University of Limerick
Testimonial for Fergus O’Connell, CEO Fast Projects – ‘How to Run Successful projects’ [On-line Workshop]
Fast Projects (CEO Mr Fergus O’Connell) was commissioned by the School of Law, University of Limerick, to provide training in project management to a mixed group of academic, technical, administrative and research staff in addition to a selection of PhD students. The training programme was initially scheduled to take place in April 2020 in a face to ace format. However due to Covid-19 restrictions we requested Mr O’Connell whether it was possible to migrate the programme on-line. The programme took place over 4 sessions in September 2020.
The feedback from course participants has been extremely positive which is all the more remarkable due to the mode of delivery and the diverse base of the training group which included early stage researchers, senior managers from the private sector, an appeal court judge, a librarian in addition to academic and research staff. As the person who commissioned the research I was hoping that the training group could be taught (and absorb) some basic principles in project management to assist with university planning and structuring PhD study over a multi-annual period and a common language so that different disciplines could communicate with each other regarding project progress.
Expectations were easily surpassed. In addition to these two reasonable aspirations for the programme, Mr O’Connell was able to engage participants at a practical/operational level in a number of the more technical areas of project management such as workload assessment, risk assessment, scheduling and sequencing in addition to softer areas such as stakeholder engagement. While the structure of the programme lent itself to incrementally building participants’ capacity in project management, Mr O’Connell’s personal style of delivery and engagement was also referred to by participants. Mr O’Connell’s judgment in the use of metaphor, illustration and humour and his intuitive pitch, patience and pace ensured that all participants experienced the programme as accessible and skill-building.
I have already discussed potential follow ups to this programme and the potential for integrating Mr O’Connell’s programme more generally to assist with PhD study and work the at the university is involved with in helping to tackle complex social problems.
I am happy to verify or elaborate on any of the content of this testimonial
Dr Sean Redmond
Adjunct Professor of Youth Justice
Principal Investigator REPPP Programme
School of Law
University of Limerick
Tel: 0876775582