney’s vision of three connected cities with safe, fast, frequent, turn-up-and-go metro rail services. Deltek’s MVP award not only recognizes their mission, but also recognizes their value and drive for consistent improvement within their own client organization. Similarly, one of the major challenges their PMO faces when trying to deliver projects at speed and at scale is becoming highly focused and fixated on the day-to-day deliverables. To solve this challenge, Prescience provided ongoing support for continuous improvement; this included the best products, best configurations, and advice for how to tailor processes to continue the journey of continuous improvement. Their partnership with Sydney Metro has helped both sides better understand shared challenges. Prescience leads in exploring new technology for Sydney Metro, which in turn helps Sydney Metro stay at the forefront of the industry.
