1.52 The Gate Review Assurance Board (GRAB) initiative is an assurance process intended to ensure that the DMO is able to provide high quality and reliable advice to Defence and Government as to the health and outlook of major projects. The reviews provide an internal mechanism for the early identification and resolution of problems across the various project lifecycle stages, with a heavy focus on the requirements definition stages of First Pass and Second Pass. Following on from the Mortimer Review, the GRAB commenced operation in July 2009 focusing on selected high value and high complexity projects.
1.53 The establishment of a GRAB (including independent external advisors) provides a forum for robust discussion, an expert assessment of project development and status, and the prospects of a project achieving the agreed outcome. For the more complex projects, the Board process involves a robust independent evaluation before the Board meeting. If a project fails to convince the Board of its maturity or readiness to progress to the next stage of its lifecycle, project progression is reviewed and the project is directed to address those risks and issues. Once the identified risks and issues have been addressed, the project is then provided the opportunity to once again present to the Board its case for progression to the next lifecycle stage.
1.54 The GRAB process is a proactive activity that has led to early identification, intervention and resolution of risks and issues across numerous projects in DMO. Given the success of this methodology, the GRAB process will be extended to all major projects.