Central project management offices help to boost skills, delivery and oversight across departments. At a recent GGF webinar, experts highlighted the need to balance greater coordination and governance with the flexibility and autonomy required by frontline staff.
It’s something of a dichotomy that governments are responsible for delivering some of the biggest projects in the world – from mass urban mass transit schemes such as London’s Crossrail, to international events like the Olympics – and yet face unique organisational challenges that can hamper delivery.
Infrastructure projects, for example, can be years if not decades in the making – so it is inconvenient, to say the least, when general elections regularly lead to sharp changes of direction. Incoming ministers may have no knowledge of the project, and may even have campaigned against it. Projects funded by public money attract close media scrutiny, and many programmes involve complex, interlinked delivery projects controlled by multiple departments and agencies. READ MORE