BARWA's legacy is our commitment to excellence

Al Saad: Our employees are key success factors for achieving BARWA's strategy and future plans.

Al-Horr: The maturity of the PMS is a milestone in developing BARWA's culture.

Al-Hedfa: The development of the PMS is a testimony to the intellectual capital and assets embodied within BARWA.

Doha, Qatar - 31 August 2008: BARWA Real Estate (BARWA), one of the premier organizations in the State of Qatar, today announced the launch of its in-house developed Project Management Systems 2008 (PMS).

In August 2007, BARWA management formed its PMS Technical Committee, whose first goal was to select qualified consultants to work with BARWA's Project Management Teams to develop corporate-wide Project Management Systems capable of integrating various functional processes within the project life cycle and best practices & standards in project management.

"We have made a promise to be part of the legacy in developing Qatar's growing future. Our strategy to achieve this commitment relies mainly on investment in human resources which we consider the company's greatest asset. We are confident that our employees, when equipped with professional and innovative systems like the PMS, are key success factors for achieving BARWA's strategy and future plans," said Mr. Ghanem Bin Saad Al Saad, Chairman and Managing director - BARWA Real Estate.

"Today we are celebrating BARWA's success story we how we made it happen when we all work together and enjoy learning and sharing our knowledge. Today we accomplished success together. Our success was not only embodied in the final product we created, but also in all training sessions and workshops held over the system development period. Continual training and development programs form an integral part of BARWA future planning strategy," added Al Saad.   

"It has been a long journey extended over 12 months and it is now time to celebrate the joy of success. The maturity of this system is a milestone in developing our company culture, because it's not only with talent but also with teamwork and commitment that we can invent state-of-the-art products, services and systems," said Dr. Youssef Mohamed Al-Horr, Deputy CEO Operations - BARWA Real Estate. 

"Great efforts stand behind the success and achievement of Project Management System. On behalf of BARWA's senior management and executive management team, I thank Dr. Hassan Satti and Mr Imad Ayed who orchestrated this initiative and those who exerted their best efforts to make such system development process a success. To mention a few:  Mr. Abdul-Aziz Al-Mulla, Mr. Alaa Bektash, Mr. Essa Kaldari, Mr. Hamad Al-Abdulmalik, Mr. Majid Al Badr, Mr. Saad Dehaim Al Dosari, Mr. Tamer AbdelLatif and others," continued Dr. Al-Horr.

"The development of BARWA Project Management Systems is a testimony to the intellectual capital and assets embodied within this great organization. It is a manifestation of "the BARWA way", of continuously creating value for its stakeholders. It is proof of the commitment of BARWA's management to excellence and its translation of day-to-day business practice," said Mr. Mohamed Al-Hedfa, Chief Officer for Special Projects - BARWA Real Estate.   

BARWA PMS is more than a system; it is a way to delivering business results that evolved over time. PMS is a reflection of BARWA's legacy and commitment to excellence in building in-house capabilities and competencies.

The business objectives behind this new line of products and services is to gain competitive advantage within the Real Estate industry and increase organizational effectiveness & efficiency with faster, improved learning and new knowledge creation.

PMS is required to: 1) allow a systematic understanding and implementation of project management tasks; 2) establish a common understanding and communication medium among project team members (BARWA, Government Authorities, stakeholders, shareholders, consultants, contractors and the public in general; 3) standardize the Project Life Cycle (PLC) from formation till closeout; 4) identify the deliverables for each phase and those responsible for; 5) enable BARWA project development teams to better manage and monitor and control the project delivery life cycle; 6) identify the form and frequency of communications during the PLC; 7) provide visibility of all projects undertaken by BARWA; 8) enable BARWA to receive reliable updated performance information from all projects; 9) enable BARWA to objectively assess performance trends and forecast their impact on project objectives; and 10) enable BARWA to capture best practices and leverage this experience on other projects.

BARWA PMS adopts international best standards and practices, integrating them with in-house resources and expertise to suit the Qatari and Gulf real estate industry. Furthermore, BARWA's PMS 2008 gives added value to the integrity of BARWA's projects; as it is simple and flexible and can be adopted by various levels and stages in the project life cycle.

