Carl Karshagen
Since joining QA (under the auspices of PMPL and AIKONA), Carl has supplied project and programme management training support for a wide variety of clients, including Balfour Beatty, Babcock Marine, Babcock Network Engineering, Highways England, BAE Systems, Network Rail and Transport for London. He also developed project and resource scheduling procedures, bespoke risk management interventions, planning and control interventions, and bespoke e-learning modules for key clients.
Carl started his career in project management in the late 1970s within the Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa and used this experience as the foundation for developing his own consulting and training company, Project Planning Systems, which was seen as the leading source for project management development and consultancy in South Africa.
Later, on arriving in the UK, Carl developed a project management system supported by a project office for Datalect Services Limited. He also helped develop and deliver a helpdesk facility serving a number of key clients including BSI, Fujitsu and Safeway. DSL was subsequently bought out by a consortium of Fujitsu-Siemens.
Specialist areas
Carl has a keen interest in general project management with particular emphasis on scheduling, applications, risk management and earned value management. He also specialises in helping to develop capability in these areas, as well as specific processes and procedures to support organisations embed best practice project management.
He is also actively involved in the development of a number of standards under the auspices of the PMI. Notably in this respect is the contribution to the development of the following:
PMI Standard for Work Breakdown Structures; PMI Standard for Earned Value Management; PMI Standard for Risk Management; PMI Standard for Scheduling; PMI Guide to the Body of Knowledge 3rd, 4th and 6th edition
Industry experience
Experience gained over 12 years in the nuclear industry in South Africa, with particular emphasis on research and development, has helped Carl to challenge project management application across a wide range of disciplines and sectors, including defence, finance, human resource, heavy engineering, construction and transport (rail, in particular). This was further developed from a short period of consultancy in the private sector in South Africa, prior to managing his own company for a period of almost 10 years.
Other fields include IT, telecoms and electronics, and mining (gold, diamond, phosphorus and copper) as well as transport, defence, pharmaceutical, local government, banking and consultancy.
Qualifications and professional membership
Masters in Applied Project Management (distinction); BSc Chemical Engineering (Hons); ChPP MAPM; PMP; APM PMQ (Practitioner Qualification); APMP; APM Risk Management; M_o_R (Practitioner); MoP (Practitioner) Management of Portfolios; Prince2 (Practitioner); MSP – Managing Successful Programmes (Practitioner); MoV – Management of Value (Practitioner); APMG PPC (Practitioner) (Project Planning and Control); PPSO; BCS ChPP Agile.