Assurance is important in delivering major projects

1.1 Central government's major projects are frequently large scale, innovative and reliant on complex relationships between diverse stakeholders. Such projects are often so risky that no commercial organisation would consider taking them on. They must be well planned and executed in order to be delivered on time and on budget.

1.2 Our previous work indicates that projects can fail to deliver as planned to time, cost and quality1. Alongside measures to increase the project management skills of staff, strengthening existing assurance arrangements is a sensible way to reduce the financial risk to the public purse and increase the chance of achieving value for money.

1.3 Good assurance independently assesses whether the required elements to deliver projects successfully are in place and are operating effectively. In itself assurance does not deliver a project. However, it can identify and help mitigate any risks to successful delivery in a project's:

• sponsorship, business case and benefits plan;

• governance and reporting arrangements;

• contracting and supply chain strategies;

• commercial and delivery skills;

• funding and resourcing; and

• overall project management approach.

1.4 Assurance provides information to those who finance, sponsor, govern and manage a project. It informs decisions that can reduce project failure, promote conditions for success and increase the chance of delivering the required outcome cost-effectively. Assurance helps ensure the disciplines around delivering projects are followed and highlights where they have not been.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

1 See: National Audit Office, Initiating successful projects, December 2011, for more on the size and complexity of government's major projects.