SAN DIEGO—Moving toward lean project management and task-oriented vs. project-oriented thinking are the goals of global consulting, engineering and commissioning firm Syska Hennessy Group associate partner Sean Marcel tells GlobeSt.com. Marcel recently transferred here from the firm's New York office to help lead project-management development for the San Diego team. We spoke exclusively with Marcel about the move, the firm's strategy and trends he is seeing in project management.

GlobeSt.com: What are your goals in your new role with Syska Hennessey?

Marcel: I'm trying to make things as lean and efficient as possible. We're trying to coordinate with the L.A. office, to work share and share resources so that it's more of a Southern California office, not so much L.A. or San Diego. Obviously, San Diego is a very tight-knit community, plus we'll have guys that want to work on larger projects, so we'll be able to share those resources from L.A.

GlobeSt.com: What trends are you seeing in the projects being managed today?

Marcel: We released our project-management playbook last year. We've got all our first- and second-tier project managers trained. Obviously, the playbook has been constantly evolving and getting updated, and we're getting toward lean project management that's more task oriented, not project oriented. We've had smaller, fast-based projects coming in, so we're seeing up daily meetings to discuss what has to get done that day, what's to be completed that week. We will share resources with each other and look out for the other offices even if we have graphically diverse themes.

GlobeSt.com: What has led to the growth of the San Diego team?

Marcel: We've added a mechanical engineer who's passionate about high-performance systems and a couple of young mechanical EDTs. We're expanding in that way a little, hiring more younger engineers, and we have older, more seasoned engineers willing to teach and share their knowledge with them.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about your company?

Marcel: We're still focusing on the idea of functioning as both a small company like in San Diego and in a larger format like in L.A. We're using different technologies like GoToMeeting and Skype for Business, so it's easy to coordinate communication between all the offices.

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