What is project delivery?
Public bodies deliver services to citizens
through two main forms of managerial activity:
- Functional management
- Programme and project management
Functional Management is about maintaining
normal operations to meet policy objectives. Most activity
within public services, from the provision of healthcare, to the
gathering of taxes, the operation of the social security system and
defence and security, falls within this definition
When a new policy or strategic initiative is
introduced, routine operations change. This change will be
delivered through programmes and
projects.
- Programme management involves the
coordination, direction and implementation of a portfolio of
projects and activities that together achieve outcomes and realise
benefits that are of strategic importance.
- A project is a discretely managed, time and
resource constrained activity to effect a specific change to the
status quo. This could be the construction of a new motorway, the
acquisition of a new piece of defence equipment, the introduction
of a new information technology system or a change to the health or
criminal justice system. Whatever the project, virtually all
of the principles which will underpin success are common.
The programme and project management
capability to successfully deliver change across the full range of
government activity together constitute project
delivery.
Project delivery is a core skill, not just for
the public sector but also for its private sector partners who are
involved in delivering and sustaining the desired outcomes over the
long term. Getting it right means better public services,
delivered more efficiently, effectively and economically.