Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The Development and Major Projects directorate was set up by the Council in the autumn of 2004 to improve the management of major projects within the Council. A major part of the remit of this new directorate was to ensure the Council had the means to control and monitor projects, in terms of resources, processes and tools as set out by the Council's auditors (Price Waterhouse Coopers [PWC]) report, "Review of Capital Projects" , the action plan of which, was agreed by Council on 15 July 2004.

1.2 The introduction of a project management handbook is part of introducing rigor to project management and creates standardisation of project management processes and tools throughout the project lifecycle.

1.3 An essential element of the project management handbook is to provide projects with a high degree of predictability of outcomes.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 the project management handbook (see Appendix 1) be adopted as the Council's approved approach to project management for all projects; this includes mandatory use of the Project Initiation and Appraisal Form (PID).

2.2 the tools provided and/or referenced within the project management handbook be adopted as the preferred method of project management;

2.3 continuous improvement by way of amendments, corrections, additions and/or deletions be carried out to the project management handbook by reference and/or consultation with the project management handbook "Users Group", and any other interested parties as may be determined by the Director of Development and Major Projects.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 No direct costs except that already incurred through the corporate training programme

3.2 The use of the Handbook will enable the Council to better monitor and control its project costs and thus ensure that it is achieving `Best Value for Money'.

4 COMMUNITY STRATEGY OUTCOMES

5 CORPORATE IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES

6 CPA KEY LINES OF ENQUIRY

7 THE REPORT

7.1 The Development and Major Projects Directorate was set up by the Council in the autumn of 2004 as a result of the Price Waterhouse Coopers report the action plan of which was agreed by Council on 15 July 2004. The Directorate's purpose is to improve the management of major projects within the Council. A major part of the remit of this new directorate was to ensure the Council had the means to control and monitor projects, in terms of resources, processes and tools.

7.2 The Handbook provides a strategic and systematic approach to implementing change that:

7.3 The Handbook provides a common scalable approach that is applicable to all projects, though the delivered outputs may vary from buildings, public services or ICT services. Scalability is achieved through a commonsense approach to the use of the systems described within the Handbook.

7.4 The Handbook is intended to give rigour and consistency to all phases of a project, especially project start-up (inception, viability, and feasibility), managing, governing and reporting. Its use achieves an accurate view of any single project that is able to be consolidated with many other projects thus enabling an accurate picture of total progress and status. This, very importantly, ensures that predictability of outcomes and a precise analysis of the Council's financial position and commitment is readily available and can be measured against policy objectives.

7.5 The Handbook and its systems enable the Council, through consistency of approach, a greater degree of control over its Capital programme, both in its implementation and planning.

8 RISK MANAGEMENT

8.1 The report author and Lead Executive member have fully reviewed the risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

8.2 The use of the Handbook will contribute to overall reduction in risk from project inception to delivery.

9 RATIONALE

9.1 Project management is a critical tool for delivering change to the Council to enable it to reach its goals and meet its responsibilities.

9.2 The new Handbook replaces and enhances previous project management guidance in use within the Council.

9.3 A consistent, rational and technical approach to project management has resulted in the production of this Project Management Handbook, together with the project management systems and training.

9.4 Increased understanding throughout the Council of project management is being carried out through revisions and additions to the corporate project management training programme. It is available to all relevant staff and is being undertaken to support the implementation of the Handbook.

10 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

10.1 Best practice throughout the public and private sectors was thoroughly researched. This research, together with consultation within the Council has enabled the Handbook to reach its current consensual status.

11 CONSULTATION

11.1 Consultation has been undertaken with: -

(1) Executive Councillor;

(2) Overview & Scrutiny Panel;

(3) Projects Programme Board

(4) Directors' Group

(5) Staff;

(6) Other B&NES Services;

(7) Section 151 Finance Officer;

(8) Chief Executive;

(9) Monitoring Officer

11.2 Consultation was carried out through: -

(1) Presentations at boards/panels/groups

(2) Online using the intranet

(3) Face-to-face meetings/discussions

(4) Training sessions - discussion and feedback

12 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

12.1 Customer Focus - enhancement of awareness of customer/client requirements and `fit for purpose' issues.

12.2 Sustainability - provision of a framework that is better able to include sustainability and its effects in the project inputs and outputs.

12.3 Human Resources - asks the questions on quality and quantity and provides methods of measuring these critical parameters

12.4 Property - provision of best value both in terms of inputs and outputs

12.5 Corporate - enabling the Council to meet its priorities in a clear and demonstrable manner.

13 ADVICE SOUGHT

13.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer (Strategic Director - Support Services) have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.