Construction businesses of all sizes can improve project outcomes by digitalising their PMO function – and the soon-to-be-published CIOB playbook on the topic offers important advice on how to do that.
Some of the playbook’s authors and industry practitioners took part in a CM webinar devoted to the subject. David Philp, chair of the CIOB Innovation and Digital Advisory Panel, explained the reasons for the playbook: “Construction has been asked to deliver greater certainty, better quality, improved safety, stronger environmental outcomes, with clearer evidence and compliance. And this is against the backdrop of budget, regulation and skills pressures. What we’re seeing at the CIOB is that information is now as fundamental as delivery of labour, materials, plant and finance: it’s strategically important.
“Value comes from competent people, disciplined information management, clear governance and digital leadership. The playbook starts with outcomes, value cases and decisions. The shift that I want you to hold in mind is from thinking purely about a system of records to a system of decisions. And this is key to the playbook.
“A system of records is really important: it tells us what was submitted, approved or reported. But a system of decisions connects programmes and project information so that teams can understand what’s changing, what matters, what needs action, and what can be learned across repeat work from projects up to programmes. It’s worth saying that when we talk about digital and AI, it does not remove professional judgment – it strengthens it with connected, trusted and decision-ready quality information.”
Start with outcomes
The playbook proposes a simple three-step process. “First, identify the decision or outcome that matters. Second, establish minimum valuable information management capabilities; and third, only connect what removes friction or improves decision-making, then capture the learning and scale what works,” Philp said.
Stefan Mordue, vice-chair of the CIOB Innovation and Digital Advisory Panel, added: “We’ve developed a practical toolkit, and this will help the reader to assess their readiness to define outcomes, establish information requirements, monitor performance, and capture decisions and lessons.”
The playbook’s chapters feature five main calls to action. Mordue said: “It’s about starting with the outcome rather than the technology. It’s about getting the information foundations right. Keep people and accountability at the centre. It’s about building safety, sustainability and insurance into delivery from the outset. And finally, start proportional: test what works, learn from it, and only then scale.”
The playbook is not meant only for major businesses. Philp said: “The playbook deliberately rejects the idea that digital transformation belongs only to major clients, consultants and contractors. SMEs experience the same underlying delivery challenges of coordinating people, orchestrating huge supply chains, managing change on a daily, if not hourly, basis, controlling costs, assuring quality, demonstrating compliance and learning, as we all do, from repeat work.
“For many SMEs, good digital practice begins with discipline (rather than sophisticated platforms), clear ownership of information, agreed naming conventions for information, and a trusted location for information with consistent review and approvals, and a small number of useful measures.”
The human in the loop
“We’ve really tried to take a human-centric approach,” said Philp. “Poor information creates searching, chasing, duplicate reporting, repeated questions and unresolved decisions – and that consumes attention, it increases cognitive load. Better information management can help, along with AI: it can make work clearer, reduce avoidable friction, and protect the time and headspace that we need for professional judgment.”
Shona Hirons, director of Mindset in Motion, noted the exponential march of technology and that any time saved for people is immediately consumed by more information and more meetings, which can lead to burnout. “The problem is that cognitive overload doesn’t necessarily look like burnout. It can look like someone forgetting what was agreed in a meeting, a delayed decision, a missed handover, a mistake, someone asking the same question twice, then more rework.
“I think AI can be incredibly exciting, not because it allows us to squeeze even more out of people, but because it could take some of that load off them. We could let AI search thousands of documents, let it summarise meetings, let it compare information and spot patterns, let it highlight what actually needs somebody’s attention, and we could also let it remove some of that repetitive admin.
“But don’t automatically fill that space that it creates: protect some of it. Let someone actually use some of that time to think, to walk around the site, to speak to someone, to coach a colleague, to question something that doesn’t feel right or to make a better decision, or even just take 60 seconds between two complex tasks to get up and move, breathe and reset.”
Not just technology
“Digital PMO is not just traditional PMO with shiny new tablets, dashboards and more software licences. It’s more of a structural change to the decision-making environment within the programme,” said Hadi Kazemi, course director, project management, at the School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing at Leeds Beckett University.
“The aim is for digital PMO to connect the data, to connect the controls, and to create a very robust and holistic governance system, to prioritise the resource allocation and decisions across the programme. The question shouldn’t be: how do we implement AI? I think the question should be: how do we create an environment where the information is reliable, connected and also enables us to make better decisions?
“The idea is for it to enable earlier intervention, robust assurance, and above all strengthen that symbiotic relationship between humans’ professional judgment and the technology.”
Mace Consult global head of PMO and planning Zoe Madams added: “I love that the playbook talks about the PMO orchestrating that digital environment. One of the challenges that I see over and over again is: where does digital and information management sit? And I am convinced that it needs to sit in the PMO. And as we start to bring AI into the mix, it needs to be really strictly governed – and PMO is the best place for it.”
HS2 head of digital information management James Daniel emphasised the importance of clarity. “The big thing is making sure that we’re clear on our asks, we’re clear on what our objectives are with the information that’s coming to us, and we have to make sure that we don’t just keep applying new layers of technology and workflows that don’t make any sense to anybody,” he said.
”We have looked at our work breakdown structure and simplified that process as much as we possibly can to ensure that when we ask for information, it is very clearly understood and then implemented into the project asset or the digital asset as we progress through to handovers and transitions.”
Coming soon
The playbook is expected to be published by CIOB later in Q4. CM will cover it further when it is launched.
There’s still time to register to watch CM’s next two webinars:
- The state of heavy equipment training on 6 October at 2.30pm; register now.
- No data, no Gateway: quality, the golden thread and the Building Safety Act on 8 October; register now.
The digital PMO webinar was part of the Digital Construction Summit series of webinars organised by CM and Digital Construction Plus. You can catch up with the first webinars in the series:
- The cost of delays you’re not tracking – how better planning helps you spot problems earlier and protect your margin; watch on demand.
- Disputes: what to do when they arise and how to avoid them in the first place; watch on demand.
