Shane Forth is Principal Consultant at GO FORTH, which helps Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) in-scope companies develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours of their project controls people.
With almost 50 years of experience, Shane is proof of the longevity in a project controls career, having worked in senior roles in the oil and gas, nuclear, power, process, infrastructure, steel, pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries.
His dedication to the profession was recognised in 2023 when he was the recipient of the Global Project Controls Lifetime Contribution Award at Project Controls Expo.
We caught up with Shane at Project Controls Expo 2024 at Wembley Stadium in London to find out more about his project controls journey.
How I got into project controls
“I moved from Yorkshire to Teesside in 1976 and landed up on a large project on an oil terminal as a technical clerk,” he said.
“I was watching what people do and liked the look of planning and scheduling, which was all done by hand in those days, no computers. I orientated myself towards that work, which led me to become a planning engineer and then a planning manager by 1992.
“On lots of projects up to then you were getting a different story on the cost and schedule status and forecasts for projects. The figures and reporting weren’t joined up.
“I heard about project controls, mainly from folks in America, and this gave me the impetus to bring it all together, although the term project controls didn’t really exist in the UK until the late 1990s.
“We struggled to find good people and that’s when I got working with the ECITB. I became a project controls head in 1999, eventually introducing the first project controls apprenticeship in the UK in 2007. I held various project controls leadership roles through until 2014 and then spent five years as a PMO Director.”
Passing on his knowledge
Shane went self-employed in 2019 and GO FORTH was founded to deliver ECITB project controls, estimating, risk management and document managers courses.
He was former chair of the BCECA Project Control Managers Committee and has spoken at international conferences as a thought leader.
He is also consulting editor/author of The Practitioner Handbook of Project Controls.
Equipped with years of knowledge of the profession, Shane is eager to carry on stressing the importance of project controls.
“You need somebody to keep an eye on the project for the project manager and to provide information on the health and outlook for the project through reporting and forecasting,” he said. “You need that realistic view of what’s happening, but first of all you have got to get that baseline schedule and baseline budget in place in a way that people can understand in order to deliver the project.
“A big difference between a project manager role and the project control role is on things like cost and scheduling, estimating and risk, where the detailed data gathering, validation and analysis sits with the project controls team. Without it, the project hasn’t got direction and is flying blind.”
Any advice for those considering a career in project controls?
“It’s a great career which I’ve really enjoyed,” added Shane, 68.
“There’s a great opportunity to develop your career upwards and, increasingly now, to become pivotal in the organisation and get on top of some major projects. It’s very exciting following the project through and succeeding in a challenging environment.
“The whole function is taken a lot more seriously than it used to be. It’s not dismissed as admin and clerical so much now. When you’ve got the right mix of people and challenge, there’s not much that’s better.”
The ECITB’s project control training courses and qualifications provide skills training and occupational verification for all roles from technician to professional project controllers, estimators, planners, schedulers and cost engineers.
Developed with industry stakeholders, they focus on developing technical expertise as well as honing communication skills, fostering governance acumen, promoting continuous improvement, leveraging data analytics and contributing to carbon reduction and environmental sustainability.
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