The Development of BARWA Project Management Systems was a process of merging international best practices.  BARWA's in-house team collaborated with two project management consultants; MICA and CMCS, in bolstering efforts to achieve a state of the art project management system. The development process included the pooling of the experience and expertise of the participating teams' members who came from mature markets (i.e. US and Europe), those who came from rising one (Qatar, UAE, etc), those who came from Governmental organizations (i.e QP and Ashgal) and those who came from private ones. They together designed and developed a general Procedural Map Project Management system. Such a map offers a standardized, simple yet flexible system for managing BARWA's growing projects.

The main manual of PMS included separate mini-manuals that serve certain purposes. System Quality manual, for instance, was developed to maintain the PMS integrity and to ensure its quality. Human Resources and Career Paths, which is another mini-manual, was developed to help in developing procedures for project human resource management, including technical and behavioral competencies, as well as job descriptions and career development paths.

In addition, Financial Issues Mini-manual was developed to address the project payments issue and coordinate between the Human Resources and Corporate finance department. Document and CAD Standards Mini-manual was to establish a global scheme for Documents and CAD drawings naming to facilitate storage and retrieval process.

A wide range of in-house expertise was involved. Including project managers, financial analysts, accountants, contract managers, legal advisors and engineers who spent hours and hours between workshops, meeting and training classes reviewing documents and bringing out the best of what they learned.

Total of 4160 hours were spent in class trainings while 12430 were spent in Procedural Manuals and Automation Development.

More than 50 senior staff and executives were involved in developing PMS 2008; led by Dr. Hassan Satti, BARWA Real Estate's Chief Quality Officer, and supported by Mr. Imad Ayed, BARWA Real Estate's PMS Director.

A total number of 171 certificates were issued to training delegates. A good number of delegates were nominated to obtain PMP Prep Certificates, PSP Certificates and EVP Certificates. Qatari nationals composed a good percent of participant and nominees to obtain prestigious certificates in Project Management field.



Senior Management members who contributed to the PMS include: Abdulrahim Taraman, Ahmed Alaa Eldin, Ahmed Al-Ammari, Ahmed Al-Khater, Ahmed Fairoz, Ahmed Sowar, Ahsanulla Khan, Ali Diyab Elsheikh, Ashraf Ali Al-Hour, Ayham Jamal Raihawi, Dietmar Poguntke, Fairoz Al-Homaidi, Gopi Varadhan, Hassan Aref, Hisham Taha Elmugamar, Khalid Abdulla Al-Hitmi, Khalifa Al-Sobai, Magdy Omar, Mohamed Abbadi, Mohammed Sulieman, Nasir Sidahmed Omer, Dr. Saleh Mubarak, Saramma Pachamparambil, Syed Imtiaz, Tarek Essam, Waleed Al-Khal, Yasser Mamdouh Badran and Vinod Kumar.

In addition to the marketing team: Mohammad Baadarani, Alaa Taha Abu Rehab and Ahmad Abu Mahmoud, and administration team: Abdulrahman Bawazir, Ahmed Mekdad, Hamad Al Naimi, and Talal Ahmed Al-saad.

-Ends- 
 
About BARWA:
BARWA is one of the premier organizations in the State of Qatar. As the name "BARWA" or "Contractual Commitment" suggests, we are inspired by our vision of a glowing future for Qatar.

With business interest in real estate & project development, property & facility management, construction material production, environmental activities & health, banking & finance, hotels & resorts, technology & utility, knowledge & communications and agriculture; BARWA is driven by the conviction that people deserve a comfortable living and working environment.

With extensive operations in Qatar and around the world, we believe that every BARWA project is the seed for an incredible journey, where our greatest achievement is realizing the dreams of our stakeholders.

www.barwa.com.qa

For more information please contact:
Bassel Hanbali,
Chief Communication Officer
Mobile: 00974 654 2099
Email: bassel.hanbali@barwa.com.qa

© Press Release 2008