Under the IIAF, the assurance process for complex projects and programs begins with registration and risk profiling of the project/program in its entirety to establish its Project Tier. For assurance purposes (Reviews, regular reporting and monitoring), a complex project or a program may need to be considered both as a single project or program and in its component parts (project stages, individual projects or sub-programs) at various stages in the program lifecycle.
In some cases, these project stages, individual projects or sub-programs may have a different Project Tier to the overall complex project or program. This may result in the need for a Modified Project Assurance Plan.
As the different component parts (project stages, individual projects or sub-programs) are typically developed and/or delivered over varying timeframes, they may not be able to be considered in a single Gateway Review. It may therefore be necessary to have multiple Reviews to accommodate a program/project's needs. In some cases, a smaller stage of work or individual project may not warrant the application of these separate Gates.
For complex projects, the application of separate tiering for certain identified stages allows the delivery agency to access Reviews for a distinct stage (dependent on the risk-profiling of that stage) to accommodate a project's specific needs. For example, larger stages of work within a complex project may warrant the application of certain Gates, particularly at the procurement and delivery stages of a project's lifecycle, whereas a smaller stage of work may not require a Review. This adaptation provides for greater assurance and efficiency across a complex project.
When stages of a complex project are identified as needing separate tiering for assurance purposes, the stages are split off and undergo risk profiling, where each stage is assigned a Project Tier, and subsequently included as such in a Modified Project Assurance Plan. Importantly, a stage's tiering is assessed on its own merits, and therefore may be tiered at any level. Splitting off a stage of a complex project for risk profiling may occur at any time. Typically this would be after the complex project's strategic or final business case. A complex project should only be considered as a linear program of staged outputs in accordance with an agreed business case.
This process is similar for programs needing to be considered as separate projects or sub-programs. For instance, a large program that is considered in its entirety during the development of strategic business cases, may require the development of a series of separate final business cases for individual projects and sub-programs due to these being progressed and delivered at different times.
Examples of typical Modified Project Assurance Plan for complex projects and programs are provided at Attachment I.
Where a complex project has been split into stages or a program into individual projects or sub-programs, and those component parts have their own tier assessment, it is important, for satisfaction of the originating objective of the complex project/program, to return to a single Review step. This occurs as Gate 6 - the benefits realisation stage of its lifecycle, allowing the benefits realisation assessment to be undertaken for the entire complex project or program.