In the last three years the National Audit
Office has examined some 40 major government projects, a number
comparable to previous years. One clear lesson we have learned from
the evidence base which our back catalogue provides is that the
quality of project initiation is highly predictive of project
success. We are therefore re-focusing our studies earlier in the
project lifecycle to better assess the quality of, and to influence
successful, project initiation. We will follow these early
interventions with results based studies as the project rolls out.
In preparing this Guide, and undertaking our evaluation work, we
find it helpful to focus on a few key elements which, in our
experience, have affected project delivery. These are:
Purpose – having clarity on
the overall priorities and desired outcomes;
Affordability – understanding
what delivery will cost and not being over-optimistic;
Pre-commitment – having
robust internal assessment and challenge to establish if the
project is feasible;
Project set-up – the detailed
specification, procurement, contract and incentive design; and
Delivery and variation
management – maintaining delivery pressure throughout the
life of the contract and flexibility to recover the integrity of
the project in light of unanticipated events or significant
variations from the original plan.
December 2011