Effective project control

 

Everyone wants the project they are managing or working on to be successful, yet delays and cost overruns continue to be an unwelcome feature of many significant, high profile projects.  If you’re running a project, what can you do to ensure your project has a better chance of delivering on time and on budget?  Who is managing projects well and what are they doing differently?

 

Every year for over 20 years, we have published a report called ‘Major Projects’ which examines the performance of the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD’s) highest value defence equipment procurement purchases.  Many of these projects have suffered cost overruns and delays.  Working with MOD, we have started on a series of studies to examine some of the drivers of overruns and delays in more detail.  This report on effective project control defence projects is about the MOD, but it is relevant to everyone with responsibility for a significant project.

 

Project control is defined as:

 

• How progress is tracked and decisions made on projects to ensure successful delivery
• The structures and processes which need to be put in place to underpin these activities

 

Drawing on evidence from comparator organisations and the best defence projects, our report defines gold standard good practice criteria for project control within four main levels, all of which must function as a coherent whole:

 

• Establishing and sustaining the right cultural environment
• Creating clear structures and boundaries
• Measuring progress and making decisions focused on successful project delivery
• Reporting to enable strategic decisions

 

The report looks at each of these criteria in detail and provides examples, case studies and comparator approaches for each. 

 

View the full report (Major Projects Report 2007) or look at our Defence Value for Money pages, where you can find this report and further work from the same series, on contracting practices and collaborative relationships.