Issue 1 - Project plan tracking/monitoring could be more transparent.
Recommendation 1 - Project Team to actively consider the project plan and progress report and to provide input at Board meetings.
Issue 2 - There was a lack of good quality and up-to-date management and financial information. It was difficult to obtain accurate actual expenditure to compare against estimated spend.
Recommendation 2 - Produce up-to-date management and financial information to track financial performance of the project.
Issue 3 - Project Director became unavailable and Project was unable to replace him quickly, leading to a governance gap for prolonged period of time. Because the Project Team was very small, the loss of one key person had a disproportionate effect on the Project as a whole.
Recommendation 3 - For high capital value projects it is worth having a senior resource in a deputy role who can lead in the absence of the Project Director.
Issue 4 - Use MSP, PRINCE2 and experienced staff to contribute to excellent project management.
Recommendation 4 - For future projects, consideration should be given to recruiting staff with the necessary experience and knowledge at an early stage. MSP and PRINCE2 should be adopted for future projects.
Issue 5 - Project staff involved were not trained in programme management. Therefore, management of the initiative was challenging.
Recommendation 5 - Train staff in project and programme management.
Issue 6 - Given the complexity of the technology upgrade rollout, upgrades were not completed on time leading to loss of confidence in the new technology by staff. Need for detailed and realistic planning required.
Recommendation 6 - Dedicated Project Management resource allocated to robustly plan the rollout schedule and continually review progress against the plan. For each upgrade a checklist was devised incorporating pre-install tasks, install tasks and post-install tasks. Weekly checkpoint meetings were instigated with suppliers. Rollout schedules were shared with IT Assist to ensure resource availability. Early involvement and signoff at local level was implemented and snag list created to ensure follow up.
Issue 7 - Tripartite relationship between suppliers and project team not settled until the operational phase commenced. There were difficulties experienced in having the multiple suppliers working harmoniously.
Recommendation 7 - A Memorandum of Understanding should be agreed and committed to by all parties at an early stage.
Industry guidance/ further reading
PRINCE2, Managing successful projects with PRINCE2, 6th edition (2017).
APM, APM Body of Knowledge, 7th edition (2019).
NICSHR, Essential Project Managements – video resources, via LInKS.
NICSHR, Project Management Development Resource, via LInKS.
NICSHR, Project Management Virtual Classroom – Sharing Experiences in the Public Sector (Recorded Session), via LInKS.
Commercial Delivery Group’s Programme and Project Management hub: Commercial Delivery Group: Programme and Project Management | Department of Finance (finance-ni.gov.uk).