The best place to start, and to spend time on, is in creating the Business Case. This is going to sketch out, and then develop, the WHY (i.e. "Why are we doing this?). This includes questions such as: What's the point? What are we hoping to achieve? When should we do it? Who is this targeted at? and plenty more... A clear vision and intended benefits (EVA, objectives and goals over short and longer term) are essential in transport, because it has to be joined up in order to work for stakeholders, namely the end users (consumers, travellers, visitors, commuters etc) and those who will operate and maintain it (whether at profit or not). If it is not easy for a user, then it is very quickly game over in my experience. Keep an eye on the prize!

In my experience Governance is essential, and as a Senior In-House Counsel in TfL (public transport London UK) this was my main role in any of our transport projects, big or small, whether in isolation or part of a bigger programme. Independent governance gives a 'critical friend' view and is able to join up to cross-border/ jurisdiction governance as well, which is useful extra chainlink in a more complicated project. Governance provides a steady hand and guidance, and is not blinkered to problems, nor has any underlying interest, so it is your go-to in order to get a neutral considered view. Done properly, and regularly, Governance will actually speed things up, because it ensures foresight and accountability go hand-in-hand.

Early identification of risk and conflict is an essential exercise to undertake, gathering a full team of technical, legal, financial, repetitional etc disciplines. With multiple expertises all contributing, a project team arrives at a common start-point. This can then be used as a baseline to allocate responsibilities for investigations and management plan for foresight, mitigation and control. This is particularly important because new projects are very exciting and everyone wants to get going! Early horizon views are helpful to minimising not only impact, but distraction, time and cost, and also stress, which ultimately is harmful to the project team individually and collectively. In more complex projects, there is a knock-on effect too.

In my experience at an international multi-jurisdictional engineering firm, this is one of the most useful exercises that can be done early in a project. Surveying to gain advance knowledge on skillsets and expertise, as well as sources of know-how, connections to funding or a 'black-book' of contacts for speedy procurement, brings enormous benefits, enabling early planning and secured acquisition rather than last-minute team panic and stress, and surge fees (which may require a process of approval). Cross-jurisdictional efforts also create strengths in personnel through the act of sharing 1-2-1 or in groups, and set the groundwork for future collaboration and ease of leverage due to investment made. Upfront work garners delivery readiness.

A culture of collaboration and learning is best fostered through tackling two things: 1. communications, and 2. opportunities for joint activities. Communications looks to explore and decide on the multitude of platforms and means of communication for the group or team to use, focussing on it as a proactive self-organising, learning and development promotion activity rather than a project reporting type of activity. Next, the focus on joint activities may be a combination of in-person and remote activities, and to be successful needs a well-structured plan and leadership. This is because it needs to create and maintain momentum through what could be a long period of time, including some inevitable ups and downs and changes of personnel.

Celebrations are so important in the world of projects and very much not just at the end when we talk about ‘success’. There are always wins along the way and individuals and teams, who obtain these wins, ought to be praised and rewarded in those moments, swiftly, thus keeping their motivation alive and showing the rest of the team what can be done!

As a Senior In-House Counsel for both client-side customer and delivery-side professional services provider, I have experienced all sides of transport projects from kernel of an idea through project formation, negotiation to contracts, delivery, completion and handover, operational use and onward legacy. At all phases, the common thread for success was a combination of communication and collaboration. That is, the right people doing the right things at the right time, with clarity and purpose, and a sense of pride. Whilst contracts bind organisations, it is humans who bind projects, so the quality of interactions can be mapped into the quality of the outputs (or rate of 'success'): communication and collaboration focussed on the objective.