Demanding work. Steady people.
Our clients bring us in when capital, reputation and a public date are on the line. That work only goes well when the team behind it is candid, careful and genuinely on each other's side. This is what that looks like from the inside.
Roles we hire forWe hire for judgement. We teach the rest.
Our colleagues are planners, schedulers, cost engineers, forensic analysts, controls specialists and educators. What they share is not a title but a temperament: precision, curiosity, independence of mind and the composure to stay level when a program is not.
Some joined from contractors and owners. Some arrived straight from university. Some changed careers entirely. Each chose a firm where the stakes are real, the bar is high and nobody is asked to call a schedule healthy when it is not.
We are practitioner-led. Our principals still build schedules, still sit in the difficult meetings, and still make time for a question from the newest person on the team.
Five standards. Held every day.
They are how we hire, how we promote and how we hold one another to account, on the good weeks and the hard ones.
Candour
We say what the evidence says: about the schedule, about our own mistakes, about what we do not yet know. Bad news delivered early is a service.
Rigour
We check the logic, then check it again. Every finding traces to its source, so anyone can follow and test it.
Independence
Our view is not for sale. We tell owners and contractors the same truth, and we protect the right of every colleague to do the same.
Composure
When a program is under pressure, we slow down, establish the facts and set out the options. Calm is a deliverable.
Stewardship
We treat our clients' capital, our colleagues' growth and the communities our projects serve as things entrusted to us.
What a week really involves.
An illustrative week for a scheduler on a healthcare program. The rhythm varies by engagement; the discipline does not.
The data date and the site walk
Walk the work with the superintendent, verify progress area by area and collect the facts the update will rest on.
Update and analysis
Run the update in P6, trace the critical path and establish what moved and why. A senior scheduler reviews your logic alongside you.
Client review
Take the owner and contractor through the path, the float, the risks and the recovery options, in plain language.
Institute and mentoring
Time with the Barkley Institute, a mentoring session and progress toward your next credential.
Narrative, scorecard, team
Finalize the period narrative and executive scorecard, then close the week with the team and the milestones it reached.
Your craft keeps compounding here.
The Barkley Institute trains professionals and client teams across the industry. Our own people come first. Pair it with a named mentor and real responsibility, and your judgement grows faster than any course alone could make it.
- Primavera P6, from first principles to forensic depth
- Preparation for credentials such as PMI-SP, AACE PSP and CCP
- Delay analysis, earned value and risk sessions led by principals
- Coaching in presentation and client leadership
The support behind the standard.
We ask a great deal of our people, so we invest in them deliberately. The full terms of every role are set out in writing with the offer.
A named mentor
A senior practitioner in your corner, from your first engagement onward.
The Institute
Access to Barkley Institute courses that sharpen your technical depth.
Credentials
Encouragement and coaching toward the credentials that advance your career.
Sensible flexibility
Ways of working shaped around the engagement, and understanding when life intervenes.
Candid feedback
Regular, specific conversations about your progress and your next milestone.
Recognition
We mark milestones, hard-won outcomes and the quiet diligence that keeps programs steady.
Every voice heard on the path.
Sound forecasts come from teams that see a problem from every angle. We look for people from different backgrounds, disciplines and routes into the industry, including those construction has too often overlooked.
Independence starts inside the firm. Every colleague is expected to speak up, and protected when they do, especially when they are the only one in the room saying the date will not hold.
Building capability, not only programs.
The projects we support serve communities. Stewardship means we give back to the profession and the people behind it.
Students into the profession
We make time for students curious about project controls, through talks, mentoring and practical scheduling sessions.
Wider doors
We welcome people entering project controls from non-traditional paths, and help them find their footing.
Time, given freely
We encourage colleagues to give time to the communities our projects are built to serve.
We will give you consequential problems, candid feedback and colleagues who want you to excel. Bring your judgement.The Barkley standard, for every new colleague
Judge us by the company we keep.
The surest way to know whether a firm is right for you is to meet the people in it. Write to hello@richardbarkley.com and we will introduce you to the colleagues you would work beside.