Civil Service Capabilities Plan: delivering successful projects and programmes
Published 5 December 2014
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All civil servants are involved in working on projects of one sort or another, and of differing scale and complexity.
In 2013, the National Audit Office stated:
Successful project delivery is … essential to government delivering its promises and objectives.
Significantly improving the government’s project success rate is no mean task.
We will only achieve this if we develop a consistent approach to project and programme delivery. This process also requires a rigorous, consistent and transparent scrutiny of progress.
Ensuring we have the right skills and expertise is important for:
- the successful delivery of government priorities
- individual career progression
This area was 1 of the skills identified by the Civil Service Capabilities Plan as a priority for improvement. There is already some capability at expert and practitioner levels, but every civil servant needs an awareness of basic project execution skills.
What is project and programme delivery?
A simple answer would be that project and programme delivery is about getting things done. Delivering on time, to budget and, perhaps most importantly, to expectation. While this may be an accurate description, actually doing it is not so straightforward.
By developing and strengthening the Project Delivery Profession we will build on our successes. We will also learn from our mistakes to create a resource that will turn government policy into practical reality.
What does ‘good’ look like?
The Major Projects Academy (MPA) is helping to determine what ‘good’ looks like in project delivery.
Over 250 major project leaders from across government have enrolled in the MPA’s award-winning Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA).
The aim is for all major project leaders to have started on the academy’s programme by 2015. Our vision is no one should lead a major project without having completed the academy programme.
In July, we announced plans for the Project Leadership Programme (PLP). It’s the next step in the government’s approach to delivering major taxpayer-funded programmes.
This is part of our long-term vision to develop project leadership skills across government and to create a cadre of elite project leaders.
The programme will combine expert academic theory with hands-on learning. This will develop and enhance the skills of civil servants who work on priority projects, but are not eligible for the MPLA.
The PLP pilot programme began in October, with the aim of appointing a full delivery partner from March 2015.
How can I develop my ability to help deliver successful projects and programmes?
Read a collection of blogs from senior civil servants with experience of delivering projects and programmes, including:
- Sir David Normington, First Civil Service Commissioner and the Commissioner for Public Appointments and John Manzoni, CEO Civil Service, on previous mistakes made in government project management and what the future looks like in government project management.
- David Blackall, acting CEO of the MPA on Why is project execution so important?
Further resources will be added to this guidance, so check back for updates.