Thoughts on Applying for and Assessing for the IPMA Global Project Excellence Award
Written by Ann Zhang, BD manager, Wood, China

My Understanding of IPMA
In 2013, I participated in the application of the 27^th IPMA Project Excellence Award for the 10 mta refinery project from PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical and attended the award ceremony held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, where I had a deep understanding and cognition of IPMA. IPMA is short for the International Project Management Association. Established in 1965 and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the association is an international organisation and authoritative institution leading global project management. Currently, it has more than 70 member associations in countries or regions.
Since 2001, IPMA recognises excellent project management achievements by nominating and recognising individuals and projects on a yearly basis, which is the highest honour in the international project management community and is recognised as the “Oscar” award for Project Excellence.

Project Management Career
In January 1996, I was assigned as an advance team member of CNPC international project management to Kuwait to participate in the preparation and construction of the EPC LST oil gathering centres and transit lines project contracted by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and worked there for more than four years. After having returned back to China, I joined the construction and operations of PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical 10mta refinery project and SNCG 4mta coal to liquids project in 2006 and 2014 respectively, and I am very delighted to have been involved in applying for and assessing for the Global IPMA Project Excellence Award of these two projects after the successful commercial operation of the projects in 2013 and 2019 respectively.
This ten-year project management experience and the transformation of my career is the most valuable wealth in my project management career. I was not only deeply involved in the management and execution of the two mega-sized projects that are playing critical roles in China’s energy development strategic planning, but also collaborated with the project teams to bring the project influence to the world, which can confirm that China has the full competence to manage world-class mega-sized projects.

The Best Parts of My Involvement in the Application for the Global IPMA PE Awards
In 2013, it was the first time for me to be responsible for translating, reviewing and editing the PE Award application report of the 10mta refinery project of PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical Company. I was also involved in the arrangement of the project site assessment agenda and itinerary for the assessors participated in the entire assessing process of the project by the IPMA assessors based on the application report and assessment model of IPMA and accounted for the translation and provision of all materials and information requested by the IPMA Awards PMO.
Having gone through the above and attending the IPMA Congress and Awards Gala further, I fully understood the requirements of IPMA PE award, and was deeply touched by their professional competency to strictly and precisely raise questions, find out problems, assess and verify the project in strict accordance with the requirements of the principles of the Project Excellence Model and to run a fair, just and professional assessment of the project.

The unique experience has made me think that it would be very helpful if a project can establish an organisation with a strong governance competence, set up correct project objectives, strengthen the process controls of the project to achieve the predetermined goals of the project in the best interests, demands and commitments of the relevant stakeholders by implementing the IPMA Project Excellence award Model into the project execution in the early phase. And then, the Feedback Report issued in the name of the IPMA Award Committee against the Application Report and the final assessment results can be used as unique standards, lessons learnt and benefits for the management of new projects in the future to achieve the goal of the sustainable pursuit of project excellence.

In February 2014, as a project management expert of AMEC Engineering & Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., I was assigned to the SNCG 4 mta coal to liquids project. As to the scale and influence of the project, I  recommended Mr Yao Min, the Project Manager, to apply for the IPMA Mega-sized project excellence award at the completion of the project, and shared my experiences and thoughts on the application, assessment and winning award of the above-mentioned project with Mr Yao who positively supported and was committed to use the criteria of IPMA PE model to benchmark project management, to foster talents, to focus on process controls, and collaborate closely with stakeholders during the execution phase to achieve the goal predetermined at the beginning of the project. But from 2016 on, the new version of the “project excellence baseline (PEB)” principle model has been adopted for the Global IPMA Project Excellence Award, and the Application Report shall be prepared in accordance with the principles and requirements of the new model.

Therefore in 2018, the project leaders and managers attended the  Global IPMA Project Excellence Assessment training and applied for the Global IPMA PE Award for the 4mta coal to the liquid project in 2019, and happily the project won the silver award. Yao Min is also the Gold Winner of the IPMA Global Individual Award 2019 – in the category Project Manager of the Year.
In June 2019, I was once again luckily involved in the site assessment process of the IPMA Project Excellence Award at the coal to liquid project. As the former project assistant (and Deputy Division Director of the project administration office) of Mr Yao Min (the Project Manager), I was familiar with the whole process of project execution, understood every aspect and overall objectives of the project, and endeavoured to translate the viewpoints and comments from the project management team and the representatives of the stakeholders in simple but clear language to help the IPMA assessment team successfully complete the site visit assessment.

I fully understand that the purpose to apply for the Global IPMA Project Excellence Award is not just a process of completing an Application Report, winning awards, but also a most important process for the applicant to self-review and evaluate the entire lifecycle phases of their projects from the approval and execution to the commissioning and start-up phases. In addition, it is also a comprehensive assessment conducted by IPMA assessors (consisting of project managers, university professionals with rich experience in the fields of different industries from 25 countries around the world) for the project against the criteria of the Global IPMA Project Excellence Baseline model, recognized by the top authorities in the world.
Comparing with the Global IPMA PE Award model before 2016, the new model balances the management process and the results of project management and fully embodies the new ideas and standards of modern project management. The assessors will check and verify the project objectives, management processes and the commitment to the demands of the stakeholders written in the award Application Report from all the aspects of the project. Any unreasonable, unclear and uncommitted project objectives will affect the project assessment results. The human factors, the expectations and demands from different stakeholders’ commitment to the project should be taken into consideration as well. Any project without the recognition, commitment or the support of the stakeholders will be difficult to achieve the ultimate goal of the project.
I also understand the new idea of IPMA from the theme of the 31st IPMA World Conference and the 18th IPMA PE and excellent project manager award conference, which is “Integrating Sustainability into Project Management” with main streams on environmental protection, clean energy, infrastructure, smart cities, aerospace industry, etc., reflecting the concepts of humanistic cares.
I believe that no matter what scale of the project or any category of a project, as long as the interests and demands of the stakeholders are always put in an important place, the management of the project is in compliance with the baseline principles of the model and criteria of the IPMA PE award. Any project can apply for the Global IPMA PE Award after the IPMA PE Award held in Merida, Mexico and present the achievement on the global scene in St. Petersburg.
IPMA is a global stage on which you can broaden your vision after your application. As to what the Project Manager who won the gold medal said, “the trophy granted by IPMA not only represents the achievement of an enterprise but also evidences the comprehensive progress in other industries in China.” Through the application for the award, the winning enterprises have broadened their international views and got an overall assessment and improvement suggestions which will be the valuable and significant benchmarking reference for the improvement of their project management levels in variable industries in China. It is a priceless achievement.

A Qualified, Experienced, Competent and Fair Global IPMA Project Excellence Assessment Team
The assessors assigned by the IPMA Awards PMO are all highly qualified, profound and competent. They always assessed the projects in strict and fair manners. They have professional and rich evaluation experiences and run the evaluation model well into every specific work of the evaluation. They see things vigorously, insightfully and seriously.
They always overcome the difficulties of time difference, listened carefully, communicated with the management personnel of the applicants and the representatives of stakeholders, so as to ensure the conformity of the assessment on people, resources, processes, objectives and results, etc., and to plan a very appropriate schedule and arrangement, efficiently completing the assessment, and delivering fair and integrated assessment results.
I wish to participate in the Global IPMA Project Excellence Assessment training, be part of the IPMA Project Excellence Baseline community, and to strive for a qualified IPMA PE assessor position so that I can help improve the projects from all walks of the world and be recognised by IPMA.

Outstanding Features of the Two Projects:
The two projects in which I participated and won either the golden or silver Project Excellence Award have the following unique but common outstanding features:

• They take the respective roles and responsibilities to “implement the national Strategy of Western Development, to improve the industrial structure of Guangxi autonomous region, to stabilise the refined oil markets in Guangxi and its surrounding areas, to satisfy the demand of refined oil in Southwest China, to accelerate regional economic development” and ” to solve the shortage of oil and gas resources in China, to leverage China’s energy structure of poor in oil & gas, and rich in coal, to achieve clean utilization of coal, and effectively reduce urban air pollution, to better China’s energy structure, upgrade chemical technology standards and equipment manufacturing capability in China’s coal to liquids and chemical industries, it has crucial political influence on China’s energy security and the restructuring of the industries.

The project met the PE awards model requirements to apply for the Global Project Excellence award in terms of leadership, quality and ability of the management team, the system, and the modes of project governance, technology selection, product slates, project resources and project process.
The IPMT (Integrated Project Management Team) organisation for project governance was adopted, which is partnered between the Client and Wood (Legacy Amec Foster Wheeler Engineering and Consulting（Shanghai）Co. Ltd) , a global leader in technical, engineering and lifecycle project services, focusing on oil & gas, coal chemical industry management in China, operating in more than 60 countries with over 160 years. The experienced organisation succeeded in incorporating international advanced management systems, know-how and management technology into local practices to set the project objectives from the FEED phase of the project to pursue project excellence.
For example, Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group’s(SNCG) 4mtpa coal to liquids project is an exemplary project approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and was constructed based on the following predetermined objectives:

• the world largest project by a single plant with mass investment;
• to solve the shortage of oil and gas resources in China;
• to leverage China’s energy structure of poor in oil & gas, and rich in coal;
• achieve clean utilization of coal;
• effectively reduce urban air pollution;
• improve China’s energy structure;
• upgrade coal-to-liquid chemical technology and equipment manufacturing capacity;
• tackle the difficulties in engineering, manufacturing and integration of large-scale equipment, package equipment in coal chemical industry.

PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical’s 10 mta refinery project determined their objectives at the beginning of the project:

• adopt state-of-the-art technology;
• import global leading engineering design;
• use international project management approaches;
• build a world-class refinery;
• Innovatively and successfully implement the IPMT project management approach from worldwide perspectives;
• deliver the control of quality, safety, progress and cost of the project;
• achieve the excellent performance of 70 million safe man-hour lost time injury-free;
• build a refinery and achieve the defined results;
• establish sets of systems;
• Foster talents, and
• nurture the enterprise culture

It is very necessary for such projects with domestic and international influences to apply for the Global IPMA Project Excellence Award and to be assessed by global experts with a rich experience in project management assigned by IPMA according to IPMA PE Baseline model and to be recognised by the judges of the IPMA Project Excellence Award, and finally to win the award.